Daily Kennebec journal., 1917-02-15

I y
compelled to admit he didn't know
what Glass A rank in a hlgh school
was. and a professor from the Unlver-
sity of Maine Law School who devoted
some five or ten minutes to the discus
sion of it, and who under cross-eXaml-
nation by Senator Gillin made rather
Indifferent appearance.
II seems to me there is no occasion
for this act 1t is not necessary to en-
cumher the Statutes with it. OF course,
some young men may say we ought
to have a certain standard of high
school education for law students.
Very frequently they are the men, MT.
President. who have had free access
to their fathers purse strings When
they were in school.
| should be false to myself II l dld
not oppose this law. My friends. was
educated in the school of hope, long
deferred, and l could not vote to pass
a bill which would exclude me from
the ranks of the profession in which |
have practiced with some degree of
success for a good many years. | sin
cerelv hope, Mr. President, that the
report of the committee will be ac-
cepted
Mr.. GILLIN of Penobscot: Mr.. Pres
ident and senators of the 18th Legls-
lature Of Maine, l rise SIMPLY TO in
dorse heartily the sentiments of the
distinguished senator who has just
spoken in your presence
The law proposed would exclude
learned member of this Senate and
graduate from a great college from
being admitted to the bar, If he saw
fit to enter it. under the new statute.
as it changes that statute.
| wish to inform the distinguished
Young senator who has opposed the re-
port of this committee, that | have
known Of men who have graduated
from the greatest college in this coun-
try, who have come to my office, min
isters and doctors, TO borrow Maine
Reports, from which to read the decis-
ions of the great lawyers who graced
our bench on judicature, in order to
learn literature and logic.
We do not want to circumscribe our
profession, the great profession of law,
With boundaries across which intelli
gence and master minds cannot go. We
wish to leave it open to every single
youth within the broad area of the
State of Maine, who learns to read the
English language and thereby possess
es the key to knowledge with which
he can unlock her secret portals at his
will.
1t would have excluded men who
have been ornaments to the bar of
I Maine, and whose opinions in the
books have been jewels in the crown
Of New England's Jurisprudence
throughout the country.
| do not oppose this measure be-
cause | could not have passed the test
required: because | was fortunate
enough to get through and fit for col
lege and teach in the high school in
my native city. but / had companions
who did not receive those benefits, who
went to other cities and are now prac-
tiCing in the great profession of the
law. one is a chief justice. in great
city, and he could not have passed
that examination because he was a
poor country 10y raised among the
hills Of Aroostook county.
The law is jealous mistress. You
have upon youl Statute books today
laws which give the examining COM
mttee the ri@ht to test man upon
the FnOWleG%c which he should pos
SesS for admission to the bar of the
state Of Naine, II tests his orthogra-
ply. it tests his command Of language
and his tnoWleGge of the law.
There was q time. Mr. President and
senator's, when only the sons of the
aristocracy anG the sons of the rich,
could enter the great profession Of the
In ~
lished wigs and gowns were discard
cd, and in their place was put the
crown Of intelligence to take a position
in the legal profession. And as the
senator said 5ohn Marshall could not
have passed that test that they now
want 10 throw about the admission of
men to the bar of the State of Maine
The common law by which the AZ
states of the Union are governed. and
by which every single law that is made
in every one Of the AZ states of the
Union is said to be constitutional or
unconstitutional, is governed by human
reason, and first deduccd from the GUS
toms Of the people and proclaimed to
be the law Of the land by tho men who
saw the workings of those great in
flexible rules of the English common
law, proclaimed in this country, safe
guarded by men of the highest emil
nence in intellectually, who never
could have had with them the require
ments Of this bill
submit TO the members of this Sen
ate, not speaking in my own behalf,
that the judiciary committee of the
state of Maine, excluding myself. gave
TO this measure the most painstaking
and careful consideration. Three
times, as our distinguished chairman
said, we went over it and over it. and
when a man comes into the presence
of a committee and asks that commit
tee to engraft upon the statute books
of our state, as one of the examiners
of the young men who come to the bar,
and says he knows nothing about it
We went over it three times and said
that it ought not to be placed upon the
statute books of the State of Maine.
| feel that a young man who has left
college and wants to study law for two
years, in any place. and can pass the
requisites of the examination of the
bar OF the State of Maine, ought to be
admitted. We do not want to circum-
scribe his rights or the rights of any
young man who will study to enter the
great profession of the law