sure you I know whereof I speak," continued the Cynic, warming to his subject. "In our examinations here in the legal department, we are often put under an honor system for an hour at a time. I assure you nothing could produce worse results. Of course, there are a few poor, misguided wretches who make an earnest endeavor to write their examinations without either receiving or rendering any aid. Theirs is indeed a thankless and burdensome task.

"The majority of us, conscienceless wights that we are, who have flitted gayly o'er the course of lectures and have amused ourselves by hurling paper darts, wads of gum, and other infantile missiles at the lecturer, instead of taking careful notes, are totally at a loss to answer the questions propounded. Obsessed with a sudden desire to do so, we promptly and effectually muffle 'the still small voice called conscience' and seek to obtain information from whomever is contiguous. As a result of this wholesale thirst for knowledge, Chaos reigns supreme in that erstwhile quiet chamber. The air is freighted with questions, answers, and opinions vouchsafed in no uncertain tones. The fortunate possessors of cribs wave them triumphantly in the face of those who are trying to combine their own and their neighbor's knowledge with but ill success.

"But when the wandering Prof. returns, all this is changed. Once more all is calm and tranquil. The stillness is unbroken, save for the scratching of pens and the wails of a poor unfortunate who must struggle with a puzzler unaided.

"All of which proves that the good, old-fashioned, wholesome fear of authority is the only means by which examinations can be satisfactorily conducted. There may come a time when a future generation, more intelligent and

more highly civilized than even the Senior Laws, will be capable of furnishing enough honor to support such a system. Until then, let us hold to the custom of our ancestors. Selah."

From Columbia University Law School

I am very much gratified to know that you are taking such a lively interest in the Honor System. I have already sent in my vote in your canvass, but wish to add my hopes that your agitation will succeed in getting the system established generally.

I have the honor to be a graduate of Washington and Lee University, in whose law school Mr. Tucker was formerly a professor, and so I know from personal observation of the same conditions that he must have had in mind when making the address you quote. According to what I saw during my three years there, the System is an unqualified success, because it has the sanction of the student body. A difficulty in establishing it in schools that have not had experience with it, I apprehend, will be that it will not have at first the sanction of the student body. This applies most particularly to undergraduate schools. As to law schools, I think the introduction would be welcomed. I have talked to many of my classmates here (Columbia University Law School) on this subject, and without exception all of them would much prefer it. Many of these men went to colleges where it was not in force, but that has not kept them from wanting it here. The idea seems. to be that, since they are preparing themselves to handle delicate questions and care for large interests, they should at least be encouraged in cultivating a high sense of honor by not being subjected to the present system of espionage, ac

cording to which we are watched during our examinations as if we were a lot of thieves. M. H.

No, because of peculiar racial conditions in this law school. H. A. W. I vote no, because of peculiar racial conditions existing in this school.

K. E. W.

From the Brooklyn Law School

I would say that the "Honor System" is not in effect in the Brooklyn Law School; and, as to my opinion regarding its success if introduced, I reply most emphatically, No.

One must indeed be very inexperienced if he supposes that putting students upon their honor would obviate a great deal of fraud. Let such a man attend a few of the Regents' examinations held at the Grand Central Palace in this City, not as a watcher, but as one of the body of candidates, and observe for himself what takes place. From personal knowledge I cite one instance: A young man who sat in front of me at one of these examinations did not hesitate to ask questions of me repeatedly during the course of the examination; and, upon failing to elicit any response, he deliberately rose, crossed the aisle, looked over another candidate's shoulder at his paper, and spoke to him.

Note the precautions that are necessary to prevent fraud at these examinations, where time and time again professional examination takers have, for a price, taken examinations for candidates, so that now a recent photograph of every candidate must be filed, with his sworn statement, upon finishing his examination.

Of what use would it be to put upon their honor men who have neither honor nor pride to guide their course? For,

if they possessed either, it would deter them from doing anything whatever toward passing the required subjects by fraud.

Now, as to the other side of the question. The honorable student cares not how much he is watched; in fact, he prefers, for his own protection, to be watched, so that no question can ever be raised as to his ability to do that for which he has obtained the credit; and it seems to me that, in justice to such students, all College and Bar Examiners are in duty bound to see that they have this protection. R. S. R.

