NEW YORK COUNTY LAWYERS' ASSOCIATION. 
 
 ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT FIRST ANNUAL, 
 MEETING . 1908 . 
 
 XWP 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 KF 334.N531 
 Addresses delivered at first annual meet 
 
 3 1924 018 769 541 
 
 (Jorndl Ham ^rijonl Hthratu, 
 
Addresses Delivered \i\ 
 
 at , ', mi 
 
 First Annual Meeting tus ^ 
 
 of 
 
 New York County 
 Lawyers' Association 
 
 Also 
 
 Certificate of Incorporation 
 
 and 
 
 Lists of Committees 
 
 1908 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924018769541 
 
NEW YORK COUNTY 
 LAWYERS' ASSOCIATION 
 
 1908 
 
N^E W YORK COUNTY 
 LAWYERS' ASSOCIATION 
 
 ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT 
 FIRST ANNUAL MEETING 
 
 1908 
 
 ALSO CERTIFICATE OF IN- 
 CORPORATION AND LISTS 
 OF COMMITTEES 
 
 y 
 
 165 BROADWAY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
PREFACE 
 
 A T THE first annual meeting of the New York County Law- 
 •**• yers' Association, held on May 21, 1908, notable addresses 
 were delivered by the following distinguished members of the 
 bench and bar: Judge Henry G. Ward, of the United States 
 Circuit Court of Appeals; Justice John Proctor Clarke, of the 
 Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First 
 Department; Justice Henry A. Gildersleeve, of the Supreme 
 Court of New York, First Department; Hon. John F. Dillon, 
 President of the Association; and Hon. Alton B. Parker and 
 Hon. Joseph F. Daly, Vice-Presidents of the Association. 
 
 These addresses are characterized by such a fine professional 
 spirit and such a high ethical tone that the Association is desirous 
 of placing them in the hands of every lawyer in New York 
 County. 
 
 Accompanying the addresses is an article by J. Noble Hayes, 
 Esq., of the New York bar, which appeared originally in the 
 Green Bag of August, 1908, and which is reproduced here be- 
 cause it constitutes a singularly lucid and comprehensive state- 
 ment of the aims and purposes of the New York County Law- 
 yers' Association. 
 
 Charles Strauss, 
 
 Secretary. 
 New York, November 2, 1908. 
 
Judge Dillon's Address 
 
 Opening Address of John F. Dillon, President, 
 
 At the First General Meeting of the New York County 
 Lawyers' Association, May 21, 1908. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Association: 
 
 The legal profession and the public will naturally inquire, and 
 rightfully, what is the necessity for this additional law society. 
 What useful purpose will it serve? In short, what is its raison 
 d'etre? The special answer is, that in the county of New York 
 there are some 14,000 practicing lawyers who do not belong to 
 any law association, who are interested in everything that pertains 
 to the profession, to the law, to the administration of justice, and 
 to the maintenance of a high ideal of professional character and 
 aims, who at present have no authentic voice or organized influ- 
 ence in matters so deeply affecting these vital interests ; and hence 
 there is an ample and unoccupied field for this new association. 
 
 The New York County Lawyers' Association, incorporated 
 under the Membership Corporation Law, is intended to comprise 
 in its membership every lawyer practising his profession in this 
 county. Accordingly, its articles and by-laws provide that every 
 attorney or counselor of the Supreme Court of the State in active 
 practice residing or having an office in the county of New 
 York shall be eligible to membership in the Association, and may 
 become a member upon proof that he has been duly admitted to 
 the bar of the Supreme Court. 
 
 The formation of such a comprehensive association is based 
 upon the fundamental proposition that whoever has been found 
 by the Supreme Court of the State to be qualified in point of 
 professional learning and personal character to practise law, is 
 
10 
 
 presumed to be a fit person to become a member of an association 
 whose purposes are : 
 
 "the cultivation of the science of jurisprudence; the promotion 
 of reforms in the law; the facilitation of the administration 
 of justice ; the elevation of the standards of integrity, honor and 
 courtesy in the legal profession; the cherishing of the spirit of 
 brotherhood among the members of said Association." 
 
 These are great and truly noble objects, supremely important 
 not only to the legal profession, but to the public and common 
 welfare. For the promotion of these ends no place in the coun- 
 try offers a field of operation and influence comparable to that of 
 this imperial city, whose bar has behind it, also, the inspiration, 
 example and traditions of a bar illustrious for ability, learning, 
 patriotism and civic virtues in unbroken succession from the early 
 days of Jay, Kent, Hamilton, Emmet, Oakley, the Livingstons, 
 down to the days of Field, O'Conor, Evarts and Carter, not to 
 mention the names of their surviving contemporaries, equally 
 eminent. 
 
 Among the charter objects of our association is enumerated, 
 and properly, "the promotion of reforms in the law ;" but the 
 charter omits specifically to enumerate an object in our day 
 equally important and more pressing, namely, the conservation 
 of our constitutional and legal heritage from exploitation in the 
 name of reforms. No initiation fee is required, and the dues 
 have been placed at the moderate sum of ten dollars a year, with 
 a view to securing as large a membership as possible, to the end 
 that the Association may become an actual representative of the 
 great body of the bar, and thus an influential organ in express- 
 ing the opinions and sentiments of the entire Bar upon- every- 
 thing which concerns the laws and jurisprudence of the state 
 and country, the administration of justice, and the interests, the 
 honor, and glory of the legal profession. 
 
 It falls within the scope of the Association to procure and 
 maintain a law library and other suitable accommodation for the 
 convenience of the bar near the seats of Justice in this city. 
 
 It also falls within its express purposes to repress all unpro- 
 fessional practises and conduct, to keep its ranks pure, and to 
 
11 
 
 maintain an elevated standard of professional ethics and con- 
 duct. The Association has already about 3,000 members and it 
 is still marching on! It will be perceived from this brief out- 
 line that it covers a field not entirely occupied by any like asso- 
 ciation — a field of measureless possibilities of usefulness. 
 
 I avail myself of this occasion to state on behalf of the 
 Association that it is in no sense a rival, much less a hostile, or- 
 ganization to the Association of the Bar of the City of New 
 York, in whose long record we all feel a just pride, but on the 
 contrary, it is intended to be a co-laborer with it in promoting 
 the great ends which the two organizations have in common, and 
 thus by united and harmonious action increase the power and 
 influence of the entire bar in everything that relates to the laws 
 and jurisprudence of the state and nation, the well-being of the 
 profession, and the pure, upright, independent and satisfactory 
 administration of justice. 
 
 It will be a fixed and undeviating policy of our Association 
 to avoid all connection with any political party or with any ques- 
 tion or matter purely political, or with any subject whatever not 
 within the purposes of the Association as expressed in its con- 
 stitution. This will require constant care and watchfulness. 
 Some may seek to make use of the Association for personal or sel- 
 fish or partisan purposes, but it is much more likely that Utopians, 
 doctrinaires, dreamers, legal enthusiasts whose zeal outruns their 
 wisdom or experience, or some of -the variegated species of re- 
 formers, who are as plentiful in the legal world as elsewhere, will 
 endeavor to obtain the sanction of the Association to their views, 
 vagaries, schemes or projects. Against all such sources of danger 
 we must guard with sleepless vigilance and fidelity. 
 
 I will briefly refer to another matter which to some has 
 been a source of anxiety. It is that the old and new bar as- 
 sociations, instead of acting in harmony, will in their opinions, 
 reports, recommendations or action come in conflict with each 
 other. I do not share in this apprehension. Any such conflict 
 may easily be prevented by wise and careful management; and 
 to suppose that in practical matters where conflict would be in- 
 
12 
 
 jurious to the best interests of the common objects of the two 
 associations such conflict will not be avoided implies that the 
 course of each will not be judiciously taken. On many subjects 
 of general jurisprudence, or even whether a proposed statute 
 ought to be enacted, opinions may, after the fullest and most in- 
 telligent consideration, differ, and where this is the case I see 
 no reason to regret the result, and no reason why the Legisla- 
 ture or the public should not know of the difference of opinion 
 and the reasons on which it rests. But a conflict of opinion on 
 other subjects, such as, for example, whether a member ought to 
 be unfrocked for misconduct, or whether a given person is a 
 proper and fit candidate for a judicial office or other office con- 
 nected with the administration of the law, ought to be, and in 
 practise will, I doubt not, be avoided. Both the old and new 
 organizations have a single purpose, — the elevation of the pro- 
 fession, the conservation of our legal heritage of rights and liber- 
 ties, and the improvement, where necessary, of our laws and 
 jurisprudence, and securing the best attainable administration of 
 justice. To these high and noble ends the two associations are 
 consecrated, and their watchwords must be, and I am confident 
 will be, "Harmony and Co-operation," not "Division and Con- 
 flict." If the bar who compose the constituency of these legal 
 societies cannot be trusted with the wise exercise of the power of 
 self-government of their affairs, who, I may ask, can be so 
 trusted ? 
 
 Some observations of a more general nature seem fitting in 
 answer to the inquiry, Whether this Association can justify its 
 existence? 
 
 Existing conditions in society and government are such as to 
 devolve upon the legal profession special duties and to make it 
 more vital than in any previous period of our history to cling 
 fast to first and elemental principles, and to guard them against 
 attack from any and every quarter whatsoever. 
 
 We are in the midst of great upheavals in public opinion and 
 affairs. Changes in constitutions and legislation and policies of 
 
13 
 
 the most radical character are advocated, threatened and de- 
 manded. "The bounded rivers are lifting their bosoms higher 
 than the shores,"— higher even than the levees established by 
 our constitutions to confine them within their proper limits and 
 thus protect the country from overflow and devastation. The 
 states are complaining that the general government is invading 
 or threatening to invade their just rights- Others are complain- 
 ing that the states are passing laws in direct conflict with the 
 commerce-clause, the property-clause and the equality-clause of 
 the Federal Constitution. These questions and issues are of 
 transcendent moment, and must be dealt with, and will largely 
 be determined, by the opinions and views of the legal profession. 
 One fundamental truth, never to be forgotten, is that ours is 
 emphatically a government of laws and not of men. 
 
 Legislation being the power to make and alter laws, to which 
 all must yield obedience, is the most powerful instrument pos- 
 sessed by any state or nation having a parliament, congress, 
 reichstag, cortes, or like legislative assembly. It is in all such 
 countries a power without any theoretical limits, except in our 
 own, where it is limited only by organic or constitutional pro- 
 visions. Its prodigious, its incessant activity, is the most con- 
 spicuous contemporary feature in English and American govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Justice is the only foundation for individual or public pros- 
 perity. It is not possible that the nation or the states, in the 
 long run, can derive any advantage; it is certain in the long run 
 that they will suffer incalculable injury if a temporary majority 
 in Congress or a state legislature, in a moment of passion or 
 frenzy or popular prejudice or hasty opinion have unlimited 
 power over life, over liberty, or over any species of property, or 
 over the rights of property owners. Such notions are alien to 
 our traditional ideas of constitutional and natural rights and 
 liberties. 
 
 Our constitutions, both federal and state, in the same terms 
 and in the same sentence protect "life, liberty and property," 
 and theoretically the protection is equal, and the purpose is the 
 
14 
 
 same; namely, to safeguard the rights of the minority and 
 of individuals against the despotism and uncontrolled power of 
 majorities, acting hastily, upon the passions, whims, delusions or 
 prejudices of the passing hour. These constitutional guarantees 
 are the highest, most deliberate and solemn embodiment of the 
 real will of the people, and are to be upheld in their full in- 
 tegrity by their appointed guardian, the Judiciary Department, 
 with the full and active support of the bar, against all popular 
 or legislative or executive invasion or encroachment. 
 
