Collections

Address to the Daughters of the American Revolution

It is interesting to see so many uncompromising conservatives assembled in memory of a revolution and to see many who a year ago almost shuddered at the thought of a mere change of administration gathered here to commemorate the birth of Washington, who overthrew the established government by bloodshed to give the American of his day a "New Deal". It is one of those strange traits of human nature that very often those strongest for ancestral revolts are strongest against present ones, those more ardent for the first revolution are most cold to the latest one.

Delayed Justice in New York State

The task still ahead of us is one of interpretation of the data assembled and of devising remedies for the abuses uncovered. The research work was so specialized that the Bench or Bar generally could not join in it, but the task from now on is your task as much as ours and as soon as our report is made available for study, we invite the help and suggestions of all men.

Introductory Address to the Bureau of Internal Revenue Legal Office

In the first meeting the entire legal staff of what is said to be the largest law office in the world, I must make a confession and perhaps do penance. I have never before been in the Government service and have never specialized in the practice of law before its Executive of Legislative Departments. I confess I have had the conventional attitude among those who are rather far removed from the government service. It seemed to me that the government service was a place where all matters met with interminable delay without much effort to close them up; where the character of the service they received was of doubtful competency and indifferent character.  

Changes in Treasury Tax Policy

Among the most controversial and vital problems of the coming years are those relating to taxation. Lawyers will further impair their already declining leadership if they fail to bring disinterested and intelligent influence to bear upon the economic and legal questions involved.

The Lawyer; Leader or Mouthpiece?

I have come to regard many of the things about which we complain as symptoms of an underlying weakness in the position of the profession itself, and in its method of work, rather than as causes of weakness. If our associations, by and large, are inanimate, incoherent and unrepresentative, if it be true that our neighbors prefer to trust bankers rather than lawyers to settle their estates, if law makers are taking judicial functions away from lawyer-dominated courts and turning them over to lay tribunals, if misconduct by a few shysters can bring a whole profession into public contempt, should we not look deeper to see what keeps us from effective organization, what weakness makes us subject to invasion, why public opinion judges all lawyers by the worst instead of by the best?

Problems of the Federal Tax Bar

The American Bar Association's Committee on Taxation wisely has called those lawyers engaged in tax practice to meet and consider their common problems. In addition to difficulties which vex the general profession, tax practice presents some of its own. Need for a clearing house for the exchange of views, and a voice to speak for the tax bar is so apparent that I hope you may perfect at least a preliminary organization and perhaps a section for the purpose.

Address at the Congressional Country Club

This kindly reception by fellow lawyers in the Federal Service is the more appreciated because so entirely unearned. Such generosity toward the awkwardness of the beginner and charity toward the blunders of the more advanced is a redeeming inward characteristic of our profession, which the layman judges chiefly by its more visible signs of quarrelsomeness and antagonism. None has experienced during professional life greater generosity from fellow members of the bar and none has greater need for the continued grant of their charity than I.

The Lawyer’s New Deal

The time has come for the financially hard pressed legal profession to call upon its Bar Associations to stop lending themselves to clients who want to embarrass or prevent the "New Deal" in government and to seek a "new deal" for lawyers themselves.

Address to Senior Law Students of Georgetown University

I am certainly glad to talk here and to be of such help as I may, if any, to a group of young men who are preparing to take places in the legal profession, a profession which I think offers more opportunity for pioneering and independent thought today than almost any profession to which you might seek admission.

The Bar and the New Deal

The New Deal, as it affects the future of the Bar and the Law Schools, goes beyond the policies of the President and is more than a party slogan or a change of governmental personnel. It is a change in the fundamental relation of the federal government toward the governed, which has come so quickly that we have not recognized its significance.