The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-07-14

meet hereafter relate to wealth, ant
especially to the framing of laws
which may regulate the distribution
If it. Should all our lawyers be
retained by wealth? How can we
essen the inequalities of life, and
not impair the principles of property
and law. That is the problem that
confronts US. How can wealth be
forced to pay it's share of taxes?
How shall we give the poor mans
child an even chance in life? How
get for him who tolls, a few free
hours of sunlight with his family, an
hour OF two each day to cultivate
his mind? How see to it that these
]ponderous soulless machines, to
which indeed.w we owe so much, do
not become in the end very jugger-
nauts, crushing manhood, woman
mood and childhood to the earth?
How shall we counteract, with whole
some. hopeful laws, the blind, de-
spairing efforts of the giant, whose
hundred hands may soon find swords
to fight with? These are the ques-
tons that face US. How shall we
ever answer them with safety if ev-
cry man, as soon as he has mastered
law enough to be of any use, for
sakes the poor and strikes hands
with the rich?"
Mr.. Taft. ex-President of the
United States and ex-President of
the American Bar Association, who
has done more than any other man
in the United States, towards rails
ing the standard of the legal pro-
fession, thus clearly showed at the
meeting of the Conference on the
Reform of Criminal Law and Proce-
dure, that he does not think the le-
gal profession has properly dis
charged its trust: "One of the
strongest influences for looseness,
in the conduct of criminal trials, in
my judgment, has been the presence
of lawyers in our Legislatures. who
have sought to abate and limit by
statute the power of the judges, and
to take away this source of respect,
for their rulings, which is so appa-
rent in every English Court of JUS
tice. What I believe to be an un-
founded fear of judicial tyranny,
and an unreasonable distrust of
Judges, have led to statutory limi-
tations upon their power, in the
conduct of trials in criminal cases.
which have made the trial by jury in
this country, and especially in the
Western States. an entirely differ
ent institution from what it was I'M
derstood to be, at the time of the
adoption of our constitutions. In
many States, Judges are not per
mltted to comment upon the facts at
all. They are not even allowed to
charge the jury, after the argu-
ments of counsel, but they are. re-
CURED to submit written charges to
the jury upon abtruse questions of
law, with no opportunity to apply
the principles %concretely to the
facts of the case, and with the re-
suit that the questions, both of law
and fact, are largely left to the un-
tutored and undisciplined action of
the jury, Influenced only by the con-
tending arguments of counsel. The
restraint that the Judges in the
course of a trial, imposes upon the
manner and conduct of counsel in
an English Court, is thus wholly
wanting, with the result that there
seems to have been a substantial
change, in the code of professional
ethics governing counsel, and in the
extreme, to which counsel, in the
defense of their clients, seem to
think it is entirely proper for them
to go: Their conduct makes mel
Their for the dignity of the Court,
for the elevation of the ethics of the
bar, nor the expediting of criminal
procedure, nor for the reasonable
punishment of crime.
These circumstances reduce the
position of the Judges from that
place of power and usefulness. oc-
ceupled by the English Judges, to one
IN which the trial is largely con-
Quoted by the chief counsel for the
defense, and those present in Court
are made to feel, that the question
at issue IS, not so much whether the
defendant violated the law. as
whether the Judge is violating it,"
President Snyder of Woford Col
iege, IN discussing the subject: "The
Majesty of the Law" said:
1T is a depressing thought, to con-
slder the low estate to which this
noble profession has fallen, in re-
cent years in the public mind. It
has seemed to develop along lines on
Wnlch the broad principles of JUS
tice and equity are lost, in the tan
gle OF confusing trickery and COM
plicated technicality. Outstanding
Leaders of the most intellectual Of
all professions, men VINO ought to
be very high priests of Justice, hold
brains as purchasable commo-
dltles for the causes, that even
threaten the integrity of human So
ciety, and in their hands the ma
emery OF the law is expertly manip-
known ends of iustice