Montana labor news., 1936-06-11
The Barrier OF Learning
Caste System In Education Must
Be Broken For Sons, Daugh-
tiers of Workers And Farmers.

The professions in Montana are
rapidly becoming divisions of a great
caste. Public opinion rules this state
Public opinion is made, controlled OF
stifled by % newspaper men ~ law
yers 90 clergy "a engineers (disting-
uish from engine drivers 81 teachers
(6) physicians. The great emancipa-
tors are sometimes as Wendell Phil
Ups, members by heredity of the caste
but more often men like Lincoln, who
by preeminent ability break from the
drudgery of a home Of toll into the
caste and carry through life the mem
cries of, and sympathies with a HE OF
toll. 1t is true OF all that unless they
are born in, or break TITO the caste
they can never initiate and seldom dc
much for the betterment of humanity,
(~unless perchance they use their native
powers of leadership and magnetic
physiques in waging pre-civilized war;
From the dawn OF history there has
been a tendency to so hedge the so
called learned professions that finally
it becomes a consistent father to son
caste. In Hindustan a plowman's son
must be a plowman forever, a Brah-
mans son is OF the High Caste for
ever. In ancient Jewry the Tribe of
Levi Of the Ten Tribes were Levites,
lie. a combination of priest, lawyer and
physician. The story OF Samuel, the
Lad, delivered by his mother to the
keepers of the Temple for education IS
true and also emblematic. By study he
became the democratic prophet, lead
er OF his people by persuasion. He
seems to have been from the fields.
He broke into the caste and by his
Supremacy able and courageous mind
became the greatest name OF the caste
for 500 years. The civilizations OF
Babylon, Egypt, Etruria all had sim
liar castles. They became so well knit
powerful, enduring from generation to
generation as our president is to thwart
the will of the Supreme Court.
Well sensing the power Of public
opinion in this state, and that it is the
product of the great caste, the absen-
tee landlords are by law, raising bar
riers to prevent entrance into the great
professional caste of any but the sons
of the wealthy. The child is father Of
the man. They want 10 influx OF
w~orkingmen's sons who may carry into
the caste the memories of a workers or
farmers home, to become a Samuel,
the priest of the peasant, or a Lincoln
to release the slave. Nor do they want
to spread among the people that edu-
Gated superiority complex which would
rise enmasse and demand a fair dis
tribution OF wealth by means of laws
which all could understand.
Some eight years ago our Supreme
Court ordained a rule that to be adj
mitted to the Bar an applicant must,
in addition to passing the rigid ex-
aminations in law, also have passed two
year of work in study in some %univer-
sity of the liberal arts. This entails
5 years of resident work at the Mis-
soula Branch of our State University.
My experience, after sending 5 child
rem to that commendable seat of learn
ing is that it costs more than $1,000 a
year, for a pupil to attend that insti-
tuition. | have prospered in my pro-
fession but I am still paying interest on
money borrowed to pay college expen-
ses 5 years ago. 1t is not possible for
a w~orkingman or small farmer to give
his often very bright and ambitious
son or daughter one thousand dollars
the year for five years, to enable him
or her to enter the legal profession,
The Barrier of preliminary college
work is not always necessary to fol-
low u~sefully the profession of law.
Having had intense liberal arts study
for 3 years myself, l believe the bar
rier does give one a broader, deeper
insight into the professional studies,
but | can point out twenty of the most
successful outstanding lawyers in Mon
TAM who were admitted before the Bar
rier was raised and who never had any
liberal arts training at all. Ten of
these never even attended any CLASH
fled law school but merely received pri-
vate tutoring. Preferring to name only
the dead, | well remember being consul
lied by the late Matthew Canning about
his beginning to study law privately.
| told him what books to read, lent
him some of them, and in ten years,
he was the leader OF the Bar of the
state. | think l ann correct in saying
that the late L. Orvis Evans, never
attended a university or college, that
he studied law in the office of Word,
Smith and Word in Helena and rapid
ly rose, by learning and merit to being
chief counsel for the Anaconda Com
pany.
To enter the profession of medicine