 A morning newspaper lately recalled that James Russell 
 Lowell in his famous address on "Democracy" said that "the 
 last thing we need to be anxious about is property. It always 
 has friends or the means of making them. If riches have wings 
 to fly away from their owners, they have wings also to escape 
 danger." 
 
 This observation, notwithstanding the felicitious language in 
 which it is expressed, is, if applied to present conditions, essen- 
 tially untrue. Recent experience shows that Mr. Lowell's ex- 
 pression ought to be precisely reversed. Property instead of 
 being the last thing we should be anxious about is the one thing 
 which at the present time is in real peril from popular attack. 
 Life and personal liberty in our country can take care of them- 
 selves. No serious assault upon personal liberty, upon freedom 
 of speech and press, upon the right of suffrage, upon trial by 
 jury, etc., is made or menaced. There is no profit in making and 
 no temptation to make it, and if made it would be repelled, as it 
 ought to be, by the whole body of the people against which it 
 would be directed. Property may have friends, or the means 
 of making them, but in many cases the majority is on the other 
 side. If "riches have wings to fly away from their owners, 
 they have," says Mr. Lowell, "wings also to escape danger." Not 
 always so. Let us test this. Where the money of shareholders 
 and bondholders have, at the invitation of the state, built a rail- 
 way in a state, it is a perpetual fixture, it must stay there, it is 
 irremovable, and their property cannot fly away no matter how 
 imminent the danger. Socialism is to-day an existing and actual 
 
15 
 
 menace, and all forms of socialism, so-called, that I have seen 
 or studied, are aimed at or involve the impairment of individual 
 liberty or the spoliation, in some form, of private property or its 
 full enjoyment. Those who have little faith in Democratic rule 
 have long predicted that the majority will spoliate property when 
 the majority have no property, and therefore have no interest in 
 it. If such attempts are or shall be made, by popular conventions, 
 by party platforms, by legislative or by executive sanction, an in- 
 dependent judiciary, backed by the organized voice of the legal 
 profession, is our main if not only defense and bulwark. All of 
 our unexampled prosperity as a nation and people is due to indi- 
 vidual liberty and to the personal right of every man to the fruits 
 of his own labor in any lawful calling or enterprise. The right of 
 every man to labor and to make contracts, and to property, whether 
 owned by individuals or corporations, and a sense of its security, 
 are the only solid and enduring foundations of the nation or state. 
 On this vigorous and hardy stock all of our prosperity, public and 
 private, has been grafted. 
 
 Having thus referred to Mr. Lowell, it is pertinent to my 
 line of thought to add that more profound political wisdom was 
 perhaps never condensed in so few words as in the answer of 
 Lowell to Guizot. "M. Guizot asked me," says Mr. Lowell, 
 "how long do you think the American Republic will endure? 
 My answer was, 'So long as the ideas of its founders continued 
 to be dominant,' explaining to him that by 'ideas' I meant also 
 the traditions of their race in government and morals." (*) 
 
 It is always to be borne in mind that the investment in rail- 
 ways and other public utilities by states or municipalities is so 
 insignificant compared with their cost as scarcely to deserve 
 mention. The important facts to be remembered are that the 
 money thus invested has been furnished almost wholly by private 
 capital, by individuals, and not by the public, and that the cost of 
 these works is so great that the money necessary for their con- 
 
 Note (1). Edward Everett Hale, Lowell and His Friends. P. 27—, 
 where a facsimile of Mr. Lowell's letter is given. 
 
16 
 
 struction could not have been obtained otherwise than through 
 the agency of corporate organizations. 
 
 The maintenance of the constitutional rights of property is 
 vital to the security of the billions of capital invested by the 
 invitation and authority of the states in these useful and neces- 
 sary utilities and enterprises ; but inexpressibly more vital is the 
 maintenance of these rights to the honor, as well as the permanent 
 well-being of the states themselves and of the Union. 
 
 One great thought is implied in what I have said, but which 
 ought more distinctly to be brought into view. That is, that 
 the American Bar has an absolutely unique relation to our system 
 of written constitutional law. In England and in other countries 
 the Constitution, so-called, is within the power of the legisla- 
 ture or the sovereign or both. Not so with us. The Consti- 
 tution is not only a law, but the highest law, the organic law, to 
 be expounded and safe-guarded by the legal profession. This 
 high function, this distinctive prerogative of our profession 
 necessarily devolves on legal associations like ours the special, 
 peculiar and pre-eminent duty of standing sentinels to protect the 
 fundamental law, the ark of our rights and liberties, from all 
 assaults, direct or oblique, open or covert. But the value of con- 
 stitutional guaranties wholly depends upon their just interpre- 
 tation and their full, equal, impartial and fearless enforcement 
 "by the judiciary as one of the departments of government estab- 
 lished by the Constitution." (*) 
 
 This leads me to observe that one of the most vital of 
 these fundamental principles is that of a pure, stable, and inde- 
 pendent judiciary. What do I mean by an independent judiciary? 
 I mean a freedom as absolute and complete as human institu- 
 tions can make it from any pressure or control by party or by 
 the people or by the legislative or by executive departments of the 
 government. "The judiciary is the organ of the law, and not 
 an instrument of government or party ; it renders judgments and 
 not services," and therefore the judges must be independent alike 
 of popular or partisan or legislative or executive power or in- 
 
 Note (1) U. S. vs. Lee, 106 U. S. Rep. 196. 
 
17 
 
 fluence. The true gospel is that our welfare and permanent 
 prosperity rest in individual freedom, in the sacredness of con- 
 tracts, and the inviolability of private property, and that an in- 
 dependent judiciary, supported by the bar and reverenced by the 
 people is the ultimate guardian of all of these rights. 
 
 At the Queen's Jubilee the late Lord Bowen paid this eloquent 
 and doubtless deserved tribute to the English bench : 
 
 "There is no human being whose smile or frown, there is no 
 government, Tory or Liberal, whose favor or disfavor can start 
 the pulse of an English judge, or move by a hair's breadth the 
 even equipoise of the scale of justice." 
 
 Long may this language continue to describe as well the 
 American bench, state and federal; and it is a duty which rests 
 with special and emphatic force upon the bar and upon associa- 
 tions of the bar, like ours, to see that such shall be the case. 
 
 In conclusion, let me observe that some other legal or political 
 truths are so vital that they ought to be regarded as fundamental 
 Articles of Faith. Among these is that the Constitution of the 
 United States, which for more than a century has withstood all 
 attacks from without and within, and proved equal under all cir- 
 cumstances to our amazing territorial expansion and our growth 
 from three millions to ninety millions of people, is, as it stands 
 today, including its guaranties of life and liberty and property 
 against both Federal and State invasion, adequate to all exi- 
 gencies. It needs no amendment. It has triumphantly carried us 
 to our present exalted position among the nations of the earth; 
 and if the constitution shall continue to be expounded by the 
 Supreme Court on the lines and in the spirit of Marshall and 
 his associates and their successors down to the present, by judges 
 unawed and uncontrolled by popular clamor, passions, combina- 
 tions or interests of any character, or by legislative or executive 
 dictation, it will carry us safely through another century and in- 
 definitely beyond to a still more august destiny. 
 
18 
 
 The Constitution is not "a nose of wax to be twisted this way 
 or that" under pressure from any source whatsoever or from 
 mistaken considerations of some temporary good. If there is any 
 problem connected with our future which can be said to be unset- 
 tled, it is whether the bench of this country, state and federal, 
 will be able under all circumstances to resist the tremendous pop- 
 ular or partisan pressure that will at times be brought to bear 
 upon it, and to support the rights of life, liberty and property 
 guaranteed by our Constitutions against popular or supposed 
 popular enactments which are in conflict with it. For one, I do 
 not regard the problem as unsettled. Our past assures our future. 
 I trust implicitly the second, sober thought of the American 
 people. Let us not forget however that all political wisdom pro- 
 ceeds from experience, and that experience shows that the Consti- 
 tution as it stands today is sufficient for all existing exigencies 
 and conditions. It needs, I repeat, no amendment, and should 
 not be tampered with. Listen on this point to the sound opinion 
 of a great philosophic European historian recently deceased. 
 
 "An appetite for organic change is," says Lecky, "one of the 
 worst diseases that can affect a nation. * * * * Institu- 
 tions, like trees, can never attain their maturity or produce their 
 proper fruits if their roots are perpetually tampered with. In no 
 single point is the American constitution more incontestably supe- 
 rior to our own [the English] than in the provisions by which 
 it has so effectually barred the path of organic change that the 
 appetite for such change has almost passed away." — {Democracy 
 and Liberty, I, pp. 153, 154.) 
 
 Let us hope that the appetite will not come. Let us hope that 
 we will get over the widespread, persistent and seemingly incur- 
 able delusion that constitutions or legislation can control economic 
 laws, and that human laws are a panacea for all of the ills of a 
 state or nation. 
 
 Another article of faith is that the principle of Nationality 
 in the General Government as against the States, and the re- 
 served rights of the states and of the people as against the general 
 government as these have been or may be determined by the 
 
19 
 
 Supreme Court of the United States, must be maintained in all 
 their integrity and vigor. Where the light of the Supreme Court 
 shines the "twilight zone" disappears. 
 
 Another article of faith is that the Supreme Court of the 
 United States is "the living voice of the constitution," whose 
 rightful function it is to determine the meaning of the constitu- 
 tion and to settle rival and conflicting powers, jurisdictions and 
 pretensions of the states and nation as between themselves, and to 
 enforce as against the states the great primordial rights of what 
 may justly be called the Bible of our liberties, namely, the invio- 
 lable and sacred right of every person in our land to life, liberty 
 and property, and also to have such rights determined according 
 to law in the accustomed and immemorial method by the judicial 
 tribunals and not by any form of executive or legislative commis- 
 sions or in any manner other than by the law of the land as judi- 
 cially expounded. Such commissions, Federal or State, however 
 useful as subordinate administrative agencies, must not be per- 
 mitted to encroach one hair's breadth upon the constitutional 
 province of the legislature or of the judiciary, or upon the liber- 
 ties and rights of the citizen. 
 
 Trite these observations undoubtedly are, but on that account 
 none the less timely or necessary. It will be a sad day for the 
 liberties and welfare of man and for Republican institutions when, 
 in the words of a distinguished Frenchman, they cease to be a 
 faith and become a heresy. 
 
 Finally, let me fervently express the hope that the New York 
 County Lawyers' Association will demonstrate that it is not a 
 mere paper organization, but one instinct with life and evolution- 
 ary energy, and destined to a long career of usefulness to the 
 profession and the state. 
 
Address of Judge Henry G. Ward of the 
 United States Circuit Court 
 
 Mr. President and, I am glad to say, Fellow Members of the 
 New York County Lawyers' Association, because the first 
 thing I have to do is to thank you for electing me an hon- 
 orary member of this Society : 
 When your distinguished president and secretary asked me to 
 be present this evening, I told them that nothing made me so 
 unhappy as to speak in public and that no audience could be of- 
 fered me more terrifying than one composed entirely of members 
 of my own profession, and you can understand that if I had then 
 known that the - membership was to include ladies, I should have 
 been more timid than ever. But I told them that if they would 
 accept me as a messenger of the Federal Courts to express in a 
 very few words their interest in this movement and hearty good 
 wishes for its success, I would come. That, ladies and gentle- 
 men, was the trade we made and that is the trade I mean to live 
 up to. 
 
