General of Pennsylvania.

Former Attorney

From David J. Brewer, Justice of the

United States Supreme Court.

The bulk of the law business is centered in our large cities, and one who is so situated that he can wait for business may expect a more lucrative practice in a city than in a small town. But many young lawyers are so situated that they cannot afford to wait. Their means have been exhausted in acquiring their education, and they must do something promptly towards earning a livelihood. Such a one will find his way into practice more quickly and easily in a small town than in a large city. Of course, there are exceptions to such general statements. One may have relatives or friends in the city who will speedily introduce him to a good clientage. But not all are so favored. The majority have to make their ɔwn way and rely upon themselves. Independently of pecuniary considerations the position of a country lawyer is to be coveted. He may not look for the large income of his city brother, but he will become the trusted adviser and counselor of a community, the leading citizen of the village. His life may be less eventful, less conspicuous, but it is apt to be

more even in its flow, more peaceful and satisfactory, than the strenuous life in a city. If he possesses great legal abilities, it will not be long before they are recognized outside his immediate home, and he is summoned to positions of trust and honor.

From John W. Daniel, United States

Senator from Virginia.

The city is the place for a lawyer who seeks wealth as the great goal. Besides this, it offers many temptations and inducements to young members of the legal profession, for the reason that there are the "tools of his trade," large libraries, and there are the greatest opportunities. On the other hand, the small, active town in a good community, where slow and certain success awaits the man of character who is devoted to his profession, is the most inviting to the philosophic and sedate mind, which realizes that happiness is not to be found by the red-hot pursuit, such as that of hounds after a hare. Beyond these common-place remarks, the conflict between city, country, and village is almost as old as the hills and valleys, and each individual mind

must decide as to location according to its own tastes, aptitudes, and object.

The best things than can be said about the legal profession with respect to those things that appeal to individual interest are: (1) That to the man of unimpeachable character, good intelligence, aptitude, and devotion to duty it offers as sure a pathway to competence, good association, and reasonable success as can be found in any avocation; (2) that it is a philosophic, developing, and enlarging pursuit which constantly improves the mind and broadens the individual, both in intellectual scope and social dignity; (3) it has a public relation, and is at the gateway of worthy public service. and promotion therein if desired.

Cæsar preferred to rule in a village rather than to serve in Rome. This shows that the temperament of the man should be considered in his location. One thing is sure, the man going into the legal profession must have a good stock of patience on hand, or else he will be quickly sidetracked and disappear from the conflict.

The legal profession is one above all others, no matter where it be exercised. "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," but to him that endures to the end. Unless the young lawyer has made up his mind at its threshold to face the music, whether it be Yankee Doodle or Dead March, to study under dim lights, to bear burdens, face storms, to labor, to wait, and not to flinch or cry, to scorn delights, to love hopeful sacrifice, and to be a man indeed, he had better go to work in any other avocation than to follow the profession of law. It is boundless in its inquiry, in its opportunities, in its achievements, and in its honors; but it is boundless also in its exactions and in its appeal to the sturdy and heroic spirit. With the right qualities a young

man can succeed whether in city, town, or country.

From Jacob M. Dickinson, General Counsel Illinois Central Railroad and President American Bar Association.

My opinion, based upon personal observation of the careers of lawyers, covering more than 30 years, is that, generally, the opportunities for professional training afforded to the young lawyer in a city of moderate size, say from 30,000 to 100,000 inhabitants, surpass those of our largest cities, for all-round development, and are better calculated to prepare men for high professional pursuits and the duties of useful citizenship. In the larger cities, unless one has exceptional advantages, he is likely to get a narrow experience, become a specialist and learn comparatively little of men. This will restrict his development to particular lines. His acquaintanceship will probably not be so large and general.

On the other hand, a lawyer of equal ability, and of like personal characteristics, training, and habits, will probably in the same time in a city of moderate size have a greater variety of experiences at the bar. He will have the sole responsibility in all sorts of cases in all kinds of courts, and will acquire a wider and deeper knowledge of affairs. His self-reliance and character will generally be more rapidly developed. He will have a better understanding of government, city, county, and state, and a wider acquaintance with officials and the conduct of their offices, and more intimate knowledge of judges, and a deeper experience with humanity. He will not be so expert in some things, but more adaptable for many things. It is from the body of lawyers so trained that have come mainly the men who have conduct

ed the affairs of the nation, and those who have become the leaders of the bars of our great cities. Men of transcendent ability and genius are unfettered by conditions that shape the destinies of ordi

nary men.

From Hampton L. Carson, of the Former

Philadelphia, Pa., Bar.

Attorney General of Pennsylvania.

If a young man can resist the temptations of the club and the hotel bar-rooms in small towns, and resolutely devote his evenings to a study of the law magazines and the Reports, without ending up with whiskey and cards, I believe that he will obtain a better all round knowledge of practice in the smaller towns, he will draw deeds and pleadings with his own hand, he will try or watch the trial of all kinds of cases, civil and criminal, and thus become experienced in all the varied cases which may demand his attention in after years; besides, he will have more abundant hours for the careful review of his law school work, and of examination of the reports of his own state; he can become acquainted with the entire bar and the bench of his County, and learn to know the citizens who are likely to be jurors, and study the leading business interests of his county, whether commercial, manufacturing, mining, or agricultural; he can get a grip upon the affairs of his community, and by industry, sobriety, and association, impress himself upon his fellow citizens much more speedily than in a city. Besides, if an opportunity come. to him, and he make a striking speech to a jury, or argument before a Court, his talents will become more widely known to a larger circle than in a city, where he will be lost in the crowd.

