CHARACTER INVESTIGATION OF BAR APPLICANTS

getting away from the fundamentals of the profession. The practice of law never was intended to become or take the place of a business but always to Occupy the realm of a profession, and its chief function and importance is not money making but

service.

The fact that the profession is rapidly gravitating towards business naturally attracts to it many who are morally unfit and who soon bring disgrace upon the profession and they land in jail or the penitentiary, or both, or at least ought to be there. I have no patience with the legal thief, the dishonest, shortcutting lawyer.

I am in favor heartily of a committee that shall enter into the moral worth and scrutinize the same carefully of every applicant for admission to the bar.

I am not a member of the Supreme Court, and have never been. I was Referee in the court for six years, which I may probably designate as an unofficial member of the court, as I performed all the duties that the court performed and some beside. I am a member of the District Bench of the 13th Judicial District of Oklahoma, in which is located Oklahoma

County and Oklahoma City.

WYLEY JONES, Judge of the District Court of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Okla.

Tennessee

The Law Student,
Brooklyn, N. Y.

Your letter of November 24th in regard to character investigation of applicants for admission to the bar has been received.

It seems to me that the practice instituted by Chief Justice Marshall of Ohio is excellent. A committee of the applicant's local bar should be able to estimate his fitness for the profession better than any other tribunal of which I can think.

(Continued from page 21)

successfully, he would be en-
titled to his license. In other
words under our laws, the
County Court of the County
in which the applicant resides
is made the judge of his
moral character.

There has been some criti-
cism of this condition of the
law, but it has been found
very difficult to induce the
Legislature to make any fur-
ther changes with respect to
requirements for admission to
the bar.

GRAFTON GREEN,
Chief Justice of Supreme
Court of Tennessee.

Vermont

The Law Student,
Brooklyn, N. Y.

known to any member of the
court our clerk makes diligent
inquiries from the locality
where the applicant has for-
merly practiced or lived. Of
course certificates of good
character and period of prac-
tice are also required, but we
depend most upon our own
investigations.

We think that so far as our
state is concerned our present
method safeguards the stand-
ard of the legal profession
as adequately as any other
method that has come to our
notice.

A. J. VINJE,
Chief Justice of Supreme
Court of Wisconsin.

Idaho

The Law Student,
Dear Sir:

Our Committee, which ex-
amines the law students and
recommends or rejects them
The Board of Commission-
according to their standing,
passes also on the affidavits ers of the Idaho State Bar
of good moral character exercise preliminary supervi-
which the student applying sion over admissions in this
for admission must have. I state under a statute and rules
think this is a rather formal of the supreme court. Form
matter and am impressed of application for admission is
with the good a committee enclosed, as well as copy of
appointed for the special pur- the rules from which you will
pose of passing on character see that some investigation is
and fitness could do. We are made of the character of the
essentially a country people applicant.
and the need of such a com-
mittee is not as great with
us as in states where there
are large cities, but at the
same time I feel we may have
been too easy in the past. It
is very important that the
ranks of the profession shall
be kept free from undesir-
able members and the time
to see to this is in the be-
ginning.

FRANK L. FISH, Associate Justice of Supreme Court of Vermont.

Wisconsin

The Law Student,
Brooklyn, N. Y.

Replying to your letter of
the 24th inst. relative to the
character investigation in our
state of applicants to the bar
I submit this statement.

It is expected shortly to
amend the rules so as to re-
quire a more strict showing
as to character and probably
further investigation by the
board before permission to
take examination is granted.

SAM S. GRIFFIN,
Secretary Board of Commis-
sioners, Idaho State
Boise, Idaho.

Bar,

New Brunswick Educational Requirements In The Law Student for October 1st, we erroneously stated that New Brunswick by way of general education for admission to the bar requires less than a high school education.

We take pleasure in correct-
ing this statement inasmuch
as the standard required in
There are only three ways New Brunswick is the equiva-
in which admission to the lent of two years at some rec-
bar is made (1) by graduat-ognized college.
ing from our state law school

a three years' course; (2) by passing the examination held by the Board of Law Examiners appointed by the Supreme Court; and (3) by admission of foreign attorneys.

In Tennessee, admission to the bar is regulated_by_statute. We have a State Board of Law Examiners, functioning under the supervision of the Supreme Court, who pass on the legal attainments of the applicants. Section 5776, The faculty of the law Thompson's-Shannon's Code, school have ample opportunhowever, provides that "The ity and are capable of judgapplicant for license a to ing the character qualificapractice law in the Courts of tions of students under their this State, shall produce the instruction and observation certificate of the County Court for three years. of the County where he has usually resided, that he has attained the age of twentyone years, and is a man of good reputation." Having obtained such a certificate from his County Court, under our Statutes, the Board of Law Examiners would be required to examine the applicant. If he passes the examination

The Board of Law Examiners are required to and do make thorough investigation as to the character of applicants for examination.