 I think the gentlemen who promoted this movement are de- 
 serving of great praise because they have begun a work of the 
 first importance. It cannot be doubted that it will be a great 
 advantage to the profession to have an organization able to call 
 together substantially all the members of this large Bar on short 
 notice whenever an urgency requires it. There can be no doubt 
 of the great advantage to every member of the Bar of having 
 access to a good library and to a place where he can meet his 
 fellow members. But I think, and I believe my colleagues would 
 agree with me in this, that the most important purpose stated in 
 your certificate is the elevation of the standards of integrity, 
 honor and courtesy. Not every man can be able or eloquent or 
 
21 
 
 resourceful, but every member of the profession may, if he 
 wishes, be honest and courteous, and personally I think these 
 qualities are the most important qualities in the individual's suc- 
 cess. If high standards in these particulars pervade the Bar gen- 
 erally nothing will be beyond its accomplishment. The American 
 Bar Association has just prepared a Code of Professional Ethics 
 which it is hoped will be adopted by the Legislatures or the Courts 
 throughout the United States, so that every lawyer in the coun- 
 try shall be subject to the same measures of professional obliga- 
 tion to the court, the client and the public. I have thought a good 
 deal on this subject while a member of the Bar and a little of it 
 during the short time I have been on the Bench, and I have had 
 the advantage of practising at the Bar in two large cities. When I 
 practised in Philadelphia, which was some twenty-five years ago 
 — there may have been changes of which I am not aware — we 
 never were troubled by the written stipulations which are so 
 common in the course of a lawsuit here. I never remember to 
 have been asked to give a stipulation in writing or to have 
 asked any other attorney to give me one. No doubt 
 this system has its defects. There were misunderstandings, some- 
 times charges of bad faith. But they may arise even where writ- 
 ten stipulations are used. My point is that no such practice could 
 have been persisted in unless there had been the high standard 
 of integrity, honor and courtesy which it is the object of your 
 Association to promote here. 
 
 I will give you an illustration of something that happened to 
 a New York lawyer. My preceptor, Mr. M'Murtrie, was a very 
 great equity lawyer. By the way, we always spoke of the gen- 
 tlemen in whose offices we studied as our' preceptors, and instead 
 of being received as here gratuitously or on a small compensa- 
 tion, the practice was to pay a fee of from $100 to $200 a year 
 for the privilege of being a student. The relation between pre- 
 ceptor and student was quasi-feudal. We looked upon our pre- 
 ceptors as our chiefs and upon ourselves as their retainers. We 
 were received in their houses and were regularly quizzed upon 
 the subjects of our study. 
 
22 
 
 But to return to this incident. There was a failure of a large 
 tobacco firm in New York for which an assignee in involuntary 
 proceedings in bankruptcy was appointed. The firm had made a 
 voluntary- assignment for the benefit of creditors in Philadelphia, 
 and that assignee was about to sell a large stock of tobacco at 
 public auction in Philadelphia. The New York lawyer came on 
 to get an injunction in the United States District Court on the 
 morning fixed for the sale, and my preceptor represented the as- 
 signee for the benefit of creditors. A few affidavits were read 
 and a little argument had, when Judge Cadwalader said the sale 
 must be stopped. Mr. M'Murtrie folded up his papers and was 
 walking out of Court when the New York lawyer said, "Mr. 
 M'Murtrie, where are you going? You must stay until an order is 
 signed." Mr. M'Murtrie in unfeigned surprise said, "The Judge 
 has spoken," and went on his way. No sale took place. 
 
 I do not mean to say that this system could be expected to 
 apply to such a large Bar as that of the County of New York, 
 nor to make any invidious comparisons in favor of the Bar of 
 Philadelphia, which probably then did not include more than fif- 
 teen hundred lawyers. My thought only is that when men know 
 each other better they will value higher and cultivate more assid- 
 uously the good opinion of their brethren, and that it is this fel- 
 lowship that your organization can use to elevate the standards 
 of integrity and courtesy to a much higher degree than at present 
 exists in the very large Bar of New York County. I am confi- 
 dent you will do this, and bid you from the Federal Courts a 
 hearty Godspeed in the undertaking. 
 
Address of Justice John Proctor Clarke of the 
 
 Appellate Division of the Supreme Court 
 
 of New York, First Department 
 
 Mr. President and Brethren of the Bar: 
 
 I regret exceedingly that you are not favored with the be- 
 nignant presence of the Presiding Justice of the Appellate Divi- 
 sion in this Department ; cultured, learned and felicitous in speech, 
 he is an ornament to the profession. I am but a rude substitute. 
 Let me impress upon you at the outset that I do not speak per 
 curiam but ex curia — from the Appellate Division, but not for it. 
 In our court no man is responsible for another's opinion until 
 he has put his initials under the word "Concur" upon the back. 
 The note I present to you to-night bears no endorsement, and I 
 warn you now, if dishonored, there is no recourse. 
 
 The trouble about a big city is its bigness. It is a misfortune 
 in a way that we live in so big a city ; that there are so many of 
 us, both judges and lawyers. I was first admitted to the Bar in 
 a country town in a rural county in a small state, the Common- 
 wealth of Massachusetts, whose court house still resounded with 
 the echoes of the voices of Rufus Choate and Daniel Webster in 
 their great contest over the Oliver Smith will; where the high 
 sheriff, still clothed in a blue swallow-tail coat with brass buttons, 
 a nankeen vest with a cockade in his high hat, preceded the 
 judge to the tolling of the courthouse bell at nine o'clock of the 
 morning from his inn under the shadowing elms to the court- 
 house door. That commonwealth gave Parker and Shaw and 
 Gray to jurisprudence, and the opinions of its Supreme Judi- 
 cial Court, as found in the reports of Pickering, Metcalf and 
 Cushing, remain to-day as gems of legal literature. The judges 
 still rode circuit. There were but seventeen lawyers in the town ; 
 every one knew personally every other one, his character and 
 
24 
 
 his characteristics, his methods and his ability. Each knew the 
 judge and each judge knew each of them. 
 
 At a recent dinner given by the alumni of the New York 
 University Law School to the New Jersey Bench, one of the 
 judges said that the great advantage of practising in so small a 
 state was that the Judge knew personally the whole of the Bar 
 engaged in the active profession from one end of the State to 
 the other, and that because of that fact there existed a comrade- 
 ship in the Bar and between the Bar and the Bench which greatly 
 added to the pleasure of practice and facilitated the conduct of 
 business. 
 
 In the English courts, a barrister attaches himself to a partic- 
 ular circuit. Many of the troubles that we have are incompre- 
 hensible to those brought up under such surroundings. I fancy 
 an English barrister would be amazed to learn of our rule that a 
 stipulation made between counsel will not be considered unless 
 committed to writing; that a request for adjournment must 
 be supported by an affidavit; but such rules have been here made 
 ex necessitate rei. 
 
 If you will permit a personal experience, when I first took 
 charge of the calendar part fresh from the troubles, disappoint- 
 ments and perplexities of an active trial lawyer, whose witnesses 
 do not always show up in time, even when they have been duly 
 subpoenaed and received the witness fee ; whose client will go out 
 of town, or get sick, or married at an inopportune moment, I 
 said to myself, I understand the Bar, I appreciate its difficulties, 
 I sympathize with its anxieties, I will deal with it as I would be 
 dealt by, and I proceeded, to the best of my ability, to carry out 
 upon that first morning my altruistic purposes, with this result: 
 I had twenty-five cases on the calendar, and five parts of the 
 court to provide with work. In twenty minutes the calendar had 
 been called through and but one case set for trial. I announced 
 with pain, but with somewhat of grim determination, that that 
 calendar would be called at 2 o'clock and the rules absolutely 
 and strictly enforced. Then and there the suaviter in 
 surrendered for all time to the fortiter in re. 
 
25 
 
 We have fourteen thousand lawyers in the City of New York, 
 we have been told to-night; we have large firms, great legal 
 workshops. Young men, clerks just beginning their professional 
 life, are sent up on the Friday call with instructions to get a 
 case off the calendar. If they succeed they are praised, patted 
 on the back and no questions are asked. If they fail, very 
 pointed questions, and exclamatory remarks of an unfavorable 
 character "touching on and appertaining to" their intellect and 
 ability ensue. Once, when I was in a good humor, on a Friday 
 call, the young gentleman answering to the second case said that 
 the plaintiff had taken his passage for Europe on a steamer which 
 was to sail the next day and inquired whether the case could not 
 go over to October. It did. In five minutes seven similar re- 
 quests were made. I was slow, but at length arrived. "This 
 European hegira must cease," said I, and it did, amid Homeric 
 laughter from the crowded court room. 
 
 These few personal experiences illustrate the misfortune of 
 size with its necessary concomitant of a lack of personal ac- 
 quaintance between the Bar and the Court, and this has com- 
 pelled our rules. 
 
 This city is the port of entry, the open door, to this grea' 
 Republic of opportunity. Through it come crowding representa- 
 tives of all the nations of the earth to work out their destiny 
 under our laws in accordance with our system and under oui 
 conditions. The safety of the future of the Republic depends 
 upon the children of those so seeking this land of equality under 
 the law. We must take them young, train them in our public 
 schools and succeed in impressing into their fibre the very genius 
 of our institutions. In that way only safety lies. 
 
 The court in which I sit has charge, not only of admission to 
 the Bar, but of the control and discipline of members of the Bar. 
 In the two years that I have been a member of that court, 1173 
 have been admitted to the Bar on examination, 238 on motion, 
 making a total of 1411. There have been in the same period 41 
 disciplinary proceedings, resulting as follows : There have been 
 disbarred, twenty-one; suspended, five; reprimanded, one; pro- 
 
26 
 
 ceedings dismissed, four; references pending, 7; motions to 
 restore granted, one; denied, one; preliminary motion pending, 
 one. At first blush a large total, but when you consider the ag- 
 gregate membership of the Bar, I think we may take courage that 
 the percentage is extremely low. 
 
 As the new classes come before us to take the oath of office, 
 I have been impressed with the various types of faces represent- 
 ing so many foreign nationalities. These young men, crowding 
 into the practice of the law, eager, zealous, enthusiastic, deter- 
 mined to succeed, have not the advantage of the environment, 
 tradition and instinct of those who in former times came from 
 a long line of professional men, grew up in family offices, where 
 the customs, practice and ethics of a learned profession sur- 
 rounded them in their early training, as the atmosphere which 
 they breathed. What can be done to supply these sons of our 
 new citizens that which is so fundamentally essential in our great 
 and noble profession? A profession than which, in my judg- 
 ment, none stands higher, or is more important; my profession, 
 from which I came, to which I expect to go back when my brief 
 term upon the Bench has ended, the profession which I love, 
 whose noble traditions, whose splendid work, whose devotion to 
 duty, whose splendid services both public and private make so 
 much of the web and woof of our common country. The judges 
 suffer when each man is disciplined ; no charge made against a 
 member of the profession but hurts us ; no fine thing is done but 
 we glory in. We believe that the Bar has the same feeling to- 
 ward the Bench, that good, honest and conscientious work upon 
 the Bench receives its reward in the confidence and respect of 
 the Bar. What can be done? This Organization is the answer. 
 And the significant and important thing, to me, is that by this 
 Organization is given to these young men, of whom I have 
 spoken, a substitute for that training and those traditions to 
 which I have alluded, that by association herein, by the watchful 
 care of its committees, by its meetings, its discussions and its din- 
 ners, it will bring together the scattered members of the profes- 
 sion, will acquaint the elder with the younger, will create a bar 
 
27 
 
 with a correct method of conduct, with a code of ethics, with an 
 appreciation of right and wrong, and so will produce, to a meas- 
 urable degree, the condition of a small community where men 
 speak face to face, and with knowledge, and where it will be the 
 pride of each member to have it known and felt of all, both 
 judges and lawyers, that a lawyer's word, in the practice of his 
 profession, is as good as his bond. 
 
