In analyzing the shortcomings of our Association, I recall with pleasure the sessions which I have been so fortunate as to attend. There were none from which I did not derive pleasure as well as profit-useful information in palatable doses. Our official reports show a commingling of the grave and the gay. Surely one in search of ornate eloquence, of wholesome humor, and of scholarly presentation of interesting questions of the hour, whether legal or not, need look no further. These reports are the strongest evidence of the skill and ability of the Georgia lawyer. If by reason of their nearness we fail in part to appreciate our own great lawyers and to lend to their efforts the ready attention that they deserve, we always have at our annual sessions some lawyer of note from a sister State. Surely if this Association fails to attain the full measure of usefulness that such an association is capable of, it is not because of any deficiency in the programs which are served at the annual meetings.

Former Congressman Dudley M. Hughes is credited with the authorship of the following anecdote: An old negro had a son of marriageable age; and it was reported by the neighborhood gossips that the boy had married secretly. The old man sought specific information and asked, "Rastus, is you married?" Rastus replied, "I aint saying that I aint." The old man said, "I aint ast you is you aint; I ast you aint you is." We have not been asked what is not the weakness, but what is.

Recently I heard an excellent lecture upon an interesting subject; there were only a few persons present. A friend said it was a great pity that more people had not heard it; that they just did not know how fine that lecture was, or they would surely have been present. A young man in my office, when I was consulting some of the reports of our recent annual sessions, casually glanced into one of them, grew very much interested and said he had always thought of law as a very dull subject and supposed that law meetings must necessarily be dull also. He was surprised and delighted with the wit and wisdom that he found. The reason more lawyers do not get the benefit of our really excellent programs is that they do not

know; if they knew, many would become members and attend. In extending to me the invitation to join in this discussion, our Secretary made the remark that there were probably three thousand lawyers in Georgia and not more than six hundred were members of the Bar Association and fewer still attended. To his mind evidently the failure of the Association to attain its full measure of usefulness was attributable in large part to the smallness of our membership. I learn from Comptroller General Wright that 2,230 lawyers paid professional tax in Georgia last year and we may safely take that as the true number of active lawyers in Georgia last year. The list of our active members for 1916 was 498, as shown by our last annual report. Less than 23 per cent. of the lawyers have found the Association worth while. This fact is certainly not to be overlooked in our analysis. A member of the medical profession of Georgia told me recently that more than 75 per cent of the doctors in Georgia were members of the Medical Association. Surely our membership is too small.

The very active chairman of the present committee on membership gave as his opinion, in a letter to me, that the failure of full usefulness was due in large part to the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the individual members. Surely there is not a large amount of enthusiasm when less than 23 per cent. of those who should be members taking an active part with us have ever shown sufficient enthusiasm to join. We may take into earnest consideration this lack of enthusiasm, in our analysis.

For my part I have concluded that each of the weak points suggested enter into our partial failure; or to put it more exactly, I believe that our chief weakness lies in the smallness of our membership and the lack of enthusiasm. Really after all these two things are practically the same; and the cure of one will be very largely the cure of the other. If we could procure a large membership the very size of the membership would generate enthusiasm. It is hard to work up any enthusiasm in a small crowd. A fellow cannot enthuse by himself. And wherever there is a crowd there is almost always en

thusiasm; it takes some enthusiasm to get a crowd together.

I am told that for many years the plan for inducing members to join has been left almost entirely to the initiative of each committee on membership; and consequently the methods employed are as diverse as the characters of the committeemen. I see reports each year from many committees and these reports are preserved in our bound volumes; but there is never a report from the membership committee except a statement that certain new applications for membership have been procured. Nothing is said of the means employed to procure such applications. No question is asked as to how best to get such applications. Nobody has any interest in this vital question except the committee who for the time being is charged with the duty of soliciting lawyers to join. A new committee is named and it proceeds with the work without chart or compass; it has no means of knowing what plans have proven failures, and what plans gave a measure of success. There can be no improvement in the methods where the past cannot be looked to as a guide for the future.

Other Associations do these things better. Instead of leaving the matter to each new committee, some officer is charged with the work of soliciting, and he makes a regular plan of campaign to be followed up actively unless use demonstrates that the plan is not as perfect as it can be made; changes are made from time to time to perfect such a campaign.

Every business enterprise of this day and time adopts a system of carrying on its business; this system is carefully watched and changes are made from time to time as it appears that some part of the system is not working properly. And so in time even an imperfect system will finally be amended into one of great efficiency. And no business can prosper unless its pulse is being continually taken to see what progress is made. I believe we should have some system of campaigning for new members a system that is worked not merely for a season, but permanently under the control and management of some permanent officer or at least one who holds office for a considerable time, who will thus be able from time to time to make

improvements. The workings of this system ought to be carefully reported to each meeting of the Association in order that its imperfections may be criticized and new suggestions made. Instead of making the campaign for new members apparently an unnoticed matter, the campaign should be frequently and freely discussed in the annual meetings; and when one looks into our annual reports he should find not merely a list of names of new members brought in but a complete statement of just what efforts were made to bring in such new members.

Again it has been frequently and truly asserted that the way to create an interest in any matter and to stir up enthusiasm in regard to the same is to make every possible person take some responsibility for the result so that he may rightfully claim that his own endeavors in part brought about that result. Put upon each individual member the responsibility of new members; make him do something toward procuring new members, however little that may be. I suggest that the permanent officer charged with the duty of seeking new members shall be authorized to call on each Association member for a list of all lawyers in his county who are not members and make it the duty of each member to furnish such list, including adjacent territory not in his own county when necessary, and to distribute such literature as may be sent him from time to time; and to communicate either in person or by letter with each lawyer whose name appears on the list he furnishes at least once each year, in each such communication urging him to join our Association.

I conclude that the weakest point is the scarcity of members; the remedy a system finally perfected for procuring new members which system shall require work and co-operation of each individual member.

LEGISLATION SUGGESTED.

PAPER BY

A. W. COZART,

OF COLUMBUS.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Georgia Bar Association:

In connection with the Report of the Committee on Jurisprudence, Law Reform and Procedure,* I wish to offer a few suggestions.

It is said that a certain eminent Doctor of Divinity once summed up a debate on some knotty theological problem in the following terms: "Well, gentlemen, speaking for myself, I think I may venture to say that I should feel inclined to favor a tendency in a positive direction, with reservations." With reference to the suggestions which I make, I hope that you will be inclined to favor a tendency in a positive direction, without reservations.

I.

TIME TO PRESENT CROSS-BILL OF EXCEPTIONS.

When a direct bill of exceptions is presented on the last day, the opposite party has no time within which to prepare and present a cross-bill of exceptions. I suggest that it be provided by statute that after a direct bill of exceptions is served, the opposite party may present, within ten days, a cross-bill of exceptions.

II.

CONCERNING RECEIVING STOLEN GOODS.

It is not a crime for one to receive in this State goods stolen in a foreign jurisdiction. I suggest that Section 168 of the Penal Code of Georgia, 1910, be amended so as to make such

*For the Report, see page 279.