Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/423



HE approach of the new year led many newspapers to request the expression of some thought upon its advent. I complied with one such request in this way:

“Let us arise upon new year's morning with the determination that throughout the year we will do more to develop our own latent virtues and less in the way of criticism of the defects of other people. Let us resolve to do honest work, to proclaim it seldom, and to see as much good in others as possible.”

These suggestions were not altogether satisfactory because of the sting in the tail, and they led to the writing of more editorials.

One of the really able men in the state was David T. Watson, a Democratic lawyer in Pittsburgh. He was a man of fine literary skill and attainment and, like Hensel of Lancaster, was an illustration of my theory, opposed to that generally inculcated among lawyers, that a lawyer is strong professionally in proportion to the width of the field he covers. In other words, the power to think accurately is of more importance than technical information. It is what is digested and not what is taken into the mind and stomach that nourishes. Serious mental effort in various directions strengthens the faculty and makes a lawyer the better able to grasp legal problems. Watson came to see me concerning that part of my call for an extra session which related to Greater Pittsburgh and suggested a broadening of the language so as to have it include intervening territory. We lunched together at the executive mansion and talked the matter over. I had concluded to add civil service reform Rh