 To this great and noble work, this opportunity which this 
 Association has created in its scheme of organization and by its 
 declaration of purposes, I say with all my heart, God Speed. 
 
Address of Justice Henry A. Gildersleeve of 
 
 the Supreme Court of New York, 
 
 First Department 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : 
 
 When asked to give official approval to the certificate of in- 
 corporation of the "New York County Lawyers' Association" 
 I complied with pride and satisfaction, much pleased to be iden- 
 tified with the creation of what, I am sure, will prove a great 
 and influential organization. I feel that the incorporation of this 
 association is the beginning of a movement that will be of last- 
 ing and substantial aid in the administration of justice. 
 
 I have been requested at this initial meeting to "make a few 
 remarks on behalf of the court" of which I have the honor to 
 be a member. I speak for the special and trial term Justices of 
 the Supreme Court, of the State of New York, in the First De- 
 partment. I beg to assure the active members of the association 
 that these judges approve of, and are in full sympathy with, the 
 purposes of the organization and promise their earnest support. 
 They accept with profound thanks the honorary membership so 
 cordially and generously conferred upon them by your by-laws 
 and will take the greatest pleasure in availing themselves of the 
 advantages offered. 
 
 It is gratifying to be able to say that our judges to-day ap- 
 preciate the fact that the stability of government rests upon its 
 judicial system and its proper administration. They realize that 
 upon courts presided over by capable and independent judges, 
 aided by competent and conscientious lawyers, and intelligent 
 and honest jurors, depend all our property rights and civil liber- 
 ties. They join most heartily with the bar in a systematic effort 
 to facilitate the administration of justice. 
 
29 
 
 We do not assume to arrogate to ourselves all the virtues and 
 all the efficiency. There is abundant room for improvement in 
 judicial work. In this connection I may say we have too many 
 divided courts and too often lack of unanimity in the decisions 
 of the appellate tribunals. 
 
 While the prevailing opinion makes the law for the particular 
 case in which it is rendered, it loses much of its usefulness for 
 application in future analogous cases when it represents a bare 
 majority of the court. The tendency of such decisions is to 
 weaken the confidence of litigants and the public in the sound- 
 ness of the judgments rendered. But recently, in our Appellate 
 Term, a new question arose affecting large interests and attract- 
 ing much attention among business men as well as members of 
 the bar. We struggled with it to the best of our ability, but 
 passed it along by a divided court. In the Appellate Division it 
 met the same fate, and we looked to the Court of Appeals for a 
 strong and unanimous proclamation of the law. Alas, two lead- 
 ing members of that distinguished tribunal were arrayed upon 
 opposite sides. The judgment is decisive of all cases involving 
 exactly the same facts, but the principles upon which it rests re- 
 main the subject of discussion and are of little value as guides 
 for future advice and action. 
 
 In considering the views of these two great judges I con- 
 stantly recall the familiar couplet: "How happy I could be with 
 either, were the other dear charmer away." 
 
 Let me not be understood as seeing anything discouraging in 
 the present administration of the law. 
 
 The so-called "good old times" were not the best times. We 
 get a jolt now and then that reminds us that we are mortal 
 and fallible. But, Mr. President, when all is said it will appear 
 that we are living to-day with more happiness and prosperity, 
 upon a higher grade of morality and under better laws than ever 
 before. Fraud has never increased in equal proportion with the 
 increase of trade and civilization. The modern security of life 
 and property of every description represents the triumph of new 
 ideas over old. 
 
30 
 
 The organization of this Association is a step forward and up- 
 ward. Let us put our shoulders together and push on the good 
 work. It is by united effort on the part of the practitioner, the 
 advocate and the judge that the higher ideals may be reached and 
 better results attained. 
 
 In my own particular field of labor, in disposing of appeals 
 from the courts of inferior jurisdiction, I often marvel at the 
 industry and ability of young lawyers displayed in briefs on ques- 
 tions involved in small cases where pecuniary "reward must neces- 
 sarily be very inadequate, and feel quite ashamed of my own 
 hurried and imperfect work. The class of lawyers to whom I 
 refer are numerous and are in close touch with the great body 
 of our citizens. While the amounts in dispute are small, they 
 mean a great deal to the clients. The spirit of loyalty and de- 
 votion manifested by attorneys in this class of cases deserves the 
 highest commendation. It evidences the presence of a pride in 
 professional labor that money cannot buy and that all should 
 emulate. 
 
 Permit me, in conclusion, to direct attention to the purpose 
 last named in the certificate of incorporation: — "The cherishing 
 of the spirit of brotherhood among the members.'' Too often a 
 day in court is made arduous and disagreeable by the scant 
 courtesy and nagging disposition of lawyers, and sometimes by 
 the lack of patience and forbearance on the part of the judge. 
 You have wisely determined that the promotion of charity and 
 good will toward one another shall be one of the objects of the 
 organization. When the meridian of life is passed a tendency 
 develops in most men to look backward on things past. In such 
 moments it is comforting to feel and be able to say, that through 
 life: 
 
 "Being a man, I have looked on every other, 
 Born as myself, no stranger, but a brother." 
 
Address of Judge Alton B. Parker, Vice- 
 President of the Association 
 
 Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Bench, and Fellow Mem- 
 bers of the New York County Lawyers' Association : 
 
 We are not met here for purposes of personal gain. No 
 one, I venture to say, expects that his client will benefit or his 
 business prosper the more because of his participation in the 
 work of this Association. Certainly the many judges have no 
 such expectation, who encourage us by their presence here to- 
 night, and stimulate us by the words of wisdom and Godspeed 
 that have been spoken by the representatives of both state and 
 federal bench. 
 
 What then, is our purpose? The answer comes readily from 
 the heart of every member of the Association — We are here 
 working together in this Association because we have ideals. 
 Each of us would elevate the standard of the profession, 
 strengthen the Bench and make the administration of justice more 
 simple, more rapid, more exact. Not one of us expects that the 
 standard which we have set will be reached ; on the contrary, we 
 expect to fall far short of it. But that fact does not discourage, 
 for we know that however much below the standard we may 
 come, nevertheless, a higher average level than the present one 
 will be attained by the combined effort to realize a lofty, and, it 
 may be, an impossible standard. 
 
 Nor is it alone because of our pride in and love for the great 
 profession to which we belong, that we as lawyers make the ef- 
 fort to further the cause of professional ethics. It is due, I 
 think more to the desire for the general public good, since in 
 the end the public are the greatest beneficiaries of a strict ob- 
 servance of ethical rules by the members of the profession. 
 
 In the formation of this Association an experiment is being 
 
32 
 
 made. I, at least, know of no bar association organized on 
 the same foundation. We have in this city the Association of 
 the Bar of the City of New York, an association which has be- 
 hind it a glorious, useful past, and for which I prophesy a still 
 greater future, an association to which I deem it a great honor 
 to belong and one in which I always expect to take a great in- 
 terest. Indeed, I would advise every member of this Associa- 
 tion who feels he can afford to become a member of two, to 
 join it; just as the members of that association are joining this 
 one in the hope and belief that there is a broad field for the work 
 of both associations, so for the same reason and actuated by the 
 same motive, members of this association should join the other. 
 Co-operating together, they may the more easily accomplish the 
 ideals of the profession. 
 
 I have said that the foundation principle of this Association 
 is experimental, and, so far as my knowledge goes, the state- 
 ment is correct. The American Bar Association, the State Bar 
 Association and the local associations with which I am at all 
 familiar admit only those members of the Bar whose admission 
 has been voted for either by a Board of Directors, an executive 
 or other committee, or by the members of the association as- 
 sembled pursuant to notice. The foundation principle of this 
 association consists in the recognition of the absolute right of a 
 member of the Bar to join the Association. It rests upon the 
 just presumption that the Appellate Courts of this state perform 
 their duty. That before a man is admitted to the Bar, he is 
 not only subjected to a test of fitness, but also to a test of char- 
 acter, so that when the cerificate of membership is issued to him 
 it carries with it the presumption that he is legally competent to 
 enter upon the practise of his profession and morally qualified as 
 well. Hence this Association says to all members of the Bar- 
 present to us the proof of your membership in the Bar of this 
 county, and the fact that you are engaged in the practice of the 
 law here, and you may enter, for your competency and character 
 as established before the court, this Association presumes con- 
 tinues. 
 
33 
 
 But let no one for a moment suppose that the character of a 
 member of the bar is not the thing of first importance with this 
 Association. Let no one be deceived with the thought that his 
 entry into this Association operates as an "immunity bath" for 
 breach of professional conduct since his coming to the Bar. For 
 it is one of the objects of this Association to punish members for 
 unprofessional conduct. It matters not whether the offense was 
 committed before or subsequent to his admission to the Associa- 
 tion, for it is one of our leading purposes to rid the profession 
 and the public from the burden of the dishonest and dishonor- 
 able lawyer. In the accomplishment of that purpose a rule has 
 been formulated, which naturally suggests itself to a citizen of 
 this country, namely, that in attempting to punish the guilty, we 
 cannot be too careful lest we injure the innocent. Therefore it 
 is, that the Committee on Discipline is one of very great im- 
 portance. It is the grand jury of this Association. It receives 
 the charge which is made against a brother member, and then in 
 secret investigates it, so that no harm may come to the good name 
 and the fame of the member against whom the charge is made 
 in case it turns out that it is unjust and prompted either by 
 malice or mistake of fact. If, however, the Committee shall 
 reach the conclusion that the evidence presented warrants a trial 
 of the person accused, then the whole question is turned over to 
 the great court of the Association consisting of twenty-four direc- 
 tors. There before the court, the like of which judging by the 
 present membership there is not to be found in the country, the 
 accused will have a full and fair hearing ; and if two-thirds of the 
 directors vote that the charge against him has been proved, judg- 
 ment will be meted out to him suspending or expelling him as the 
 character of the offence seems to require. In case of expulsion, 
 the case will not stop there, for the Association will then through 
 its proper committee become the prosecutor before the Appellate 
 Division for the purpose of eliminating the offender from the 
 ranks of the profession. 
 
 It is a further aim of this Association to render assistance to 
 the Appellate Division in the investigation of the character of 
 
34 
 
 applicants for membership in the Bar. There are other inter- 
 esting and very important features of the Association work to be 
 found outlined in its constitution and laws, as to which I must 
 omit reference because of the necessary limitation upon my time. 
 The object of the Association is most praiseworthy, as all 
 will agree. The scheme which it has adopted as the most avail- 
 able one for the furtherance of the object is yet to be tried, but it 
 seems to me there can be no doubt whatever of its great triumph, 
 provided the members of the Association, its committees and 
 officers fail not in the performance of the duties incumbent upon 
 them. 
 
