Some Men Who Have Done Things, VIII. Richard W. Young

Some Men Who Have Done Things. BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY. VIII. — Richard W. Young. WHO MAINTAINS THAT ALL FORMS OF TRICKERY AND DISHONESTY ARE AS FOREIGN TO THE REAL INTERESTS OF A LAWYER AS THEY ARE TO THE SCHOOL TEACHER AND THE BUSINESS MAN. "Does any man succeed in the law by the practice of dishonest methods?" "Why, certainly not. The thing is impossible, in any proper sense of the word 'success.' To start out on a career of trickery in the law would, in the long run, be as suicidal as in business or school teaching. More so. Should a lawyer once get a breath of suspicion concerning him that he misquotes the law, that he suborns witnesses, or that he endeavors to have a case put off on improper grounds, rising to anything like eminence in the profession would be out of the question for him. The judge would not take his word; his fellow attorneys would distrust him, and once he got an unenviable reputation of that sort, instantly there would be an end to what otherwise might be a prosperous career. He could scarcely conduct a legitimate business at all. Lawyers have a high sense of honor as a rule— as high as can be found in any profession." RICHARD W. YOUNG.

740 IMPROVEMENT ERA. A very different notion, you see, from that usually held by persons who do not much come in contact with the legal lights. There has grown up among people generally an idea that lawyers succeed in proportion to their knack for turning tricks. But no one can talk with such a lawyer as Richard W. Young and not feel that the sense of absolute honor is even higher in the law than inmost other professions. The trickster, the pettifogger, the shyster is actually more looked down upon by his own fellows in the law than persons of the same ilk are in business circles. Richard W. Young has had a most remarkable career. Scarcely more than fifty, he has had more experience than a good many octogenarians have managed to crowd into their lives. And it has been varied as a spring landscape. He is the grandson of President Brigham Young, the great western pioneer. But he was not therefore born with a silver spoon in his mouth. All he had as a starting capital was a desire to succeed, any amount of energy, an eye that could detect an opportunity a mile away, and, what is even less common, such an agreeable manner as you read about in those accomplished courtiers, Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Phillip Sidney. He went to school till he was thirteen, at which time he discontinued, for awhile, in order to enter a railway office at Salt Lake. For eighteen months after this he was collector, bill-clerk and telegraph operator. Subsequently he attended the University of Utah in the same classes as Governor Wells, Professor Toronto, President Kingsbury, and others who have since become prominent in Utah. We next see him at Richfield, Utah, teaching school, and then at Manti, where he was principal of the high school. His grandfather, at his father's death, had taken in hand his education, intending him for an architect. The plan of education seems to have taken a characteristically practical turn, and so young Richard was put on the temple block in a carpenter's shop to begin his architectural career. The death of the President, however, put a period to this scheme of education, and Richard was thrown upon his own resources, which turned him in the direction we have noted. In 1878 he was appointed to a vacant cadetship at West Point by Delegate Cannon, but did not accept it immediately owing to

SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 741 his prospects in the Utah and Northern offices at Ogden. But later he accepted the appointment. The progress he made here is indicated by the following figures: At the end of his first year he stood No. 43 in his class; of his second year, No. 28; of the third year, No. 19; and of the last year, No. 15. On his graduation he chose the artillery, with the title of Second-lieutenant in the Third United States Artillery. Later he was transferred to the Fifth Artillery, with the same rank, taking up his residence at Governor's Island, New York City. Here he remained for four years, studying meanwhile at Columbia University, where he was graduated from the law school in the same class with Gov. Hughes and William Travers Jerome, of New York. In 1886 he came to Fort Douglass with his battery, but two years later resigned from the army to practice his legal profession. When the war broke out with Spain, he volunteered his services, and commanded the famous Utah Batteries in the Philippines, having participated in some thirty engagements. He was appointed Superior Provost Judge of Manila and afterwards a Member of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands, and prepared a code still in force which has won him high praise from lawyers familiar with the work. During his residence at New York he had written a book on the general subject of the work of the military in the suppression of mobs, which was declared to be the best of its kind written in America. Returning from Manila, Mr. Young resumed his law practice at Salt Lake, where he has obtained a large clientage. In addition to the time he has devoted to his favored profession, he has served on the board of education, in the city council, and in various responsible ecclesiastical offices. He is now president of the Ensign stake. Two things outstand in this varied career, which it will not do to pass over. One is his ability to see and grasp an opportunity. Out there on Governor's Island he could, like all the young officers who had preceded him, and like a good many who have followed him in the same place, have thrown away a great deal of time which he found on his hands, and which army officers frequently find on their hands. But he did not do so. On the contrary, he saw in the nearness of Columbia College an opportunity to pursue a course in

