Memorandum in re Corpus juris by philosophy and logic cannot result from a mere quest for profits. The condition may justify the application of the homely expres sion of the humorist. Josh Billings, that ‘Poetry writ for bread is apt to taste of the emptyings.‘"
11.
ment
A
Ioundation
81 for
of Jurisprudence.
the
Advance
There
is
no
plan whereby the “perils of commer cialism" can be avoided but by the work
being brought out on a Foundation of jurisprudence established by some man
He also remarks :— “Some such plan as you offer must without great delay be adopted and be consummated, or the profession and the country alike will be lost in the increasing and bewildering mazes of legal pronouncements. “ Your plan certainly is ideal, and I trust also that it is practical, though for its realiza tion it depends upon the provision of a very con siderable foundation. It cannot be imagined that years of service of the highest order can be obtained from professional men of the first rank without remuneration sufl'icient to induce their continued and undivided atten tion until the completion of the great work. Upon completion, an authoritative and com prehensive work of such value to the public and the profession, in my judgment, would com mand a prompt and abundant return, sufiicient to reimburse the most ample foundation." And adds : “Lawyers as a class are poor, and it would be difi'icult, if not impracticable, within a
reasonable period to raise from them the sum, at least $500,000, necessary for the achieve ment of this result, which, as I have observed,
is not more important to the profession than it is to the vastly greater public.”
Again he says :— "This work . . . is so sorely needed that if adequately endowed its preparation would enlist the services and support of students of the law whose pre-erninence would be con ceded by all."
of large means anxious and able to use part of his wealth in benefiting man kind; or by such a man advancing the necessary funds to proper trustees under
an agreement to refund the same from the proceeds of sales, for unless the money is in hand to remunerate the right sort of writers, and to warrant con
tracts being entered into with them it
will be impossible to secure and co ordinate their services. That this great and necessary work has never been accomplished, notwith standing the fact that Bench and Bar alike have been and are floundering in the mazes of unorganized, unsystema tized and often conflicting rules and decisions, is for the very simple reason that individual workers, acting inde pendently, can make no appreciable im pression upon the "mountainous mass,"
and no practicable plan for effective co-ordination of the best effort of the profession has ever before been pre sented.
The Call of the Future.
There is
so much that can be done and ought to be done in the field of jurispru
dence in order to perfect and per petuate our juridical system, the great
He further declares :— "It is inconceivable that any department of research can involve such beneficial consequences as would the collection, the revision and the statement in logical and philosophical order of the whole body of the laws governing the rights of persons and property."
And Chief Justice McClain of Iowa asserts : “Some foundation provided for the purpose would be in furtherance of one of the deepest interests of humanity and civilized government."
vital force in our civilization, that it is almost inconceivable but that (if the
situation could be presented to some wealthy philanthropist so that he would realize its full significance, the great need and far reaching and permanent
eflects upon the administration of ]us tice throughout the nation and the world) he would consider that no greater opportunity could possibly present itself,
whereby to do a lasting good to a nation