Address of Judge Joseph F. Daly, Vice-Pres- 
 ident of the Association 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: 
 
 The very first advantage we derive from our new Association 
 is the valuable information gained to-night. The charming ad- 
 dress of Judge Ward has enlightened us as to the real character 
 of that formidable personage, the "Philadelphia Lawyer," here- 
 tofore erroneously supposed to be the sharpest practitioner in 
 the United States. We feel that, had we been present upon the 
 interesting occasion in the Philadelphia Court, narrated by his 
 Honor, and had observed the defeated attorney preparing to leave 
 the Court room immediately after the oral decision against him, 
 we should never have supposed that he was, as the boys say, 
 going to "lie down" under the adverse judgment, but we should 
 have suspected that he was simply slipping out to prepare a stay 
 of proceedings. It is good to know that our estimate of that fine 
 body of practitioners needs to be revised, and to have its charac- 
 ter rehabilitated by the unquestioned authority of our Federal 
 Court. 
 
 And then there is the information imparted to us by our good 
 friend, Justice Clarke, that before his disposition was soured 
 by the bad conduct of the Bar, he had his amiable moments. 
 Most of us knew the fact and all of us supected it; but it is 
 gratifying to have it judicially established; and we in turn wish 
 to say to the Judge that the legal fraternity, by the formation of 
 this Society, gives assurance that hereafter it means to be good. 
 And now as to the purposes of this Association. It will not 
 be necessary for me to repeat what has been said by the previous 
 speakers, nor possible to present the topic in language as felici- 
 tous as theirs; but when I was notified that I was expected to 
 speak, I made a note of certain views which, if you will permit 
 
36 
 
 me, I will give you from the paper. There is one advantage in 
 reading what you have to say— you know when you have got 
 
 through. 
 
 To begin with: I am sure that this meeting realizes a hope 
 long cherished by the members of the Bar— and that is for the 
 union of the gentlemen of the legal profession on a broad and 
 liberal basis, in order to exert for the good of the legal fraternity, 
 and necessarily for the good of the public, a potent influence in 
 all that relates to the administration of justice. 
 
 It is unnecessary to argue that our whole social and industrial 
 fabric rests upon those agencies which secure to every one protec- 
 tion for his individual rights. Those agencies are first the 
 Courts of Justice and next the sworn ministers of those Courts, 
 the counsel whose oath of office requires them to support the 
 Constitutions and the laws. Hence every effort made by that 
 great body of professionals to attain the highest standard of prin- 
 ciple is a work of the greatest public importance, and it is a work 
 which nobody but themselves can perform. 
 
 It is equally unnecessary therefore to argue that the growth 
 and multiplication of lawyers' societies or bar associations is of 
 the greatest benefit to the community ; that there can be no ques- 
 tion of rivalry between such bodies and that even a suggestion of 
 emulation is inappropriate — for whenever but two or three law- 
 years are gathered together to work for the attainment of high 
 ideals in the profession, an influence is exerted which swells the 
 sum of the general good. 
 
 Our present City Bar Association has been doing for nearly 
 forty years and will continue to do, good work within the limita- 
 tions it has set for itself. The birth of this new Society is due 
 to the conviction among lawyers generally that what is needed is 
 this: That when occasion requires, the whole body of the Bar 
 of this county shall be able to make its voice heard and that if 
 it is ever to speak, if it is ever to make its speech effective and 
 to wield the power that lies dormant in its vast membership, 
 it must be through such an organization as we have now 
 formed. 
 
37 
 
 With this conviction you have by your constitution done two 
 things which are absolutely new in lawyers' societies : You have 
 made every lawyer whose name remains upon the roll of attor- 
 neys of the Supreme Court of this County, eligible for admis- 
 sion to your roll of membership, thus making your society an 
 association of the whole Bar with all that such breadth and liber- 
 ality of purpose imply in power and influence ; and next you have 
 provided the means by which in extreme cases, when political 
 corruption or aggression attempts the Bench, the whole Bar of 
 this county may use its power to wrest from any political 
 machine, the nomination and election of judges. 
 
 In order to do the work of the Association which concerns 
 the public interests, you have provided fourteen committees of 
 twenty-one members each, embracing the subjects of Membership, 
 Discipline, Publication, Professional Ethics, Practice and Pro- 
 cedure of the Supreme Court of this Department, the Federal 
 Court, the Surrogates' Court, the City Court, the Municipal 
 Courts, the Criminal Courts, Legislation, Admission to the Bar 
 and Court Houses and Court rooms. The large membership of 
 each committee assures it the benefit of every shade of opinion. 
 
 An immediate practical duty is to provide for the comfort and 
 convenience of the members of the Bar when in attendance upon 
 the Courts with their clients and witnesses. Not second to the 
 question of choosing a location for the court house of the future, 
 is the question of convenience of the lawyers now and in the 
 future. No interest has been so little regarded by civic authori- 
 ties as that of the legal profession. Perhaps the commissioners 
 and architects who provide unsanitary Court rooms and in- 
 adequate means of reaching them, can hardly be expected to con- 
 sider the needs of the profession for whom, it may reasonably 
 be said, Court Houses are built. 
 
 It is entirely feasible to have the upper story of a great Court 
 House devoted to a law library, consultation rooms and waiting 
 .rooms for lawyers, litigants and witnesses. It will be deemed in- 
 dispensable in any future Court House and it should be imme- 
 diately considered with reference to the structures we now have. 
 
38 
 
 If the Bar is united in demanding it, it can be provided. Mean- 
 while, it will be the duty of this Society to acquire temporary 
 quarters, to supply, in some measure the needs of the profession 
 practicing in the County Court House. 
 
 Then there is a continuous duty : Our profession, which by the 
 organization of such a society as this has evinced its high sense 
 of the honor of the office held by its members, has avowed a pur- 
 pose to keep that profession to a high standard. By making the 
 only qualification for admission to our ranks enrollment in the 
 ranks of attorneys, we necessarily assert that unfitness for our 
 membership implies unfitness for the profession, and we neces- 
 sarily assume the obligation of seeing that removal from one 
 means removal from the other. 
 
 Above all, we have the greatest of all duties to perform to 
 protect the public and private interests in all that pertains to the 
 administration of justice. The Bar has never exerted its proper 
 influence in that direction. What is its right? To see that the 
 judicial department of our State Government is secured from in- 
 terference by political or other influences which tend to impair 
 its independence or to lower its tone. 
 
 At one time the judicial office in this county was esteemed 
 to be so honorable as to be an object of aspiration regardless of 
 money reward. To attain it, lawyers sacrificed the pecuniary 
 emoluments of the profession. It is possible to restore it to 
 its former honor and greatness. 
 
 We must begin by securing its absolute independence, and, in 
 my opinion, the way to do this is to make the judicial office a 
 life office — that is to say, an office to be held during good behavior 
 and up to any age limit which the people may choose to impose. 
 After retirement at such age limit, a competent pension for life 
 should follow an honorable termination of the office. The public 
 would acquire a priceless advantage by such a system. 
 
 And to show how important I regard the life tenure, I would 
 have a constitutional amendment as soon as possible declaring that 
 the present incumbents of our courts should hold office during 
 good behavior and until the age of seventy ; and that every judicial 
 
39 
 
 officer hereafter chosen should be elected for a similar term. I 
 believe in an elective rather than an appointive judiciary; but if 
 the people believe that they discern the qualifications for the 
 judicial office in any man, they will find those qualifications en- 
 larged by conferring upon him an independence of every re- 
 straint except that of his oath of office. 
 
 Then I would begin at once by restoring to the body of our 
 trial justices the power to administer their own judicial business. 
 At this day they do not make their own rules nor their own as- 
 signment of terms. This power was taken from them at the 
 time of the consolidation of the courts and conferred upon the 
 Appellate Division under a timidity for which there existed then 
 and now not the slightest justification. With the power in the 
 trial justices to send cases from the law side to the equity side 
 as daily opportunity presents itself, there is norquestion that the 
 work of the courts would be better distributed and more rapidly 
 performed. 
 
 As a parting word, let the Bar be bold and outspoken in 
 holding its own members and its own judicial officers to a high 
 standard of duty, and, on the other hand, in protecting its 
 courts and its judges from every assault upon their independence. 
 In both they will have the hearty good will of the judiciary, which 
 recognizes the value of the one as well as of the other. Nothing 
 is truer than that the Bar can have just the judges and the 
 courts that it wants. As Ihave said once before and I repeat, 
 the legal profession should always remember that a courageous 
 Bar makes an incorruptible Judiciary. 
 
New York County Lawyers' Association and 
 Its Objects* 
 
 By J. Noble Hayes. 
 
 What is' the New York County Lawyer's Association? What 
 does it expect to accomplish for the legal profession? Why 
 was it formed as an association independent of the venerable 
 Association of the Bar of the City of New York? And what 
 are its prospects of success? 
 
 These are the questions which many lawyers throughout the 
 country are asking and which it will be the object of this article 
 in a measure to answer. 
 
 In the first place, it may be said with little fear of contra- 
 diction that the New York County Lawyers' Association repre- 
 sents the most systematic and thoroughly organized effort ever 
 made in any American city to unite the members of its bar in an 
 effective working organization for the protection of their pro- 
 fessional interests, the maintenance of high standards of honor 
 among its members, the safeguarding of the courts of justice, 
 and the promotion of the orderly development of the science and 
 practice of the law. 
 
 The significance of the movement and its possibilities for good 
 become apparent when it is considered that there are upwards of 
 12,000 practicing lawyers in that portion of the greater city em- 
 braced within the county of New York, 3,000 of whom have 
 joined in forming the Association and have agreed to pay annual 
 dues of $10 a year, before it has had an opportunity to do more 
 than adopt by-laws, elect officers, organize its standing commit- 
 tees, and project its career; and before it is able to offer its mem- 
 
 *This article appeared in Green Bag of August, 1908. 
 
41 
 
 bers any immediate material advantages or conveniences in the 
 way of a library, club house, or other permanent place of meeting. 
 
 The Association is organized upon the broadest and most 
 catholic lines. It aims to include in its membership every law- 
 yer engaged in practice in the county of New York. Its funda- 
 mental postulate is that whoever is deemed fit by the state to 
 practice law is prima facie qualified for membership in the Law- 
 yers' Association of the county. Its doors are accordingly thrown 
 wide open to all. 
 
 The provisions of its by-laws relating to qualifications for 
 membership are as follows : 
 
 "Article VI. Section i. "Every attorney or counsellor of the 
 Supreme Court of the State of New York, in active practice and 
 having an office in the County of New York, shall be eligible to 
 membership in the Association." 
 
 Over this membership the Association proposes to exercise 
 not only a protective but a disciplinary influence. 
 
 The movement was entirely popular in its origin, and had its 
 inception in a resolution passed at a general meeting of the bar of 
 the county in the fall of 1907 at Carnegie Hall, called for the 
 purpose of taking action on impending local judicial nominations 
 and other business that might be brought before it. A com- 
 mittee of twenty-five appointed by the chairman of the meeting, 
 Mr. Strauss, in obedience to this resolution, was subsequently 
 enlarged to a committee of one hundred and fifty members of the 
 bar, carefully selected by the original committee. 
 
 The result of the labors of this large and representative com- 
 mittee is the present rapidly growing Association of 3,000 mem- 
 bers, which held its initial annual meeting on May 21, 1908. At 
 this meeting notable addresses were delivered by its venerable 
 and distinguished President, Ex-Judge John F. Dillon, and 
 two of its Vice-Presidents, Ex- Judge Alton B. Parker and 
 Ex-Judge Joseph F. Daly, and by Judge Ward, of the 
 United States Circuit Court of Appeals, representing the 
 Federal Judges of the District; Justice Clarke, representing the 
 Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Department, and 
 
42 
 
 Justice Gildersleeve, representing the Justices of the Supreme 
 Court. Certainly no professional association was ever launched 
 under more favorable and distinguished auspices. 
 