He must content himself, however, with a more modest range of ambition

in life, and not fret because the great prizes are beyond his reach. In time he may lead the bar of a large district, and be on the one side or the other of every litigated case, and close his days upon. the bench, possibly the Supreme Bench.

If he be a man of really superior abilities, abilities which are so self-assertive as to burst the bonds of locality-he can, after making a start in his native town, transfer himself to a city. But, unless he be a native of a city, with numerous friends and influential connections, possessed of the means of livelihood during his early years of struggle, I would not recommend his starting in a city, where he would be doomed to disappointment because of the over crowded ranks of the profession, and the fact that most well established firms and corporations already have their own counsel. If he seeks to connect himself with some well established firm of lawyers who need his services, he must be content to serve in a subordinate capacity for many years, and be looked upon rather as Mr. So and So's man, than his own.

I am speaking, of course, of the average young man, and not of exceptional

cases.

From William Wirt Howe, of the New Orleans, La., Bar, and former President of the American Bar Association.

There is something to say on both sides of the question. Some of our best lawyers have begun in small towns, where they have had an opportunity to observe and even take part in the trial of a variety of cases, civil and criminal, and so prepare themselves for the difficult duties of an advocate.

But, on the whole, if a young man of good legal education and fair ability should ask my advice on the question, I would probably tell him to go to a large

and growing city, and at first, if possible, enter a good law office where he would be brought at once in contact with important affairs, and find out how to apply his academic learning to such affairs. He would have to be very patient and do a good deal of waiting; but, on the other hand, there is a great demand in this world for men who can do things, and as soon as they are discovered the world is very glad to retain their services. There is sometimes delay in the discovery.

From Roger Foster, of the New York Bar.

If a young lawyer has ability of any kind, and his ambition is purely professional, unless he has influential connec

tions in a small town, he has better opportunities in a city. The concentration in large firms and in the legal staffs of corporations—such as accident insurance companies, title companies, and railway companies-of so much legal work which, in former times, was generally distributed among the profession, gives a young lawyer in the leading cities of the United States now a better chance than ever before. The older men alone suffer from this new order of things. If a young man has ability in any special direction, for trials, writing briefs, negotiating settlements, preparing cases, or searching titles, he should soon have an opportunity to display it in a city. In the country he may have to wait for years before he can exercise it.

I

Congratulate the members of this as

sociation that it has been sufficient

ly active and has lived long enough to call forth, not only some criticism for what it has not done, but also some for what it has accomplished, and even more for the tendency of its growth.

While the association in itself, meeting but once a year, in comparatively short sessions, and often at inconvenient hours, cannot do a fractional portion of what it desires to bring to pass, it has never for a moment lost sight of the purpose set out in the first article of its constitution, namely, that "the object of this association is the improvement of legal educa

tion in America, especially in the law schools."

To effect this purpose there is but one course to pursue, but one tendency to be maintained. That course and tendency must always be upward, whatever obstacles interfere, and whatever objections are lodged. That it will not always be convenient or pleasant is absolutely certain. That to maintain our purpose will often require the association to perform duties which are disagreeable, and will impose upon the schools forming the association heavy sacrifices at times, must always be kept in mind. Such duties have in a limited way already presented

themselves, and such sacrifices, I am pleased to say, have, in more cases than one, already been made. We, as schools, shall probably find, what men in their vocations discover, that the crowds do not care to struggle for the higher planes, and that in going forward we will, for a time at least, lose in point of numbers.

Our compensation must be found in the consciousness of having given an uplift to that profession, which has, more than all others combined, to do with the government of the nation, and the guarding and adjustment of the rights of her citizens, and in the hope that time will so clearly justify our action that we may later even secure the approval and attract to our support the larger numbers.

For if the time has not already come when young men, ambitious for their future, see that the merits of the school largely measure the value of the training and the diploma they receive, that time is not far distant. The young man to-day, who has fixed his mind upon the legal profession as a life work, and who will not be lured from it by the numerous attractive fields which are continually multiplying, cannot fail to learn the inestimable importance of deep, well-grounded foundation for his work. Such a young man will become more and more discriminating, and will not continue to be mislead by flaming advertisements and flimsy pretenses. Let us hope that he will be aided and stimulated in his enlarged efforts, and some mark of approval of the advanced stand taken by the better law schools shown by those whose duty it is to fix the rules for admission to the bar.

What I have to say in the brief time allotted will be in general upon the value of a comprehensive study of the law, the importance of a more thorough preliminary education for law students, and the duty of this association in reference thereto.

No organization can justify its existence which has not an aim and purpose for bettering existing conditions. An association of law schools, whose basic principle and avowed purpose should be to lower the standard of legal education and admission to the bar, would indeed be a novelty among American organizations. If this association shall continue to command respect from bench and bar, if it shall continue to hold the approval and allegiance of the most advanced schools and the ablest men, it must not only stand for improvement of legal education in America, but it must take active measures along this line, with steps sufficiently advanced to be noted and accredited to it. These steps are to be taken guardedly and with care, in such manner that good and not evil will result from them. They are not to be taken with a view of striking at any school or class of schools within or without the association, but with the purpose of finally bettering all by giving a higher tone and better atmosphere to their great field of work. Advancement should be made, if possible, so that all schools within the association may be carried along and kept in the van, and that others may yet join with us. For it is better to build up and strengthen than to lop off and eliminate our members. We should, in whatever is done as an association, be moderate rather than radical, be sure and safe rather than impetuous and inconsiderate; but we should not permit caution to stifle development.

Our progress up to this time has been made with prudence and care and with the welfare of all our members the chief aim of every action. But at the end of seven years we should be sufficiently grounded to make some marked advance.

In a government like ours, whose Constitution is written, where courts have the power to overturn the legislative will,