Address of Justice Edward J. Fox of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania at the dedication of Trickett Hall at the Dickinson School of Law. Originally published in Volume 23 of the Dickinson Law Review, 1918. [23 Dick. L. Rev. 11 (1918)]

Fox, Edward J

English

Penn State Dickinson Law: IDEAS

Penn State Dickinson LawDickinson Law IDEASTrickett Hall Dedication Documents Trickett Hall1918Address of Justice Edward J. Fox of the SupremeCourt of PennsylvaniaEdward J. FoxFollow this and additional works at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/trickett-dedication-docsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Trickett Hall at Dickinson Law IDEAS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Trickett HallDedication Documents by an authorized administrator of Dickinson Law IDEAS. For more information, please contact lja10@psu.edu.Recommended CitationFox, Edward J., "Address of Justice Edward J. Fox of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania" (1918). Trickett Hall Dedication Documents. 5.https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/trickett-dedication-docs/5Dickinson Law Reviewframing of your careers. For me to descant on hislearning, or his intellectual force and brilliancy beforeyou would be foolish, as it would be to comment uponhis unusual ability to impart his knowledge to thoseunder him. I doubt if any of us in after years have hadany regret even for his disciplinary measures. But hisinfluence upon us was not limited to his teachings. Theexample of a man of stainless integrity, of unremittingindustry, a liver of a noble, self-denying life, and a doerof generous deeds, made unconsciously its impress onus all. And I am glad that we have this public oppor-tunity of acknowledging our obligation, and of repayingit as far as it can be repaid, and, on this day and in thisway offering our tribute of profound regard and sincererespect. It is most fitting that this building shouldstand as a permanent monument to him and visualize areal personality-one whom we love and honor, if wedid not obey, the Dean.This building has been erected in a suitable place,in a suitable manner, and has promise of use in continuedgood service. It will aid in developing and broadeningother men, who in turn will go forth to leave their im-press in the state, as you have done, and in after yearM.you will be happy in the consciousness that you havehad your part in the training of the coming membersof that profession, of which we are all so proud.ADDRESS OF JUSTICE EDWARD J. FOX OF THESUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIAI feel greatly honored at being invited to speak onthis auspicious occasion as it is one in which I have avery great interest. I am especially interested, andhave been for a great many years, in the work of legaleducation. It was my very great pleasure in the earlyhistory of the Pennsylvania State Bar Association to beassociated with Dean Trickett as a member of the Con-12 Dickinson Law Reviewmittee of Legal Education. Before my elevation to theSupreme Court, I was a member of that most unpopularbody, the State Board of Law Examiners, for a longperiod of years and my interest, therefore, in legal edu-cation is a very deep and sincere one. I recognize whatsplendid work the Dickinson School of Law has done.Both the Law School and Dickinson College have an es-tablished place in the history of the nation. ChiefJustice Roger B. Taney is a graduate of the law school,and Dickinson also gave to the country James Buchanan,President of the United States, and a long line of distin-guished men who have been educated in the law here.When Dean Trickett wrote me inviting me to comehere with the modesty that is thoroughly characteristicof him, he did not indicate in any way that the hall tobe dedicated was known as Trickett Hall, but simplywrote me that it was to be the dedication of "a Hall."He did not indicate either just what topic I should treatin my address, but left that entirely to my discretion,and I confess that I am somewhat embarrassed to deter-mine just what should be my thought on this occasion.I have too recently become a member of the high-est appellate court of the state to feel that I am quali-fied to speak for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,but the limited experience which I have already had up-on the Bench indicates to me that the work is most in-teresting, and at the same time I may say that this ex-perience teaches me that you gentlemen who are mem-bers of the Bar should feel that the court wishes tohave all the assistance that it can from the membersof the Bar. I recall an anecdote told by Chief JusticeWhite of the Supreme Court of the United States which,while it illustrates what I mean, perhaps goes furtherthan is necessary. The Chief Justice said that upon oneoccasion a young lawyer from Virginia was arguing acase in the Supreme Court of the United States and heDickinson Law Review 13was proceeding to state with great precision a numberof very elementary principles of law. Finally