JOHN S. STEVENS. resorted to; hence, the lawyer is compelled to take a broader view, and he ought, for this reason, to be all the more widely and generally educated. He has so far kept his place and influence in the business world, and owing to the breadth and character of his education and training, has adapted himself, with wonderful facility and accuracy, to new conditions as they have arisen. The working field of the practicing lawyer has very greatly increased. In former years, there were but few books,most of them of a general character,-laying down the fundamental, general principles of the law. Blackstone and Kent, Stephens and Chitty, Mitford and Story embraced the fundamental principles. The opinions of the courts were not numerous. When we look upon the present multiplication of the opinions of the different courts and the special works upon different branches of the law, we are apt to stand in awe, contemplating the apparent magnitude of the work to be done. by our profession. While it is true that there has been, and is now, a vast aggregation of apparently conflicting decisions, and while it may appear that the work of the lawyer, by reason thereof, has been multiplied many times over, yet it must be borne in mind that the means of doing the work and the facilities for doing it, have in reality kept pace with the increase of the demand. Books of ready reference and digests are within reach of the lawyer, and while he must be diligent and apply himself faithfully to his work, yet that work is but little harder or more difficult than formerly. He does best who still studies most Blackstone and Kent, Stephens and Chitty, Mitford and Story. The apparent difficulties have led the profession, in its application to the business side, to specialization, and while specialization is valuable, and may make the practicing lawyer more proficient in any single department of the law, yet there is danger in it to the individual. and the profession at large. It may afford a ready means of living, but is narrowing in the extreme. It will do for the PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. lawyer who is thoroughly educated in the principles of jurisprudence and has a comprehensive knowledge of the law, to specialize in the actual practice of it, but it is hurtful to prepare originally for specialization. Said a recent writer: "Lawyers are too often trained with reference to getting on at the Bar, and find themselves unprepared for the higher walks of jurisprudence and statesmanship, and members of Congress and of the State Legislatures frequently exhibit to the world poverty of preparation for the critical duties which devolve upon them." A preparation for special work only will of necessity result in poverty of preparation for many of the duties which the lawyer is called upon to perform. Gladstone, in speaking of those who make a specialty of any particular branch of the law, uses this general language, as applicable to all lawyers and as necessary for the specialist as for the general practitioner. "They need the experience, the education, the improvement that flows from the improvement of the mind, from the exercise and expansion of the powers to perceive and to reflect, from the formation of habits of attention and application, from a bias given to character in favor of cultivating intelligence for its own sake as well as for the sake of the direct advantages it brings. These advantages lie in the far future and do not administer to the feverish excitement which are of necessity in various degrees incidental to the pursuits of the modern commercial world. This broad culture tends to self-command, selfgovernment and that general self-respect which has in it nothing of self-worship, for it is the reverence that each man ought to feel for the nature that God has given him and for the laws of that nature. It is one thing to plow and sow with the expectation of the harvest in due season when the year shall have come around. It is another to ransack the ground on the gold field, with the heated hope and craving f.r vast returns today or tomorrow." Specialization may be desirable as a means of livelihood, but if undertaken without first laying a broad foundation by general culture, it will in the end prove disappointing. All other avenues are practically closed to the specialist, educated as such only, and its effect upon the individual is to narrow JOHN S. STEVENS. and dwarf the faculties and deprive one of that influence always desirable. The lawyer whose sole object in the profession is to realize a fee, will command but little influence in any community. The results of the University and College are no longer confined to the original learned professions. There are men now in all walks of life from the ranks of the best Universities of our own and other lands. There are branches of business that demand as broad and liberal an education as the learned professions, and the men who command them and are in the future to be potent in them, are, and will be, men of broad and liberal culture. There are, also, in the ranks of labor, large numbers of University and College graduates; hence, if the Bar would retain its place in politics, in business, and its influence in the state and nation, it must lay the foundations broader and deeper than ever before. If it would retain its