The adequacy of the lawyers' training, the disinterestedness of their political motives, the fairness of their mental outlook, and the closeness of their contact with the national public opinion--all become matters of grave public concern.
It can be fairly asserted that the qualifications of the American lawyer for his traditional task as the official interpreter and guide of American constitutional democracy have been considerably impaired.
Whatever his qualifications have been for the task (and they have, perhaps, been over-estimated) they are no longer as substantial as they were.

Not only has the average lawyer become a less representative citizen, but a strictly legal training has become a less desirable preparation for the candid consideration of contemporary political problems.
Since 1870 the lawyer has been traveling in the same path as the business man and the politician.

He has tended to become a professional specialist, and to give all his time to his specialty.

The greatest and most successful American lawyers no longer become legislators and statesmen as they did in the time of Daniel Webster.

They no longer obtain the experience of men and affairs which an active political life brings with it.