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The Green Bag

ethical code, it was requested to report upon the advisability and practicability of the adoption of such a code. In order that you may understand fully what was in the minds of the members of that Committee I shall read to you excerpts from its report made in 1906:— Your instructions direct us to report upon the "advisability and practicability" of the adoption of such a code. First, as to advisability. We are of opinion that the adoption of such a code is not only advisable, but under existing conditions of very great importance. There are several considerations moving us to this conclusion: 1. With Wilson, Webster, and others, we believe that "justice is the great interest of man on earth." And here in America, where justice reigns only by and through the people under forms of law, the lawyer is and must ever be the high-priest at the shrine of justice. Under our form of government, unless the system for establishing and dispensing justice is so developed and maintained that there shall be continued confidence on the part of the public in the fairness, integrity, and impartiality of its administration, there can be no lasting permanence to our republican institutions. Our profession is necessarily the keystone of the republican arch of govern ment. Weaken this keystone by allowing it to be increasingly subject to the corroding and demoralizing influence of those who are con trolled by graft, greed and gain, or other un worthy motive, and sooner or later the arch must fall. It follows that the future of the republic depends upon our maintenance of the shrine of justice pure and unsullied. We know it cannot be so maintained unless the conduct and motives of the members of our profession, of those who are the high-priests of justice, are what they ought to be. It therefore becomes our plain and simple duty, our patriotic duty, to use our influence in every legitimate way to help make the Ameri can bar what it ought to be. A code of ethics, adopted after due deliberation, and promulgated by the American Bar Associa tion, is one method in furtherance of this end. 2. With the marvelous growth and devel opment of our country and its resources, with the ranks of our profession ever extending, its

fields of activities ever widening, the lawyer's opportunities for good and evil are corre spondingly enlarged, and the limits have not been reached. We cannot be blind to the fact that, however high may be the motives of some, the trend of many is away from the ideals of the past, and the tendency more and more to reduce our high calling to the level of a trade, to a mere means of liveli hood, or of personal aggrandizement. With the influx of increasing numbers who seek admission to the profession mainly for its emoluments have come new and changed conditions. Once possible ostracism by pro fessional brethren was sufficient to keep from serious error the practitioner with no fixed ideals of ethical conduct; but now the shyster, the barratrously inclined, the ambulance chaser, the member of the bar with a system of runners, pursue their nefarious methods, with no check save the rope of sand of moral suasion so long as they stop short of actual fraud and violate no criminal law. These men believe themselves immune, the good or bad esteem of their colaborers is nothing to them, provided their itching fingers are not thereby stayed in their eager quest for lucre. Much as we regret to acknowledge it, we know such men are in our midst. Never having realized or grasped that indefinable ethical something which is the soul and spirit of law and of justice, they not only lower the morale within the profession, but they debase our high calling in the eyes of the public. They hamper the administration, and even at times subvert the ends, of justice. Such men are enemies of the republic, not true ministers of her courts of justice robed in the priestly garments of truth, honor and integ rity. All such are unworthy of a place upon the rolls of the great and noble profession of the law. 3. Members of the bar, like judges, are officers of the courts, and like judges should hold office only during good behavior. "Good behavior" should not be a vague, meaningless or shadowy term devoid of practical applica tion save in flagrant cases. It should be de fined and measured by such ethical standards, however high, as are necessary to keep the administration of justice pure and unsullied. Such standards may be crystallized into a written code of professional ethics, and a lawyer failing to conform thereto should not be permitted to practise or retain member ship in professional organizations, local or