THE REIGN OF LAW. 



BY JOSEPH WINQATE FOLK. 



[Joseph WinKftto Folk, f^ovcrnor of Missouri; born lirowiisvillo, Tonn., October 2S. 

 18G9; after completinf:; public- seliool course in Jirownsvilie, entered Vanderbilt uni- 

 versity, wliere he was graduated from tiie Law department in 1.S90; he returned to 

 Brownsville and opened a law office; a year later renu)Ved to St. Louis; he entered 

 actively into polities, and lirst came prominently befon; tiic St. Louis public during 

 the .street.'rail road .strike of lOOO, when he succeeded in successfully arbitrating the 

 difTiculties; was elected circuit attorney of St. Louis in 19U0, and in this onice won 

 national fame by prosecuting the "boodlers" ; was elected governor of Missouii in 

 1904.] 



The idea of the practice of law which makes it a matter 

 of quibbUng and pettifogging is a low and perverted one ; the 

 highest honor and integrity must mark the calling which deals 

 with the rights and liberties of the people. The lawyer is the 

 medium through which the law reaches the people and that 

 brings the public and the law into relations with each other. 

 The conmiission is a sacred one, to be zealously guarded and 

 exercised. Jack Cade in King Henry VI proposed to reform 

 England, and cheerfully advocated as the first step that all 

 the lawyers be killed. Such a state of society would hardly 

 be desirable. Wherever there is hberty, there must be law, 

 and wherever there is law, there must be lawyers. 



Lawyers are necessary to civil liberty, as civil liberty 

 rests upon law. The lawyer owes a duty to the public which 

 is high and sacred. The license to practice carries with it 

 obligations to society far above those of the layman. By 

 reason of his training and his position he is looked to for guid- 

 ance and advice and wields an influence for good or evil greater 

 than other men. In the early history of our government, law- 

 yers molded and shaped its destinies ; they builded the founda- 

 tion upon which the superstructure of states rests to-day ; they 

 bore the burdens of government, and were the pillars of the 

 young republic. It may well be questioned if the lawyers of 

 to-day, particularly in the large cities, as carefully fulfil their 

 civic obligations as their forefathers. There was a time when 

 the opinion of the upper thousand American lawyers would 

 sooner or later become the opinion of the American people. 

 This was so because they exercised their full duty in public 



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