United States? Shall our judiciary turn its ear to listen to the sound of socialistic whisperings? If so, a new Constitution is born, the Philosophy of the Law is swept away. Our property rights will cease; the right of the sacredness of contract will soon disappear; liberty will be at the dictates of the mob, and the fundamentals of our Constitution are wrecked.

Are we to take the great businesses of this country and control, regulate and direct them by governmental commissions, boards and bureaus, and sap the initiative and genius of our business men that has made the economic growth of this country the marvel of the world? If we do, we will make impotent our business structure, and there is, to my mind, no greater danger today than this tendency; and if it continues to be unrestrained it will throttle competition, and this withering hand of regulation, direction and control will lead to our economic destruction. When you stop as thoughtful men to consider this, you will find that the atmosphere of these later-day regulatory commissions, boards and bureaus has done more to undermine the philosophy of Marshall than perhaps any other one agency.

We have seen that our Constitution was made a living organism by Marshall through the application of the Philosophy of the Law; we have seen that the governmental functions were for more than a half century kept in balance, and we have seen arise from this structure the greatest of Republics. If we are departing from these fundamental principles, through judicial decisions, through an unbalancing of control, or through governmental regulation, let's stop and go back to the philosophy of our fathers!

REPORT OF THE
CENTRAL COUNCIL

Z. T. RUDULPH, Chairman

OF BIRMINGHAM

Birmingham, Ala., April 29, 1921.

Mr. President and Members of the Alabama State Bar Association:

During the past few years it has been particularly the customary and expected for committees such as your Central Council, charged with the duty of upholding the Ethics and punishing the misconduct of its members, to present some sensation, but on the contrary your committee reports that Alabama lawyers have been during the past year, particularly good, ethical and law abiding, as there have been only three complaints filed with your Chairman during the last twelve months and none of these was of a serious nature, involving more the carelessness of a collector or the over-zealousness of a young lawyer, than any actual or intentional wrong or offense.

In each of these cases, following the established custom of the Council, the Chairman advised the alleged delinquent of the complaint against him and in each case was later advised that the matter had been satisfactorily adjusted without undue humiliation or publicity.

Judging by the past year, certainly the Morals and Ethics of our profession are steadily improving and it is confidently hoped that it will so continue, as lawyers become individually more impressed with our duty to our clients and the public, as well as, obligations to ourselves and our profession.

Respectfully submitted,

Z. T. RUDULPH, Chairman.

L. M. MOSELEY

OF UNION SPRINGS

THE INFLUENCE OF THE BAR

An Attorney-At-Law is defined as "an officer in a court of justice, who is employed by a party in a cause to manage the same for him." A lawyer is defined as "one skilled in law." These terms are used synonymously. Attorneys or lawyers, engaged in the practice of law, constitute the Bar as contra-distinguished from the Bench. An attorney is not regarded as a public officer, like the Governor or a Judge, but is an officer of the court, acting under a license, In a manner, he is said to be an officer of the State, but is not subject to the electorate or the appointing power. He holds his privilege for an indeterminate period, during good behavior. Only persons of good moral character are supposed to be admitted to the Bar. Piety is not a requisite for admission to practice as an attorney-at-law, but common honesty is included in the requirement of a good moral character. These conditions are laid down because it is the duty of an attorney-at-law to aid the courts in seeing that actions and proceedings are conducted with dignity and order, and that all causes brought to an issue are tried and decided on their merits only, and that justice shall prevail.

All lawyers, upon admission to the Bar, are sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws of the State. Nearly all of the recorded anecdotes, handed down through time, having reference to lawyers, impeach their integrity, or direct at them the charges of graft, rapacity or greed. It is alleged that the public mind is filled with a distrust of lawyers, and sometimes we hear the remark that a certain man is too honest to be a lawyer, and young aspirants to the Bar are frequently impressed with the idea that an

honorable man cannot conscientiously engage in the practice of law. It is a regrettable fact that a great many lawyers aid in the creation of these views by thoughtless and careless conversation. They proclaim from the housetops the frauds and sharp 'practices of some attorneys at the Bar, but fail to give credit to those of the profession who have honor and character. It is true that we find among us those who deviate from the paths of rectitude, but, in proportion to numbers, lawyers as a class are as high-minded and as faithful to the ideals of their profession as men in any other calling or walk of life. Lawyers as a general rule abide by the laws of their country, seek the right and uphold the standards of justice. The profession of the law calls for the highest intellectual effort, the most universal mental attainments, and the clearest perception of right and wrong. In fact, this is more clearly true with respect to the legal profession than to that of any other profession, calling or business engaged in by men. Then it behooves us to uphold the dignity of our profession, and to change, if need be, the current of public opinion.

Public opinion is not as deeply scornful of our profession as many reformers would indicate by their theses, but on the contrary, lawyers as a class are held in the highest respect and esteem. When a stranger informs a man that he is a lawyer, the attitude of that man as a general rule, shows instantly a keener attention and a greater consideration of him than before the information was given. Lawyers have a social status in every country, which is equal to or superior to that of men engaged in any other useful occupation. We should feel proud of our profession, seek to advance it and make it influential for the creation of high ideals and the betterment of mankind.

On account of their peculiar status, lawyers are naturally adapted to influence public opinion and bring about reforms in practical politics and democratic government. The whole history of liberty bears the impress of the Bar,

and nothing is so inspiring to lawyers as a study of the development of the law with its revelation of the higher impulses that dominate the human race. The institutions of government throughout the world, which are known. as democratic, have been put into operation through the intelligence and work of lawyers. They have written into our constitutions, statutes and decisions of our courts those principles which have become the established thought of the world, and so expressed, have become the constituted government under which we live. All the institutions which now stand for the protection of the common people and which present the highest ideas of politics are the result of their labors. The influence of the Bar today should be felt in every struggle for the establishment of the laws of our State and Country. It is charged that we are too conservative, too much controlled by precedents to move with the tide of progress, and that we oppose those things which make for the greater liberty of the masses. It is said that our habits of thought are too critical and that we retard the current of political efforts to correct the conditions which work injustice and oppression. All political platforms finally resolve themselves into questions of law, and, if endorsed by the people at the polls, they are reduced to concrete form by skilled lawyers. Politicians propose remedies for existing evils, but these are finally submitted to the cold reason of intelligent lawyers before being made effective by the adoption of statutes. The marvelous development of our country, the complicated forms assumed by business, the stupendous investment and operation of capital in the development of great business enterprises has called for the unremitting toil of thousands of brilliant and brainy lawyers. The days of great lawyers, like Webster and Calhoun, who debated the great questions presented by the Constitution of the United States, and which arose in the settlement of the fundamental principles of our government, belong to the past, and today the brains of the legal profession are almost wholly