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As our law stands it provides that applicants for admission to the Bar shall be admitted, in the Circuit, Chancery or Supreme Court upon satisfactory examination in open court.

The practice in the Supreme Court is to have a standing committee of examiners, who, at stated intervals, conduct this oral examination of applicants and recommend that they do or do not pass. In the Circuit and Chancery Courts there is no such thing as a standing committee, and when an application is made the Court merely appoints a committee of lawyers from amongst those present and willing to act, who conduct an examination in open Court. These committees, being selected at random, and without any attempt to secure thereon the best lawyers, are often as poorly prepared for the ordeals as the applicant, and as often as otherwise they are made up of his friends, who wish to see him pass and be admitted. The result is the present laxity of our system and the fact that almost anyone of average intelligence who has read a few elementary works and the State statutes on pleading and practice can secure license.

To obviate this and still keep within the letter of the law we suggest that there be appointed by the Circuit and Chancery Courts for each county a standing committee of examiners, who shall examine all applicants on written questions and make recommendations thereon as to whether they should or should not be licensed, returning and filing in court the examination papers of each applicant, together with his grading thereon. Then, to comply with the law requiring oral examination in open court, let the Court to which application is made conduct an examination of the applicant, supplementary to the report of the examiners, and license him, if his showing in both examinations be satisfactory.

These committee should be appointed jointly by the Circuit and Chancery Courts of each county, one by each of said Judges and a third by the members so appointed; and the committee, under such orders as the Courts may make, should hold meetings and sessions for written examinations at stated intervals. This system will apply equally to the Supreme Court in all particulars except that of the manner of appointment.

The result of this system will be to secure a more rigid and fair examination by requiring the same to be written, and the courts will be relieved from considering the applications of all candidates who are not able to pass a satisfactory written examination before the committee. This, in the judgment of your committee, will go far towards the correction of the evils of our present system; and it has the virtue of not requiring any legislative action.

We therefore recommend that, if this report be adopted, a copy thereof be mailed to each Circuit and Chancery Judge in the State and the Justices of the Supreme Court, with a request from this Association that they put the system in force in their several jurisdictions.

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As a further improvement, for future consideration, it may be best to take steps to secure uniformity in the requirements as to the committee examinations by some process which will render all these committees one association, or board, acting under the direction of the Supreme Court committee. But this is a matter which can well wait. If the present suggestion proves a success the Association will be in a position to modify and perfect it at the next meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

B. B. BATTLE, Chairman.

JAS. H. STEVENSON,

R. M. MANN,

JNO. W. STAYTON,

T. N. ROBINSON,

Committee.

The report was adopted.

The Committee on Appeals and Grievances had no report to make.

Mr. W. V. Tompkins, chairman of the Committee on Professional Ethics, stated that his committee had decided to recommend that our Association adopt the Canons of Professional Ethics adopted by the American Bar Association. He stated that most of the members were familiar with the canons, and suggested that the reading of them be waived. A motion to waive reading and adopt the report was carried. (See Appendix, p. 164.)

The Committee on Memorials presented its report as follows:

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MEMORIALS.

To the President and Members of the Association:

Your Committee on Memorials regret to report that during the past year the Association has lost some of its most valuable members.

JAMES K. JONES.

On the first day of June, 1908, James Kimbrough Jones departed this life at Washington City. He was born in Marshall county, Mississippi, on September 29, 1839. He received a good education in the schools of Mississippi and removed to Arkansas shortly before the Civil War. At the outset of the struggle he volunteered as a private and fought through the war in that capacity, displaying great bravery on numerous occasions.

At the close of the war he retired to his plantation in Hempstead county and began the study of law. He was shortly afterwards admitted to the bar, and in 1873 he began his distinguished public career as a member of the State Senate. In 1877 he was made president of that body, and in 1881 he was elected to Congress, where he continued until he was elected United States Senator. Here his abilities were early recognized, and after he had been there a few years he was chosen as the leader of the Democrats upon the floor of the Senate. In 1896 he was made chairman of the National Democratic Committee and conducted the presidential campaign of that year and of the year 1900. He continued in the Senate until the 4th of March, 1903, when he was succeeded by Senator James P. Clarke. We were in hopes that he would return to this State and resume the practice of his profession, but he located in Washington and continued to practice there with marked success until his death.

The mere mention of the places of public trust filled by Senator Jones is sufficient proof of his distinguished abilities. He was a powerful man at the Bar, and would no doubt have reached great eminence in his profession had he devoted less time to public affairs, As it was, he was notably successful, particularly after his retirement from public life.

In person Senator Jones was of commanding stature and of most imposing appearance, revealing at the first glance his conspicuous abilities and force of character. He was a most honorable and upright gentleman, of liberal views and courteous manners, and was esteemed throughout the Nation.

JAMES K. BARNES.

