Evening star., 1937-09-21

LOWING. n.u.sv
Lawyer,
statesman, Virginia Convention, legis-
lature, and council; Continental Con-
gress. 17SO-83, 1878, etc"
Likewise there is Government
document printed in 1927 under the
direction of H. H. B. Meyer of the
Legislative Reference Service in the
Library of Congress which shows that
more than so per cent of the members
of the Constitutional Convention were
lawyers. 1t states that 19 out of the
80 signers were lawyers. Some his
torians insist that their research will
show that even more than so per cent
of the convention were lawyers because
the figure here given includes only
has been proved.
Attack on Lawyers.
The attack which Mr.. Roosevelt
made on the lawyers of the United
States has occasioned no surprise
here, for Mr.. Roosevelt, though him
self a member of the bar, has hereto
fore taken a number of shots at the
legal profession. But what is surpris-
ing is that Mr.. Roosevelt went so far
in his speech on Constitution day as
to accuse whole profession of what
amounts TO deceit and trickery. Thus
this paragraph about the Constitution
has evoked much comment:
This great laymen's document was
a charter of general principles-com-
pletely different from the 'whereases'
and the parties of the first part and
the fine print which lawyers put into
leases and insurance policies and in
stallment agreements"
Did the President mean by fine
print" that lawyers have a way of
trying to deceive the layman? Even
If fne print is resorted to in contracts,
isn't this usually the action of the
issuing companies. Why does Mr..
Roosevelt speak of insurance policies
In this vein?
Purpose of Speech.
Many lawyers hereabouts consider
that the Presidents speech was de-
liberate effort to arouse antagonism
against the lawyers of the country Just
because they happened by an over
whelming referendum to have voted
against Mr.. Roosevelts plan to pack"
the Supreme Court.
When the President had q chance
TO make his first appointment TO the
Supreme Court of the United States,
1t is true that he did not give con-
ator Black is by no means an out
standing lawyer. His principal ex-
perience in the law was as a police
court judge. 1t may be that Mr.
Roosevelt is conscious of the criti-
cism leveled against Mr.. Black for his
lack Of legal scholarship and is get
ting ready to argue that laymen are
Just as good on the Supreme Court as
lawyers. There are. indeed, among
the radicals and extremists many who
have been advocating that laymen be
appointed to the Supreme Court of
the United States. Their ignorance
of the real work Of the Supreme Court
is exceeded only by their disregard Of
constitutional law itself They want
precedents brushed aside and the
whole structure of the English COM
mon law as 1t has been known for
several centuries to be destroyed.
Ninety-five per cent, or even more.
OF the cases before the Supreme Court
have nothing to do with constitutional
controversies. They consist of COM
plicated and technical legal questions
that arise in both the Federal and
State courts of the Nation. Nobody
who has not had legal education
could possibly cope with them. These
cases do not attract national attention
because they are unspectacular and
do not relate to any claim of constitu-
tionality. They do, however, constitute
the real work of a Supreme Court
Justice.
In the concluding portion of his
speech, Mr. Roosevelt disclosed his
real feeling about precedents and the
background of the whole American
system of law. He said.
Il ask that they die American
people, exalt the glorious simplicity
OF its (the Constitution's) purposes
rather than century of complicated
legalism"
Does Mr.. Roosevelt want the country
10 understand that the 100 years or
more of constitutional law are now
to be relegated to the scrap heap and
that rules for the governing Of the
American people which have grown
up. AZ they properly should, in law
suits brought under the Constitution.
now must be discarded? What is to
take its place-a "layman's Supreme
Court" perhaps more members Of the
Ku Klux Klan, to decide questions
a~ording to the political sentiment
or racial or religious prejudices OF the
moment? Maybe the President was
thinking Of the Hitler method in
Germany where in the Summer Of
1888 law was promulgated which
admonishes the courts that where
o1enses are not punishable under the
penal code they shall be punished
when they deserve it according to
the underlying idea Of q penal code or
according to healthy public senti-
ment." This, of course, is simpler
thar complicated legalism."