406
THE GREEN BAG
good. Legitimate combinations are entitled to fair treatment the same as individuals — to equal and exact justice, no more, no less — but if a corporation cannot operate with out bribery or surreptitious violations of law, it were better for the people that it be wiped out of existence. In the early days the lawyer sold his learning alone and re tained his individuality, and be it said to the credit of the profession, that is the rule now. But many eminent attorneys of high est attainments dispose of not only their talents, but their freedom of thought and action. Instead of these being the bulwarks of liberty and the enforcers of laws, they are chiefly engaged in devising means and schemes for evading the laws; they are the advisers of the Captain Kidds of commerce in avoiding the consequences of laws in tended to suppress them. It is no part of a lawyer's business to advise his client how to commit crime nor to become a partner in iniquity. The lawyer who does so ceases to act as such and becomes a co-conspirator. There is no sanctity in such relation and it lacks every essential professional element. If this were not the exception rather than the rule, it would account for the fact that lawyers seem to have lost their proud posi tion of old as mentors of the public con science. Business is a good thing, honors are better still, but patriotism excels them all, and without patriotism one is unworthy to be a member of the legal profession. He is a minister of the law that emanates from city, state, and nation, and can no more practise law in the true spirit without patri otism, than can a divine teach the doctrines of a Christ for whom he has no devotion. One cannot be a good lawyer without be ing honest. Law arid honesty go together, jests to the contrary notwithstanding. Dis honesty will undo a lawyer quicker than it will any one else. They see so much of it in other men they should learn to abhor it. There are fewer lawyers in the penitentiary than any other calling, not excepting min isters of the gospel. This should be a proof
of their honesty, but some are unkind enough to say it is merely a tribute to their shrewdness. In a former House of Dele gates in St. Louis, twenty-four out of twenty-eight members took bribes right and left. None of them were lawyers. Of the four who did not prostitute themselves, three were lawyers. Under the laws of most of the states, only two classes of men are required to be of good moral character — lawyers and saloon keepers. The laws go further and demand that the saloon keeper in addition be a law-abiding citizen, while nothing is said about the lawyer in this re gard. That is taken for granted. If law yers do not uphold the laws, it can hardly be expected that others will. In a monarchy the government is sus tained by the power of the crown; in a re public the government rests entirely upon the laws which a majority of the people make for themselves. If all the laws were ignored, anarchy would be the result — there would be no government at all. When any portion of the laws are not enforced, the government is weakened to that extent. Laws that are not observed add just as much to good government as sores do to the human body. Disregard of one law breeds contempt for all laws, and laws to be effective must be respected. There is en tirely too little respect for the majesty of the laws in America. This inevitably leads to corruption, which will, if tolerated, eat into and destroy civic life. If a dramshop is allowed to remain open at a time the law demands it be closed, then the gambling laws cannot be consistently enforced, then other defenses denounced by the law must be tolerated, then comes grafting by officials for overlooking these violations, then legis lators imbued by the same spirit sell their votes for bribe money, and a reign of cor ruption follows. The perpetuity of our government depends upon the manner in which our laws are carried out. Nearly every state has laws on the statute books to which no attention is paid, and they reap
