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practice, as in the judgment of the committee tend to secure a proper reform of the laws.

It is the duty of the committee on legal education and admission to the bar to recommend to the faculty of the University of Law a course of study to be pursued as a qualification for admission to the bar, and to recommend to the Supreme Court a standard of education and qualification to be adhered to as prerequisite of admission to the bar.

The committee has recommended a three years' course of study as a prerequisite to admission and the passing of an examination on twenty-seven different subjects covering every branch of substantive law and practice as an essential qualification of admission to practice. These recommendations have been approved by the Supreme Court, and the result has been to give to the state in the past five years a large number of young lawyers well versed in the law and thoroughly equipped in the practice.

The disbarment committee consists of three attorneys who have supervision of all complaints made to the association against members of the bar of the state, whether members of the association or not.

It is their duty to investigate all such complaints when they are substantiated by affidavits or documentary evidence supporting the charges. They must fix a day for the hearing of the proofs of the charges, give the accused at least ten days' notice of such hearing and permit him to appear and produce before the committee any evidence he may desire to submit. The investigation must be made secretly and without any publicity whatsoever, and if the committee find from their investigation that further investigation is necessary, it is their duty. to prepare and file in the office of the clerk of the Supreme Court an accusation in accordance with the provisions of the Revised Codes relating to disbarment, and see that it is presented in that court.

The Legislature has prescribed by statute that all complaints against members of the bar shall be referred to the Bar Association, and its officers and committees are clothed with authority to subpoena witnesses and administer oaths.

The expenses of conducting investigations and prosecutions are by law an absolute charge against the state. There is an annual appropriation of one thousand ($1,000.00) dollars by the state for this purpose, to be disbursed under direction of the Supreme Court.

The attitude of the association toward good government is well expressed by Hon. John E. Greene, of Minot, who was president of the association in 1912, and who in the annual address to the association at Jamestown, September 3, 1912, said:

"If we are to aid in securing good government, we must participate in every controversy, the issue of which may affect the stability and efficiency of any department of the government. Any law which threatens that stability and efficiency is an assault upon the justice which guarantees to every man that which is his due. And shall we, as ministers of justice, stand idly by while laws are made which tie the hands of her judges, disgrace her courts, and make mockery of the immutable principles which, in and by her name, have won every battle for human liberty, sanctified the noblest efforts, and crowned with amazing success the worthiest ambitions of men? Let it not be understood that the enactment of such laws is regarded as a necessary result of the present agitation with

respect to governmental reforms. But we must not overlook the possibilities. History admonishes that the excessive zeal of advocates of radical measures has often so aroused the passions of the people that their action has reached extremes undreamed of by their most enthusiastic leaders. The existence of such conditions presents a rare opportunity for the bar, through conscientious and concerted action, to demonstrate its fidelity to the common good, and render worthy service to a somewhat bewildered people. It can be done by proceeding, with diligence and energy, to weed out from our laws those things which make it possible to defeat justice by delay; which hedge about the courts with a network of useless technicality in the matter of pleadings, objections, exceptions, assignments, and specifications of error, statements of the case, bills of exceptions, and many other things which bring no light or aid to courts or juries in determining the rights of litigants; things which make unjustly expensive the processes of appeal, and which make records on appeal confusing instead of helpful to the Appellate Court.

"If we can demonstrate to the people that it is the purpose of the lawyers of the state, acting through this association, to simplify the procedure and to shorten the time between the summons and the judgment, we shall not only help the litigant, but we shall help ourselves and satisfy the people that the bar deserves more consideration than it has had from them in recent years.

"Every lawyer knows that these reforms in matters of procedure are the things which the profession wants, and that reforms in other things to be mentioned later, are needed, but members of the profession have heretofore been indifferent to their own welfare, and to that of their clients, and so the reforms. have not come. The people have also the right to expect from the bar direction and aid in securing upright and capable judges. It is the imperative duty of every lawyer, and of the county, district and state bar associations, to use every legitimate means to insure the selection, for such positions, of the men having the highest qualifications therefor. Neither partisanship nor any other consideration should deter the bar from taking the most advanced position in this matter. Our critics may accuse the association of mixing in politics if it undertakes to influence the judgment of the people in these things.

