Owens, Wm. G.

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UND Scholarly Commons (University of North Dakota)

North Dakota Law Review Volume 21 Number 1 Article 5 1944 The Lawyer of Yesterday and the Lawyer of Today Wm. G. Owens Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr  Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Owens, Wm. G. (1944) "The Lawyer of Yesterday and the Lawyer of Today," North Dakota Law Review: Vol. 21 : No. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr/vol21/iss1/5 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Dakota Law Review by an authorized editor of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact und.commons@library.und.edu. BAR BRIEFSfor the fine service he has rendered to his Country, State andCommunity and we extend to his surviving wife and three chil-dren our deepest sympathy in their great loss.BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution bespread upon the minutes of the Clerk of the District Court, andthat a copy of it be sent to his family and given to the publicpress in McLean County, North Dakota.Dated this 27th day of November, 1944.FERD JANSONIUS,Presiding Judge0. B. HERIGSTADJOHN E. WILLIAMSROBERT VOGELJ. A. HYLANDR. L. FRASERTHE LAWYER OF YESTERDAYandTHE LAWYER OF TODAYGentlemen of the Bar:-Late edition (1944) of The Beards "Basic History of theUnited States" records the advance of lawyers in the progressof the colonies in "Social and Intellectual Growth" for it isthere written as a historical fact, "The eighteen century had notadvanced far when lawyers began to dispute the intellectualpreeminence of the clergy. In the early stages of settlementthere was little business for lawyers and dislike for their pro-fession existed in many circles. Throughout the colonial period,in fact, Puritan divines were inclined to look down upon themas a lower order of human beings. When, for instance, theReverend William Smith learned that his daughter was inclinedtoward marriage with John Adams, he was distressed; foryoung Adams was not only a son of a dirt farmer; he was alsoa lawyer. On principle, the Quakers were opposed to lawyers;they insisted that disputes among members of the meetingsshould always be settled by private negotiation. It was in Vir-ginia and South Carolina that lawyers were first heartily wel-comed and given high standing in the best society. Yet as thecolonies approached maturity, lawyers were prominent every-where in the cities from Boston to Charleston, and were scatter-ed around.in the inland regions."It was about that time that the then governor, Sir WilliamBerkeley was opposed to newspapers and free schools and "thank-ed God that Virginia had neither;" yet it was out of Virginiathere came a young lawyer, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote intoour Constitution the guarantees for free schools and free press.BAR BRIEFSThose historic facts should brace the fortitude of everylawyer of our association to the idea that he should be a potentfactor in promoting, in his community, not only Social andIntellectual growth but in influencing their clients and neighborsin understanding and practicing the art of self-government.No one in this day and age, knows better than the lawyerthe influence which comes to his community from the outsideworld tending to create submission to plans and schemes fromforeign lands which tend to draw our people away from the"American Way" of Social and Intellectual growth of the Ameri-can plan of self-government. No lawyer should be afraid tospeak out, loud and long, on those subjects, in his community,let his people-our people-know about the real American way ofart of self government as is meant by the terms of the con-stitution under which we live, for, the lawyers have the greatresponsibility of preserving the American way-government bythe people and for the people.Respectfully,Win. G. OWENSPresident SBA of N. Dak.FROM HERE AND THEREHon. Merrill E. Otis, President of the "AmericanJudicature Society" writes to our President, in part:"At a time when wholesale injustice has spread over a greatpart of the civilized world, we think it vitally important that inour country the machinery of justice shall function properly andefficiently, for as long as it does we need have no fear that ourgovernment or our civilization will fail from internal weaknessor be overcome by external strength." The president passes themessage along to the membership with sincere hopes that itwill take root in every community in North Dakota resulting inthe sturdy growth of justice by the strong support of the mem-bers of the bar to our courts and the securing of fair andimpartial hearings of their clients before the boards and bureauswhich are rapidly taking over the free actions of our people.The officers of our association are just notified that themid-year meeting of the House of Delegates of the AmericanBar will convene in Dallas, Texas, March 5th and 6th. The mem-bers of the House representing North Dakota are Herb Nilles ofFargo and Roy Ployhar of Valley City. They should attend. TheExecutive Committee of our association voted twenty-five dollarsfor expense money for the trip. Ye Gawds! Wasn't that a liberalcontribution from North Dakota lawyers? Better you talk to'your members of the legislature about revamping the laws re-lating to use of that ten dollars that you pay for a license. Theassociation should have enough out of it to pay its runningexpense. Here is one place you lawyers may do some missionarywork for your own selves.

The Lawyer of Yesterday and the Lawyer of Today

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The Lawyer of Yesterday and the Lawyer of Today

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