Foreign attorneys, seeking admission as such, must file their application at least 60 days before it is acted upon and in cases of any doubt or where the applicant is not

Revision of the existi laws so as to permit Japan law is that it serves as an Another attraction of the women to practice as att neys is proposed by the le avenue of approach to numer- investigation committee of ous occupations. It is quite Japan Bar Association, a natural step for a lawyer to will be submitted to the G And a place for himself in of the Diet for approval. go into political life, or to ernment and the next sess some corporate organization. In fact, it is rare to find any business organization of any magnitude which does not include a lawyer in its per

sonnel.

The law is one of the chief
bulwarks of individualism. If
one has difficulty in adjusting
himself to co-operative effort,
if one wishes to avoid the
problems and vexations inci-
dent to the handling of a
large force of employes, if
one does not care to stock his
shelves with goods subject to
deterioration, but instead have
within himself the accumula-
tion of his efforts so that he
reaches his prime at a time
are being
when other men
discarded for inefficiency-for
such a man the law stands
an invitation
preeminently as

for individual effort.

In conclusion, let me ex-
press the hope that these
ideas may serve as a question-
naire for self-examination to
those who have not yet de-
termined on their life work,
and as a stimulus for intelli-
gent action to those entering
the profession.

PEPPER
AND SALT

A Professor on the Casebook Collateral
Review Series

The American Law Book Co.,
Brooklyn, N. Y.

Dear Sirs:

I am in receipt of your references to the Corpus
Juris-Cyc System for use in connection with Hinton's
Cases on Evidence and Lorenzen's Cases on Conflict
of Laws.

I believe that you have hit on a very happy idea,
both from the standpoint of inducing professors to
bring your works to the attention of their students and
as a matter of assistance to the law teaching profession.
I believe that such references will be particularly use-
ful in connection with practice courses, as practice mat-
tesave to be looked up under so many substantive law
titles. If you carry the idea farther, I hope that you
I will not overlook Scott's Cases on Civil Procedure.
Yours very truly,

JOSEPH M. CORMACK,
Professor of Law, Emory University, Emory, Ga.

THIS COMPLETE, COMPACT, AND UP-TO-DATE LAW LIBRARY IS THE MOST ESSENTIAL PURCHASE A LAW STUDENT CAN MAKE

It Comprises

The only complete
Textbook Library,

and the best

Compilation and

Statement

of the Law

of your own State,

of the other States, and of

the Federal

Courts, with citations of

All Authorities

and Boundless

Quotations

from the Cases

Quoted and Cited

by the Highest

Courts; more

than 250,000

times

It Gives

Every Rule

of Law,

followed by

This coupon will bring you the particulars of our easy term offer to Law Students.

Please mail me your Special Offer on Corpus Juris-
Cyc open to Law Students only.

Name

Address....

Give name of your school..

L. S. 1-1-27.

and Maxims

1c. Paid Brooklyn, N. Y. Permit No. 358

Mr.Marion Rice Kirkwood, % Law Sch.

Stanford Univ, Calif.

THIS

BOOK

WILL

HELP YOU

PASS THE

BAR

EXAMINATION

500 Actual State Bar Examination Questions,
Taken from Recent Examination Papers, with
References to the Corpus Juris-Cyc System for
Full and Accurate Answers.

RICHARD L. MONTAIGNE

REAL ESTATE

51 CHAMBERS STREET

NEW YORK

Cases on Code Pleading, Cases on the Law of Adby Archibald H. Throckmor- miralty, by George de Forest ton, Professor of Law in Lord, of the New York Bar, Western Reserve University, Special Lecturer in Admiralty v and 899 pages (American Law, Columbia University Casebook Series)-West Pub- Law School, and George C. lishing Company, St. Paul, Sprague, of the New York Minn., 1926. Bar, Assistant Professor of This selection of cases and Law School, vii and 837 pages Law, New York University other material provides a practical work for the study West Publishing Company, (American Casebook Series) of the system of code plead- St. Paul, Minn., 1926. ing first adopted in New York in 1848 and now in use in have both taught the subject The editors of this work about thirty states. The text of the codes of the more imto law students and have portant jurisdictions has been practiced at the Admiralty Bar. It embraces extensive reproduced, and the recently adopted New York Civil annotations covering most of Practice Act is included. the questions of admiralty law arising in any practice-this book of value to practitionwith a view to making the ers. Cases relating to admiralty procedure have not been included on account of limitations of space.

