Conservatism in Legal Procedure

not too far exceed the expense of a law suit. Arbitration has its limitations and they are soon reached. In some cases involving expert knowledge or an expe dition not possible to courts under any circumstances, it may serve a good use, but for the controversies usually arising among men, far better is a tribunal appointed for the purpose by the public law and disciplined by the responsibility which the function of judgment imposes upon those who exercise it. Baneful in fluences of every kind will find more scope in arbitration than in judicial decision. The sphere of our courts should be broadened rather than narrowed, but lawyers themselves recognize a different tendency. The trial lawyer, it is said, even in the profession is losing his sig nificance, supplanted by the counsellor who is skilled rather to keep his client out of court than to guide him success fully through. And how many mem bers of the profession are there who would not be quick to disclaim that they are criminal lawyers, and are there not some even to resent the designation as a term of reproach? And yet what higher or nobler part can the lawyer perform than to ascertain and bring to justice those guilty of crime and to vin dicate those who are wrongfully accused? In some measure at least the loss of caste is due to the archaic methods of criminal procedure, which too often direct the endeavors of counsel to matters which have no relation to the justice of the cause and promise success not be cause of proof or presumption of inno cence, but because of the slip of a pen or the oversight of a copyreader. St. Louis, Mo.

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Ours is a government of law, admin istered largely by lawyers. They have not only engrossed the judiciary, but have dominated in the legislative halls and in the higher executive offices. They have been the leaders of public opinion and foremost in shaping public action. The constitutions of the states and the United States, the enactments of Con gress and the legislatures are their handiwork. Of their record in the politi cal history of the country they have no occasion to be ashamed. But they, like all others, find self-discipline a difficult task and are reluctant to attempt a reform of their own methods. They very naturally cherish the knowledge of their craft and the methods which they have acquired the skill to use. But change must come, and lawyers are best fitted by their experience to bring it about. They see the defects and know the remedy. They inaugurated the work sixty years ago, and they should lead in the efforts for its completion. The American Bar Association at its last session committed itself to the task. The state of Oklahoma, as the newest state of the Union, is least hampered by the old traditions. The lawyers of this state, drawn as they are from every state of the Union, and from the original sons of the soil, in developing their jurisprudence should make its methods so simple that the way to the temple of justice will be a straight and a plain path, in which there are no snares for the unwary and from which no suitor is turned back, save from the altar itself after he has been fully heard and his cause has been decided accord ing to the Truth and the Right.