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Photo by Chickering 
 
 GLEASON L. ARCHER 
 
Building a School 
 
 A Fearless Portrayal of Men and Events in the 
 Old Bay State, 1906- 19 19 
 
 By 
 
 GLEASON L. ARCHER, LL. B. 
 
 Dean and Founder of Suffolk Law School 
 
 Author of "The Law of Contracts," "The Law of Agency," 
 
 "The Law of Torts," "Equity and Trusts," "The Law 
 
 of Evidence," "Law Office and Ctourt Procedure," etc. 
 
 Boston: igig 
 
'V1 
 
 Copyright 1915, 1919 
 
 By 
 
 GLEASON L. ARCHER 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 JAin -u iiJ2U 
 
 ©GI,A5Gia43 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
To My Wife 
 
 ELIZABETH GLENN ARCHER 
 
 Whose loyal co-operation and tender sympathy have made 
 
 possible the successful termination of the long 
 
 struggle depicted in this volume. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The success of the first edition of this work which 
 appeared under the title of the "Educational Octopus" 
 has encouraged the author to complete the history of 
 Suffolk Law School by bringing it up to date. In 
 the former volume, the narrative virtually ended with 
 the signing of the school charter. Not unlike the 
 signing of a treaty of peace, this ended hostilities. 
 The institution was thereafter freed from the neces- 
 sity of defense against the assaults of rival institu- 
 tions. A period of unparalleled growth was ushered 
 in, and with it problems greater than ever the school 
 had faced in its earlier days. How those problems 
 were faced; how a school home was purchased; how 
 an annex was built; how the crisis of the world war 
 was met, and the wonderful influx of students of the 
 current year, are all set forth in the concluding chap- 
 ters of this volume. 
 
 — G. L. A. 
 
 45 Mt. Vernon St., Boston 
 October, 1919 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter 
 
 I. The Proximate Cause. 
 
 II. A Momentous Decision. 
 
 III. Enrolling My First Students. 
 
 IV. My First Law Lecture. 
 V. Tribulations. 
 
 VI. A Barrier Cleared. 
 
 VII. Preparation for Bar Examinations. 
 
 VIII. The Last Barrier. 
 
 IX. I Prepare to Found the School. 
 
 X. The Humble Beginning. 
 
 XI. The School's First Year. 
 
 XII. A Conference with My Students. 
 
 XIII. A Crisis in the School. 
 
 XIV. The Fateful Summer of 1907. 
 XV. A Student Mutiny. 
 
 XVI. School Finances, Real and Apparent. 
 
 XVII. The School Wins Friends and Free Advertising. 
 
 XVIII. Assailed by Suffragettes. 
 
 XIX. The First Lawyer from Our School. 
 
 XX. The Good Samaritan. 
 
 XXI. A Great Boom for the School. 
 
 XXII. My First Law Writing and the Traveler Contest. 
 
 XXIII. Hostility of Boston University. 
 
 XXIV. Removal to Tremont Temple. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Qiapter 
 
 XXV. Y. M. C. A. Ethics. 
 
 XXVI. My First Law Book. 
 
 XXVII. A Year of Tribulations. 
 
 XXVIII. A Student Revolt. 
 
 XXIX. My Second Law Book. 
 
 XXX. Low Water Mark 
 
 XXXI. The Resurrection of Hope. 
 
 XXXII. An Attempted Consolidation. 
 
 XXXin. The Winter of 191 1. 
 
 XXXIV. A New Lease of Life. 
 
 XXXV. The School Votes to Petition the Legislature. 
 
 XXXVI. Strengthening the Line-up. 
 
 XXXVII. Enter Joe Parks. 
 
 XXXVIII. The Legislative Contest Opens. 
 
 XXXIX. The Octopus Shows Its Head. 
 
 XL. Victory in Committee. 
 
 XLI. The First Great Debate in the House. 
 
 XLII. Lively Lobbying. 
 
 XLIII. A Double Shuffle. 
 
 XLIV. Victory in the Senate. 
 
 XLV. The Bill Goes to Governor Foss. 
 
 XLVI. Veto and Defeat. 
 
 XLVII. Preparing for the Second Legislative Contest. 
 
 XL VIII. The Bar Association Investigation. 
 
