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17 Fla. L.J. 1 (1943)

handle is hein.barjournals/florbarj0017 and id is 1 raw text is: FLORIDA LAW JOURNAL VOL. XVII JANUARY, 1943 No. 1 WHAT OF THE FUTURE? Address Delivered by President Tom Gurney before the St. Petersburg Bar Association at its December Meeting In the minds of a great many lawyers these days, I am inclined to think, are two thoughts. In my own mind they play the game of leap-frog-first one, and then the other, appear in my consciousness. One of these is the compelling thought that we are a nation at war, and that war must be won at any cost to any group or individual. The second thought is,-will we be able to return to a normal government by the people, and thus regain the status of the individual, and that state of society in which the law moves and has its being. To consider the first question, it is well to review the stake of the legal profession in this conflict. The battle now being fought on the seven seas, and on every continent, is not a new battle. Actually this battle has never known a surcease, but periodically it flames into physical combat. It is all based upon the conflicting theories of law argued by legal philosophers from time immemorial. One theory is the law by constraint; the other theory is the law by consent. One proceeds outwards from a powerful center; one proceeds inward from a powerful perimeter. That is the issue now being decided. Racial questions, superman theories, while very powerful influences toward this conflict, are incidental ones. They may be even excuses invented for psychological or prejudicial reasons. The fact is that con- stitutional democracy cannot long remain out of battle with totalitarian principles of government. The history books of the past are filled with acts of war prompted by religious differences. Whatever may be the explanation, religious differences have receded into the background as a cause of human conflict, but nonetheless, a compelling issue has developed. We fought one great war on this issue-we are fighting another. The question insofar as we are concerned, is, first, a practical one. Would we, if we lost this war, continue to have a form of society and government in which a profession dedicated to the practice and development of the laws could exist? The question is startling, but one which is before us now. The answer is No. If we lose this war, there will no longer be a need or excuse for the legal profession in this country. The lifeblood of the profession-freedom of expression-would flow no more through the body-politic. All the law we know will have been repealed. The day of advocates would be over. Controversies over civil rights would be at an end. We would not have to worry about such things as court rules, income taxes, wages and hours, rights of clients, integration of the Bar, and the like. Our profession would be functus officio. The reasonable man-that elusive, mythical person by whom our standards of conduct are set-would live no more in this land. Dean Pound, in speaking to us last year, referred to this age as one marked as other dark ones have been, by the disappearance of the law. I think what he meant

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