Collections

Functions of the Trust Company in the Field of Law

What has happened to those whom Woodrow Wilson called the "dwindling body of general practitioners, who used to be our statesmen"? A generation ago a lawyer was identified with the family fortunes, counseled the indiscreet youth, approved title to the new home that came with manhood, drew the articles of co-partnership or incorporation when a shop or store was acquired, collected the business accounts, drew the Will, handled settlement of the estate and then started over the same road with another generation.

Advocacy as a Specialized Career

Proposals of higher educational qualifications for admission to the bar bring out a sharp divergence of opinion between the metropolitan bar and sections of the upstate bar. The country lawyer does not appreciate the gravity of the evils that have developed in city practice, and the city bar cannot understand the rural lawyer's resistance to higher standards.

Financial Monopoly: The Road to Socialism

President Roosevelt, in his message of April 29, 1938, called the attention of the Congress to a growing concentration in this country of private economic power, without equal in history. He said that this concentration is seriously impairing the economic effectiveness of private enterprise as a way of providing employment for labor and capital and as a way of assuring a more equitable distribution of income and earnings among the people of the nation as a whole.

The Supreme Court and Interstate Barriers

These concise words have been a source of almost continuous litigation and vexation for the Supreme Court. The clause has been the focus of many of the most important conflicts between federal power and states' rights. It forms the warp into which theoreticians have woven strange designs of laissez faire and patterns to separate acts of commerce from antecedents such as production or mining and from subsequent acts such as distribution.

Is Our Constitutional Government in Danger?

The Constitution of the United States, as written by our forefathers and ratified by the people themselves, is not beyond the understanding of the average citizen. In simple language it sets up a skeleton government, sketches its powers and limitations in a few great clauses, and in ten short amendments declares those fundamental rights which make up our freedom. It does not use technical terms, and it is all contained in about 4.500 words. Such brevity proves that it is not a mere lawyer's document. I urge you to study it.

Product of the Present Day Law School

A canny old lawyer friend of mine made a practice of trying to explain his most complex legal problems to some intelligent- and, of course, patient- layman. He said he wanted to test his expert judgments by getting the reactions of an untrained mind.

Problem of the Administrative Process

There has been one disappointment in connection with my coming here. I had hoped that I would be able to bring with me and deliver the commission to Ryan Duffy as judge of the district court of the United States. (Applause) It would have been a great pleasure had the senate moved fast enough so that that could have been done. Those are minor disappointments, for I know the commission will arrive by mail in due time, and that while I will be denied the satisfaction of being present when he takes the oath, many of the rest of you will have that pleasure.

Maryland at the Supreme Court Bar

So I shall ask you to bear with us while we indulge our lawyerly trait of discussing law suits. We shall prefer to discuss our own rather than to discuss those which some other men may have tried. In studying constitutional issues in the Supreme Court I became vaguely aware that Maryland has been one of the most frequent of its litigants and had participated in some of the most significant cases which have shaped our constitutional doctrine. I have taken this occasion to review the Supreme Court annals to see how well, by its record in litigation, Maryland has vindicated its designation as "The Free State".

Progress in Federal Judicial Administration

We have heard much discussion about the declining of prestige of the bar, and about the proper place of the lawyer in the leadership of his community, state, and nation. But there can be no denial that it is the duty of the lawyers to lead in affairs affecting the courts of the land. The lawyer is peculiarly qualified to judge their work and to deal out criticism where it is due- and to do it with fairness.

Striking at the Roots of Crime

This evening's meeting is called under most appropriate leadership. Your Presiding Officer (Mrs. Roosevelt) has not only evidenced a desire to improve the lot of her fellow citizens but also a long established interest in improving the methods of correcting their delinquencies. Few of you realize, I suspect, that Mrs. Roosevelt has probably visited personally as many prisons as any woman in America.