Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1911-07-31
"UNSPOILED
LAWYERS"
Governor Wilson, Of New
Jersey on the Legal
Profession
Tendency Of The Times Rem
ders It Difficult to Secure
Proper judgement

d
Ky, Governor Wilson of New Jersey
said
"The lawyer has always been in
dispensable. whether he merely guided
the leaders or was himself the lead
err, and nowhere has the lawyer play
ed a more important part in politics
than in England and America, where
the rules of law have always been
the chief Instruments of contest and
regulation of liberty and efficient or
ganization, and the chief means OF
lifting society from one stage to the
next OF its slow development.
THE lawyers ideal part in this
itruggle is easy to conceive. He
above all other men, should have a
quick perception of what is feasible,
of the new things that will fit into
the old, of the experiences which
should be needed, wrongs that should
be remedied, and the rights that
should be more completely realized.
He can play this ideal part. how
ever, only ii he has the right in
sight and sympathy. If he regards
his practice as mere means of live
lihood, if he is satisfied to put his
expert advice at the service of any
interest or enterprise, If he does not
regard himself as an officer of the
state, but only as an agent of private
interest; ii, above all, he does not
really see the wrongs that are accu-
mulating. the mischief that is being
wrought. the hearts that are being
broken, the lives that are being
wrecked, the hopes that are being
Slapped. he can not play the part of
guide or moderator or adviser in the
large sense that will make him a
and a benefactor.
"The truth is that the technical
training of the American lawyer, his
professional prepossessions and his
business involvements, impose limita-
tons upon him and subject him to
which seriously stand in
the way of his rendering the ideal
service to society demanded by the
rue standards and canons of his pro-
'ession. Modern business. in particu-
ar, with it's huge and complicated
h0r nd ro to
lin. to make of him a servant, an
instrument instead of free adviser
md master of justice.
"The lawyer seldom thinks OF him.
elf as the advocate of society. He
moves in the atmosphere of private
ather than public service. His bust
less becomes more and more cOmpli-
lated and specialized. His studies
md his services are apt to become
more and more confined to some spec
al field of law He becomes more
Ind more a mere expert in the legal
tide of a certain class of great indus
rial or financial undertakings.
at is evident what must happen
n such circumstances. The bench
must be filled from the bar, and it
s growing increasingly difficult to
supply the bench with disinterested,
lnspoiled lawyers, capable of being
he free instruments of society. the
friends and guides Of statesmen, the
interpreters of the common life of
he people, the mediators of the great
progress by which justice is led from
one enlightenment and liberalization
70 another.
Zone can not but realize how much
depends upon the part the lawyer is
to play in the future politics of the
country. If he will not assume the
role of patriot and of statesman;
if he will not lend all his learning
to the service of the common life
Of the country; if he will not open
his sympathes to common man and
enlist his enthusiasm in these poll
cies which will bring regeneration to
the business of the country, less eX-
pert hands than his must attempt
the difficult and perilous business.
"The tendencies of the profession,
therefore, it's sympathies, it's inclina-
tons. it's prepossessions, it's training,
its point of view, its motives, are
part of the stuff and substance of
the destiny of the country"
These are timely words. There is
an increasing need for "unspoiled
lawyers" We need a few just now
for the United States bench.