742 IMPROVEMENT ERA. law, with the aim of increasing his efficiency in another department of the army. Now, before this none had seen this chance, although it was equally before his predecessors as before him. It all lay in the seeing eye. And this is characteristic of Richard W. Young. The other thing is his native integrity and freedom from every element of hypocrisy. It is sometimes the case (rare let us hope) that when a young man goes away from the unpopular and despised "Mormons" to attend school or perform special missions, not religious, he endeavors to hide the fact that he is a Latterday Saint. The experience of Richard W. Young shows what folly this is, not to use a worse term. While he has never thrust his religious conviction upon anyone, still he has never sought to cover it up as something to be ashamed of. Nor has he ever lost anything by this course. On the contrary, he has gained. People always like openness, candor, as they instinctively hate and despise falsity in character. No sincere man need fear that his openness will bring him harm from others. Hypocrisy in one thing invites distrust in everything. Richard W. Young is instinctively true as steel. And Mr. Young's opinions are as interesting as his brilliant career. For one thing, he thinks very highly of his profession — as indeed what man should not, if he hopes to get along in it? "Look at the names of men in public life," he exclaimed enthusiastically, "and notice how many of them are lawyers? Whenever a political speaker is wanted, it is oftenest a lawyer that is sought out. Is a bill to be drafted in a legislative body? A lawyer is the first man appealed to— is, in fact, the only man almost that can do it. Lawyers we find everywhere holding high places, from that of county attorney, through governors, representatives in Congress, senators, to presidents of the United States. "And then, too, what an excellent discipline the study and practice of the law is! It makes one broad-minded and liberal and charitable in his opinions. An average practicing attorney, taking all sorts of cases, has to study various branches of knowledge that no other man, except a specialist in any one of the branches, has occasion to do. He is brought in contact with every phase

SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 743 of life. Today he has a case involving the relationship between husband and wife or parents and children. Tomorrow he has a railroad case, in which is involved a thousand and one things in hitherto foreign branches, but which must be thoroughly mastered before he can make any headway. And thus it goes into all the phases of life. Besides this broadened knowledge there comes the developing po ver to weigh evidence and facts and to see that there is always something to be said on the other side. This makes one look at things from a broader point of view than would be possible otherwise. The law, moreover, tends to make one charitable. Here, for instance, are two men, both honest, who testify to different things which both have seen. And so a lawyer, when he is told something bad of another, says to himself, 'Well, that may be so and it may not be— there may be some mistake somewhere.' " "A good many persons," I ventured, "believe that a lawyer is not really necessary to the community, if they do not actually believe that he is a mischief-maker— what about it?" ■ "The 'Mormon' people should be the last to believe that, in view of their history," Mr. Young answered. "Why, in the thirty or forty odd times that the Prophet Joseph was arrested and tried for offenses which he did not commit, he almost invariably was defended and Cleared by lawyers. Even if there were no quarrels between different persons to be settled in courts, there would still be a great need for lawyers. A man is accused of a crime, for example. He may be guilty or he may not. In either event the facts need to be brought out and presented in a clear, logical way, — -which an untrained person can scarcely do. But if the accused be guilty, there may be some extenuating circumstances. And all this can be done better by a lawyer than by anyone else, merely because he has made the study of the law a specialty. "Only, there should be no sharp practice, no creating of evidence, no suborning of witnesses, no efforts to clog the wheels of justice. There is plenty of work for a lawyer within legitimate fields. Besides, laying aside court cases altogether, a large part of a lawyer's work nowadays lies in other directions. There are wills to make out, agreements between business parties to draw up, sales to negotiate, and so on. Those, therefore, who say