James Kent Barnes was born in Estill County, Kentucky, in December, 1847, and died at Fort Smith on February 10, 1909. He was educated in the schools of his native State and studied law in the office of William O. Bradley, now United States Senator from Kentucky. He removed with his father to this State in the early 70's, and was appointed City Attorney of Little Rock and referee in bankruptcy. In a few years he removed to Fort Smith and entered into partnership with his brother, Thomas H. Barnes, in the practice of the law. The two brothers were employed in the defense of the most important criminal cases in the Federal Court in that city. This Court then had jurisdiction over the entire Indian Territory, and the business was extensive. During the administration of Presidents Garfield and Harrison he was postmaster, and in April, 1898, he was appointed District Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. This position he held until his death.

Mr. Barnes was a gentleman of the highest character and of very generous and lovable disposition, as free from malice as the human heart can be. His practice was confined substantially to the criminal law, for many years in the defense, and later as representative of the gov

ernment, and he always proved himself capable, honest and courteous. Though a Republican at a time when party feeling ran very high, the amiability of his disposition and the uprightness of his character always. preserved him the good will of his political opponents.

GEORGE K. CRACRAFT.

George Knox Cracraft was born on July 8, 1838, at Wheeling, then in the State of Virginia. He was well educated in his native town and at Washington College, Pennsylvania. In 1860 he removed to the State of Arkansas and settled at Lake Village as a partner of Major James F. Robinson. During the Civil War he returned to Virginia and joined the artillery and took part in many of the most terrible battles of that struggle. He was captured in the hospital, where he was confined by sickness, and was afterwards exchanged. He then returned to Lake Village and was elected captain of a company which took part in the operations in Louisiana. Here he was again captured and was held prisoner until the surrender of General Lee. He then went back to Chicot county and resumed his partnership with Major Robinson, doing a very extensive and lucrative business. Before the war Chicot county had been the wealthiest of all the agricultural counties of the South, and the wrecks which that great catastrophe made of Southern fortunes threw everything into litigation, so that the services of an honest and capable lawyer like Mr. Cracraft were in great demand. His practice soon resulted in the acquisition of large landed properties, which required more and more of his attention, until at last he was compelled to retire from the Bar altogether.

Mr. Cracraft was a most honorable gentleman, with the courtesy characteristic of the old school of gentlemen in the South, a diligent and faithful lawyer, and, aside from his professional and business achievements, he was a man of broad culture, who studied until the end. He continued his studies in Latin, Greek, French and German after leaving college, and attained great proficiency in them all, and a few years before his death, at an age when most men are content to rest on their previous attainments, he took up the study of Italian and learned to speak the language with reasonable fluency. He was a gentleman of very high ideals, of great personal courage, which he displayed on many battlefields, and, notwithstanding his extreme courtesy of manner, he was very firm in the assertion of his principles and a leader in the fierce struggles of the people of his county to throw off the carpet-bag yoke and to attain again to self-government. Though, on account of his extensive property interests, he was not able to serve others at the Bar during the later years of his life, his heart was always with his professional brethren, and to the last he took great interest in all the proceedings of this Association.

HENRY G. BUNN.

Judge Henry G. Bunn was born in Nash County, North Carolina, on June 12, 1838. While a student at Davidson College he entered the Confederate service and distinguished himself for courage and his military qualities, so that, although a very young man, he attained the rank of Colonel. After the war he removed to Arkansas and settled at Camden, where he practiced law with great success until the first of May, 1893, when he was appointed Chief Justice upon the resignation of Judge Cockrill. He was elected to the position in 1896 and held that office until 1904, when he resumed the practice of law at El Dorado, Ark., where he died on the 17th of July, 1908.

At the Bar he was eminently successful, his high character lending weight to all his utterances, so that he carried conviction to Courts and juries alike. All tribunals before which he appeared learned that they could rely with absolute safety upon the truth of his utterances and the candor of his presentation, so that all that he said carried its full weight.

Judge Bunn was the highest type of Christian gentleman of the old school, urbane and courtly in his manners, of great personal dignity and of incorruptible integrity. On the bench he was singularly free from all external influences, and his only idea was to do his duty as he saw it. There was never a Judge who was less swayed by the clamors of the multitude, or who was more independent in his action. He desired the esteem of his fellow citizens, but the only way in which he ever thought to acquire it was by the rectitude of his conduct.

As a citizen he was public-spirited and always upon the right side of every moral question. He was a man of the kindest heart, and devoted to his friends, and he enjoyed in an unusual degree the respect and affection of his brethren at the Bar.

O. D. SCOTT.

Judge O. D. Scott died at Texarkana on the 25th day of February. He was born at Townshend, Vt., sixty-six years ago, and received a college education in his native State. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted in the Northern army and served with distinguished courage and with that fidelity to duty that characterized his whole life until the loss of a leg at the battle of Cold Harbor put an honorable end to his military career. In the year 1872 he removed to Arkansas and began the practice of the law. He was an able and successful lawyer, learned in the books, diligent in the preparation of his cases, faithful to every trust confided to him, earnest and convincing in the presentation of his clients' cause. His whole life while in our State was devoted to his profession. He held no public office, and, though he was once nominated for a place on the Supreme Bench by the Republicans he knew that he had no chance of success and merely loaned his name for the honor of his party. But, while

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