the ChiefJustice interrupted him and said, "Mr. -, do you notthink it safe to assume that the members of the Su-preme Court of the United States have some knowl-edge of the elementary principles of law?", when thecounsel interrupted and said, "No Sir, that is just themistake which I made in the lower court."Before proceeding to discuss what I have in mind,there is one matter in connection with the appellatecourts of Pennsylvania to which I would like to refer,and I trust that what I say will not be misunderstood ormisinterpreted. The events of the past few weeks haveserved to draw my attention particularly to this fact, andwith the profession so largely represented in this gath-ering, I feel that it is an opportune time to suggest tothem this thought in the hope that they will do whatthey can to rectify what I believe is a serious misappre-hension in the mind of the public. I believe that theordinary business man and citizen of Pennsylvania hascomparatively little interest in the personnel of the ap-pellate courts. When it comes to the election of a localjudge they will probably know personally the candidateswho are presented and they are sufficiently interestedto vote at the election for a local judge. But when thequestion involved is the election of a judge to the ap-pellate court they do not know the men who are can-didates, and they either do not vote at all or vote blind-ly for the first or last man on the ticket, and contentthemseves with the discharge of their duties as a citi-zen in that way. I talked recently with a man who saidto me that although he had lived in Easton for ten yearshe had never registered as a voter, and he seemed com-pletely indifferent not only to the judicial elections butto all elections, and I endeavored to point out to him14 Dickinson Law Reviewhow vitally he was interested in the members of the ap-pellate court.Out of the large number of men convicted of crimesin our court every year there must of necessity be a con-siderable percentage of innocent men convicted. Myfriend had never stopped to reflect upon this, and in or-der to bring the argument home I said to him, "Supposeyou are charged with some serious crime, and while thecircumstances are such that they indicate your guilt,you know that you are innocent of the crime charged.You are tried in the lower court and you are convictedunjustly. You wish to take every opportunity of set-ting aside that conviction and you take an appeal tothe appellate court. The appellate court is composedof seven judges. Suppose the court divides as to thepropriety of the conviction by a vote of four to three.One man therefore determines your fate." I think myfriend realized after this presentation of the matterthat he was interested in the composition of the appel-late court and the citizens of Pennsylvania are all inter-ested and they cannot tell when they will be vitallyand personally affected by the decision. I feel, there-fore, -like urging upon this body of lawyers that theyengage in a campaign of education. I venture to saythat few business men in Pennsylvania can name theChief Justice of Pennsylvania. The Secretary of theBoard of Trade of my home town who is a man of edu-cation and intelligence was in my office recently and Iasked him if he knew who the Chief Justice was, and hewas unable to tell me. And this is not a singilar exper-ience but one which I think can be duplicated in anytown.I would like to direct your attention for a few mo-ments, however, to some popular fallacies that exist asto the profession of law and lawyers. That they arefallacies there can be no question, and that a prejudiceDickinson Law Reviewdoes exist in the community against lawyers is equallytrue. Long ago, Jack Cade exclaimed, "First let us killall the lawyers," and this simply typifies the senti-ment that still exists in large part among the peoplegenerally, namely, that lawyers are not to be trusted,and that they are untruthful and that in many waysthey are unworthy of confidence. Some years ago agood old lady inquired about a young man just leavingcollege, and when she was told that he was about to en-ter the profession of the law, she expressed great sur-prise and dismay because she was under the impressionthat he had intended to enter the ministry, and endea-vored to sustain her attitude by saying that her fatherhad originally intended to study law and when he wasconverted to Christianity he found that it was impossi-ble for him to be a lawyer, and then he entered theministry. I think this impression lies only on the sur-face, and that really, as lawyers all know, there are con-stant instances in which the people at large manifesttheir confidence in the profession.One of the fallacies is that the term "lawyer" issynonomous to "liar." We all know that this is not true.As long ago as in the Statutes of Edward III, it was apenal offense for any servant to indulge in deceit, andthe penalty was a year's imprisonment. In no otherprofession except the clerical profession is there any vowor oath taken, but when the lawyer begins his