I2
THE GREEN BAG
my first words towards them gave a hint. We want the people with us in this busi ness of promoting sound doctrine; nay, we must lean on the people if we would succeed, I will not say in the lower duty of teach ing law to students — my remarks would be senseless if they did not mean some thing quite different from that. We must lean on the people if we would hope to succeed in the higher duty of bringing the law into such perfect touch with them and their pursuits that all will be ready to say "We are content." I would hope to succeed still better than that, by enlisting the people at the outset in the attempt to bring the law, in fact as well as in theory, into prac tical conformity with the right of every man to carry out his reasonable purposes in life. May we not have ground to expect encouragement from the people if we make it clear that we are teaching young men a practical system of law, the law as it i s manifested in the actual course of admin istering justice in our day — the law as it is, unflinchingly, with all its defects — and then in addition that we are endeavor ing to impress on all who will listen, in the Law School and beyond, the importance, as a matter of patriotism, of working to better ends than those which the law has yet reached — may we not, with such aims expect encouragement as well as goodwill from the people"' I hope now that I have made it clear why I have been taking laymen into coun sel and confidence in looking into some of their everyday relations to the law and examining their grounds of complaint in regard to it. If now, from this point on I have to address myself more to the expert and the student, it will not be because I fear to make disclosure; it will be because I must necessarily appeal mainly to those more directly concerned with the adminis tration or study of the law. Still I shall hope that the substance of what I may have to say will not be lost upon any one who cares to hear me.
II No argument or setting out of illustra tions is needed to convince lawyers of the tendency of the law — its general tendency to follow the pursuits of men. To the lawyer that is a perfectly obvious fact; every day's experience with him shows it; he knows indeed fhat no system of law could stand which denied or was even indifferent to the idea. The only person who needs to be convinced on that point is the dis satisfied layman. But now I want to say, as the very point of this paper, that it is not enough that the general tendency of the law is right. You may put your ship about to port and set your sails to the favor ing winds, you may set your helm right but unless the needle points true and you are vigilant and faithful to your single aim, you will at best only drift, or tend, towards it. Tendency then should give way to definiteness of aim, and steady, persistent en deavor. As was said in one of the early paragraphs of this paper, by way of a key note to the whole subject, the law should become what it professes and tends to be; it should be in harmony everywhere with the pursuits of men. Law should follow business so long as men of business do not invade the rights of others or interfere with the welfare of the state. When this stage in civilization is reached, the law will be serving its purpose towards accomplishing the ends of existence. Legal education should, I think, be com mitted to this idea. The Law Schools, and the bar associations as well, by committing themselves to this definite idea, may power fully help on the consummation; directly and indirectly they have the power to bring it. to pass, perhaps within a single generation, certainly within the present century. The definite aim should be centred in our day. By the reasonable purposes of men is meant the purposes of men of to-day; the law should be an ever-living fact, a fact of
