SEC. 2. By-Laws may be enacted, amended or repealed by a majority vote of the members present at any regular meeting.

RULE XII.

SECTION ON TAXATION.

SECTION 1. There is hereby created a Section on Taxation, such Section to consist of six members, two of whom shall be annually appointed by the Executive Committee to serve for three years, together with such other members of the association as may identify themselves with said Section, to aid the work thereof. Of those first appointed under this rule, two shall be appointed for one year, two for two years and two for three years each.

SEC. 2. Said Section will immediately upon its appointment organize by electing from the six members so appointed the following officers: President, Vice-President and Secretary, the duties of which shall be those usually performed by such officers.

SEC. 3. Said Section shall have a meeting annually in connection with the annual meeting of this Association, and as a part of the same, and in the arrangement of the program of the Association a definite time, not exceeding one morning or afternoon session, shall be set apart to the proceedings of this Section, and at such time the meeting will be presided over by the President of this Section.

SEC. 4. By the concurrent action of the President of the Section and at least a majority of the Executive Committee of the Associa tion, this Section shall be authorized to expend such sums of money as may reasonably appear to be necessary in collecting statistics, conducting investigation or in any other manner aiding the work of the Section.

SEC. 5. The proceedings of this Section shall be published under an appropriate heading and as a part of the proceedings of this Association.

The association was called to order by President A. E. Swisher at 11 o'clock A.M., July 13th, after which Rev. Murdoch McLeod pronounced the divine invocation as follows:

Almighty and ever blessed God, Thou infinite Spirit and Father of our spirits, we acknowledge Thee this day as our Creator. Thou hast made us in Thine image and put into our hearts a desire for Thee. We acknowledge Thee as our Sovereign King. Thou upholdest all things by the might of Thy power. Thou doest Thy will in the armies of the heavens and amongst the inhabitants of the earth. We acknowledge Thee to be our Judge. We confess the righteousness of Thy mandates and the equity of Thy dealings with the children of men. We beseech Thee now, grant a special manifestation of Thy presence during the session of this convention. We thank Thee that Thou hast so fully disclosed to us the fundamental principles of righteousness and given us Thy word a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We thank Thee that Thou hast declared Thyself a God of mercy. Thou dost not keep Thine anger forever. Thou art merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. We thank Thee for Jesus Christ, the word made flesh who has become for us the way, the truth and the life, Thy sublimest revelation to us and our supremest example of justice tempered with mercy. And now we humbly pray Thee, O God, that Thou wilt especially bless with Thy favor these who in Thy providence have been called to minister justice between man and man. May they be led into the truth by the Spirit of truth. Give them wisdom and a sound mind and in every way qualify them for their high calling. Bless them in their private lives as well as in their public

duty. May they be the true advocates of justice by example as well as precept.

Bless this convention. May the work done here serve to promote equity and amity in all the transactions of men and hasten the coming of the Kingdom of Peace and Righteousness. All this we humbly ask in the name of our great Advocate, Jesus Christ. Amen.

THE PRESIDENT: The address of welcome will be given by the Hon. James C. Davis, of Des Moines.

MR. DAVIS: Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the State Bar Association: I consider it an honor, as well as a pleasant privilege, on behalf of the lawyers of Des Moines and the Polk County Bar Association, to extend to the State Bar Association a cordial and hearty welcome to the city of Des Moines.

The quality of Des Moines hospitality, as extended to visiting conventions, has sometimes been the subject of criticism, but, with my comparatively recent residence in this community, I believe I can say that in no city in Iowa is there a warmer, more cordial and sincere Iowa welcome to the stranger that comes here than is accorded by the people of Des Moines.

In the matter of entertaining conventions, Des Moines is unique among the cities of Iowa. By reason of her central location and comparatively easy accessibility from all parts of the state, an average of two or more conventions a week, or more than one hundred in a year, are held here, and a convention is not a novelty to the general public.

The lawyers of Des Moines appreciate and value your presence here. We will, for the time the association is in Des Moines, abandon our usual occupations, and the latch-strings of our homes and offices are hanging on the outside for you.

