Page:North Dakota Law Review Vol. 1 No. 2 (1924).pdf/5

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The following represents a portion of the letter transmitted recently by Hon. H. A. Bronson, retiring chief justice of the Supreme Court, to the President of the Association:

"Already, the Bar Association has made auspicious beginnings towards the attainment of its potential possibilities. A spirit of co-operation, interest and activity is manifested by the Committees of the Association and the membership at large. Through this co-operation, interest and activity, substantial results are already in evidence for the Bench and Bar of this State in the better and more efficient administration of justice.

"Now, to promote the betterment of the work of the Association, and the better co-operation and interest of its membership, there appears, through your initiative and that of your Executive Committee, a beginning in the field of journalism through the publication of a monthly journal, prepared, edited, and published by lawyers, members of the Association. This, at least, is the attainment of one objective which for some time I have inherently desired to see accomplished.

"As the New Year is nigh at hand, I desire to express my expectant wish that the Association, under your guidance and that of its Executive Committee, may gather unto itself, in the New Year, greater strength and still greater attainment of the beneficent purposes for which it has been established and that the monthly journal, just initiated, may enlist the active interest, co-operation and support of the entire Bar of this State."

Harrison A. Bronson

Chief Justice.

In acknowledging this letter, President Cupler expressed the kindly feelings existing on the part of the Bar towards the retiring member of our Supreme Court.

"Estimates presented at the recent meeting of the American Bankers Association fixed last year's losses to the owners of property, as the result of the operations of criminals of all kinds, at a sum that exceeded the total expenditures of the Federal Government in the same year. In other words, the losses resulting from dishonesty reached to between $3,000,000,000 and $4,000,000,000. This stupendous sum represents one year's cost of society's failure to measure and cope with crime.

"Justice James C. Cropsey of the Supreme Court of New York attributes over eighty per cent of crime to persons under twenty-five years of age. In his opinion, the average youthful criminal operates upon the theory that the world owes him a living. Justice Cropsey, therefore, finds that moral, instead of mental, deficiencies account for most criminal acts. According to his observations, the criminal proclivities of the young are due to inadequate home training and to the decline of religious