I am told that the membership this year is nearly 12,000, and we have only registered here about 575 up to the present moment. We are not working out the destiny nor doing the things we ought to do with reference to this great Association. To me the primary duty of the American Bar Association is to organize the American lawyers that answer to the qualifications for membership in this body. Think of it! Out of 127,000 lawyers we have only about 600 lawyers attending a national meeting!

Now, we have to go at this thing in a systematic way. We ought to make this Association as attractive to lawyers as possible, and one way to make it attractive is to give everybody a chance, give an opportunity to every member to lend a hand, not leave him simply a spectator. Invite him to your parties even though he reserves the right to refuse the invitation. It flatters him to be invited. So let us flatter him if it will tend to build up the membership of the American Bar Association.

How can we do this? I think we can do it by adopting something on the order of the amendments that I have proposed. Understand that this proposal is in respect of the 92 per cent of the lawyers of the United States that do not attend these meetings. It is the interest of those 92 per cent that we want to secure. If you can keep a man in accord with the spirit of this Association which only meets three days out of 365 days in a year, we will generate an interest that will increase the membership largely. According to the program, the delegation from each state meets here and holds a caucus and selects a member to represent them on the General Council. By sending out a mail ballot in May we can do away with this caucus here and we will get the

expressions of all the members of the Association as to the men they want elected.

One of these amendments provides, on the same ballot, for the election of a vice-president from each state and for members of the local council.

The purpose of these amendments is to get the men who are at home in the middle of the year in touch with this organization. The balloting prescribed for the nomination of a member of the General Council is to be conducted by the vicepresidents of the respective states, and it shall be taken in each state during the month of May of each year, upon the written request of five resident members, which request shall be filed with the vice-president not later than the 10th of May of each year, and the vice-president shall place on the ballot the name or names of members proposed for member of the General Council, and not later than the 20th of May shall mail to all members a ballot upon which the members shall indicate their choice, and the member given the highest number of votes shall be certified by the vice-president to the Secretary of the American Bar Association before the 15th day of June, and his name shall be published in the next issue of the JOURNAL. He shall be the nominee for member of the General Council from such state. Instead of being nominated by those of the members who are present at the meeting, the members at home in May will nominate him, and his name shall be presented by the Secretary for election at the annual meeting if he is present at the meeting.

The balloting is very much the same for members of the local councils and the vice-presidents.

James H. Harkless, of Missouri.

What clerical aid does the vice-president of each state have in order to do all this work?

Thomas C. McClellan :

I take it that that is a detail which can be easily covered, and I have no doubt that any vice-president from our state would use his own stenographer.

James H. Harkless:

I would like to ask what is to be done if a man is nominated after he gets here—who elects him?

Thomas C. McClellan:

He is elected as provided in the first line of this amendment: "A General Council consisting of one member from each state to be elected by the Association," just as he is elected now. That is for the purpose of giving some voice to the 92 per cent of the members who do not attend the meetings.

William A. Ketcham, of Indiana.

Perhaps they don't want a voice, otherwise they would attend the meetings.

Thomas C. McClellan :

I don't know about that. Take the ballot in this country. Tens of thousands of men don't vote. But you go to Indianapolis and propose to take away the ballot from them and you will stir up a row that will shake the republic.

This is a letter addressed to me by William Howard Taft under date of July 26, 1920:

"I have your letter of July 20th and the enclosure. I approve all of your amendments to the present constitution and by-laws of the American Bar Association. I have always thought that the method of electing a central committee was very defective. I fear that I shall not be present to vote for them, however. "With best wishes, I remain

"Yours sincerely,

"WILLIAM H. TAFT."

I submit that judgment of a former President of the United States, and a former President also of this Association.

Now I have delivered myself at much greater length than I thought I should, and I very much appreciate the attention and consideration that has been accorded to me.

Thomas W. Shelton, of Virginia:

May I ask the gentleman from Alabama why the state bar associations should not select the members of the General Council?

Thomas C. McClellan :

I think an answer to that is this: No independent organization is going to submit the nomination of its officers to any body over which it has no control.

Thomas W. Shelton:

Why not permit the members of state bar associations who are present at the meeting to make the nominations?

Thomas C. McClellan :

That is a suggestion that came from my good friend Reynolds of Kansas City, and that is better than what we have now. But the state bar associations do not all meet at the same time, and the general objection that I have to that is the same as my objection to the present method, namely, that 92 per cent of the lawyers won't travel to attend these meetings, many of them cannot attend, and they are deprived of a right to participate in the organization. Now, we want to reach the man in his home in the middle of the year and give him an opportunity to vote to nominate a member of the General Council and thus give him an interest in the work of the Association. I want to see the membership of this Association go in the next 12 months to 30,000, and it can be done if we will go at it right. We are going to have the best Law Journal that any legal enterprise ever produced or can produce, and when we get a membership of 30,000, why, it will be only a step to increase it to 50,000.

James H. Harkless:

In reference to the suggestions made by Judge McClellan in the early part of his remarks, I think we would all be in accordance with them if it were possible. A town meeting was the proper thing in the days when we could have town meetings, but when the time came in which town meetings could no longer be held the advantages claimed for them ceased. I do not believe that this Association can function better by attempting to throw open the discussion of anything and everything to the public in two days. It would be utterly impossible to do anything of that sort. I have in mind some of the distinguished members of our Association who want two days in order to discuss one single subject. Of course, the idea is a splendid one, but when you attempt to put it into practical effect, it cannot be done. If we are to lengthen our sessions to a week or a month, then possibly the discussion of subjects could be thrown wide open to everybody. Even Congress, which sits sometimes for a year with no more members than we have, have found that they cannot do