Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-09-17
Imagination In the Law"
Judge Stafford Addresses
the Conversation Circle
Thursday Night

The Art gallery at the Athenaeun
was filled Thursday night by mem
bers of the Conversation Circle ane
their guests who had gathered TO heal
Judge Wendell P. Stafford. The lee
turcr was gracefully presented by
Mrs. Walter z. Smith, who said st
Johnsbury was one of the richest
towns in the state and then citec
some Of the items on its grand list.
First she would place the beautiful
mountain scenery and the crystal
beauty of our winter time. Second
the heritage we have received from
those sterling characters that have
lived before us, and third the sons
and daughters born here who have
achieved fame elsewhere.
Judge Stafford gave the audience
his address on "Imagination in the
Law" that he gave before the State
Bar association of Colorado Springs
on July II, 1919. Starting with che
assertion that the legal mind cannot
take the first step without using the
image-making power of the mind, he
showed how necessary it was for a
lawyer to make use of the imagination
in grasping the general and dramatic
features of any case. That legisla-
lures as well as lawyers sometimes
fail to see a thing through is evidenc-
cd by the actual law passed by the
legislature of one of our great states
which enacted the following law to
regulate the passage of trains where
two railroads crossed at grade in
these words: "When two trains APP
proach each other at a crossing they
shall come to fullstop; and neither
shall start up until the other is gone"
Passing from his consideration of
the absolute necessity of the use of
the faculty of imagination in the de-
imagination in the creation and for
principles, Judge Stafford next called
attention to the part played by the
imagination in thee reation and for
mutation of legal conceptions as
shown by the history OF primitive
law. Instances were cited from the
Mosaic law, the Greeks and the old
English law along these lines. Legal
fictions were also considered in de-
tail and after giving Sir Henry
Names definition he said ut is real
ly solemn make-believe, not unlike
that of children at their play, who can
have in the world about them what
they will by the kingly power of i'm
agination. We smile at the fictions of
English courts, yet let us not be too
superior. How much more consis-
tent are we, when we direct the jury
to render verdict, and gravely wait
for their response, instead of entering
the judgment directly without going
through that FORM"
"If the law seem at times capri
cious, that is only to say that the
law is very human. 1t is usually do
ing it's best to get out of an awkward
situation. 1t has had to do a good
deal of twisting and turning in its
day. 1t has had to Forge ahead as
we'll as it could, keeping pace with
the changes in public sentiment, clos
ing the gap which Maine says always
exists in progressive societies be-
teen the law and the advancing
thought of the people. All that was
said of the need of imagination in
legal construction is doubly true Of
the work of legislating, for the law
maker must have before his eyes a
vivid and accurate picture not only Of
the conditions to be remedied but of
the changes that will be wrought by
the law he i'll about to make"
"The law is not for the lawyer
alone, but for the people. The peo-
pie were not made for the law, but
the law for the people. The most
important inquiry of all is, how is
the law looked upon by the masses
of men for whom it exists? And here
again we shall find it difficult to deny |
that imagination has played an inn
portant part. The original concep-
ton of the law was that the decision
of the patriarch-king was divine in
spiration, and the attitude of the peo-
pie was corrcspondingly reverent. A
wise Judgment was what we call a
stroke of genius"
After referring to the legal pro-
cedure where the indictment invok- !
es a personality by closing with the |
words against the peace and digni-
ty of the United States" Judge Stat
ford said, "For myself l cannot help |
thinking that we are bound in every
way possible to throw around the law
and it's public administration all such |
reasonable form and ceremony as |
may serve to impress the imagina
ton, and tend to associate in the
minds of men the execution of the |
law with sense of dignity and pow
erin short with suggestion that
the will Of great people is here
seeking and declaring justice. For,
after all, we must secure respect for
law if law is to be triumphant and
obeyed. No nation can live long with
out it. 1t will lack cohesion and even
tually go to pieces"
In closing an address full of peril
ncnt illustrations and several poetical
quotations given in the speakers
mastery style, Judge Stafford re-
ferred to the part imagination played
in the great question now before the
world and said: