IIT Chicago Kent College of Law - Transcript Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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' 1 THE. 2 TRANSCRIPT , ated from the University of Iowa, having the highest average in her class which numbered about forty-five. In 1917 Miss Lenore Marie Simpson graduated from Kansas City School of Law with the summa cum laude degree. Likewise, in 1916, Miss Mary F. Lathrop received the faculty prize, the highest scholastic honor of the University of Denver School of Law. Miss Lathrop has been a conspicuous success as a legal practitioner, and has a large and lucrative' practice, mostly in the way of probate law and management of estates. At the University of Cincinnati, within recent years, on three 'separate occasions, women students won the highest honors given by the School. Last year, at Hastings College of Law, University of Cali- fornia, the student graduating with highest honors was a woman. ' There are still a number of law schools which do not admit women. As long as women are admitted to the bar, they should be given equal oppor- tunities with young men to obtain a legal education. We think it has been proven that women possess the same vigor' of thought, the same mental grasp, and are capable of mastering the same legalsubjects, as men. It would seem that they have the ability to prosecute the same course of study as the young men, and with equal prospect of benefit, success and honor. I The value of a legal education for women is well stated by Austin Abbot, as follows: Some study of the law is of prime importance in the complete education of every human being. The mental discipline in a thorough study of legal practice is unequalled. It tends to make the mind more reasonable, consistent, logical and well-balanced, and is as useful to women as to men, whether they apply the knowledge to the practice of law or to any other vocation. ' . Women have laboredunder great disadvantages in getting started in practice. They have not been given the opportunities for admission into law firms that have been accorded to men with the same records. Their foothold in the legal profession has been something striven for and secured by sheer dint of earnest endeavor. However, the prospect in the future is brighter than in the past, as the old prejudices are melting away and people are putting their trust in professional women more and moref Through conscientious, intelligent work, women are demanding and obtaining recog- nition by bench and bar. H Today there are seventeen hundred thirty-eight women lawyers, judges and justices in the United States. , The most notable here in Chicago is Miss Mary Bartelme, Judge of the Superior Court of Cook County. Other dis- tinguished women members of the bar are Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, Assistant Attorney General of the United States, in charge of prohibition enforcement, and Judge Florence E. Allen, of the Supreme Court of Ohio. Women are just beginning to find their place in politics. We now have women legislators, senators, judges and governors. Legal education has proved to be the most likely to lead to public office, and consequently, as women realize this fact, more and more of them with ambitions for public office will acquire such an education. More power to them. 1925 in H Page I 39

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THE. if Q I i The Honorable Dean of the University' of Buffalo makes the following favorable comment: For many years the School of Law of the University of Buffalo has admitted students of both sexes, and during the present year we have in attendance about twenty young women out of a total of some three hundred and seventy-five students. It has been my general conviction that with rare' exceptions the young .women students showed a devotion to their work, and an enthusiasm in their studies, considerably beyond that shown by the average young man, and that they generally were able to attain very good scholastic standing. There have been several occasions where honors have-been awardedto young women. The doors of Boston University Law School were opened to women in 1872. At the present time it has about fifty women students as compared with about seven hundred men students, the number of women students averaging about this same number for the past few years. Scholastically the women students compare very favorably with the men, and in some instances they have made much better records. The faculty has found as a general thing that the women students are much- more earnest and con- scientious about their work than the men. Last year this university grad4 uated a woman at the head of a class of two hundred seventy-six students, a rather distinguished honor. Word comes from the University of Pennsylvania to the effect that it has graduated twenty-five women students and has five enrolled at the present time. Two of these women graduated cum laude, one in 1897 and one in 1923, a distinction very difficult to attain. The correspondent further states the proportion of failures among women is no greater than among men. National University School of Law, Washington, D. C., claims the dis- tinction of graduating one of the first few women ever admitted to the bar, Miss Belva Lockwood of the class of 1871. At present, out of about seven hundred students, forty are women. Quoting the Dean: We are glad to have them in the school. They exert a desirable influence upon the men. They seem to betas a class more conscientious in studying their text books and case books than the men. They have taken a very much larger per- centage of honors than is proportionate to their numbers. Miss jessica Dee, a graduate of the class of 1923, carried the highest honors every year she was in school, and now holds a responsible position as an Examiner in the Patent Office, Vlfashington, D. C. Honorable H. S. Richards, Dean of the University of Vlfisconsin, writes as follows: T find women students are a good deal like men students. Some are, inferior, and some are the equal of men studentsg some take a high rank. I should say in proportion to their numbers they attain a higher average than the men. A notable instance in recent years is that of Miss Miriam Frye, at present in the office of John Thompson, Attorney, Oshkosh, Wiscoiisiii. She graduated in 1924 at the head of the class, her average being considerably higher than that of anyone else in the class. Recently she argued a case before the Supreme Court. - Reports from other schools likewise show that women are carrying off their share of the honors. Last June, Mrs. Louise Garrett Griffen gradu- 1 192 Page 138

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THE. i 1 TRANSCRIPT , 7 G Page 140 The 'Personality of folm Marshoill ROBERTVK. HILL p o Selecting his way with care to avoid the deeper muck holes, walking around the stumps that obstructed the ill-defined path, stopping for a moment to assist in releasing a conveyance which had become enmired in the bog, walked a tall, gaunt, ungainly figure, bare-headed, unkempt of manner, care- lessly appareled, his only outstanding characteristics a countenance ruddy with vigor and good health and eyes penetrating and strong. Chief Justice John Marshall walked from his boarding house, a mere hovel erected amongst dismal surroundings, to a basement room in the unfinished capitol' building to take his place as the presiding genius over a body of men serving as the highest judiciary of the struggling young nation. Surely no one would have had the boldness to see in this awkward personality the character which was to mold the destinies of a world power. ' From his parents and his early environment' john Marshall acquired a rugged simplicity of character which was an index of his entire life. Born in the wilderness of WCStC1'11 Virginia he soon developed a love of Nature in all its moods, its calmness and serenity became a part of his very being. Schools were almost unknown and his early education was derived prin- cipally from his parents, who were well-read beyond the usual measure of the frontiersmen of that day. Until he was twenty years old he had no con- tact with that outer world in which he was to command so able and so influential a part. 'At that age he and his father journeyed eastward to join the Revolutionary Army under Washington's leadership. John, a beardless youth given a lieutenancy, became a prime favorite among the men. His sunny disposition and inexhaustible fund of anecdotes helped while away the cheerless daysfof camp and that dread winter at Valley Forge. During these trying days were crystallized his distrust of provincial legislatures with their petty bickerings and jealousies in the face of grave national perils, and his unalterable conviction in a uniiiedigovernment firmly entrenched from the sway of popular opinion. Returning to Richmond upon his release from active field duty, his fame preceded, him. A pretentious ball was arranged in honor of the dashing young soldier. All the belles of the vicinity donned their finery to create an im- pression on the conquering hero, when, to their utter astonishment, a loose- jointed, awkward figure, of unpolished manners and with total negligence of person, timid to embarrassment, appeared upon the scene. However, his true likeableness wasnot long in displaying itself and he soon became-the acknowledged leader of the younger set of- his day. At this time, he decided to prepare himself for the profession to which his logical mind was so well adapted. A few months were spent in listening to law lectures at Williani and Mary College but other attractions cut short his legal education and he went to Richmond to practice. There he married the daughter of Jacqueline Ambler. Always romantic by nature, his devotion .to his wife brought to 192