From the University of Virginia Law School

The "Honor System" had its birth here, and Virginia takes a modest and motherly pride in her most successful child. L. J. P.

From Washington and Lee University Law School

We have the "Honor System." It is very successful, and is strictly upheld without any trouble. N. W. B.

The "Honor System" reigns supreme here, and is a success, and neither student nor teacher would change it.

F. B. R.

The "Honor System" is in effect here, and we wouldn't give it up. W. L. F.

Has been in effect for years, and has proved highly successful. J. N. K.

From Harvard University Law School

Harvard Law School Examinations are aimed to test a man's reasoning powers, which cannot be worn upon his cuff. The few facts that a man might dishonestly take into the examination room

would little avail him. So it is merely an academic question which system would be better in our law school. Harvard has never favored the "Honor System," and on the whole I concur.

H. R. B.

From Stanford University Law School

We have the "Honor System" in our school. It is ideal. J. C. T.

From the National University Law School

The "Honor System" is in effect in our school, and is very successful. Never heard or knew of any one taking advantage of it. J. T. McM.

The "Honor System" is now in force in this school, and has proven a success. H. H. B.

From a Cambridge, Mass., Reader.

In the current number of your magazine I was interested to mark that you had undertaken the compilation of data regarding the preference of students, or lack of it, for the "Honor System," so called, and although no longer a student, except in the sense of "once a student, always a student," and therefore not entitled to return your inclosed post card on the subject, I should like to express my views, strongly opposed as they are to any such institution. The idea of an honor system appears to have originated in some very ill-reasoned logic or misplaced sentimentality, assuming that honor is a commodity that can be mechanically turned on and off like liquid through a stop-cock.

Its most ardent advocates could hardly maintain without refutation that, no matter how dishonest a student may be at

a particular point in his existence, he is always and instantaneously going to be converted by being placed upon his honor. All men do not possess a sufficiently solid substratum to respond in the nature of things to such an appeal, just as in the other fields of endeavor all do not come up to the mark when the demand is made. Let us take the case of a class under examination, in which there is one delinquent individual, and see what are the consequences. A. is an honest student, perhaps fluctuating, on a certain question on the paper, between the correct and incorrect answer. The preponderance of his impression is in favor of the correct answer. While he is hesitating to write it on his examination book, B., the one to whom the honor system fails to appeal, happens to ask assistance of A. on that identical question, phrasing his remark in such a way that A. cannot help knowing what is the preponderance in the dishonest student's mind. This process of suggestion is one that is constantly being seen on the witness stand. The honest student, A.. therefore, seeing that B.'s opinion inclines in the same direction as does his (A.'s) on the matter in hand, comes to the shrewd conclusion that his opinion is the correct answer. He is now in a quandary. If he has any introspective powers, he will soon wonder if he would have answered the question in the way he has come to feel is the proper way, if it had not been additionally suggested to him by B. He realizes that any judgment in his favor now will, or may be, tinctured by bias. If he has a very highly developed conscience, he will not be disposed to give himself the benefit of the doubt, and must therefore leave the question unanswered, or answer it incorrectly; whereas he had the right, before he was interfered with, to "guess" at

the answer to the best of his ability. He becomes, therefore, the victim of circumstances, even if his participation in the conversation goes no further than simply hearing what is B.'s question. B. had no right to interfere with A. A. had a right not to be interfered with by B., and the educational institution was bound to protect him in that right. Furthermore, on this question may depend the success or failure of A.'s examination, and we may even suppose that his degree depends on this course. He thus, without any fault of his own, may lose his degree; and this by, to me, unanswerable logic, based on the wholly possible premise that there is one dishonest student in the examination room. Nor is this all. A., the student particularly addressed by B., need not necessarily be the only man who hears the question asked; and it is plain, therefore, more than one man may have his peace of mind ruined.