BOOK REVIEWS Every effort has been made
to keep the ook in suitable
compass for use in schools
where about seventy-two
hours are devoted to code
pleading.

Brief Making and the Use of Law Books, by Roger W. Cooley, Professor of Law, University of North Dakota, iii and 1092 pages-West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minn., 1926.

The fifth edition of this well-known work is in six

parts, the first on where to OUTLINES for REVIEW

find the law, the second on
how to find the law, the third
on the use of decisions and
statutes, the fourth on the
trial brief, the fifth on the
brief on appeal, and the sixth
an appendix containing a spe-
cimen brief on appeal, a list
of American Reports, a list
of English Reports, a list of
forth.
citation books, digests, and so

The student who will sup

plement his school work by a

careful study of this book,
whether in connection with a
course on the subject or not,
will do much to assist himself
and render successful his sub-
sequent career at the bar.

$200

No. 1

FIRST BOOK OF
BAR QUESTIONS
$200

No. 2

UNITED STATES No. 3

CONSTITUTION ANNOTATED

$200

THE COLLEGIATE
LAW DICTIONARY
$300

TAKE ADVANTAGE

OF

THESE

SPECIAL

OFFERS

No. 4

MONEY SPENT IN BUYING USEFUL

BOOKS IS NEVER WASTED

In my preparation for the bar examination of this State, I used your ing Company, St. Paul, Minn., No. 4 and any two of numbers 1, 2 or 3.... 6.50 book Series)-West Publish- No. 4 and any one of numbers 1, 2 or 3... 4.75

You are invited to take advantage of these offers changes gradually introduced and to fill in the order blank below, mailing it to us into the system of equity with your check or money order. pleading in order to cope with more modern conditions, also the radical departures in the Federal Courts resulting from the adoption of the Federal Equity Rules of 1912. Nevertheless, the author in his preface acknowledges obligation to the treatises of Story and Daniell as well as other authors mentioned in the footnotes, particularly Professor Shipman. author of the old Hornbook on Equity Pleading.

The volume serves to modernize the Hornbook Series in an important subject.

Send me the following books, for which I inclose (or send C. O. D.):

Name
Address

If student, state law school or office.

L. S. 1-1-27

Chairman of the Ohio Board of Bar Examiners

[Editor's note: We publish here- libraries. The works in those

the

with in full report to the Supreme Court of Ohio submitted by Willis Bacon, Chairman of the Ohio Board of Bar Examiners, on the test in legal research given to applicants for admission to the bar at the examination in Memorial Hall, Columbus, Ohio, December 7th and 8th last. This report speaks for itself, both as regards the success of mechanical details involved in giving the test to a large number of applicants, and in regard to the intrinsic merits of such a test in connection with the bar examination. The Law Student feels that it is privileged to make public this splendid report, which in fact marks a new and important development in legal education and preparation for admission to the bar. Mr. Bacon is to be congratulated upon his report, as all our readers will realize when they have finished its perusal. We desire in this place to acknowledge our sense of obligation to Mr. Bacon, who, pursuant to his duty and desire to forward the best interests of the public and legal profession in Ohio and elsewhere, undertook and has successfully carried through to a conclusion the burden of giving this particular examination, of grading the papers, and of reporting thereon to the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Accompanying Mr. Bacon's report to the Court were certain photostatic copies of specimen briefs submitted

libraries were the:

Ohio General Code,
Ohio Digest,

Corpus Juris CYC Sys-
tem,

Northeastern Re-
porter Digest,
Ruling Case Law,

L. R. A. Digest and
A. L. R. Digest.

The space in each alcove or
library occupied by the above
works consisted of only two
stacks of Wernicke cases six
tiers high. There was placed
in each library two volumes
of the Quick Search Manual
of the Corpus Juris CYC Sys-
tem. Some results of close
observation of these students
working will be referred to
farther along herein.

(Continued page 14, col. 3)

on the examination. We regret our Kansas Will Examine in

inability, on account of limitations of
space, to publish these briefs.
are extremely interesting.]

Supreme Court of Ohio,
Capitol Building,
Columbus,
Ohio.

Gentlemen:

NATION.

They

By authority of your court, the committee gave an examination in research work to the 293 applicants for admission to the bar on December 7th and 8th, 1926. The particular part of the work of this examination was placed in charge of the undersigned.

Research

in June

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 24 pages

CHARLES SEYMOUR WHITMAN

Charles Seymour Whitman, President of the American Bar Association, was born August 28th, 1868, at Hanover, ConLaw Examiners to Give Test necticut. He graduated from Amherst College in 1890 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and studied law at the New York University Law School, from which he graduated in 1894 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He received the degree of Master of Arts from Williams College in 1904, and has received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Amherst College, New York University, Williams College, Hamilton College, Syracuse University, and Western Reserve University.

