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TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION

OF THE

Washington State Bar Association

Held at Wenatchee, Washington

Wednesday, August 5th, 1914

President Englehart: The twenty-sixth annual meeting of the Washington State Bar Association will please come to order.

The first order of business will be the address of welcome by Mayor Parr, of the City of Wenatchee. Mayor Parr: Mr. President, Gentlemen, of the Washington State Bar Association: It is indeed a pleasure to be able, on behalf of the citizenship of the city of Wenatchee, to welcome the representatives of one of the most noble of the professions in our midst. Without minimizing the great service that has heretofore been rendered by the profession to the world, you have met here for the purpose of devising ways and means of further extending the influence of the profession for good. I am sorry to notice that still there is a tendency, on the part of those who most need your advice and aid, to look upon the profession with some measure of suspicion and even hostility. I believe it to be a matter of utmost importance that a feeling of greater cordiality be cultivated between that great portion of civilization which does not generally transact any considerable business and the members of our profession. If those citizens could be induced to consult reputable attorneys before making investment of their

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savings very much of the necessity for what is called "blue sky" legislation would be eliminated. understand it is one of the objects of this association to raise the standard of the bar, to weed out those who are unworthy, when there are such, and thus invite and encourage increased confidence and respect from that class of citizens who now look upon us with some degree of suspicion and who most need our assistance.

The citizens of this city are glad to welcome and act as hosts to an organization which has, for one of its worthy objects, the one mentioned. I hope that your stay among us will be a pleasant one. I feel personally in hopes that the weather will not be hot, for I presume none of you need a preparatory course. We want you, while in the city, to avail yourselves of the opportunity which has been provided of looking over the valley, of which we feel, we believe, justly proud. In doing so we would have you bear in mind that in the main the valley was in sage-brush ten years ago. The marvelous change which you will note has been brought about through the fructifying influence of water artificially applied, coupled with the productivity of the soil and the energy of an optimistic people.

The hour is already late, and I know you are anxious to enter upon the real business of the morning, and I shall not further detain you, but we bid you thrice welcome to all the city affords, and we hope you will come to see us again.

Mr. President: Mr. Frank Reeves, President of the Chelan County Bar Association, will extend a welcome to the members of the association.

Mr. Reeves: Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Association: The Chelan County Bar feels that it is surely a signal honor to have the State Bar Association meet in our home. We hope to be able to show you while you are here that, while Chelan County is one of the younger counties of the State and the

Chelan County Bar Association is one of the younger minor organizations, we are alive to the interests of the legal profession. We take the view that the capacity of the lawyer is inseparable from that of citizenship. We believe that it is the duty of every member of the bar to be first a good citizen, to take into consideration the primary needs of his community, to be useful at all times to his fellowmen, and to obey the Scriptural injunction to "go forth and replenish the earth," which our younger members are certainly doing most handsomely. Feeling in the manner I have stated with reference to our citizenship, I may tell you, gentlemen of the State Bar Association, that the lawyers of Wenatchee and Chelan County are undertaking to fulfil the destiny which they conceive to be theirs. There is no activity in the entire Wenatchee Valley that some lawyer is not connected with. We have had several mayors who have been lawyers; we have a mayor now who is not only a lawyer, but is entire boss of the job. Lawyers in Chelan County are mixed up in every industry in some way, outside, I mean to say, of their capacity as advisers and lawyers. I hope the entire membership of the State feel the same way about the duty of a lawyer to be an active, useful citizen. We conceive that in being lawyers we have special privileges conferred upon us. Any time that one has a special privilege conferred upon him it seems to me he has a correlative duty to discharge the obligations that are incumbent upon other citizens, in thoughtful consideration and with a high degree of fidelity. However, I feel that I ought not to dwell on that phase of the situation, because when I undertake to speak to lawyers on subjects of this kind I always think of an old fellow who used to be here in days gone by, when I was obsessed with the idea that I was a musician. Through the courtesy of a few members of the Wenatchee Military Bandwhich I may say was one of the best amateur musi

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