 XLIX. The Board of Education's "Investigation." 
 
 L. Before the Committee on Education, 1913. 
 
 LI. The Bill Passes the Legislature. 
 
 LII. The "Pleasant Easter" Episode. 
 
 LIII. "Pitiless Publicity." 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter 
 
 LIV. A Jolt for the Joker. 
 
 LV. The Governor at Bay. 
 
 LVI. Exit Governor Foss. 
 
 LVII. The Great Victory. 
 
 LVIII. The School goes House Hunting. 
 
 LIX. Buying a School House. 
 
 LX. The School Year of 1914-1915. 
 
 LXI. Building the Annex. 
 
 LXII. A Year of Momentous Problems. 
 
 LXni. The Banner Year of 1916-1917. 
 
 LXIV. Suffolk Law School and the World War. 
 
 LXV. Conclusion. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Proximate Cause. 
 
 The writing of this chronicle of a school for the train- 
 ing of the sons of the working man, and how it encoun- 
 tered the Educational Octopus that controls all things 
 educational in Massachusetts, has rendered necessary 
 the projection of the personality of the author to a 
 greater degree than would he called forth by the ordi- 
 nary history. As in the case of the historian of ancient 
 days, I am describing events "all of which I saw and a 
 part of which I was," for as founder and Dean of the 
 school the brunt of things necessarily devolved upon me 
 
 Could all the intimate history of the Suffolk Law 
 School from its very inception to the present moment, 
 its humble beginning, its long and labored struggle up- 
 ward in the face of powerful opposition, and its final 
 triumph, be fairly set forth that all may read, the nar- 
 rative would prove to be one of surpassing interest. 
 Ten years is a short time in the eyes of men when it is 
 looked back upon, and perhaps altogether too brief to 
 allow a proper appraisement of all the varying in- 
 cidents that go to make up that interval of history. 
 
 There is no fact of life more apparent to man than 
 the wonderful way in which a trifling incident of every 
 day life sometimes marks the turning point of one's 
 whole existence. Yet at the time it occurred it was 
 merely a trifling incident of no more apparent im- 
 
 II 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 portance than any other that preceded or succeeded it, 
 and had we not taken advantage of the opportunity 
 thus afforded we doubtless would never have realized 
 that it possessed the slightest significance to our lives. 
 But looking back through the vista of time, its true 
 significance stands revealed and we know the happen- 
 ing to have been the point of departure from the direc- 
 tion in which our lives had hitherto been moving. 
 
 For this reason, perhaps, the incident, trifling though 
 it may seem, that brought about the eventual founding 
 of the Suffolk Law School stands forth in my memory 
 as one of the most vivid of my life. Should I live ever 
 so long I can never forget that scene in Room 826 of 
 the Old South Building, Boston. 
 
 It occurred sometime in the early part of October in 
 the year 1905. I was then beginning my second year 
 at Boston University Law School, but hoping to grad- 
 uate a year ahead of my class (which, by the way, I 
 accomplished), I was taking the subjects of Real 
 Property, Equity, Bills and Notes, Corporations, Evi- 
 dence, Wills, Pleading and Practice, not to mention a 
 few other subjects, and, naturally, I expected to be 
 busy both day and evening. 
 
 It will be granted, therefore, by anyone who has 
 studied the difficult subjects that I have enumerated, 
 that, to use the language of the street, I was "some 
 busy." 
 
 On this particular afternoon in the Autumn of 1905 
 I was seated at a roll top desk by the window in Room 
 826 of the Old South Building studying my lecture 
 notes, (I used to study there quite a bit while keep- 
 ing the office open), when Hugh A. Quinn of Woburn, 
 the owner of the aforesaid roll top desk, entered the 
 office. 
 
 12 
 
THE PROXIMATE CAUSE 
 
 He was and is a young man of keen intellect, and we 
 had often conversed on various legal topics. When- 
 ever anything came under his observation that in- 
 volved a point of law, he usually asked me about it, 
 an<i, like all law students, I was glad indeed to air — 
 I was about to say, my knowledge, but will substitute 
 the word "understanding" of the law that governed it. 
 
