PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

SIXTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

OF THE

Maryland State Bar Association

HELD AT

CAPE MAY HOTEL, CAPE MAY, NEW JERSEY

JUNE 29th, 30th and JULY 1st, 1911

MORNING SESSION.

The first session was called to order at 10 o'clock A. M., June 29, 1911, the President, William L. Marbury, being in the chair.

The President: I think we will vary the programme slightly by calling for the reports of two of the committees, which I am sure will be very brief, before proceeding with the President's annual address.

The first is the Committee on Admissions, of which Mr. Arthur L. Jackson is chairman.

Arthur L. Jackson: The Committee on Admissions submit the following report:

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ADMISSIONS.

To the Maryland State Bar Association:

Your committee reports that since the last annual meeting of the association it has acted on the following applications

for membership to the Association and they have been duly elected by the Executive Council:

W. Howard Hamilton, Raymond L. Williams, William L. Rawls, Walter L. Clark, Frank P. Schraeder, Eldridge Hood Young, Jesse Slingluff, Duke Bond, of Baltimore City; J. Howard Fox, of Towson; R. Groome Parks, of Chestertown; L. Atwood Bennett, of Salisbury; Charles Benedict Calvert, of Prince George's county; Robert B. Peter, Thomas Dawson, Albert M. Bouic, J. Dawson Williams and Preston B. Ray, of Rockville, Montgomery county; T. Van Claggett, of Upper Marlboro; J. Enos Ray, Jr., of Chillum; Frank M. Stephen, of Riverdale; T. Howard Duckett, of Bladensburg.

Your committee further reports that since the last meeting of the Executive Council it has received the following applications for membership in the Association and the same have received the endorsement of this committee:

Gist Blair, of Montgomery county; Clarence C. Foreman, of Baltimore county; James G. Boss, Jr., of Laurel, Prince George's county; John F. Mudd, of Charles county; Robert E. Lee Smith, of Rockville, Montgomery county.

Respectfully submitted,

ARTHUR L. JACKSON,

Chairman..

I move that Messrs. Gist Blair, of Montgomery county, Clarence Forman, of Baltimore county, James T. Boss, Jr., and John F. Mudd be elected members of the Association.

James U. Dennis: Robert E. Lee Smith, of Rockville, Montgomery county, has been suggested as a member of this Association, and I ask that he be included in the report of the Committee on Admissions.

Mr. Jackson: The Committee will accept the amendment and include the name of Mr. Smith in the report.

It was regularly moved and seconded that the report of the Committee as amended be accepted, and, on the vote being taken, it was declared carried.

The President: The next in order will be the report of the Secretary.

James W. Chapman, Jr.: The Secretary submits the following report:

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.

Mr. President:

Since the last annual session of this Association I have prepared for publication and issued to the membership the Report of the Annual Session of 1910.

The Association now has a membership of 543, being an increase of 21 over the number of last year.

I have endeavored to fully perform all other duties incumbent upon the Secretary.

JAMES W. CHAPMAN, JR.,

Secretary.

Thomas Foley Hisky: I move that it be accepted with thanks. The motion was seconded, and, after vote, declared carried.

The President: I understand, ladies and gentlemen, that it is one of the duties of the President of this Association to deliver what is called an annual address, and that it is one of the high prerogatives of the office of President to select as the subject of that address anything that he pleases and without much regard to the question of whether it pleases the Association or not.

In the exercise of that high privilege, the subject, concerning which I shall submit a few remarks this morning, is one suggested to me several years ago when I was called upon-in fact, I was not called upon, but I was

ordered at one of the annual dinners of the Bar Association of Baltimore City to speak to the toast entitled "The Lawyer of Fifty Years Ago and the Lawyer of Today," it being intended, of course, that a comparison should be made between the two.

I attempted to deal with that subject on that occasion, but I have always entertained a suspicion that what I said on that post prandial occasion did not altogether exhaust the subject, whatever may have happened to the audience, and it occurred to me that this meeting would be a fitting opportunity to proceed a little further with the same topic.

The question which, with your kind indulgence, I desire to briefly consider this morning, is something like this: Does the lawyer of today, the typical American lawyer, occupy as high a place in the respect and confidence of the community, does he command as great an influence in the affairs of the American people, as did the lawyer of fifty years ago? If he does not, if in any respect the influence and prestige of the bar has declined since fifty years ago, what is the cause thereof, and in what way can it be remedied?

THE LAWYER OF FIFTY YEARS AGO
AND THE LAWYER OF TODAY.

ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT.

Gentlemen of the Maryland State Bar Association:

Several years ago, at one of the annual dinners of the Bar Association of Baltimore City, I was called upon to speak to the toast, "The Lawyer of Fifty Years Ago and the Lawyer of Today."

I have always entertained the suspicion that what I said on that post-prandial occasion may not have exhausted the

subject, whatever effect it may have had upon the audience, and it has occurred to me that this might be a fitting opportunity to proceed a little further with the same topic.

Some of the questions which I propose to discuss, with your kind indulgence, are these:

Does the lawyer of today hold as high a place and exercise as commanding influence in this country as did the lawyer of fifty years ago?

If in any respect he does not, what is the reason, and how can he best be restored to his former position?

There can be no question as to the fact that in the ancient time the rank of the legal profession in this land of ours was a very high one, nowhere more so than in Maryland. It needs but to mention a few of the names familiar in the annals of the American Bar to have the truth of this statement recognized: William Pinkney, the boast of Maryland and the pride of the United States; Patrick Henry, of Virginia, of the prophetic vision—the far-seeing statesman; Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate, of Massachusetts. You could scarcely mention a name familiar in the history of the country prior to the late Civil War which was not that of a lawyer. So that Mr. Bryce in the chapter devoted to the American Bar takes occasion to say that, "Some fifty years ago they had reached a power and a social consideration relatively greater than the Bar has ever held on the eastern side of the Atlantic." There was no land under the sun where the lawyer stood for more than in this Federal Republic. The great prestige and power of the Bar not only as an agency in the administration of justice, but as a powerful aid to the people in the experiment of self government, was clearly recognized by De Tocqueville, the kindest yet shrewdest critic of American Democracy. "The people," says he, "in Democratic States do not distrust the members of the legal profession because it is well known that they are interested in serving the popular cause; and it listens to them without irritation because it does not at