We have just been advised by the State Board of Law Examiners of Kansas, through RE: EXPERIMENT OF Dean H. W. Arant of the UniRESEARCH TEST versity of Kansas School of AT THE DECEM- Law, that it has been decided BER BAR EXAMI- by unanimous vote of the examiners to give a test in legal research or the use of law books at the next law or bar examination in that state to be held in June. We have been informed only of the mere fact that the examination will be given, and are not in position to outline any details. We presume, however, that the test will be conducted along the lines tried out early in De- Mr. Whitman is a member of the New York City. County cember in Ohio by the Board and State Bar Associations, also of the American Bar Assothere under the chairmanship ciation. He has represented his state on the General Council of Colonel Willis Bacon, whose of the latter Association, and for the past three years was report appears in this issue. on its Executive Committee. He has been a member and This report was in the hands chairman of the Association's Special Committee on Law Enof the Kansas Examiners forcement. when they took the matter up for consideration.

After his admission to the bar in 1894, Mr. Whitman began the practice of law in New York City, and became active in civic and political affairs. He was assistant corporation counsel for the city under Mayor Seth Low, and was city magistrate from 1904 through 1907.

Governor Charles E. Hughes appointed him judge of the Court of General Sessions in 1907, and in 1909 he was the Anti-Tammany candidate for District Attorney of New York County. In 1913 he was reelected District Attorney with the endorsement of both the Republican and Democratic organizations.

As stated by the court, this examination was mainly for the purpose of experimenting to find out whether or not it was physically possible to put on such an examination to a large class in connection with the regular examination and within the same time; and also to determine what ability if any in the line of research, it showed.

Any further information regarding this test in Kansas which we are authorized by the Examiners to publish will be given in this space in fol

For a class of 293, there were arranged five alcoves of books with five research lowing issues.

In 1914 he was elected Governor of New York and reelected in 1916. In 1918, on the expiration of his second term, he returned to the practice of law, which he has since followed.

Mr. Whitman is a member of the University, Metropolitan,
Union League, Century, City, Army and Navy, Bankers',
Downtown, National Republican, Republican, Amherst,
Sleepy Hollow, and Newport Country Clubs, and of the
Masons, Elks, the Order of the Cincinnati Sons of the Revo-
lution, Sons of the American Revolution, Colonial Wars, St.
Nicholas Society, New England Society, and the New York
Society of Military and Naval Officers of the World War,
and is a member of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity.

FEBRUARY 15, 1927

NEWS OF THE
SCHOOLS

Brooklyn Law School

Brooklyn, N. Y.

Vice Dean John H. Easterday, of the Brooklyn Law School, is planning to devote a portion of his present sabbatical year's leave of absence to a trip to California in the southwest, where he expects to visit a number of the law schools in that vicinity. Mr. Easterday has now completed his three volume case book on the law of Real Property, which will be used hereafter in all the courses in Real Property in the Brooklyn Law School. The case book emphasizes primarily the law of Real Property in the state of New York.

Professor Leon G. Godley, in addition to his work connected Iwith the Transit Commission in New York City, of which he is a member, has found time to publish an "Outline of Equity" to accompany the case book used in the course in Equity in Brooklyn Law School.

New Jersey Law School

Newark, N. J. Beginning with 1927 New Jersey Law School will require, as a condition of admission, at least one year of previous successful study in a college, or its equivalent, and beginning September, 1928, two years of previous successful study in a college or its equivalent.

Both the first and second year of college work will be given by New Jersey Law School. The first year of college work which will meet the entrance requirements for 1927 is given beginning February 2, 1927, and continuing until September, 1927. The second year of college work is being given for the first time beginning February 2, 1927, and will continue to September, 1928. cludes Alden G. Alley, A.B., The prelegal faculty inA.M. (Harvard), Professor of History; John E. Bebout, A.B. (Rutgers), Professor of Government: Rajaran V. Gogate, A.B., A.M. (University of California), Ed.M. Professor of Philosophy: Fred(Harvard), erick H. Groel, A.B. (Princeton), LL.B. (Harvard), Instructor in Public Speaking: George S. Harris, A.B. (University of Vermont), LL.B. (New Jersey Law School), Professor of Law: Stephen DeWitt Stephens. A.B., A.M. (Wisconsin), Ed.M. (Harvard), Professor of English; Eugene Greider, A.B. (Har(Continued page 6, col, 1)

DON'T WEAKEN NOW.