 The address of Judge Dillon outlining the high purpose of the 
 Association is a classic, written and delivered in the best style of 
 that great jurist and orator, and will be long remembered by the 
 great body of lawyers who were assembled to hear it. 
 
 The governing power of the Association is vested in a board 
 of thirty directors consisting of its President, three Vice-Presi- 
 dents, Secretary and Treasurer, and twenty-four members of the 
 Association at large, divided into three equal classes, serving one, 
 two, and three years, respectively, one class being elected each 
 year. 
 
 The general work of the Association is divided up among 
 fourteen great standing committees, each being appointed by the 
 President, and also divided into three equal classes, as in the case 
 of the Board of Directors, to which the committees report in most 
 instances before committing the Association to any final action 
 upon measures of importance and general interest. 
 
 The scheme of government thus devised is one of highly cen- 
 tralized power and widely diffused activity, it being the design to 
 encourage as large a number of lawyers as possible to engage in 
 the work of the Association, and to specialize it for that purpose 
 and to ensure efficiency; and at the same time to hold it all to- 
 gether and prevent divergent and conflicting action on the part 
 of various committees, by the central control of the Board of 
 Directors. 
 
 The standing committees of the Association, which are indica- 
 tive of its objects, are as follows: A House Committee, a Mem- 
 bership Committee, a Committee on Discipline, a Library and 
 Publication Committee, a Committee on Professional Ethics, a 
 Committee on the Judiciary, a Committee on the Practice and 
 Procedure in the Supreme Court of the First Judicial Department, 
 a Committee on the Federal Court and Procedure, a Committee on 
 the Practice and Procedure in the Surrogates' Court of the County 
 of New York, a Committee on the Practice and Procedure in the 
 
43 
 
 City Court of the City of New York, a Committee on the Practice 
 and Procedure in the Municipal Courts, a Committee on Courts 
 of Criminal Procedure, a Committee on Legislation, a Committee 
 on Admission to the Bar of Attorneys and Counsellors at Law, a 
 Committee on Court Houses and Court Rooms, and a Committee 
 on Gratuity Fund. 
 
 But it is realized that all this paraphernalia of committees and 
 boards and procedure will be ineffectual to accomplish the ob- 
 jects of the Association unless it be supported by an active and 
 general interest on the part of its members; and it is, therefore, 
 one, if not the chief, object of the Association to create and foster 
 a strong professional sense, or esprit de corps, which shall extend 
 throughout all ranks of the great army of lawyers who make up 
 the active and learned bar of New York County, and inspirit 
 them to unite upon all matters of common interest ; that the com- 
 manding influence of the entire bar may be fully exerted upon 
 its own affairs, and that it may be restored to the position of 
 power and influence which the bar of the city once held and which 
 is the rightful heritage of the profession in all times and places. 
 
 This spirit has been sadly lacking in the county bar since it 
 became such a vast unorganized body, but it is now thought that 
 with the formation of the new Association the bar of New York 
 has "come to its own." 
 
 Another purpose of the organization is to provide for the 
 common everyday comfort and convenience of the members of 
 the bar, which have been so sadly neglected for years by those 
 whose duty it is to provide adequate facilities and accommoda- 
 tions for the bar as well as the bench in and about the courts. The 
 New York lawyer has never known such a luxury as a lavatory, a 
 coat room or writing room in the County Court House, much 
 less a lunch room, or library that he can consult ; these are ameni- 
 ties which he becomes familiar with only when he journeys into 
 some other county or state. The Temple of Justke which the 
 metropolis of America provides for its Supreme Court is the 
 malodorous, inadequate and unsanitary old "Tweed Court 
 House," which stands as a spectacle, and a monument to past in- 
 
44 
 
 famies, and a warning to the future. The judges have not had 
 sufficient influence to obtain relief from the city government, and 
 the bar has exerted no influence upon the matter whatever; not 
 because it has not suffered but because it has been unorganized 
 and strangely helpless and acquiescent in all matters pertaining 
 to the needs of the profession. 
 
 The Association proposes not only to provide its members 
 with a commodious club house as soon as one can be built or 
 purchased, and until it can be provided with suitable quarters by 
 the city in the contemplated "New County Court House," but it 
 proposes to acquire the use, if not the ownership of the great 
 Lav Institute Library now in the Post Office Building, and to 
 place it at the disposal of its members at or near the court house; 
 and negotiations to that end are in progress. The placing of this 
 great library within easy reach of twelve thousand members of 
 the bar will, it may be assumed, have a very great educational 
 significance and accomplish the object of its founders to an ex- 
 tent not heretofore attained; and this is the view taken by the 
 Directors of the Law Institute. 
 
 Another object which the Association has in view, of supreme 
 importance and significance, is indicated by the section of its by- 
 laws defining the function of its "Committee on the Judiciary." 
 As it presents some features which are novel, it is given in full 
 and is as follows : 
 
 "Section 3. Prior to the fourth Monday in September in each 
 year in which a judicial office is to be filled by election in the 
 County of New York the Committee on Judiciary and the Direc- 
 tors shall meet on the call of five members of either, to decide 
 whether a general meeting of the Association shall be called for 
 the purpose of determining whether the Association shall take 
 any action in nominating candidates for such office or recommend- 
 ing candidates to the respective political parties for nomination. 
 Said Committee and the Board of Directors acting as a joint 
 Committee on Nominations shall make rules for the calling and 
 conduct of such general meeting of the Association and for the 
 voting thereat. Seven hundred and fifty members shall constitute 
 
45 
 
 a quorum at such meeting. If at such meeting it shall be deter- 
 mined to nominate or recommend candidates for such office or 
 offices, then an adjournment of the meeting shall be taken for not 
 less than one week; at such adjourned meeting a like number 
 shall constitute a quorum, and there shall be submitted at such 
 meeting a printed ballot to be made up of candidates proposed by 
 the Directors and Judiciary Committee of the Association acting 
 as a Joint Committee on Nominations and also candidates nomi- 
 nated by petition of at least two hundred and fifty members of 
 the Association, provided such nomination or nominations by peti- 
 tion shall have been given to the Chairman of the Directors forty- 
 eight hours before the adjourned meeting. The ballot shall con- 
 tain the names of the persons so nominated alphabetically ar- 
 ranged and the office for which the nomination is made, dis- 
 tinguishing the nominations by the Joint Committee on Nomina- 
 tions, and the voting upon such ballot shall be by making a cross 
 before each name voted for. The candidates on such ballot 
 chosen by two-thirds of the members present and voting at such 
 meeting shall be the candidates of the Association ; and if it shall 
 be resolved to nominate candidates, the said Joint Committee on 
 Nominations shall cause to be circulated the necessary petition 
 for such nomination to be filed with the proper officers in order 
 that the candidates may have a place upon the official ballot ; and 
 it shall select the party symbol and designation under which the 
 said ticket shall appear on the official ballot when this shall be 
 necessary under the form of ballot then existing, and do all other 
 things necessary in the premises. The rules governing the voting 
 at such adjourned meeting shall be made by the said Joint 
 Committee." 
 
 This section of the by-laws was adopted in the committee 
 which framed them after long and animated discussion, and was 
 at once the most important and carefully debated provision which 
 they contain. While it was thought most desirable to keep the 
 Association out of politics in every way, it was recognized that 
 the whole system which it is designed to develop and protect 
 centers in the judiciary, and that it could not decline the responsi- 
 
46 
 
 bility of asserting itself in behalf of a pure and enlightened bench, 
 should occasion arise. The founders of the Association had in 
 mind the recent failure of the Judicial Nominators' Association 
 of 1906, which did not receive the support of the bar because of 
 the unpopular and undemocratic manner in which the move- 
 ment was organized, but carried its worthy candidates down to 
 ignominious and unnecessary defeat. They therefore decided to 
 place a sword in the hands of this young champion of the bar, 
 that it might strike effectually, should a supreme occasion arise, 
 when the politicians, disregarding its protests, should attempt to 
 degrade the bench by unfit nominations. 
 
 A protest from a bar association which has behind it the 
 entire bar of the county of New York, which stands ready to 
 enforce it by an independent campaign, if necessary, is not apt to 
 be disregarded by either political party. The section is so framed 
 as to safeguard the Association from any attempt on the part of 
 small cliques to use the Association in a political campaign for 
 personal ends. Its successful working will depend upon the 
 creation of a general sentiment among its members that they 
 should be lawyers before they are politicians in all matters affect- 
 ing professional interests. 
 
 But the reader will ask, why was not all this attempted to be 
 carried out by means of the historic organization known as the 
 Association of the Bar of the City of New York, which has occu- 
 pied the field since 1867? Why form a new Association? The 
 answer is that the old Association has never been able to reach 
 more than a comparatively small, though very influential, part 
 of the bar. Of the twelve thousand practicing attorneys in this 
 county but nineteen hundred are on its list of membership. It 
 partakes of the nature of a social club, and its doors are by no 
 means thrown open indiscriminately to the rank and file of the 
 bar. Its membership dues are $50 a year, and its library and 
 club house are situated too far from the Court House and busi- 
 ness center of the city (about three miles) to be generally avail- 
 able. Its policies have always been negative policies, and it is 
 not constructive, but critical merely, in its aims. Its studied con- 
 
47 
 
 servatism has been at the expense of popularity; and it cannot 
 be said that it has proven effective on many occasions in influ- 
 encing public opinion. Many abuses have grown up during its 
 time seriously affecting the administration of justice in the 
 city, the correction of which it has left to others. Its member- 
 ship has always been of the most distinguished character; and it 
 has been governed wisely, within its limits, by a clique of very 
 eminent gentlemen who are sometimes spoken of as the "Old 
 Guard of the Bar" and who have been the soul of many reform 
 movements outside the Association. Their control within the 
 Bar Association has been too absolute to diffuse general interest 
 in its affairs, its important meetings are poorly attended because 
 debate is discouraged, and this is felt most among its younger 
 members, although by no means confined to them. It is an asso- 
 siation of great prestige but little real power and no initiative. 
 That it has been and is a great conservative body of essential 
 usefulness and high purposes none will be found to question. A 
 large percentage of the lawyers who have joined the new and 
 more democratic Association, and are upon its most important 
 committees, are its members and they have joined the Lawyers' 
 Association not because of any lack of loyalty to the old Associa- 
 tion but because they see the uses of the new, and believe it will 
 form a potent ally and not a rival in the common cause of main- 
 taining high standards upon the bench and at the bar, and promot- 
 ing the efficiency of the courts of justice. 
 
 Such are the principal if not the only reasons why New York 
 County has two bar associations. If there is an essential differ- 
 ence between the two it consists in this, that the policy of the 
 Association of the Bar has been to distrust the profession as a 
 whole and guard against action by it, while the policy of the 
 Lawyers' Association is to trust it and encourage it to action, in 
 the belief that the real leaders will lead and the just cause tri- 
 umph, and that anything is better than supineness, — a difference, 
 perhaps, after all of method. 
 
 The experiment is one of great importance to the New York 
 bar, and will be watched with deep interest, no doubt, by the bar 
 
4R 
 
 of the entire country, for standards set up here are seen afar off 
 and have a far-reaching influence. "A city that is set on an 
 hill cannot be hid." 
 
