"The Law as a Vocation"

by FREDERICK J. ALLEN '89, Assistant Director of the Bureau of Vocational Guidance of the Division of Education, Harvard University, pp. VIII, 83. Published by Harvard University, 1919.

At his inauguration, President Hopkins, in discussing certain educational problems arising from modern specialization in intellectual effort, said, "We all know lawyers who are more interested in the intricacies of the law than in securing justice". The comment was a true one. All of us do know such men; and had the President's mind been more directly fixed upon the law, he might have added with truth that during the last generation, there has been a marked increase in the number of lawyers who are content to regard the law as a trade rather than a profession, and who seem to consider the bar as a sort of counter over which they may market their shrewdness to the highest bidder, rather than as a position of singular responsibility, in which there resides both obligation and opportunity for service to the community. One of the best features of this little book is that it carries as a consistent motif an appreciation of this condition of affairs and a needed warning against it.

The preface, announces that the purpose is "to present a clear, accurate, and impartial study of the law in the hope of offering assistance to those who are attempting to choose a career or who are about to enter upon the profession. . . . If this book confirms the young man of ability in his choice of the profession and keeps out of its ranks those who have not the natural and acquired fitness necessary ]for success, its purpose will have been accomplished".

No higher praise can be given than that the contents are admirably adapted to attain the desired end. The deficiencies in legal education and in standards of admission to practice; the crowded ranks of the bar; the routine drudgery which the practitioner cannot hope to escape; all these are set forth with both candor and moderation: and the satisfaction and rewards which come to the men with the right equipment and training are not overlooked.

There is more common sense in these modest seventy-five pages than can be found in many volumes far more pretentious in size and in ambition. The book is one that should be in the hands of every young man who is seriously considering the law as a vocation, and of every person who is called upon to act as an advisor.

O. C. Davis 'O7 is the author of "A Bookshelf Fifty-eight Miles Long Furnished by the A. L. A. , in the Boston Evening Transcript, Saturday, July 26, 1919.

"Production of Meat in the United States" is the title of a pamphlet written by Stephen Chase '96, and published by the U. S. Food Administration.

W. H. Fletcher '00, is the author of "Concrete Geometry in the Junior High School" reprinted from the School Review for June 1919.

Dabney Horton '15 is the author of "A Bit of Propaganda, An Adventure in Practical Psychology" in the September number of the Atlantic Monthly.

The Report of the State Geologist of Vermont 1917-1918 contains three articles by C. H. Richardson '92, "The Ordovician Terranes of Eastern Vermont", "The Terranes of Northfield" and "The Terranes of Roxbury".

The Granite Monthly for September contains a poem, "The Tower" written by Perley R. Bugbee '90. In the same magazine for October is "The Founder's Call" by the same author.

Hon. Frank S. Streeter '74 has an article in the Granite Monthly for September, entitled "The New Educational Program in N. H."

The Newark Museum Association publishes in pamphlet form, "The New Relations of Museums and Industries" by John Cotton Dana '78.

"Sanitation in the South"by Thorndyke Saville '14 has been published as number 9 of Volume 2 of the University of North Carolina Extension Leaflets.

Macmillan & Company have just published "The Sea Bride" by Ben Ames Williams '10. This novel will be reviewed in a later issue of the magazine.

Mark Reed '12 is the author of a play "She Would and She Did" in which Grace George is starring at the Vanderbilt Theater, New York city.

Professor Fred Lewis Pattee '88 is the author of "Century Readings for a Course in American Literature", published by the Century Company. This will be reviewed later.

The Proceedings of the Bar Association of the State of New Hampshire, new series, volume 4, number 3 for 1919 contains the following memoirs: Burt Chellis '83 by Henry N. Hurd '94; Allan Chester Clark '06 by Harry J. Brown '95; Robert Allan French '05 by Charles L. Luce '03; Edwin Frank Jones '80 by Albert 0. Brown '78; and Laurence V. McGill by Leslie P. Snow '86.