Even under the proctor system, honor is not entirely dispensed with. The student is not entitled to circumvent, if he can, the proctor. The educational in

stitution is not bound at its peril to prevent him from cheating, and, if it cannot do it, he is not entitled to enjoy his dcgree with an easy conscience. He is not entitled to use writing concealed on his cuff, or in his watch, or in any other astute way, as he might successfully do, if he tried. Even with a proctor present, it must be done quietly or at least more quietly, and hence is confined more closely to the delinquent, without making others unwilling particeps criminis. Nor when he enters business life is he any the less bound to the highest principles of honor.

In the many examinations I have passed through I have not felt that the proctoring system, which always obtained, lessened my personal sense of honor, and, if I were to go through them again, would not under any consideration (unless I were examined in a room by myself, and even then I should, I think, prefer a proctor's presence) exchange the system that was in force for the uncertain compliment of the so-called "Honor System."

C. H. H.

O

N FEBRUARY 22d the magnificent new Law Building at the University of Iowa was dedicated with fitting ceremonies. In the morning at ten o'clock. the keys to the building were formally presented and accepted. This part of the program was held in the new Law Library. Addresses were made by Senator James H. Trewin, Chairman of the State Board of Education, George E. MacLean, President of the University, and

Charles N. Gregory, Dean of the College of Law.

The address of Dean Gregory, which was one of unusual beauty and fitness, has since been called the "Gregory Benediction," and was as follows:

"Mr. President, Your Excellency the Governor, Gentlemen of the Board of Education, Ladies and Gentlemen: "For the Faculty of Law I humbly and solemnly accept the trust confided, and

earnestly promise that we will spare no labor in its faithful administration.

"The Law School of the State University of Iowa has been houseless and homeless for the forty-two years of her useful and prolific existence. She has known, as Dante says, 'How hard it is to climb and to descend the stranger's stair,' yet in that time she has graduated (with those who take their degrees to-day) 2,741 students. These 'sons in Law' of the University have many of them won the success of private fortune and professional eminence. At least four have reached the United States Senate; many the lower house of Congress. At least thirteen have attained the Supreme Bench of their states, and two the Federal Bench. At least three have been Governors of states and a great many have been District Judges, Senators, Assemblymen, Regents, Mayors, and County and City Attorneys.

"Now, for the first time, by the bounty of the state, this 'mother of men' is given a habitation and a dwelling place; one, too, of dignified and austere beauty, stately, ample, and commodious. Secure by its construction against fire, as eternal as justice. One, too, in which the law students may at last find the comforts and conveniences which have been long accorded to their fellows.

"In two weeks of experience every professor of law has already noticed the increase in zeal, order, and attention which such surroundings must promote. Every student has his seat, and his desk as well, assigned for the semester in the classroom. The practice court meets in a courtroom as dignified and judicial as that of the county.

"The Marshall Law Society enjoys its own well-fitted room for debate and parliamentary practice, and the library has every one of its 14,000 volumes where it

can be reached from the floor and where the sun shines by day and the electric light by night, where, in a vaulted, pillared hall, with air that is mechanically changed every few moments, the longsuffering law student may forget the fetid air, the dim lights, and the inaccessible galleries of our old historical library

room.

"Thanks are due to the governing boards of the University, the Governor and Legislature of the State, the ingenious and gifted architect, for all this, and, still more, to the people of the state, who have provided this noble shelter for law and scholarship. May its use be lasting and lofty as its own stone columns, and may it return 'full measure, pressed down, and running over' to the state by which it was decreed and the people by whom it was provided. May its years be crescent years, each riper, wiser, fuller, higher, than the year before, and may its sons, the only harvest that it promises, its sons, the lawyers and public servants of the state, justify its existence. May they help to make the splendid declaration of Magna Charta a living fact in this broad state. To no man shall be sold or denied or delayed right or justice.' May they help to make the law of this Commonwealth what I heard a gifted Alumnus declare to the Bar of the State that the law should be: "The hope of all who suffer,

The dread of all who wrong.'

"And when I that speak and you that listen lie under the sod, as presently we must, may there still pass out from the carved stone portals of this building, to serve and to bless the state, the nation, and mankind, a procession of good men and sound lawyers as endless and beneficent as the flow of the Iowa River, which rolls on in the valley below for ever and ever. Amen."