commanding influence in the body politic, it must still retain its relative superiority as a profession. The influence of the lawyer in the social and economic life of the community is, or should be, no less than in the political and business life. By social life, I do not mean that so-called society life, limited to the meeting together in crowds to indulge in the exchange of commonplace and the chatter of inanity which is commonly called society; but by the social life, I mean all that pertains to the highest and best development of all the people, rich and poor alike, in education, in morals, in conduct, in religion. By so much as the profession has claimed, and still claims, to be more broadly and better educated along all lines of knowledge, in law, in history, in sociology, in literature, in poetry and in the arts, than any other profession, by so much the more it should be a potent agency for good in every community. It should, so far as possible, interest itself in the work of the public education, in colleges, and the fostering of various desirable institutions of learning, in the great pub PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. lic charities, in collective and individual effort to ameliorate the condition of the poor and to elevate, enlighten and purify, -in short, should do its full part in all the social, economic and charitable life of the community. The profession should be, above all others, interested in general literature, in the dissemination of general knowledge, in the propagation and teaching of the science of government and in all the sociological problems that now confront us and are engaging the serious thought and attention of the best men and women of our country. In order to have and retain this influence, the lawyer must keep pace with the general intelligence, with the various discoveries and inventions, and with the use of all those appliances found to be beneficial in reforming abuses, in minimizing crime, in relieving from poverty and want. As the Bar, in the past, was the leader of the people, it was so through its superior culture and attainments, and if it would maintain its present prominence and influence, it must do so through a thorough acquaintance with business, history, literature, sociology in all its ramifications, poetry and art. All this may reasonably be accomplished, even by the busy lawyer. These acquirements can be made as a matter of relaxation and restfulness from the exacting duties of an absorbing and arduous profession. The old and hurtful methods of relaxation have passed away, and other forms are now found by the lawyer. There is none that equals the study of literature, history and poetry. It does not exhaust. It relaxes and becomes in time an unspeakable pleasure. Every young man must devote some of his time to social intercourse, to enlarging his acquaintance with his fellow men and acquainting himself with the business world. This need not prevent him from indulging in the relaxation of general literature, of which he will become more fond as the years go by. Every man who has so used a reasonable amount of his leisure and has passed middle life, is surprised to know how much he has acquired of these collateral needs in his leisure JOHN S. STEVENS. moments. History, literature and poetry enlarge the scope of a man's vision. They make him much more human and induce him to take a deeper interest in humanity, as such. The young lawyer will find among the best books infinitely more of benefit and of relaxation than he can ever find at the club or amid the mire and filth of ward politics and with the elements that control the lowest forms of political life. With these he may mingle, but never, save with the purpose of lifting them up and making them better. Of all classes of men, the lawyer is in a position to be, and should be, the most independent, bold, outspoken. He can, and should, fearlessly stand for whatever is right, wherever there is a contest between right and wrong, and the man that fails to do so, through fear of losing political prestige or social caste, is a disgrace to his profession. We owe it to our profession, we owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the community, so far as possible, to rid our ranks of the ignorant, the disreputable, the dishonest, the mere pettifogger, demagogue and trickster. Our profession has in its ranks its full share of these. It always has been, and perhaps always will be, to a greater or less extent, disgraced by the ignorant and dishonest, by the trickster, charlatan and swindler. The jury briber,-jury packer,-suborner of witnesses, and ambulance chaser are late but let us hope not common species,— all a disgrace to the Bar. Some of these, judging from appearances, outstrip the better educated, broader-minded, fairer and better lawyers. Whenever this is so, and the harpies and swindlers of the profession find ample employment, at remunerative fees, it is generally because of a low state of business morals in the community. But the profession owes it to itself to purge its ranks, so far as possible, of all that is ignorant, low, dishonest and vile. It may not be able to devise the means of expelling such from the ranks of the profession, but it can put the seal of its condemnation upon them all, and so discredit them in every community as to relieve |