GOVERNOR MCKINLEY: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Bar Association-I regret very much to have been detained, so as not to have been present to have given you the formal welcome which was assigned me in your programme to-day. A welcome, however, to the lawyers of Ohio is wholly unnecessary, for Ohio lawyers are welcome everywhere.

The profession is essential to civilization. We cannot get on without it, much as we would sometimes like to. It touches every relation of life. While it is a single calling, it must necessarily compass all callings. Its grasp must be the most comprehensive. Its counsel is sought in every enterprise and activity of the people, in every undertaking, great and small. The lawyer is quite as essential to the business man now as the banker, and his services are as often required in the one case as in the other. He must have exact knowledge concerning more things than is required of any other profession. He is a trustee. He carries great trusts. He holds the secrets of his clients. He holds in his hands often the reputations of families, and the credit of great business enterprises. A careless word, a piece of injudicious advice of his, would blast the one and destroy the other. He guards the interests of the most helpless and unfortunate of our population as well as the great concerns of the richest and most powerful. The fidelity with which he guards all these sacred interests is a matter of just pride to every lawyer. Perfection is nowhere to be found; but there is no profession where honor and integrity are at a higher premium than in the profession of the law. There are unworthy members of the profession. That goes without saying. But they are in a small minority, while the great majority stand forth strong in their integrity and in the confidence of the people.

The profession is not only called upon to advise all mankind in every variety of interest, but it furnishes from its ranks the judicial tribunals which try and determine the causes of the people. It disposes of the grandest questions of law and fact, and guards with sacred vigilance the reputations and the property of the people.

The profession supplies one forum removed from politics and passion, from prejudices and preconceived opinions, which, in the fear of God and in the observation of the law, and under the scrutiny of an enlightened public sentiment, judicially settle the gravest controversies of the people.

As the Bench is supplied from the Bar, how important it is that the high character of the Bar should be promoted and preserved. The Bench is no better than the Bar, and the better the Bar the better the Bench.

The Bar of Ohio has been singularly and exceptionally strong, not only in learning, but in that other most necessary element of success, honesty. This element of character cannot be dispensed with. Any description you may make of the great lawyer would fail, if it did not put this to the forefront.

The Bar of Ohio is to be congratulated upon the high rank it has attained in its profession, and the high position it has achieved in every relation in life. It has furnished two Presidents of the United States, two Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, the greatest court of the world, and several associate justices of that high tribunal, and governors without number.

This Association-your Association-has been of great value to the Legislature of the State. Its careful recommendations, when adopted, have proved beneficial. It is a mighty force in securing wholesome and conservative legislation, and I trust the good work which it has commenced in this direction will be continued.

Lawyers should take more rest. They are busy brain workers, and must have recreation. They should oftener get away from clients and causes. I sympathize with the overworked lawyer, but my sympathy is even greater with the underworked lawyer. The one can relieve himself; the other can't help his condition. If the overworked lawyer would do less, the underworked lawyer would do more, so that that plan would benefit both and both would be happier.

I am glad to meet and to greet you all, and wish for your convention the highest results in the interest of your profession and the public, and a pleasurable and enjoyable time with each other in this brief period of recreation.

JUDGE COX, Cincinnati: I move you that we have ten minutes' intermission in which to welcome the Governor.

THE PRESIDENT: The motion is unanimously carried.

The time of recess having expired, the business of the convention was resumed.

THE PRESIDENT: The first business in order is the report of the Committee on Admissions and Election of Members.

MR. J. N. VANDEMAN, Washington C. H.: I desire to submit the

following

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON ADMISSIONS.

PUT-IN-BAY, OHIO, July 13, 1892.

To the Ohio State Bar Association:

GENTLEMEN: Your Committee on Admissions and Elections, respectfully report the following named lawyers for membership in this Association, to wit: Horace M. Blessing, Washington C. H., O.; J. C. Douglas, Chillicothe. O.; Dwight E Sapp, Mt. Vernon, O.; Judge Thomas Cherrington, Ironton, O.; W. H. Phipps, Paulding, O.; Kidder V. Haymaker. Defiance, O.; W S. Wagner, Tiffin, O.; Fred L. Hay, Defiance, O.; J. F. Bunn, Tiffin, O.; C. A. Seiders, Paulding, O.; G. B. Keppell, Tiffin, O.; Jesse Vickery, Bellevue, O.; Judge E. A. Guthrie, Athens, O.; W. R. Pomerene, Coshocton, O.; J. E. Pickering, Warren, O.; F. S. Monnett, Bucyrus, O.; R. B. Moore, Bowling Green, O.; Isaac Humphrey, Zanesville, O.; John E. Betts, Findlay, O.; Andrew J. Mears, Bowling Green, O.; W.`R. Graham, Youngstown, O.; John F. McCrystal, Frank P. Colver, Sandusky, O.; J. W. Bell, Plymouth, O.; John W. Jenner, Mansfield, O.; J. C. Musterbaugh, Chicago Junction, O.; W. W. Symes, Judge M. L. Buchwalter, L. C. Black, Cincinnati, O.; Henry E. Palmer, Cleveland, O.; Gustav Tafel, Harland Cleveland, F. S. Spiegel, C. Hammond Avery, Cincinnati Bar, recommended by S. F. Hunt; J. H. Bromwell, W. D. Porter, Francis B. James, Gustav R. Werner, Simeon M. Johnson, Herbert Jenney, Judge M. F. Wilson, Lowry Jackson, Aaron McNeill, Charles Edgar Brown, Edward M. Clingman, Judge S. N. Maxwell, Howard Hollister, J. W. O'Hara, Gustavus H. Wald, James D. Ermston, Cincinnati Bar, recommended by C. W. Gerard; I. I. Millard, Toledo, O.; C. J. Scroggs, Bucyrus, O.; J. C. Heinlein, Bridgeport, O.; Warner M. Bateman, H. R. Probasco, Cincinnati, O.; Hugh Neal, Mt. Vernon, O.

Your committee find, upon investigation, that all of the above named gentlemen possess the qualifications required by the constitution of this Association for membership therein, and we therefore recommend their election.

Your Committee desire to supplement this report with the presentation of other names for membership, as we may find advisable during the progress of this meeting. JNO. N. VANDEMAN,

Chairman.

MR. W. E. TALCOTT, Cleveland:

I move that the report be

accepted, and that the Secretary be directed to cast the ballot of the Association for these gentlemen.

The motion was seconded and carried, and the gentlemen were duly elected to membership in the manner directed.

THE PRESIDENT: The report of the Secretary is next in order.
The Secretary read his report, which was as follows:

SECRETARY'S REPORT.

PUT-IN-BAY, July 13, 1892.

Gentlemen of the Ohio State Bar Association:

The first report of a Secretary of your Association must, in all reasonable expectation, be brief.

The proceedings of the last annual meeting of the Association were published under the supervision of my predecessor, and copies of the same were mailed to each member of the Association and to the various State, university and public libraries to which copies have heretofore been sent.

The balance of the reports were then sent to me and the few requests which I have had for copies of the same have been duly honored.

A number of copies of the last report, Volume XII, have been brought here for the use of members of the Association.

No matters were referred to the Secretary at the last meeting, and answering promptly all letters and other communications addressed to him, and mailing copies of the programme of this, our 13th annual meeting, to members of the Association and to some sixty daily papers of the State, have comprised the round of his duties.

Copies of the annual reports of the meetings of some other State bar associations have been received by the Secretary, and in some of them can be found suggestions of interest and value to ourselves. One of the privileges enjoyed by our brethren of the New York Bar Association is, that they have a permanent abiding place in the capitol at Albany, where a room has been provided for them. Its walls are adorned with portraits of distinguished members of their bar, and on its book-shelves are to be found copies of the reports of the bar associations of other States. As we have no such permanent room, it would seem that the best depository for these reports would be the State Law Library at Columbus.

I have no knowledge as to the number of reports of other bar associations to be found there, but as these reports can easily be obtained by exchange, it would seem to be a good idea to make an effort to procure such reports from the States having bar associations and publishing their reports, and to keep the series complete in years to come.

In some of the States, where the bar is small in numbers and publishers are not to be found who will issue text-books adapted specially to the use of the profession in such States, with which Ohio is so amply provided, the annual report of the Bar Association furnishes a cheap and convenient medium in which to publish digests and treatises on particular branches of State law.

The New York State Bar Association, as a means of encouraging thoughtful and profound study of the law, annually offers a prize of $250 for the best law essay on a subject selected by a committee appointed for that purpose. The prize is not awarded unless at least five competitors enter the lists, and only lawyers who have practiced for five years are eligible to compete. This custom seems a most admirable one.

The following is the financial exhibit of the Secretary's office:

July 30, 1891. To freight and cartage on reports from

Jan. 14, 1892. Freight and cartage on reports from Cleve

May 3, 1892. Freight and cartage on reports from Cleve

July 1, 1892. Postage on programmes,

To postage,

Stationery for this meeting,

.75

5.30

.90

1.00