Indiana Law Journal Volume 10 Issue 1 Article 1 10-1934 Proceedings of the Thirty-Eight Annual Meeting of the Indiana State Bar Association Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj Part of the Legal Profession Commons Recommended Citation (1934) "Proceedings of the Thirty-Eight Annual Meeting of the Indiana State Bar Association," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 10 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol10/iss1/1 This Special Feature is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Law Journal by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PROCEEDINGS OF THE Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting Indiana State Bar Association Held At LAKE WAVASEE, INDIANA JULY 12TH AND 13TH, 1934 THURSDAY MORNING July 12, 1934 The annual meeting of the Indiana State Bar Association convened at ten-fifteen, at the Spink-Wawasee Hotel, Lake Wawasee, Indiana, President Eli F. Seebirt, of South Bend, presiding. Mr. John W. Kitch, of Plymouth, extended a cordial welcome to the Asso- ciation on behalf of the Second District Bar Association. The response on behalf of the Association was made by Mr. T. Morton McDonald, Princeton. The Secretary-Treasurer's report was given by Thomas C. Batchelor. REPORT OF SECRETARY-TREASURER The Treasurer was charged at the time of the last annual meeting with the sum of --------------------------------------- $ 577.55 During the year I have received the following amounts: Dues ---------------------------------- $6,000.80 Advertising, Law journal ------------------- 602.00 Sales of Law journal ----------------------- 63.82 Miscellaneous ----------------------------- 38.50 Total --------------------------------- $7,282.67 2 INDIANA LAW JOURNAL As Treasurer, I have expended the following amounts: Law Journal expense ---------------------- $4,425.00 Secretary-Treasurer ------------------------ 966.00 Stationery and Postage --------------------- 488.18 Expense of meetings ---------------------- 516.39 Committee expense ------------------------- 229.55 Miscellaneous ------------------------------ 49.00 Total --------------------------------------- $6,674.12 608.55 Less check tax ------------------------------ 1.90 Leaving a balance on hand with which your Treasurer is charged ---------------------------- $ 606.65 Vice-President Wilmer T. Fox gave the report of the Membership Com- mittee, which on vote of the Association was received and filed. REPORT OF MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE The Membership Committee submits the following report for the year ending June 30, 1934: Membership on June 30, 1933 ------------------------ 1087 New Members added at $7.00 per year ------------------- 34 New Members added at $2.00 per year (junior) ----------- 62 Student Members added ------------------------------- 71 Grand Total ----------------------------------- 1254 Loss by death ---------------------------- 13 Loss by resignation ------------------------ 12 Loss by transfer to Junior Membership -------- 13 38 Net Total ------------------------------ 1216 Against this gain of 129 members should be offset the 129 members who are now delinquent $21.00 each. During the preceding year a total of 123 members delinquent to this extent were dropped from membership. While the Membership Committee is not charged with the collection of delinquent dues, the loss in membership resulting from such delinquency is chargeable to it in the annual report, and the same financial condition that caused such heavy delinquency also makes it difficult to secure new members. Eliminating these 129 delinquent members so as to make the comparison on the same basis as a year ago, the membership situation is much more hopeful. Delinquencies in payment of dues a year ago and now are as follows: June 30, 1933 June 30, 1934 Members owing $7.00 ------- 307 $2,149.00 169 $1,183.00 Members owing odd amounts-- 3 33.00 6 60.00 Members owing $14.00 ------ 175 2,450.00 123 1,722.00 Total ----------------- 485 $4,632.00 298 $2,965.00 A substantial increase in membership could be secured if the right person would call on all prospects at the right time, but manifestly neither the STATE BAR ASSOCIATION PROCEEDINGS chairman nor his twelve associates on the committee can thus cover the State of Indiana. Invitations by mail to approximately 1900 non-members were mailed and most of the increase in active members came in response to these invitations. Several of the new members wrote that they had never before been invited to join the Association. With the return of normal times, there will undoubtedly be an increase in membership, and efforts that seemed inadvisable this year can be put forth, but it is respectfully submitted that the constant battle to secure new and hold old members in a voluntary association is a waste of time that might otherwise be put to more useful purposes. No matter how good times may become, there will always be lawyers