practice,he swears not only to support the Constitution of theUnited States and the Constitution of Pennsylvania butalso that "he will use no falsehood and that he will delayno man's cause for malice or lucre." I have had a longexperience at the Bar and I am glad to say thatin that long experience I have encountered comparative-ly few instances in which a lawyer's word could not beabsolutely depended upon. It is the constant practiceof the courts to recognize the unsworn statement of a16 Dickinson Law Reviewlawyer as absolute verity. One of the reasons whichperhaps gives rise to this impression is the fact thatin the trial of cases the lawyer is engaged in an at-tempt to elicit the truth, and instead of recognizing thisfact, the public believes that the effort is made to ob-scure or hide the truth and to bring out only facts thatwill assist the particular litigant. I believe that mostwitnesses on the stand intend to tell the truth, and yetin a great many instances, without intending to do so,they are guilty of perverting and distorting the truthto a very great extent. This is due to the fact that a1 itness is obli.ed to exercise not only his mem'orybut his powers of observation. We all know how fallaci-ous human memory is, but I think we do not all appre-ciate fully how little we exercise our powers of observa-tion. Did you ever make the experiment of walking bya show window in a department store, noticing the ar-ticles in the window and then determining after you lefthow many of them you can write down or call to mem-ory? This simply illustrates the fact that we are allof us prone to make inaccurate observations and theresult is that when it becomes a matter of testimonyin court, it is difficult to give accurate testimony be-cause of the lack of accurate observation. The' art ofexamination and of cross-examination, if I may so speak,is a perfectly legitimate method to use for the purposeof eliciting the truth. It may aid the honest witness bydeveloping his knowledge, and it is equally true that thedishonest witness ought to be exposed. I recall an in-stance that occurred in the trial of 'a case in our localcourts when Judge Scott was the cross examiner. Awitness was undertaking to tell that he had delivered acertain number -of loads of wood, and he gave the daysand dates on which the deliveries had been made. JudgeScott, with an account book in his hand, induced thiswitness who was not frank and truthful, to testify thatDickinson Law Reviewhe had delivered the wood on a large number of dayswhen there had been no actual deliveries and the wit-ness was misled simply because he believed that the en-tries were made in the book which Judge Scott held inhis hands. There were no such entries and the wit-ness was completely discredited when Judge Scott cameto make his address to the jury.Another fallacy with regard to our profession isthat a lawyer is constantly defending people whom heknows to be guilty and that this is discreditable. I havenot been in the criminal courts for a good many yearsso far as the active trial of cases is concerned, but I havekept in close, touch with them and I think I know where-of I speak when I say that so far as my experience goesit is a very rare experience for a lawyer to know that aclient is actually guilty of a crime, and when he does dis-cover this he usually advises that the client shall pleadguilty. There is nothing discreditable in using yourknowledge of the law and your skill as a practitioner indefending a man who is accused of crime. There is al-ways a possibility that he may be innocent and it is hisconstitutional privilege to be defended by one who islearned in the law and there should be no criticism forthis reason. In the trial of Queen Caroline, LordBroughham thus states his conception of his duty tothe client," "I once took occasion to remind your Lord-ships, which was unnecessary, but there are manywhom it may be needful to remind, that an advocate bythe sacred duty which he owes to his client, knows inthe discharge of that office but one person in the world, -that client and none other. To save that client by allexpedient means, to protect that client at all hazardsand costs to all others, and among others to himself,is the highest and most unquestioned of his duties; andhe must not regard the alarm, the suffering, the tor-ment, the distraction which he may bring upon anyDickinson Law Reviewother, nay, separating even the duty of a patriot fromthose of an Advocate. He must go on reckless of con-sequence if his fate it should unhappily be to involvehis country in confusion for his client's protection."This is perhaps an exaggerated statement of theduty which a lawyer owes to his client, and indeed LordBrougham subseq71ently confessed that the statementwhich was made was partially for the infuence whichhe hoped it would exercise upon the King, but, never-theless, the real basis of the relation which all lawyerssustain to clients is contained in this excerpt.Another fallacy is that lawyers are not to betrusted. It is constantly exemplified in our