 On this afternoon, we got into a discussion of the 
 law of "Contracts," and it may be that my explanation 
 seemed to him particularly lucid, for as a result of it 
 he said to me : 
 
 "Mr. Archer, I wish I could study law. I've always 
 had a hankering for law. Why can't you teach me? 
 I'd be glad to pay you for it, and I know a young fel- 
 low that I think would like to study with me." 
 
 To say that I was amazed at the proposition was to 
 put it mildly. It seemed that I had already more work 
 before me than I could ever hope to accomplish during 
 the school year. So I tried to evade the issue by sug- 
 gesting that he go to the Y. M. C. A. Law School if he 
 couldn't get time for study during the day. 
 
 "No," he replied, "I have investigated that and I 
 know that I can't stand the strain, for I am working 
 too hard. One or two evenings a week would be all 
 that I could stand." 
 
 I pondered over it. I explained to him the great 
 amount of work that I was undertaking — and I turned 
 him down. 
 
 But, it may be objected : "How can this be the in- 
 ception of the Suffolk Law School?" It was, never- 
 theless. Although I did not grasp opportunity by the 
 forelock when it met me, yet I did catch it by the fet- 
 lock before it got away. 
 
 13 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A Momentous Decision. 
 
 It was my custom while a student in Boston to 
 study very diligently, taking little of the relaxation or 
 recreation that most young men think, and perhaps 
 rightly, to be necessary to their physical well being. I 
 never frequented places of amusement nor even gym- 
 nasiums, and my chief and practically my only recrea- 
 tion was in walking for brief periods whenever my 
 eyes or brain imperatively demanded rest. 
 
 My walking was almost invariably through the Com- 
 mon or Public Gardens, occasionally down the central 
 park of Commonwealth Avenue, but a favorite course 
 was down Beacon Street to a point opposite the Pub- 
 lic Gardens and thence to the Charles River bank, then 
 quite difiFerent from its present magnificent prome- 
 nade. 
 
 On the evening after my interview with Mr. Quinn, 
 I returned to my room on Beacon Hill, but either sup- 
 per or mental weariness, or both combined, prevented 
 me from pursuing my studies with any degree of sat- 
 isfaction. I could not clearly see when a "fixture" was 
 a part of the real estate or when it was not, and in 
 order to remedy this mental astigmatism, I gave over 
 studying for a time and set out for a walk. 
 
 I roomed on Myrtle Street at the time aod, if I re- 
 member correctly, I walked up Joy Street and turned 
 
 14 
 
A MOMENTOUS DECISION. 
 
 down Mount Vernon because of a beautiful sunset 
 glow in the West that appeared to special advantage 
 through the vista of trees of that beautiful street. 
 Quite unconscious of the destiny that should link me 
 with the place, I passed 45 Mount Vernon Street, the 
 present home of the Suffolk Law School. 
 
 If some fairy could have bid me pause and behold 
 the place and whispered in my ear something that the 
 future would unfold, I should have regarded the 
 building with wonder and delight, but as it was, I 
 looked upon it merely as one of many of the homes of 
 the "highbrows," cold and forbidding. 
 
 What had I, a poor student without a dollar to my 
 name, to do with one of the finest old buildings in the 
 exclusive section of residential Boston? So I passed 
 on to Louisburg Square and finally turned through 
 some of the winding cross streets until I gained 
 Beacon Street. 
 
 I strolled for some time in the brisk evening air. I 
 have no clear recollection of when my thoughts first 
 turned to the incident of the afternoon, but turn to it 
 they did, and before I had retraced my way to my 
 lodgings I was so completely dominated by the 
 thought of teaching law that, absurd as I told myself 
 it was, I could not refrain from mentioning it to my 
 brother, Hiram J. Archer, who roomed with me. 
 
 My brother was also studying law, but not at that 
 time in law school. He had recently undergone a long 
 tubercular illness that had so completely shattered his 
 health that even to this day he is not a well man. But 
 he was rooming with me and studying law, in fact, he 
 may be termed my first pupil, for it was largely from 
 my lecture notes and my occasional assistance that he 
 
 15 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 so far mastered the law that he passed the Massachu- 
 setts bar examination six months after I did. 
 
 He was older than I, and I had great respect for 
 his judgment. I wonder even now what would have 
 been the fate of the Suffolk Law School if he had dis- 
 couraged my project while I was yet uncertain as to 
 the course I should pursue. He understood as well as 
 I did the great amount of work I had mapped out for 
 the year, but he caught the idea instantly and approved 
 of it most heartily. 
 
