Norvelle R. Leigh, Jr., Ex. Off., Chairman Mobile Joe M. Pelham, Jr.. Chatom CHARACTER AND FITNESS Norvelle R. Leigh, Jr., Ex. Off., Chairman C. H. Young. W. B. Harrison Mobile Anniston Birmingham GRIEVANCE Norvelle R. Leigh, Jr., Ex. Off., Chairman Bernard Harwood. C. H. Young... J. Render Thomas. A. J. Harris. Mobile Tuscaloosa Anniston Montgomery Decatur PROCEEDINGS Meeting of the Alabama State Bar Held at Montgomery, Alabama July 1st and 2nd, 1927 FRIDAY, JULY 1, 1927 Meeting called to order by President Leigh. President Leigh: Gentlemen of the State Bar of Alabama, it is appropriate, even more needful, that we begin our deliberations with prayer, and I ask that all of you stand while Dr. J. V. Carson, Pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church, of Montgomery, leads us in prayer. Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the background of the law under which we live. We thank Thee for its fine origin. We thank Thee for the success with which it has been administered through all the centuries since it was given from Mount Sinai. We thank Thee for the conscious efforts that have been made by hundreds and thousands of legislatures in this beloved country of ours to build upon that foundation a superstructure that would stand the strain of stress of all time. We recognize the fact that the temple of liberty and justice which we have followed is far from a perfect one; yet we believe it is the best that the world has ever produced. We pray Thee, therefore, that in all such conventions and assemblies as this, we may be striving toward better days; striving toward the time when there will be less illusionment in the administration of justice; striving toward less loopholes in our law, less delays, and less of those things that allow the shyster to make capital of them; that Thou wilt give us, our Father, a greater appreciation of the difference between right and wrong fundamentally, and enable us so to work out the plan of our machinery as to have justice the one goal that we strive for, that justice and righteousness may be dealt impartially to all the people. Bless, we pray Thee, these men; bless the homes from which they have come. Watch over carefully and tenderly any who may be sick in those homes, to those whom they look after, love and support, and at last take us into that great family of the redeemed around the Father's hearthstone. For Jesus sake we pray. Amen. President Leigh: Gentlemen, there is no city in the State in which the lawyer takes more pride than the City of Montgomery. It is here that he comes before the appellate courts, before the meetings of the sessions of the Legislature, and to attend political conventions in which the welfare of our State is involved, and every time we visit this city we are accorded a hearty welcome. It is our good fortune this afternoon to have the President of the local Bar Association, Honorable Eugene Ballard, to welcome us on behalf of the Montgomery Bar and the citizens of the city, and he will now address you. (Applause). Mr. Ballard: Mr. President and gentlemen of the Alabama Bar Association, I don't know what to say on an occasion such as this, except that we are indeed delighted to have you. We feel honored to have you, and we welcome you for what you are. You make the law in Alabama, or have largely to do with it. You construe the law absolutely, and necessarily, without question, without your aid the law cannot be executed. So I address and welcome a group of men who should not only feel the importance of the profession to which you have given your lives, but you should also feel, as I know you do, honored by the position you occupy in our great State. Now, we welcome you, my friends, not alone to the City of Montgomery, but to the community in and around Montgomery. We welcome you to our hearts and our homes. Our Bar has no pocket books. If we did, we would welcome you to our pocket books. Our clients, as doubtless many of yours, did not go West, but went to Florida to help drain the Everglades, as I understand it, and pretty well got drained themselves. But we are back home now, and Montgomery is a city of homes. We take pride in that, and we are back home from Florida struggling to pay off the mortgage that we put on the home to help in Florida, and when you come next year, as you must come, we are satisfied that every |