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George E. Gartland, of New York:

Mr. President, for the purpose of bringing it before the house I make that motion.

The President:

The question is open for discussion. I will hear Mr. Wadhams about that.

The Secretary:

I was about to turn to a provision of the By-laws with regard to the annual meeting. Article 18 of the By-laws provides that the annual meeting of the Association shall be held on the third Tuesday of January in each year at the city of Albany, provided, however, that by a twothirds vote at any annual meeting the following annual meeting may be held at any other city of the State. By a similar vote any meeting may be adjourned to any date or to any other place within the State.

The President:

I know that to all the gentlemen from New York it would be very desirable to hold the meeting in New York and still more so to members from all other parts of the State.

The Secretary:

It has seemed to me that it would be advisable, perhaps, to try the experiment. As many of you know, the American Bar Association meets at various places. It formerly was the custom for many years for that Association to meet every other year at Saratoga, but for the past three or four years they have abandoned that plan and the meeting has been held at different cities, wherever the Executive Committee decided to hold the meeting. We have a very large membership in New York City.

A large number of the members from that city are really not familiar with what takes place at our meetings except as they may possibly read it in our report. So far as my judgment goes, it seems to me it might be beneficial to hold a meeting there. One thought occurred to me in connection with it and that is that we probably cannot hope to have the Governor with us and the Judges of the Court of Appeals. The Governor and the Court usually attend our banquet and take part in that function. It is a pleasure to the lawyers throughout the State, I know, to be able to meet the Governor and the Court on the occasion of a banquet such as we will hold this evening. Whether we can induce the Governor, or a representative of the Court, to go to New York, of course, I cannot tell.

The President:

If you have it on Friday night they will all come.

The Secretary:

I am of the opinion that it would be well to try it. I think the New York men should express their opinion very freely on this subject and if we decide to go down there we shall expect that they will turn out in much larger numbers than they do here at our annual meeting.

John F. Clarke, of Brooklyn:

Mr. President, so long as the President and Secretary both agree upon this subject and I think from the appearances here the Association would be pleased to have the meeting held once in New York as I believe it has never been away from Albany - the only matter left here is to see if we can, under this By-Law, produce the two-thirds present to vote in favor of it. I have no

doubt that we can do it, and if the By-Law needs any further construction I think we can force a construction of it.

The President:

We have authority for that. (Laughter.)

John Brooks Leavitt, of New York:

Mr. President, as one of the New York contingent it seems to me it would be a mistake to go down to New York. If we go there then we shall have to go to other places in the State in succeeding years. It is much more convenient for Buffalonians to come to New York than it is for New Yorkers to go to Buffalo. Buffalo would put in a claim, and Rochester and Syracuse, and perhaps some time we should hear from Elizabethtown up in the Adirondacks. It seems to me it is much better for us to meet here for the quiet and comfort we have. I find it very pleasant to come up here and get away from New York. I know enough about New York during other times of the year. I think we will do more business here than we would in New York and I think there is another consideration, it would be very convenient for us in New York, but how about gentlemen coming from different parts of the State? It is a much more expensive thing to go down to New York and spend two or three days and gentlemen who might feel they could afford the expense of coming here from different parts of the State might feel they could not go down to New York. The great benefit and advantage which we get here is for the lawyers from the different parts of the State to meet each other and form acquaintances. New York is a very concentrated place. It is an absorbing place. The New York tendency is to gather too much to itself. It seems

to me that New York is quite provincial and we New Yorkers get a great deal of benefit by coming up here and meeting our brethren from other parts of the State. If you have a meeting in New York you will not have that feature, not many men will attend from other parts of the State, and we New Yorkers will lose the benefit of making their acquaintance and the pleasure we derive. It seems to me Albany is the natural meeting point. It is the easiest point of access from all parts of the State. The railroads rather center here and it is not much of a journey for us from New York and I really believe that the interest in the meetings will be lessened if we once establish the custom of having a peripatetic annual meeting. It seems to me it would be much better for us to stay here than to start the movement of going around the State.

Franklin Pierce, of New York:

Mr. President, it seems to me Mr. Leavitt's view could hardly be sustained by the facts. I understand that a large number of the members of the New York State Bar Association are located in New York city, but very few attend. Of course, a meeting of the Association there will result in the attendance of those members. Another reason urged is, that they will not come from different parts of the State to New York city. Why, lawyers would have other business which would be connected with their coming there. The multitude of relations between lawyers in the country and the city is one reason why they would come to meet those that they had employed, or been associated with as counsel, and attend to their matters in New York city. Another reason for going to New York would be that the members would give an attention to the Association which it does not get here in

Albany, and it is quite important that such a thing as the address of last night should be scattered broadcast throughout the whole State and the United States. Why, everything done here would be as a mere trifle in the balance compared with the public importance of having that address scattered throughout the whole United States and read by the common people. If that had been delivered in New York unquestionably it would have had altogether a wider publication than it has in the city of Albany. That is saying nothing against the city of Albany. It is said it is more costly to come to New York. When that was uttered, a member of the Association back of me said, "Well, I don't know how it could be more costly. I paid four dollars for my room last night." Many of us wrote days ago to the Ten Eyck Hotel to get rooms and they were all taken. Four or five days ago we couldn't get rooms at the Ten Eyck and we had to go elsewhere. And what kind of a room did some of us get? Everything is in favor of New York and you want to come down there and stir it up. We want to have live questions there. A Bar Association that is not attacking some of the evils in the community to-day has no right to live, and I was glad to hear those papers yesterday which seemed to come from men with a kind heart toward humanity and toward the evils which afflict humanity. It is well for the Bar Association to take hold of these live questions. Come down to New York and see the city. It is not so bad a city as you think it is. years in the country and I know about it. better executed there than in any other part of the State. The Judges there in New York are as learned as the Judges in any other part of the State. We want the Bar Association to come down there and we will give you a red-hot time.

I lived many

The law is

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