744 IMPROVEMENT ERA. there is no particular need for lawyers either do not understand the work done by them, or have in mind what we call in the legal profession 'the ambulance chaser,' or those who promote and stir up litigation for the fees they may earn — which is not considered respectable among decent lawyers." "To what extent is success in the law to be measured by the winning of cases?" "Well, a lawyer who does not generally win cases would hardly be regarded as successful. Cases would not come to him who had the reputation of habitually losing them. Still it isn't the winning of cases, after all, it's the way you win them. In the long run, though, the winning of cases is mostly due, not, as is commonly believed, to improper methods, but to the superior ability of the man who wins them. What 1 mean is this: the lawyer must be able to see into the heart of a case when it is presented to him. There are no two cases that are exactly the same. Each has some peculiar point of difference from every other. The lawyer must see that. If he does not, he may lose the case. So that, as I say, in the long run the court trials are won mainly by the lawyer who sees farthest into his cases and presents that case in the clearest manner to judge or jury— qualities of the head wholly dissociated from trickery." "What qualifications do you think a young man ought to have who aims to enter the profession of law?" "In the first place, he ought to have natural aptitude for the law, a taste for that sort of life. If he does not he will not go very far in it. Then, he ought not to be afraid of work — he should be naturally industrious. The law is a laborious calling — a jealous mistress, demanding hard work and much of it. For if a lawyer have a case involving a branch of knowledge —say medicine or electricity— he must in a few weeks master the general principles and many of the details of that subject before he can enter upon the case with any hope of conducting it with intelli= gence. And all this requires close and continual application of the mind to a given subject. The law is no lazy man's vocation. "Next, any one who wishes to become a lawyer must be honest. I have already said a good deal on that point. But it is very important. Every lawyer is confronted by temptation. It

SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 745 may be easy to get witnesses to testify in a given case that the accused was somewhere else when the crime was committed. But no honest lawyer will do that kind of business. Instantly he would lose cast with his profession. He would be distrusted by the judge, and in time he would be among the outcasts of the profession. I repeat, a lawyer must be honest. And, lastly, he ought to be public spirited— he should be interested in every public question, for the reason that on many questions concerning the people, the lawyer is frequently in a better position than any one else to discuss it." "Talking about criminal cases, Mr. Young, should a lawyer take a case when he knows the accused to be guilty, say, of murder?" "Well, while I don't seek for a guilty man to come to me with his case, still I don't think I ought to refuse. If a person is to be punished for a crime, it must be only by due process of law. Every one accused is innocent before the law unless he is proved guilty. And so, in civilized countries, even a criminal has rights, and these rights must be protected. He is entitled to a fair and impartial trial before his peers. "Now, if I took such a case, I would say to my client 'If you do not wish to plead guilty I will see to it that your trial is conducted fairly. There shall be no suborning of witnesses, no wrestings of the law or the evidence, and if there is any extenuating circumstances I will put it clearly and honestly. If you wish anything more than this, you had better go to someone else.' This every honest lawyer will do." "Is not the law profession full?" I inquired. "Not any more so than others. In the law, as in every other calling, new men are coming in and old men are dropping out — dropping out, some through death, some through lack of ability, some through misfit. But here, as elsewhere, natural aptitude, industry, and honesty will win success. It is the survival of the fittest."