"We need not hesitate to plead guilty to the accusation. Under our system of state government the election of judges is a political affair of the highest order. And shall not that body of men which can best judge of the qualifications of lawyers for judicial office indulge in the politics which involves the selection of such officers?

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"We may not, and we ought not, to suffer partisanship to enter into this question, but the politics of a judicial campaign is a thing apart from partisanship. In every such campaign, a bar association should be the most active, the most potent factor in it.

"The enactment of laws to shorten and make plain the highways of justice, and the selection of upright and wise men to administer justice according to those laws, are the things which, more than all others, give strength and stability to government.

"This association under its constitution stands pledged to aid in securing good government, and especially to the maintenance of the highest standard of the judiciary. Within the bar of the state exists the ability and the power to promote and attain these things, and if in the accomplishment of them we must

resort to politics, it is incumbent upon the bar, by bringing those qualities into action, to demonstrate to the people of this state that it can be done, and that the bar is the cleanest and most progressive political power in the state.

"Steadfastly and earnestly pursuing such a course, we shall soon find the people of this state looking to us for guidance in these important concerns, with confidence in our loyalty to their interests as well as to our own. We owe it to ourselves and to the cause of justice to put ourselves into such a relationship to the people of this state and their government.

"It was my privilege last winter to hear one of the greatest of American lawyers and statesmen, when addressing a similar organization, use words which ought to kindle some enthusiasm in the heart of any lawyer. He said:

""We have believed, we have always believed, our fathers believed, our government is founded upon the belief, that for the weakest and the humblest, be he a criminal condemned to death, be he without friends, money or power, or influence, whoever speaks in the name of that justice which is superior to human désires and impulses and wishes, has behind him the power of the deliberate and mature judgment of the people in their sober moments, when the voice of the people. is the voice of God.

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'There is one thing which above all others has seemed to me to make the advocate of essential value to the preservation of liberty and the maintenance of justice, and that is that he fears not the face of power. With all our shortcomings, with all the wide variation of character, and the many differing degrees of ability and force which are found in an association of lawyers like this, there is one thing among all the lawyers of America we are sure to find, and that is, that for the weakest, for the poorest, for the most unnoted and uncared for client, we fear not, not one of us, not the weakest of us, to assert rights against all overwhelming power whatever. So long as there exists in a civil community a great body of men who have that characteristic, liberty cannot die.''

REFORM OF CIVIL PROCEDURE

The aim of the association is to have the civil procedure improved and simplified by rules of court rather than by legislative enactment. It realizes that legislative reform is a slow process, that it can be had only at long intervals, while such reform as the courts themselves have the power to apply can be had without delay. Small defects in procedure, or mere verbal inaccuracies, may render a law inoperative. Amendment by law of such defects or inaccuracies is of necessity slow, while reform by rules of court is elastic and defects and inaccuracies can be readily amended, modified and perfected as time and experience may demonstrate. The whole subject matter is peculiarly within the province of the judicial department, and it is to be hoped that the bar association will labor with the Legislature until it ceases to legislate on procedure and relegates the entire subject to the courts. The present tendency in North Dakota is toward making changes in and additions to our laws easier, and to invite into the field of legislative activity the entire electorate of the state. It is not surprising that those who are giving intelligent thought to questions of civil government should begin to devise plans for placing beyond the reach of legislative interference the subjects of practice and procedure in the courts.

Elihu Root, president of the Bar Association of New York, in 1911, commenting on this subject, said:

"Comparison between the two statutes reveals plainly the fact that for many years we have been pursuing the policy of attempting to regulate by specific and minute statutory enactment all the details of the process by which, under a multitude of varying conditions, suitors may get their rights.