I have no wish to digress from the subject assigned me, yet there are one or two thoughts near my heart which I desire to suggest. I am in the situation of a young German lawyer, quite diminutive in stature, who years ago was elected in Lee county as probate judge. The evening of the election he was serenaded by his constituents, and, after the music, was called upon for a speech. As he appeared on his front porch, in the presence of his admiring friends, he drew himself up with such dignity as he could command, and said: "Shentlemens, you see before you your

county shudge. When the heart is full the mouth overflows." (Laughter.)

One thought is the interest which the lawyers of Iowa should take in the success and growth of our state association. Our membership aggregates some four hundred and fifty; it should be one thousand; our average attendance, some two hundred; it should be five hundred.

An association of this kind tends to foster and encourage those kindly relations of friendship and fraternalism for which in other days our profession was noted, but which, in these modern times of driving work and materialism, we are neglecting. The new and extended friendships, the fair exchange of ideas upon subjects of mutual interest and benefit, and above all, the strengthened ties of professional brotherhood, will be ample compensation for the time spent.

Another thought is one which appeals to the heart of every true lawyer and to every lover of his profession. Is the profession of the law deteriorating? Are we actuated by the same high and splendid ideals which have ever been the pride and are the sacred heritage of the student of law? In this age of commercialism, in this fierce and bitter struggle for money, place, and power, are we drifting from those standards, those high standards of conduct of which we have always been so proud? Has the practice of the law become a mere occupation, as a means of livelihood, or do we follow it because of the love of the art, and the principles of justice, equity, and fair dealing upon which it is founded?

The profession of the law has always been the subject of some unkind criticism. I believe it was St. Luke, and I quote this authority with some reluctance, who wrote these words: "Woe unto you, also, ye lawyers, for ye lade men with burdens grievous to bear, and yet you yourselves touch not the burden with one of your fingers."

As Luke was a physician, I was always inclined to question his record, believing he might have been prejudiced by professional jealousy. (Laughter.)

It is said that Peter the Great, while in England, studying the manners and methods of the English people, after witnessing a trial in court remarked that, "there were only two lawyers in Russia, and when he returned home he would hang one of them."

The followers of Jack Cade, when he was issuing his proclama

tion as King, insisted, "The first thing we do let's kill all the lawyers," and at least one of the modern publications charges much of the oppression under which it is claimed the people are suffering, from the trusts and combinations, to the ingenuity and craftiness of the lawyers.

We members of the bar know that these charges and insinuations are not true; we know that, as a class, the lawyers are actuated by the highest principles of honesty, fair dealing, and justice; that they are entrusted, without bond or surety, with the property and sacred confidences of innumerable clients, whose interests are faithfully and wisely protected; from the ranks of the practicing lawyers are recruited the American judiciary, who have ever maintained that high standard of moral and judicial conduct as to strengthen and perpetuate the respect and regard for courts and law peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon race, and yet there are some abuses which we may correct.

I sometimes wonder if perjury is on the increase, or whether the eagerness for gain, the bitterness of dispute, and heat of contest, have always made men disregard the truth. We are all of us familiar with the recurring personal injury case, where the plaintiff, suffering in poverty some dreadful bodily injury, feels in his heart that the owner of the factory, the mine, the street car line, or the railroad company, in whose service he was injured, should at least in a measure compensate him. The attorney for the plaintiff, unable to withstand the irresistible temptation of the seductive and alluring contingent fee, marshalls his witnesses to testify in support of the theory of the plaintiff, in the language of the Supreme court; the attorney for the defendant, with an assumption of virtue he is probably not entitled to, concludes he must "fight the devil with fire," and his witnesses, bound together by the bonds of mutual employment, in turn testify in support of the theory of the defendant in the language of some other decision of the supreme court, and to vary the monotony of the appearance of the ordinary witness, medical experts upon either side, the number limited only by the indulgence of the court, swear to diagnoses and technical arguments diametrically opposed to each other, and a conscientious court and patient jury, led through a maze and labyrinth of conflicting and irreconcilable statements, search in vain for timid and reluctant truth, while the members of the bar, not interested in the case, sit complacently