National University - Docket Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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Page 18 THE DOCKET 192 5 all great lights in their chosen profession and men upon whom we may look with pride and whose lives and deeds may well be emulated by the present and future generations of legists. The faculty increases in size from year to year and now numbers forty. It ranks well indeed, with the best in the land. It is made up of learned judges and successful practicing attorneys who are enabled to approach the task of instructing equipped with an intimate personal knowledge and contact with the law as it is administered in the courts of the land, thereby breathing the atmosphere of life and reality into sub- jects which must otherwise amount to mere theoretical and abstract science, cold and devoid of interest. During the more than half century of its existence the school has ceaselessly labored to dispense education, principally legal, of the highest order, practical in nature and effective in the support of those glorious principles of justice and equity upon which this wonderful Country of ours is founded, and without which it must ultimately sink into the ob- livion which already shrouds the fading memories of other countries, once as proud as ours, but which failed to realize that the moment progress ceases disintegration must surely begin. The curriculum covers practically every phase of both substantive and adjective law; and the case, text and lecture methods of instruction are used with that care of selection best calculated to develop the re- sourcefulness and mental processes of the learner. A large number of the matriculants are employed by the Government of the United States. They are self-supporting and self-reliant. They are noticeably more ma- ture than the student body of the average school and association with people of this earnest and ambitious type is in itself an inspiration, an encouragement, and a valuable means of broadening one’s human experi- ence, which is by no means the least of the advantages enjoyed by our classmen. Approximately 5,000 have been graduated from the law school dur- ing the past fifty-six years of National University’s existence, and among them are many who have achieved distinction at the bar; others have become judges of national reputation, and a number are serving in the Congress of the United States. More might well be said in commendation of the Alma Mater, but in closing, it is believed sufficient to say that we, of the graduating class of 1925, consider it a privilege to know that the foundation stones of our legal training were laid in the halls of National University, and we shall take pride and pleasure in carrying on and emulating the work of the illustrious men who have been associated with the University before us. It shall be our endeavor always to elevate the profession and always to foster and improve those mental and moral qualities which make for suc- cess and which command the world’s respect and admiration, thereby remaining true to the tradition of the noble and learned calling which has been our choice.

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UE to uncertainties of life in this vale of tears, goods may disappear and riches may take flight; but that investment which reposes within the human mind can never be reached by the sheriff’s hammer nor by the robber’s threats. There- fore, whose who choose to spend certain of their years in the storing up of those enduring cultural assets which may never be taken from them, choose wisely; and there is little doubt in the writer’s mind that the substance of this thought, to- gether with the will to render great and noble service- to members of the profession and the world at large, pervaded the minds of those earnest and far-seeing men who founded National University more than a half century ago. The University, located in the City of Washington, was first incorporated by Professor Wedgewood and a num- ber of learned associates, under the general incorporation law of the District of Columbia, by a special act (29 Statutes at large, 194). The charter was granted to the Honorable Arthur McArthur and twelve others with power “to grant and confer diplomas and the usual college and university degrees.” Justice McArthur and Honorable H. C. Cole were at that time both serving upon the bench of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and Mr. Justice Alvey, one time Justice of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, was the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. Among the other incorporators were the Honorable Eugene Carusi, at that time Dean of the law faculty, the Honorable Howard H. Barker, the Honorable John Goode, Attorney General of Virginia, and one time Solicitor General of the United States. The law school is not only among the oldest within the United States, but it is also one of the most reputable, thorough, and widely known. It enjoys an unusually high standing among members of the legal profession, here and elsewhere, due to the exceptionally high standards set for its faculty members, the carefully planned curriculum, and its mature and unusually ambitious student body. National University has never been officially connected with the Gov- ernment, notwithstanding the hope of the Father of his Country, that at some future time there might be a great official institution of learning at the Nation’s Capital, and notwithstanding the hopes of its progenitors. It had, however, during the early half of its existence, the honor of very distinguished sponsors, among the greatest of whom may be mentioned as Ex-officio Chancellors, five Presidents of the United States, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur and Cleveland. Diplomas awarded during their terms of office bear their signatures and in most instances were personally conferred upon the winners of degrees at the public graduation exercises. They are valued beyond all price by those who were so fortunate as to receive them. The four other Chancellors of the University were Mr. Justice Arthur McArthur, Mr. Associate Justice Samuel F. Miller, of the Supreme Court of the United States, Mr. Chief Justice Richard H. Alvey, of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and the Honorable Eugene Carusi, LL. D., | I t l XI Xt 1 ' — Ts IV ' t lX V ' tX » l v IX - ‘ i 7 sTix 1 I l ■ M ' i I ’ .I - ' 1- i i y ix ix » yix ix ' ' ' V . t ' x- ' iCis i 7(X x JN »x ' I I I , ” X ' t X M “ix ' ix r ' iN ix, s l ix iv x »x

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HONORABLE CHARLES F. CARUSI, DEAN.