"Such a policy never ends. The attempt to cover by express, specific enactment, every conceivable contingency, inevitably leads to continual discovery of new contingencies and unanticipated results, requiring continual amendment and supplement. Whatever we do to our Code, so long as the present theory of legislation is followed the Code will continue to grow and the vast mass of specific and technical provisions will continue to increase. I submit to the judgment of the profession that the method is wrong, the theory is wrong, and that the true remedy is to sweep from our statute books the whole mass of detailed provisions and substitute a simple practice act containing only the necessary fundamental rules of procedure, leaving all the rest to the rules of court. When that has been done the Legislature should leave our procedure alone."

Again in the same address, and referring to the practice under the New York Code as it now is, he said:

"Let me recall some of the effects of such a system as we now have, well known as they are to all of us. The system of attempting to cover every minute detail with legislation appropriate to every conceivable set of circumstances is to create a great number of statutory rights which the courts are bound to respect because they are the law; which suitors are entitled to demand because the law gives them. In some cases they may contribute to the attainment of justice. In other cases they may obstruct it. The courts cannot apply the rule of justice. because they must apply the law. These artificial statutory rights become the subject matter of special litigation intervening between the demand for redress and the attainment of it."

OFFICERS SINCE ORGANIZATION

Presidents

Seth Newman, Fargo, 1899-1902.

James H. Bosard, Grand Forks, 1902-1904.
H. A. Libby, Park River, 1904-1906.

John Carmody, Hillsboro, 1906-1907.
S. E. Ellsworth, Jamestown, 1907-1908.
F. H. Register, Bismarck, 1908-1909.
Lee Combs, Valley City, 1909-1910.
Andrew A. Bruce, Grand Forks, 1910-1911.
John E. Greene, Minot, 1911-1913.
A. G. Divet, Wahpeton, 1913-1914.
John Knauf, Jamestown, 1914-1915.
B. W. Shaw, Mandan, 1915-1916.

Secretaries

W. J. Burke, Bathgate, 1899-1902.
W. H. Thomas, Leeds, 1902-1912.
W. H. Stutsman, Mandan, 1912-1913.
Oscar J. Seiler, Jamestown, 1913-1916.

CHAPTER XXIX

PROHIBITION

A brief statement of the sentiment of the Territory of Dakota prior to its division into separate states is essential to a clear understanding of the steps. which led to the adoption by the Constitutional Convention of an article prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, and providing for its submission for ratification or rejection, to a separate vote at the election which should be called for the adoption of the constitution.

Many people both of North and South Dakota were opposed to the license system for the sale of intoxicating liquors, which had been the policy of the territory from its creation. This license system made it possible for saloons to exist in every city, town and village of the territory. Saloons were everywhere, saloonmen were dominant political factors and were in many localities the controlling influence in the selection of county, city and school officers.

Temperance people denounced the lawlessness of the saloonmen and led by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, inaugurated in the early 80's systematic work for the extermination of saloons and the eliminating of saloonmen as political powers in the territory. Their agitation and efforts in behalf of temperance awakened public sentiment and the Territorial Legislature chosen in 1887 was opposed to the license system and favorable to prohibition. It enacted a county local option law, and it was approved by the then governor of the state, Louis K. Church, on the 11th day of March, 1887.

A number of counties by vote substituted the prohibition policy for the license system and the battle for the banishment of saloons from the territory was earnestly waged, and the sentiment for absolute prohibition throughout the territory marched forward by leaps and bounds.

The Territorial Legislature which assembled at Bismarck in January, 1889, was favorable to prohibition. A bill providing for it throughout the territory was passed by the Council, but on the 22d day of February, 1889, the Congress of the United States had passed, and President Cleveland had approved, the so-called "Enabling Act," in which was a provision for the division of the territory, and its admission to the Union as two separate states.

OCCUPATION GONE

The Territorial Legislature wisely concluded its "occupation was gone" and therefore the House defeated the prohibition bill of the Council and relegated the entire subject to the prospective states. This bill was practically and literally a copy of the statute of Kansas on the subject, and was the foundation upon

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