Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-08-08
(Conclnding Installment.)

John B. Wnlince In DearpefH ihae-
pendent.
(Conclnding Installment.)
The more laws the more work for
lawyers and the more work the more
fees. The spirit of commercialisfn has
invaded the bar as it has invaded the
press, the pulpit and even penetrated
our sports and games. 1t has caused
the loss of those fine ideals, those
higher spiritual. qualities that once
caused men to consider it great
honor to be a judge, an editor or
minister The scholar has given place
to the charlatan, the statesman to the
demasogue and the sportsman to the
sure thing man.
Back. of it all there is a sinister force,
a, force that the American people are
just beginning to recognize and pub
licly to name.
This force was accurately described
in, q recent address by Bishop Adna
v. Leonard, of the Methodist church.
'sThe Pilgrim Fathers came, he
said, with a government founded up
on an open Bible, an open church and
an open school. Their aims were
idealistic.
In the last 25 years, however, the
entire complexion of the population
influx has been changed. The great
est population movement of all times
was completed with the immigration
Of 80 ,0a0, 900 people who came to this
country in the quarter century just
preceding the war. The million He
brews led by Moses across the wilder
ness of Arabia have left their impress
and their mark upon, all the succeed
ing generations throughout the thou
sands of years. The movement Of 80
times as many neonean about half the
time cannot fail to have some infiu-
ence upon America and upon the
world.
High Standards Once.
"All these people have their racial
characteristics, their beliefs and their
creeds. They come from every nation
and every race on earth and they
bring with them all of their various
ideas and ideals. But there is one
outstanding, idea back of this entire
migration. The earlier immigrants
came from religious motives while this
immigration for the past 25 years
came from materialistic motives al
most entirely. They have threatened
the government of this country by
their doctrines of radicalism, atheism,
Marxism, socialism and anarchism.
Great groups came with a group psy-
chology but no individual responsible
ty."
Bishop Leonard might have. added
with truth that one of these groups,
the most materialistic of all, has
grown, to immense, almost preponder-
ant power and has seized control of
some of the most important sources of
our culture-the press, the stage and
the motion pictures. Neither rse bench
nor the bar has escaped its ccatami-
nation! and no little of the. present de-
cadence of the bar can be traced di-
rectly 10 the influence of it's material
istic creed.
1t was not always thus with our
bar There was time when the ma =
jority of our lawyers stood for high
ideals, when they looked upon their
profession as something more than a
vehicle to obtain money and notoriety
Then a man who indulged in the COM
mon practices of today was called a
"shyster" and looked upon with scorn
Now the situation is reversed and il
is only the minority that dares to tel
the truth, to call spade spade.
take courage to brave the wrath OF
your compeers, and courage, the mora
courage inspired by the aspiration to
high ideals, is sadly lacking in the
rank and iile of the bar today.
Instead of little 'shysters" we now
have big "shysters," difference in de-
gree but not in kind. Local bar asso-
Citations formed to maintain the stand
ard of ethics are now mainly "white-
washing" organizations which lack the
nerve to probe into the sore and, TAX
ing refuge in technicalities, content
themselves with adopting resolutions
of a general nature that sound grand
iosely inspiring but mean nothing; and
get them nowhere.
A Mans Word Once Good.
The difficulty is that so many Of the
members have uneasy conscience!
themselves that they dare not attack
lest the victim find ground for retail
alton. Occasionally they disbar some
attorney who happens to be very small
fry indeed and whose offense is so flag.
rant that it cannot be camouf!aged
Yet in many instances these very at
torneys disbarred for acts which show
their utter unfitness to be officers o
the court-as all lawyers are--are
after year or two, reinstated, havinl
learned the lesson to be more careful
about being caught with the goods
next time.
The ethics of the majority of thost
who pra ctice civil and commercial Law