 Will the new Association succeed? 
 
 The answer is, it has already achieved a large and unprece- 
 dented measure of success considering its very recent origin. It 
 is to-day one of the large if not the largest lawyers' associations 
 in the country. Its principal officers are men of national reputa- 
 tions. Its membership of 3000 will, it is anticipated, be in- 
 creased to 5000 by the end of the year ; and there appears to be 
 no reason why it should not soon include every reputable mem- 
 ber of the bar of the county;- for as soon as it is in full working 
 order its advantages to members of the bar will be so manifest 
 as to make it indispensable to all. This will insure it a very large 
 income with which to carry on its work. But its greatest prom- 
 ise of success is the enthusiasm of its members and the unselfish 
 devotion which they have thus far shown to its interests. 
 
 Few movements such as this achieve the full measure of their 
 anticipations, although it is given to some to far exceed them. 
 But it may be said in all reason and moderation that the New 
 York County Lawyers' Association has the promise of becoming 
 one of the most powerful and influential bodies in the land— a 
 new force in the legal world to help ennoble and uplift the pro- 
 fession and inspire it with devotion. 
 
 New York, N. Y, July 1, 1908. 
 
Certificate of Incorporation 
 
 OF THE 
 
 New York County Lawyers' Association 
 
 We, the undersigned, all being persons of full age and each 
 and all being attorneys or counsellors of the Supreme Court of 
 New York State in active practice, residing or having our offices 
 in New York County, desiring to form a Bar Association, pur- 
 suant to and in conformity with an Act of the Legislature of the 
 State of New York, passed May 8, 1895, entitled, "An Act Re- 
 lating to Membership Corporations," and the several Acts of the 
 said Legislature amendatory thereof and supplemental thereto, 
 do hereby certify, declare, sign, acknowledge and file this Cer- 
 tificate for that purpose as follows: 
 
 First: The name of the proposed Bar Association is the 
 New York County Lawyers' Association. 
 
 Second: The purposes for which said Association is to be 
 formed, are: the cultivation of the science of jurisprudence; the 
 promotion of reforms in the law; the facilitation of the adminis- 
 tration of justice'; the elevation of the standards of integrity, 
 honor and courtesy in the legal profession ; the cherishing of the 
 spirit of brotherhood among the members of said Association. 
 
 Third: The County in which the operations of said Asso- 
 ciation are to be conducted is New York County. 
 
 Fourth : The principal office of said Association is to be lo- 
 cated in the City of New York. 
 
 Fifth: The number of its Directors shall be thirty (30). 
 
so 
 
 Sixth : The names and places of residence of the persons to 
 be the Directors of said Association until the first annual meet- 
 ing are as follows: 
 
 Names. Places of Residence. 
 
 George Gordon Battle New York City 
 
 James L. Bishop '. New. York City 
 
 Joseph F. Daly Yonkers, New York 
 
 Robert E. Deyo New York City 
 
 John F. Dillon New York City 
 
 John R. Dos Passos New York City 
 
 J. Hampden Dougherty New York City 
 
 Willis B. Dowd New York City 
 
 Abram I. Elkus New York City 
 
 Abraham Goldsmith , New York City 
 
 Edward M. Grout New York City 
 
 J. Noble Hayes New York City 
 
 Daniel P. Hays New York City 
 
 William A. Keener New York City 
 
 L. Laflin Kellogg New York City 
 
 Edward Lauterbach New York City 
 
 John Brooks Leavitt New York City 
 
 Benno Lewinson New York City 
 
 David McClure New York City 
 
 Alton B. Parker New York City 
 
 Roger A. Pryor New York City 
 
 Rastus S. Ransom New York City 
 
 Charles E. Rushmore New York City 
 
 George W. Kirch wey New York City 
 
 Denis A. Spellissy New York City 
 
 Charles Strauss New York City 
 
 Samuel Untermyer New York City 
 
 William J. Wallace Albany, New York 
 
 Archibald R. Watson New York City 
 
 Charles S. Whitman New York City 
 
 Seventh : The time for holding the annual meeting of said 
 Association shall be on the fourth Tuesday of April in each year. 
 
51 
 
 In Witness Whereof, we have hereunto set our hands and 
 have executed this Certificate in duplicate on the seventh day of 
 April, 1908. 
 
 John F. Dillon, 
 Joseph F. Daly, 
 Chas. Strauss, 
 J. Noble Hayes, 
 J. Hampden Dougherty, 
 S. Hanford, 
 W. G. Peckham, 
 David McClure, 
 W. M. K. Olcott, 
 John B. Stanchfield, 
 Richard J. Donovan, 
 Edward A. Sumner, 
 Francis L. Wellman, 
 Thos. L. Feitner, 
 Denis A. Spellissy, 
 William A. Boyd, 
 Abraham Goldsmith, 
 Julius Henry Cohen, 
 Rastus S. Ransom, 
 Rush Taggart, 
 Morris J. Hirsch, 
 Benno Lewinson, 
 Michael J. Horan, 
 Charles E. Manierre, 
 Ernest Hall, 
 Alfred L. M. Bullowa, 
 Nathan Bijur, 
 Clarence D. Ashley, 
 Willis B. Dowd, 
 Richard Welling, 
 Charles S. Whitman, 
 George W. Alger, 
 Thos. C. Ennever, 
 Michael Gavin, 2d, 
 
 Alton B. Parker, 
 Morgan J. O'Brien, 
 Louis Marshall, 
 Paul D. Cravath, 
 Saml. Untermyer, 
 Henry W. Taft, 
 George Gordon Battle, 
 Jacob Fromme, 
 Joseph Fettretch, 
 Saml. Hoff, 
 Everett P. Wheeler, 
 Daniel T. Kimball, 
 John Sherwin Crosby, 
 W. A. Purrington, 
 Edgar M. Leventritt, 
 Peter R. Gatens, 
 Samson Lachman, 
 John Jerome Rooney, 
 Alfred B. Cruikshank, 
 John E. O'Brien, 
 Wm. Hepburn Russell, 
 Carlisle Norwood, 
 A. J. Dittenhoefer, 
 Jacob A. Cantor, 
 George Chase, 
 Wm. S. Cogswell, 
 Henry K. Davis, 
 Charles H. Duell, 
 Antonio C. Astarita, 
 Louis Lande, 
 Chas. Blandy, 
 John K. M. Ewing, 
 Abram J. Rose, 
 Daniel F. Cohalan, 
 
52 
 
 Nath. S. Smith, 
 Chas. E. Rushmore, 
 Moses R. Ryttenberg, 
 Wm. H. Wadhams, 
 Alfred Steckler, 
 Courtlandt Nicoll, 
 William W. Gooch, 
 Henry L. Scheuerman, 
 Thos. S. Fuller, 
 Henry W. Jessup, 
 B. F. Einstein, 
 Roger A. Pryor, 
 Robert E. Deyo, 
 William A. Keener, 
 Frederick Trevor Hill, 
 Jesse S. L'Amoreaux, 
 John Brooks Leavitt, 
 Charles F. Brown, 
 Edw. Browne, 
 W. C. Beecher, 
 Chas. W. Stapleton, 
 Gilbert H. Crawford, 
 Norman Johnson, 
 Edward M. Burghard, 
 Paul R. Towne, 
 Harry Hubbard, 
 Ira Leo Bamberger, 
 Henry Aplington, 
 Dudley R. Horton, 
 Alfred R. Page, 
 Jas. C. deLaMare, 
 Louis F. Doyle, 
 Wm. Houston Kenyon, 
 James Kearney, 
 Gilbert D. Lamb, 
 Henry M. Gold f ogle, 
 John R. Dos Passos, 
 
 Archibald 
 
 Richard B. Kelly, 
 Mortimer C. Addoms, 
 Henry D. Hotchkiss, 
 Arthur v. Briesen, 
 Frank Moss, 
 Charles Steckler, 
 Jordan J. Rollins, 
 Chas. F. Bauerdorf, 
 William J. Wallace, 
 Henry S. Hooker, 
 L. Laflin Kellogg, 
 Lewis L. Delafield, 
 John J. Delany, 
 James M. Beck, 
 Clark Bell, 
 Edward Lauterbach, 
 Fred H. Comstock, 
 James L. Bishop, 
 John G. Agar, 
 Edward Russell, 
 Robert Kelly Prentice, 
 John Theall, 
 Leopold Leo, 
 Frank J. Dupignac, 
 O. H. Cheney, 
 Frank Harvey Field, 
 Charles O. Maas, 
 Robert Ludlow Fowler, 
 Theodore Sutro, 
 Stuart G. Gibboney, 
 Roger Foster, 
 Appleton D. Palmer, 
 Jno. J. Adams, 
 George W. Kirchwey, 
 Abram I. Elkns, 
 Edward M. Grout, 
 Frederick L. Taylor, 
 R. Watson. 
 
 The foregoing signers of the certificate of incorporation duly acknowl- 
 edged their respective signatures before Harry B. Simon and Henry A. Sittig, 
 Notaries Public for New York County, on the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, 
 thirteenth, fourteenth, twentieth and twenty-first days of April, 1908. 
 
Officers and Directors 
 
 President, 
 John F. Dillon. 
 
 Vice-Presiden ts : 
 
 Alton B. Parker, 
 
 Joseph F. Daly, 
 
 William J. Wallace. 
 
 Secretary, 
 Charles Strauss. 
 
 Treasurer, 
 Denis A. Spellissy. 
 
 Directors. 
 Class of 1909: 
 Willis B. Dowd, J. Noble Hayes, 
 
 David McClure, , Abram I. Elkns, 
 
 George W. Kirchwey, Robert E. Deyo, 
 
 John Brooks Leavitt, Abraham Goldsmith. 
 
 Class of 1910 : 
 L. Laflin Kellogg, George Gordon Battle, 
 
 Samuel Untermyer, Edward M. Grout, 
 
 Archibald R. Watson, John R. Dos Passos, 
 
 Daniel P. Hays, Rastus S. Ransom. 
 
 Class of 1911: 
 Benno Lewinson, J. Hampden Dougherty, 
 
 William A. Keener, Roger A. Pryor, 
 
 Edward Lauterbach, Charles S. Whitman, 
 
 Charles E. Rushmore, James L. Bishop. 
 
 The Officers of the Association are also Members of Board of 
 Directors. 
 
List of Committees 
 
 George C. Austin 
 De Witt Bailey 
 Robert B. Livingston 
 
 HOUSE COMMITTEE 
 
 Charles C. Nadal 
 
 Abram J. Rose, Chairman 
 
 Lindsay Russell, Secretary 
 Charles D. Stickney 
 
 MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE 
 
 Class of 1909 
 Frederick H. Comstock 
 Richard J. Donovan, Sec'y 
 Sydney W. Fry 
 Morris J. Hirsch 
 Daniel T. Kimball 
 Franklin Pierce 
 Nathaniel S. Smith 
 
 Class of 19 10 
 
 Nathan Bijur 
 
 Louis F. Doyle, Chairman 
 
 Thomas F. Gilroy, Jr. 
 
