About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

124 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vii (1926)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0124 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL PREFACE THIs is the first symposium that has ever been printed on the subject. The record as herein revealed may be ac- cepted in all essential particulars as authoritative. It is composed of con- tributions from more than twenty-five men and women all of whom are quali- fied by long association with the work. Most of the authors have been and still are members of the legal aid forces on active duty in the front lines. What they have written is not the product of theoretical deduction but is the result of actual contact with thousands of poor persons presenting actual cases calling for justice in the courts. The supreme advantage of such a symposium is that it gives to the reader in convenient form the best thought of many independent minds. Thus there is attained a degree of impartiality and a possible standard of accuracy that no single author, limited by his own ex- perience and liable always to be carried away by his own enthusiasms, can hope to attain. Through these pages there speak more persons than are required for the deliberations of a grand jury. When they unite to condemn existing conditions the indictment must be taken with utmost seriousness; when they agree as to remedies there arises a strong presumption that their recom- mendations are sound; insofar as they disagree we are obviously on debatable ground, dealing with questions as to which legal aid work has not made up its own mind, and here the reader must consider the arguments presented and then judge for himself. With so many writers, each ap- proaching a particular aspect of the same central problem from his own point of view, in his own style and manner of treatment, there is some danger that the reader will confuse superficial disharmonies of expression (which are the price of an honestly and independently prepared symposium) with fundamental cleavages of opinion. It is a temptation to editors to tone down differences in forms and expres- sions for the sake of clarifying the un- derlying consensus of opinion, but in this volume the editors have submitted the articles as they were received and without emendation of their own. An attempt has been made to help the reader by arranging the material in an historical, rather than an analytical, order so that he may see legal aid work unfolding itself as a living and vital movement, gradually making its way into, and profoundly affecting, our entire administration of justice. The careful student will easily find the links that bind the several articles into one constructive whole and will quickly discover that the various de- partments or aspects of legal aid work approach each other so closely at so many points as to overlap in a number of instances. For the casual reader, with limited time, it may be helpful to synthesize in brief compass the con- tents of the following papers. After the introductory material in Part I which serves to give us an ade- quate background, Part II takes us directly into the heart of legal aid work in civil cases. The first article (p. 16) defines the functions of a modern legal aid organization. Mr. Bigelow (p. 20) epitomizes the rise of these organizations and states their extent in the year 1925. Then follows a triology of how legal aid work is actually carried on by our three largest legal aid organ- izations in our three largest cities, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. vii

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most