Evening star., 1937-09-28
Roosevelt and the Bar.


challenge to the lawyers in his Constitu-
ton day address. He undertook to tell
the country that, as class, lawyers have
been stumbling block in the path of
progress. Not only have the lawyers
been antagonistic to the New Deal, in
the opinion of the President, but they
have been the fly in the ointment when
progressive legislation has been under
taken from the days of George WASH
ington down to the present.
President Frederick H. Stinchfield of
the American Bar Association, on behalf
OF the lawyers, has accepted the chal-
lenge. In Kansas City, where the bar
association is holding it's annual con-
vention, Mr.. Stinchfield has defended
the members of his profession, main
tanning that they are patriotic and have
the good of their country at heart. II
they have attacked the Presidents pro-
gram for revamping the Supreme Court
Of the United States, it is because thev
believe that this program would result
IN making the courts subservient to the
executive. The lawyers are not alone
in this belief. But lawyers have been
among the most outspoken critics of the
President because of his court bill.
Probably the President would admit
without hesitation that there are both
good and bad lawyers. Those who agree
with him fall in the first class. He him.
self is lawyer by profession and prac-
ticed law before he entered the field OF
politics and thereafter His attack upon
the legal profession, under the circum-
stances, is all the more remarkable. No
one would contend that all lawyers are
good lawyers or even that they are all
good citizens. The average, however,
has been high. The members of the
legal fraternity have gone far. They
have done much to uphold the laws of
the Nation, State and Federal. Some
of them, as legislators, have helped to
put these laws on the statute books.
Lawyers, the President complains,
have become the servants of the in
terests. OF wealth and privilege. He for
gets that they are also the servants of
the law. The fundamental law OF the
land is the Constitution. If statutes are
enacted which do not conform with the
Constitution 1t is the duty of lawyers
to point out where these statutes do not
conform-even If they be New Deal laws.
OF the great mass of lawyers in the
country not many are corporation
lawyers. Not many have extremely
wealthy clients. For the rest, they
represent the common people when they
are engaged in litigation. 1t is to them
that the people go for advice and
counsel, for the settlement of their diff
ferences. 1t is mistake on the part
OF the President to undertake to dis
credit these public servants-for they
are public servants-in the minds of
the people.
The lawyer, like the layman, must
have faith in the courts of justice, and
in the independence of the judges before
whom he tries cases. That lawyers
should rise in defense of the courts and
particularly of their independence is not
surprising. That they should attack un-
sound laws or laws that contravene the
provisions of the Constitution is to be
expected, whether they do it as repre-
sentatives of their clients or on their
own initiative.
Some of the most distinguished pred
ecessors of the present Chief Execu-
tive have been of the legal profession.
Lincoln and Cleveland are among them.
No President has ever hewn more
closely to the law and to the Constitu-
ton than did Grover Cleveland. There
are members of the Presidents own
political party who hope today for q
return to the attitude of Cleveland.