The producers news., 1926-05-21
NC ELROY TAKES THE
LAWYERS TO A CLEANING

NC ELROY TAKES THE
LAWYERS TO A CLEANING
Editor Producers News.
Dear Mr.. Editor.
Perhaps the worst and most dan
gerous class of parasites that afflict
this humbug ruled country are the
lawyers. AS st. Paul says: "They
toll not, neither do they spin," but
still they live off the fat of the land.
/ If we look at the muster roll of con-
gress we find the lawyers are in the
majority although as a class they
occupy an infnitestimal portion of
the occupations of the country. AL
though we have only four represen-
tatives of this State in Washington,
three of them are lawyers. The Gov
ernor of this state is lawyer. The
lawyers hold public office out of all
proportion to their numbers.
Because of their training they
claim they can run the country bet
ter than other classes of citizens. Is
this true? A glance at the records
will show it is not. The last Govern
or, Mr.. Dixon, put the state hope
lessly in debt. He was a lawyer. The
present one has shown no ability to
make matters better although he is a
lawyer. The most corrupt member
of Harding's cabinet-Mr. Daugher-
ty, attomey-general, was a lawyer
Most of the rest of the cabinet, who
are running things today are law
yers. Could any bunch of laymen
run the United States any worse?
1 The lawyers, by reason of their ov-
erwhelming representation in con-
gress, make our laws. But lest they
lose control they have safeguarded
! themselves by reserving to a small
/ body of lawyers, called the Supreme
4 Court, the right to say whether such
! laws are constitutional. If the far
mers and workers were to assume
control of our legislative bodies and
pass legislation that would be good
/ for their class, such legislation could,
and prbably would, be nullifed by the
/ supreme court.
Lawyers have set themselves up in
/ this country as a special privilege
class. They assume the same role
/ here that aristocracies do in Europe.
/ They have so carefully guarded the
approaches to their citadel of power
/ that none but the sons of the well-to-
do can now enter their profession.
/ In nearly all the states the minimum
i for admission to examination for
the bar is four years high school,
two years cultural course in a Uni
versity and three or four years law
in addition.
Under these rules Abraham Lin
coin could never have been a law
yer. Even Christ would not have
been admitted to the examination
room.
Even though a person qualities in
! all these preliminaries and is admit
/ ted to the examination room, he has
no show to come out with a sheepskin
unless he has a mind in accord with
the troglOdites on the examination
board. These boards time and again
have denied radicals and even liber-
ais admission to the bar, even tho
they were capable of passing the ex-
aminatiOns.
Is it any wonder that lawyers have
/ bOurgOise ideas when only a class
that can afford the luxury of going
| through goosetep Universities can
enter their profession. They do more
to hamper progress and up hold the
rule of the dead hand of the past
than any other privileged class.
When a man is in trouble he has
to consult a lawyer or a doctor.
Judges have woven such a lot of
technicalities and red tape around
procedure that it is necessary to get
a lawyer to enter court A poor man
can scarcely get justice unless he has
the necessary fees to hire a lawyer
and the poor man must paw higher
fees than the rich man or the big cor
poration all the time If a private
individual has a mortgage to fore
close he has to pay twice as much
as a foreign loan company. This is
/ the unfairness of the legal profession
towards the poor and defenseless.
! If rich mems sons like Loeb and
Leopold get mixed up in trouble they
can hire clever lawyers to save their
lives but if a poor man gets in
trouble he is railroaded to the peni-
tentiary if not to the gallows.
The lawyer with all his education
/ is mental prOstitute-andh he is for
hire to the man with the money.
/ Look at the lawyers of any county
you know. What a cheap lot of mer-
cenary takers they are. They get
most of their living by foreclosing
mortgages and they all give the same
bum advise to farmers about the
period of redemption. They invari-
ably tell the farmer to get off the
land for the benefit of the loan shark
because they butter their bread from
the loan sharks money. They would
see the land depopulated and the law
made a farce because they are hired
by loan sharks in Minneapolis or
elsewhere to foreclose mortgages.
Lawyers, when they give opinions,
even on subjects outside their juris-
diction, want them to be taken by the
public as if they were inspired by