Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/262

 grandest charter of human rights the world has ever seen, that if one attacks a foolish decision, up pops little Mr. Pettifogger and angrily accuses him of trying to undermine the very foundation of government—the constitution itself.

Many of our law schools have become mere trade schools, and their graduates, instead of being men well founded in the fundamental principles of law, turn out to be attorneys who know all the tricks of the technicalities, but are sadly deficient in a knowledge of the economic conditions, surrounding law.

How can we hope for anything else than a turning to commissions for help, right and justice with such a growing impatience of the justice administered by these tradesmen? The law schools, lacking as they do real appreciation of history and sympathy with democracy, have become, in many instances, seats of Bourbonism. If we are to believe with these men that the only law is the judge-made law, everything is in a static condition and the efforts of the legislature to change conditions are foolish and needless.

The fact is that away down in their hearts a goodly number of lawyers taught in our modern schools really do not believe in representative government at all. That for which our forefathers fought is to them a thing merely to be tolerated. Mr. Charles Bonaparte may not be considered the most conservative lawyer of his