 Norman Johnson 
 
 Jesse S. L'Amoreaux 
 
 William C. Reddy 
 
 George A. Steves 
 
 Class of 1911 
 Toseph G. Deane 
 Frederick E. Fishel 
 Herman Herst, Jr. 
 Paul L. Kiernan 
 Arthur C. Palmer 
 Michael J. Scanlan 
 William R. Wilder 
 
 COMMITTEE ON DISCIPLINE 
 
 Class of 1909 
 Henry Willard Bean 
 Richard H. Clarke, Jr, 
 Abram I. Elkus 
 Abraham Goldsmith 
 John J. McKelvey 
 Frederick F. Neuman 
 Wm. Henry Knox 
 
 Class of 1910 
 George W. Carr 
 John J. Delany 
 Joseph Fettretch 
 Arthur Gutman 
 John Brooks Leavitt, 
 
 Chairman 
 Sterling Pierson 
 John S. Sheppard, Jr. 
 
 Class of 191 i 
 George Chase 
 Samuel Owen Edmonds 
 Merrill E. Gates, Jr. 
 Daniel P. Hays 
 Alfred L. Manierre 
 Lawson Purdy 
 Archibald R. Watson, Sec'y 
 
 LIBRARY AND PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 
 
 Class of 1909 
 Frederick E. Anderson 
 Robert E. Deyo 
 Hector M- Hitchings 
 Louis S. Posner 
 William A. Purrington, 
 
 Chairman 
 Alexander L. Strouse, Sec'y 
 Mornay Williams 
 
 Class of 19 10 
 Charles Henry Butler 
 Robert Louis Hoguet 
 Frank Harvey Field 
 Donald McLean 
 AppletonD. Palmer 
 Mary G. Quackenbos 
 Charles Steckler 
 
 Class of 191 i 
 
 R. Floyd Clarke 
 Frederick Trevor Hill 
 Benno Lewinson 
 Rollin M. Morgan 
 Joseph M. Proskauer 
 Jordan J. Rollins 
 Howard Payson Wilds 
 
 COMMITTEE ON PROFESSIONAL ETHICS 
 
 Class of 1909 
 John G. Agar 
 Robert Ludlow Fowler 
 William A. Keener 
 Fulton McMahon 
 Edmonds Puitney, Secretary 
 William Mason Smith 
 Everett P. Wheeler, 
 
 Chairman 
 
 Class of 1910 
 Charles A. Boston 
 Thomas H. Hubbard 
 George C. Kobbe 
 Abraham Meserole 
 Samuel Riker, Jr. 
 Theodore Sutro 
 Edward B. Whitney 
 
 Class of 191 i 
 David T. Davis 
 Henry W. Jessup 
 George Alex. MacDonald 
 Taylor More 
 Angel T. Simpson 
 Howard Taylor 
 Mornay Williams 
 
 COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 
 
 Class of 1909 
 James L. Bishop 
 .benjamin F. Einstein 
 D-Cady Herrick 
 Alexander T. Mason 
 Edmund L. Mooney 
 Theron R. Strong, Sec'y 
 Benjamin F. Tracy 
 
 Class of 1910 
 John S. Crosby 
 Edward W." Hatch^ 
 
 Chairman 
 Charles E. Lydecker 
 David McClure 
 Hamilton Odell 
 Henry W. Taft 
 Robert L. Wensley 
 
 Class of 191 1 
 William J. Curtis 
 Eugene D. Hawkins 
 Louis Marshall 
 John J. McCook 
 John B. Stanchfield 
 Brainard Tolles 
 John L. Wilkie 
 
55 
 
 COMMITTEE ON THE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE IN THE 
 SUPREME COURT OF THE FIRST JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT 
 
 Class of 1909 
 Mortimer C. Addoms 
 John S. Davenport 
 Julius J. Frank 
 Charles M. Ingrahani 
 John E. O'Brien 
 Roger A. Pryor 
 Martin L. Stover 
 
 Class of 19 10 
 Charles F. Brown, 
 
 Chairman 
 Lewis L. Delafield, Sec'y 
 Edward M. Grout 
 Frank V. Johnson 
 Henry Parsons 
 Henry A. Robinson 
 George W. Wingate 
 
 Class of 19 11 
 William S. Cogswell 
 Abram J. Dittenhoefer 
 Ernest Hall 
 Francis L. Minton 
 Francis K. Pendleton 
 Edward E. Sprague 
 Henry Wollman 
 
 COMMITTEE ON THE FEDERAL COURT AND PROCEDURE 
 
 Class of 1909 
 Peter Alexander 
 Samuel R. Betts 
 Roger Foster 
 Harry Hubbard 
 Allan McCulloh 
 Lorenzo Semple 
 William J. Underwood 
 
 Class of 19 10 
 Tames M. Beck 
 Harold Binney 
 Claude Gignoux 
 William H. Kenyon 
 Herman A. Ruebsamen 
 William Wickham Smith, 
 
 Chairman 
 William Ford Upson 
 
 Class of 191 i 
 Abraham Benedict 
 Charles H. Duell 
 John W. Griggs 
 Alfred W. Kiddle 
 Charles E. Rushmore 
 Rush Taggurt 
 Henry F. Wolff, Secretary 
 
 COMMITTEE ON THE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE IN THE 
 SURROGATES' COURT OF THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK 
 
 Class of 1909 
 Charles F. Bauerdorf 
 James C. Church 
 Edward H. Fallows 
 Abraham L. Jacobs 
 Charles O. Maas 
 Nathaniel D. Reich, Sec'y 
 Leo G. Rosenblatt 
 
 Class of 19 10 
 
 George Wfcitefield Betts, Jr. 
 Henry L. Bogert 
 Gilbert H. Crawford 
 Paul Grout 
 Frank Keck 
 Ferdinand R. Minrath 
 Abraham Stern 
 
 Class of 191 i 
 Charles M. Cannon 
 Leonidas Dennis 
 Charles J. Hardy 
 Ferdinand Kurzman 
 Rastus S. Ransom, 
 
 Chairman 
 William R. Rose 
 John Theall 
 
 COMMITTEE ON THE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE IN THE 
 CITY COURT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 Class of 1909 
 Herman Aaron 
 Clarence T. Black 
 Augustus B. Carrington 
 Samuel Hoff 
 Leopold Leo 
 Carl S. Petrasch, Sec'y 
 William H. Wadhams 
 
 Class of 191 
 Everett V. Abbott 
 Edward Browne 
 Orion H. Cheney 
 James W. Hyde, Chairman 
 Hugo S. Mack 
 Paul R. Towne 
 Isidor Wasservogel 
 
 Class of 191 i 
 T. Astley Atkins 
 Ernest A. Cardozo 
 Emil Goldmark 
 Gilbert D. Lamb 
 Edward J. McGanney 
 Robert Van Iderstine 
 Hugo Wintner- 
 
 COMMITTEE ON THE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE IN THE 
 MUNICIPAL COURTS 
 
 Class of 1909 
 Yorke Allen, Secretary 
 James T. Brady 
 Stuart G. Gibboney 
 James Kearney 
 Louis Levene 
 Gustavus A. Rogers 
 Eugene Lanier Sykes 
 
 Class of 19 10 
 Milton J. Bach 
 Guy Cary 
 James F. Higgins 
 George H. Kracht 
 Herbert Noble 
 Victor H. Stockell 
 Cuy Van Amringe 
 
 Class of 1911 
 Eugene D. Boyer 
 Willis Bruce Dowd, 
 
 Chairman 
 John W. Hutchinson, Jr. 
 Frederic C. Leubuscher 
 H. Gordon Pierce 
 Arthur B. Spingarn 
 Mitchell Wetherhorn 
 
56 
 
 COMMITTEE ON COURTS OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE 
 
 Class of 1909 
 William C Beecher 
 Peter R. Gatens 
 Solomon Hanford 
 Frank Moss 
 Andrew D. Parker 
 John Jerome Rooney 
 Bartow S. Weeks 
 
 Class of 1910 
 Alfred B. Cruikshank 
 Henry M. Goldfogle 
 William M. Ivins 
 William M. K. Olcott 
 Robert K. Prentice 
 Isaac Franklin Russell 
 Francis L. Wellman 
 
 Class of 191 1 
 James A. Delehanty, Sec'y 
 La Roy S. Gove 
 Martin W. Littleton 
 James W. Osborne 
 William Rand, Jr. 
 Samuel Thome, Jr. 
 Charles S. Whitman^ 
 
 Chairman 
 
 COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION 
 
 Class of 1909 
 George W. Alger, Sec'y 
 Julius Henry Cohen 
 Nathaniel A. Elsberg 
 Walter Lindner 
 Robert C. Morris 
 Thomas E. Rush 
 Samuel S. Slater 
 
 Class of 1910 
 M. Linn Bruce 
 T. Hampden Dougherty 
 J. Noble Hayes, Chairman 
 Julius M. Mayer 
 Charles D. Olendorf 
 William Hepburn Russell 
 Samuel Untermyer 
 
 Class of 191 1 
 Jacob A. Cantor 
 William B. Ellison 
 Edward B. La Fetra 
 Edward J. McGuire 
 Henry Pegram 
 Clarence J. Shearn 
 John De Witt Warner 
 
 COMMITTEE ON ADMISSION TO THE BAR OF ATTORNEYS 
 AND COUNSELLORS AT LAW 
 
 Class of 1909 
 Clarence D. Ashley 
 Michael Gavin, 2nd 
 Edwin L. Kalish 
 John Mason Knox 
 Chase Mellen 
 Charles W. Ridgway 
 Seth Sprague Terry 
 
 Class of 19 10 
 Morris Cukor 
 William W. Gooch 
 George W. Kirchwey 
 John Larkin 
 S. K. Lichtenstein 
 Courtlandt Nicoll 
 David Thornton 
 
 Class of 1911 
 John R. Dos Passos, 
 
 Chairman 
 Henry D. Hotchkiss 
 Antonio Knauth 
 Robert L. Luce 
 Eliot Norton 
 
 Edward A. Sumner, Sec'y 
 Cornelius B. Tyler 
 
 COMMITTEE ON COURT HOUSES AND COURT ROOMS 
 
 Class of 1909 
 George Gordon Battle 
 Paul D. Cravath 
 William J. Fanning 
 Jacob Fromme 
 L. Laflin Kellogg, 
 
 Chairman 
 Carlisle Norwood 
 Charles Pvitzel 
 
 Class of 191a 
 William P. Burr 
 Charles Stewart Davison 
 Thomas L. Feitner 
 M. J. Horan 
 Edward Lauterbach 
 N. Taylor Phillips 
 Eugene L. Richards 
 
 Class of 191 i 
 George S. Coleman 
 Frank J. Dupignac 
 William L. Findley 
 Felix Jellenik, Secretary 
 Julius J. Lyons 
 Charles W. Pierson 
 Martin Saxe 
 
 Frederick Beltz 
 Joseph C. Levi 
 
 COMMITTEE ON GRATUITY FUND 
 
 Wm. P. S. Melvin W. G. Peckham, Chairman 
 
 Edwin S. Merrill, Sec'y 
 
 COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS 
 
 Arthur von Briesen 
 William Nelson Cromwell 
 B. F. Einstein 
 T. C. Ennever 
 Paul Fuller 
 
 Edward W. Hatch 
 Thomas H. Hubbard 
 Adrian H. Joline 
 Richard B. Kelly 
 Samson Lachman 
 
 Charles MacVeagh 
 R. Burnham Moffat 
 Morgan J. O'Brien 
 William S. Opdyke 
 Roger A. Pryor 
 
KF 33^ N531 
 
 Author Vol. 
 
 New York county lawyers assoc 
 
 Addresses delivered at the first ° Py 
 annual mtg. 1 QoR ; 
 
 Date 
 
 Borrower's Name