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The Green Bag
the associations as will include every reputable legal practitioner. We agree with the sentiment that it should be considered derogatory to a lawyer's standing in the profession for him to refuse, without exceptional reason, to contribute his influence to the common cause, and that every member of the bar in good standing should enroll him self in his state and national bar asso ciations. Anyone who hesitates thus to enroll himself may well be invited to consider the immeasurable benefit cer tain to result from a compactly organ ized legal profession. Every lawyer is interested in some degree in the advance ment of his profession on the higher side, and has thus a potential capacity for ameliorative effort which needs only to be organized in combination with the similar interest of others to become effective. We are pleased with the effort being made by the American Bar Association to broaden its membership. The ap pointment of a Committee on Increase of Membership indicates that the Asso ciation has a lively appreciation of the important public function it hasassumecl, which is, as defined by its constitution, "to advance the science of jurisprudence, promote the administration of justice and uniformity of legislation throughout
the Union, uphold the honor of the pro fession of the law, and encourage cordial intercourse among the members of the American bar." The activity of the Association in recent years has been one worthy of a dignified patriotic body meeting the responsibility of taking the initiative in matters of large public concern, and this decision to enlarge the membership comes as a happy mani festation of its increasing sphere of use fulness to the community, and of its determination to enlarge that usefulness in the future. The work already accom plished by the Association is known to most of our readers, and need not be catalogued here. That work, already an achievement of impressive magnitude, will bear even finer fruit in years to come.1 1 Stephen S. Gregory, President of the American Bar Association, has inaugurated a nation-wide movement for an increase in the membership of the Association, for the purpose of increasing the effi ciency of the organization in carrying out the pur poses for which it was organized. Charles J. O'Connor, of Chicago, who was active and successful in building up the membership of the Illinois Bar Association, has been selected as chairman of the special Committee on Increase of Membership. The committee is selected from leading lawyers in every federal judicial circuit. To be eligible to membership it is required that an applicant must have practised five years next preceding his election and must be a member in good standing of the bar of his state. The dues for membership are $5.00 per annum. There is no initiation expense.
The Lawyer's Patron Saint BY CHARLES B. CONNOLLY, PH.D., OF THE PHILADELPHIA BAR LONG years ago to Innocent The Pope, a famous lawyer went; 'Twas Anthony, a man of skill, Who came to draw the Pontiff's will.
