New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1912-11-16
A SCHOOL MASTER FOR PRES.
IDENT.

1t will be relief to the average
crtizen to know that a school mas
ter and not mere politician will
become Chief Magistrate Of the
nation D. V. on the 4th of next
March. Lawyers and politicians
in plenty have filed that high po-
Sition, but now we have returned
to first principles and a plain
gentleman, such as was our first
Pre-; ident, has received the favor
of the people once again.
This is a gratifying consumma-
tion of great campaign. With
lawyers in the presidential chair,
lawyers in the cabinet, lawyers on
the supreme bench, lawyers prac-
tically monopolizing the Senate
and predominating in the House,
our government during the past
fifty years may with more truth
than poetry be described as, a
government of lawyers, by law
4ers, by lawyers and for lawyers.
With such condition of affairs
prevailing there can be small Won
der that the people, unOrganized
and helpless, so often found them
selves as sheep in the hands of
their shearers when great ques-
tions involving their rights and
their welfare were being determ-
ined in the halls of legislation.
In the days when agriculture |
was the predominant industry, the
lawyer was also a planter in most
eases, and his planting interests
were usually more remunerative
than his law business his interests
were in common with those of the
masses. The development of COM
merce, manufactures and railroad
building created new conditions,
and so greatly increased the field
for the practice Of the law that
the old-time planter-lawyer has
become practically extinct and the
interests of the lawyer, except in
a remote sense, are separate from
those of the masses, and often even
hostile thereto. Because Of the |
advantage it affords in their prac-
tice. lawyers have crowded out
the laymen from the important Of
fees Of the country from the pres
idency down to the state legisla-
lures, the consequence being that
our governments are conducted
from the point of view of the law
yer, which is not always, or usual
ly, that of the layman OF equal
intelligence and ability.
Woodrow Wilson studied law,
as all men Of broad culture should
do. but his life work has been
along other lines and more in
sympathy with the aspirations and
needs of the masses of his fellow
citizens. As a result of his train
ing and experience, legal techni-
calities, which have SO often de-
fiected and defeated legislative
and administrative measures fund
amentally just, will not be per-
mitted to thwart the honest efforts
of the people to correct hoary
abuses from which they have suf-
fered, and straightforward frank.
ness will supersede the subtleties
and antiquities cunningly de-
signed to mislead and to defeat
the ends Of common justice.
But we had not intended this
as an animadversion upon lawyers
in general. They have their ap-
propriate places in the public SER
vice, and that they have had a
great part in the creation and de.
velopment of our civic and social
institutions none will gainsay. In
our courts of justice, from the
! highest to the lowest, they are in
, dispensable. Certain positions in
the cabinet and in the diplomatic
service require legal knowledge on
!, the part Of the incumbents. On
the other hand, there is need in
the administrative and legislative