Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-06-17
SCORES
JERSEY COURTS;
HITS LAWYERS
Says It's Hard to Find Fit APP
p0intees to Bench.
Hearers Amazed.

ATLANTIC CITY, June 1~1-Governor
Woodrow Wilson's speech to the New
Jersey State Bar Association, after the
banquet last night, was a severe ar
raignment~ of the lawyers, and any
thing but a mild criticism of courts.
The 1000 attorneys who listened were
astonishcd at the Governors wide de-
p~arture from the usual af~ter-dinner
speech.
"The-people of the United states are
in a very critical mood as to the
courts" said Governor Wilson, land
while the respect for the courts is in
herent in us all, it certainly has been
strained. AS far as the courts in our
State of New Jersey are concerned I
have Devef even suspected them of be-
Ing venal. But l must say that our
courts, even our courts in New Jersey,
have not satisfied the State in regard
to it's social and its legal development"
Lawyers Amazed.
There was no applause when the
Governor said this, but instead abso-
lutte silence. Every one of the attorneys
who listened seemed almost dumb
struck.
In beginning the speaker turned the
flash of fire upon the lawyer, particu-
larly the corporation lawyer.
When l look around me-" said the
Governor. at astonishes me to think
to- what / might have come to If l had
continued to practise law. Still, l have
been teaching law all my life and have
been in touch with the currents of law
yers' thinking. This profession has not
undergone the same liberalizing In this
country of ours that has attended it in
other countries. In America alone has
it remained a truly technical profess
sion.
You here before me are specialists in
technical advice along very narrow
lines. Most Of you are advisers of the
corporations. I know man, lawyers
who, when a general law question
comes up are obliged TO go out and
try to find a lawyer.
He Can't Find Judges.
THE task that is on my shoulders, to
find a man suitable for judge, is a very
hard one. The field, ] may say to you,
is getting mighty small. If you have
to get q judge you must find a mar
that knows the general law. 1t is get
ting SO that you have to catch 'em
young and make them judges.
THE community does not any longer
regard you lawyers as a body of guides
in its affairs. The trouble is that you
nave abandoned craftsmanship to climb
to technicality. I am not saying this
by way of criticism, but you are now
in the business of giving expert adj
vice in technical matters. This l may
say to you is, not a profession any long
er; it is a business.
1--WE have intensified our technicali-
ties. We have constructed so inpreg-
nable a tangle of technicality, an am
bush of technicality that surrounds the
law and the courts, that we must tear
the veil away in order to see the face
of the facts.
Let me say that these difficulties
and technicalities will be torn away. If
this change is wrought without your
assistance, it will be wrought to your
discredit. There is no mistaking the
spirit of the times. If that spirit is
hostile to institutions, those institu-
tons will fall"
A motion by Charles S. Moore fav-
oring a constitutional convention was
defeated at yesterday afternoons SEES
sion.