Kansas City School of Law - Pandex Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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THE STORY OF OUR LIFE. 9 i HE Kansas City School of Law is ten years old this spring. It was incorporated in May, 1895, and iirst rg 4 , ,, opened its doors to students in September of that year. . Those who are familiar with the Kansas City of ten M A years ago, will recall that we were at that time just J crawling out from under the crash of 1893. The panic - was severe enough everywhere, but it fell with especial force upon those western cities which had shortly previous been enjoying a boom, and Kansas City was one of these. By 1895 the great work of the panic had been done: the weak had been driven to the wall, and wrecks had been cleared away, every business and profes- sion had been pruned down until only the hardiest survived. We now know that the time of depression through which we passed was not without its wholesome eifectsz that after the storm cleared away, the men and the opportunities were here to lay the solid foundation of a great city. But it took courage and faith to establish a new institution at that time. The faith was justified--Kansas City is the location for a great law school. Among the earliest of the projectors of this school was the late Francis M. Black, who had then just retired from a ten year term on the Supreme Bench of Missouri. Judge Black entered into its organization with all the characteristic energy of his nature. He was its first president, and contin- ued to direct its policies up to the last day of his life. He loved the school and its reputation, and he showed it as a father shows his love-by the strictness of his discipline and his jealous watchfulness of its standing. His close friend, Mr. O. H. Dean, was also one of the founders. Judge E. L. Scarritt gave unsparingly of his time and labor to put the new insti- tution on its feet. So did Mr. Sanford B. Ladd, Mr. R. J. Ingraham, Mr. James H. Harkless, and Judge Edward H. Stiles. Our old friend, John W. Snyder, enlisted on the iirst call for troops. Mr. E. D. Ellison was one of the organizers and so was Mr. E. N. Powell. The classes were small then, but larger than was expected. The first class numbered twenty-seven, with a corps of five instructors. Since then the progress has been steady to increased attendance, larger faculty, and a lengthened course of study. The proudest record of the school has been the pronounced respect and unamimous support it has received from the bar of the city and the state. K I4

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The leading idea of a school founded upon the plan of evening sessions is, that students undertaking the study of law should be brought as much HS possible into constant touch with the practical part of the profession, so that their practical and theoretical knowledge may progress, if possible, to- gether. The faculty are none of them devoted to the business of teaching as a means of livelihood, but are all constantly engaged in the active exer- ' ' 1 f CISG of their profession. They bring to the class-room the fi esh resu ts o eV91'y day contact with the administration of the law. The students are, ' ' ' h t f many of them, located in law oiiices in the city, and spend the ours ou o the class work in learning the details of practice, the operation of the courts, b and the general duties of the advocate and the counselor. It has long een found that the large city is the only proper place for the location of medical . . . f and dental professional schools, the reason being that the opportunities or clinics and practical training in the hospitals of a large city, the variety of cases which can be observed there and the wider scope of practice, gives a Y lfb1'S9 City an insurmountable advantage over the smaller towns. Phe same reasoning has now come to be applied to pro large City. With its multitude and variety of courts and its great oiiices, its municipal problems and its large corporate interests, has a tremendous ad- Vfmtfbge over the smaller town, where a law student, however fine a theo- retical training oifered to him, would fin ' ' pensable, practical training of his profession. Even in this age of rapid organization and progress, it is hardly possible for an institution of merit to spring full armored into the arena. It re- quires some growth of years to perfect an institution and to reveal its weakness or its strength and this is especially true of an institution of lefifnillg- ' The capital of such an institution consists in .its expenditure of intellectual labor: the pillars of its strength are its Alumnig year by year, -Sililllering around the common center and building up its walls more endur- mg than brick and mortor. The Kansas City School of Law has not been without its struggles, and its present success has not been without the ex- penditure of patient, self-sacriiicing effort on the part of the faculty, whose principal motive has been the establishment of a useful center of profes- sional 192l1'11iUg in Kansas City and whose chief reward has been the ad- vancement and elevation of the cause of their chosen profession. After ten years of unremitting labor, much of it under circumstances of great discouragement, their reward has taken tangible shape. An institution widely known throughout the Central West for a well chosen curriculum, thoroughly and earnestly followed, a high standard of scholarship and pro- lumni dotted all over the western states rapidly making itself felt at the bar. fessional law schools and the d himself isolated from the indis- fessional ethics 3 and an a -ll'1'n. P. liorlfmd. 15