practicethat our clients and the people generally do not reallyfeel in this way. A client will confide in his counselthe most sacred family secrets which he would notdivulge to any other person. He will commit his in-terests wholly and absolutely to the care and custodyof his counsel in a way that exhibits the greatest pos-sible confidence. He will deposit securities that heWould not leave with the banker under similar circum-stances without the most careful receipts. If you willpardon a personal illustration, I recall that some yearsago I was enjaged in a litgation with reference to adivorce in New York where, in order to effect a set-.tlement, it became- necessary for my clieit and hiswife, who were the parties to the divorce proceedings,to make a conveyance of a large amount of real es-tate to me. -The deeds ,were- executed and to myamazement wlfen I proposed that I should give someindication of 'the fact that I held this property only intrust, my 'client demurred and said that it was totallyunnecessAry. 'Of course-I was ,unwilling to permit themattert'stand in that way, but it exemplified thethought that I have in n'find that our'clients are con-sian-fly entrusting to our'care substantiar intere'sts withDickinson Law Reviewabsolute confidence that their trust will not be abused.Again there is the popular idea that lawyers arenot a hardworking profession, that their money is madeeasily and that they grossly overcharge for their servi-ces. There are so many practicing lawyers here pres-ent today that it seems idle to say that this is a -fall-acy. The work of the legal profession is most exactingand onerous. The constant multiplication of reportsis one item alone that illustrates the immense amountof labor involving in keeping up with the work of theprofession. We have almost 260 volumes of Pennsylva-nia State Reports and a large number of Superior Courtreports, not to mention the United States Reports, andthe reports of other states to which resort must con-stantly be had in aid of the successful work of the prac-ticing lawyer. A lawyer's work is never done. Hemay be engaged in the trial of a case during the entireday and perhaps nervously and physically. exhauste!dfrom the work and yet he must go to his office andprepare for the continuance of the work of the nextday by unremitting toil, industry and study. The com-pensation which he receives for work of this kind isnot excessive and is often inadequate, and it has beenmy experience that most lawyers are absoldtely honestand fair in their endeavors to make the charges properand satisfactory.I have thus briefly indicated some fallacies thatobtain as to our profession. The legal profession is aglorious one and we must see to it that there is nothingdone that will tend in the slightest degree to tarnish itor take away the lustre to which it is properly entitled.I am very glad to participate in the ceremonies attend-ing upon the dedication of this Hall to Dean Trickett,and think that it is fitting that the Hall should be sonamed. Dean Trickett can well exclaim "exegi monu-nentum aere perennius." He has indeed erected a20 Dickinson Law Reviewmonument more lasting than bronze in the hearts ofmen who have gone out from this splendid school oflaw. You who have sat there at the feet of this Gama-liel have enjoyed a rare privilege and which I can wellsee you all prize most highly. If we wish to keep thelustre of our profession untarnished, may all of us, bothyou and I, mould our professional lives upon this life ofthe great teacher here who is so eminent and so justlydistinguished in the world of legal education as a Mas-ter in the profession.ADDRESS OF DR. GEORGE EDWARD REED, FOR-MERLY PRESIDENT OF DICKINSON COLLEGEAND OF THE DICKINSON SCHOOL OF LAWMr. Chairman, Dean Trickett, Alumni of theSchool, Ladies and Gentlemen:Invited by the distinguished Dean of the School 'tobe present at the occasion of the celebration of thetwenty-eighth anniversary of the founding of the Dick-inson School of Law, together with the dedication ofthe superb building, one of the finest in the land-inwhich we are now assembled, to the purpose for whichit was designed, and to make a brief address, I verygladly consented, both because of my high regard forDean Trickett and my deep interest for many years inthe building up and success of the school.The accomplished lawyer and jurist-Mr. JusticeFox, of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in openinghis address, stated that the Dean of the School hadsuggested to him a brief address.The Dean's invitation to me was much more spe-cific, namely, that I should speak about fifteen min-utes. In urging this time limitation I am confidenthe had a vivid memory of the twenty-two interminablebaccalaureates to which for twenty-two years he wear-

Address of Justice Edward J. Fox of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

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Address of Justice Edward J. Fox of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

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