unwilling to contribute time or money for the preservation and improvement of the privilege and franchise con- ferred upon them by the State when they were given the right to practice their profession. An integrated bar association, of which every practicing attorney automatically becomes a member, is the only solution. The rapidity with which this solution is being accepted and enacted into law in this coun- try is surprising. The chairman has had not only the co-operation of his committee, but the officers and directors have likewise rendered valuable assistance, for which he takes this opportunity to express his thanks and appreciation. Mr. Seebirt delivered the President's annual address. PRESIDENT SEEBIRT'S ADDRESS Precedent has mandated that the President of the Indiana State Bar As- sociation shall, at the opening of its annual meeting, address you upon the state of our profession, and upon the conditions of service which we are giving and are expected to give to the State and its people. In this 38th annual meeting we will be entertained and instructed by a great number of eminent lawyers and judges; they will discuss with you many specific subjects in which the legal profession should be interested, and you will receive from them such erudition as the warm summer season will permit you to acquire, and I therefore hope that you will approve if I con- fine my message to a most general report and exhortation. First, may I express my most sincere appreciation of the honor which you conferred upon me just one year ago. The occupancy of this office has enabled me during the past year to form many fine friendships among my brethren of the bar; it has enabled me to learn first hand the enduring aspiration of great numbers of lawyers to improve the service we are giving our clients, and as officers of the courts to bring about better conditions in the administration of justice. I have had a most interested and unselfish cooperation of the officers, board of managers and members of the different committees, and I sincerely hope that each of them will understand that my appreciation of their service in behalf of the bar of the state is here most inadequately expressed because of my own limitation of words and time. I am certain that there is no profession or group of business men that are as self-accusatory as are the lawyers meeting in their bar association conventions, they are forever discussing and laying bare before the public their own failures, insufficiencies and shortcomings; I am aware that there are those among us who would eliminate from our programs such discussions and criticisms, but to my mind the best evidence of the health of the bar, and of its right to claim continued confidence in the future, is to be found in this habit in critically examining charges of professional abuses and fail- ures in the operation of our legal system. Coupled with this willingness to confess our faults there should be present in the bar a spirit of militant INDIANA LAW JOURNAL and aggressive defense of the courts and the profession whenever assailed by the ignorant or unwise. I surrender to no man any superior claim of devotion to my profession, but the possession of this devotion drives me at this time to say that there are conditions existing in the profession and attending the dispensation of justice in our courts which must give every lawyer concern and pause. In the last few years we have traveled far; scarcely the wisest among us could have imagined a decade ago that such changes were possible. Chang- ing social conditions are creating new fields of interest for the lawyer. The powers of the legislative branch have been expanded to limits hereto- fore unknown; the authority exercised by the executive branch has been enlarged almost beyond our powers of imagination, and we may rest assured that the people of our state and nation are not going to be content with archaic, inefficient and wrongful processes and results in the judicial depart- ment. And if the bar is not willing to give to the people a leadership in correcting conditions, we may make up our minds that they will affect a correction without us, and the changes made may not in many cases be con- sistent with the best interests and welfare of our profession. Therefore, my principal plea to the lawyer of this state would be that he shall adopt a broader mental attitude towards suggestions and criticisms of the public and the press directed to a betterment in the operation of our courts and our system of laws. The lawyer population constitutes only one person out of each seven hundred people, and numerically the profession is not powerful enough by itself to secure desired reforms, but because of their training and experience in this particular department of government the lawyers of the state do have it within their power to furnish a powerful leadership in procuring reforms that are needed and in preventing changes hurtful to society.