 By this time I had evolved the plan of trying to in- 
 duce other young men to come into the class and thus 
 make it more feasible from every point of view. It 
 afterward transpired that had I not secured others, my 
 class would have ended abruptly within a few weeks 
 of its formation, but a kindly Providence seems to 
 have directed my every move. 
 
 I remembered a young man of my acquaintance who 
 had remarked in my hearing some months before that 
 he wished he could study law. He worked in Boston 
 and the plan might appeal to him. At any rate it 
 would do no harm to try. 
 
 In casting about for others who might be interested 
 in the plan, I bethought me of a second cousin of 
 mine, Carl Collar, an ambitious young man whom I 
 had tried to persuade to go to Boston University Col- 
 lege of Liberal Arts the year before, but who had se- 
 cured a responsible position with a steamship company 
 in Boston and had given up the idea of college. Know- 
 ing him as I did, I had confidence that the plan would 
 appeal to him, and I resolved to see him the next day. 
 
 Ponder as we did upon it, my brother and I could 
 not recall an}^ other men who were likely prospects. 
 
 t6 
 
 n 
 
A MOMENTOUS DECISION 
 
 No way of securing other men remained except re- 
 sorting to outright advertising, which I finally decided 
 to do. 
 
 I did very little studying the balance of the evening 
 and spent a wakeful night as I always do when any 
 immature plan is on my mind. It may be a common 
 experience of men who do much thinking or planning, 
 but with me until a problem is thoroughly worked 
 out, I can never count upon a night's sleep. However 
 weary I may be when I go to bed and however 
 soundly I may sleep at first, I am sure to awaken in 
 the "wee small" hours and lie awake until the problem 
 is settled or until morning comes. 
 
 But settling the problem does not finish my mid- 
 night cogitations, for I always find myself revolving 
 the plan again and picking flaws in it, and looking at it 
 from all angles until I have settled the problem in a 
 different way. More often than not the second solu- 
 tion is no more durable than the first. Many of the 
 most successful features of the work in the Suffolk 
 Law School and some of the wisest plans I have ever 
 devised have not been the first solution but perhaps 
 the sixth solution in a given night. 
 
 For that reason I have always welcomed such peri- 
 ods of insomnia for the fruits they have borne, and it 
 is quite safe to say that no important plan that I have 
 carried out in the last ten years has been entered upon 
 without the tireless midnight scrutiny as outlined 
 above. 
 
 It is true that I had not the remotest idea at the time 
 that the most profound consequences were to flowi 
 from that night's work, but I nevertheless involuntar- 
 ily devoted a large portion of the night to viewing and 
 reviewing the plan, a little conscience-stricken perhaps 
 
 17 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 at the occasional sleepy admonitions of my brother to 
 "lie still and not keep a fellow awake all night." 
 
 But when I arose the next morning it was with a 
 fixed determination to go forward with the plan, what- 
 ever the hazard, and however it might add to my bur- 
 dens. 
 
 i8 
 
ENROLLING MY FIRST STUDENTS 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Enrolling My First Students. 
 
 It has ever been one of my characteristics to act 
 without delay in putting into operation any plan upon 
 which I have resolved, and my action in this matter 
 was no exception to the rule. Early that very fore- 
 noon I called upon Percival FitzGerald at the store 
 in which he worked and informed him that I was 
 about to start a private class in law. 
 
 He was the young man to whom I have referred as 
 having once in my hearing voiced a desire to study 
 law. We discussed terms and evenings when the class 
 would convene. Before I left he agreed to come into 
 the class. 
 
 This result was very cheering to me and I lost no 
 time in going to the steamship office on State Street, 
 where Carl Collar was employed. My enthusiasm pre- 
 vailed with him also and I hastened to hunt up Mr. 
 Quinn and acquaint him with my change of mind. 
 
 He manifested considerable pleasure and promised 
 to bring his friend to see me within a few days. The 
 date for the first meeting of the class was fixed upon. 
 When I attended my regular lectures at the law school 
 that day it was with an entirely new interest in the 
 methods of teaching of the different professors under 
 whom I was studying. 
 
 The problem of securing other students was the 
 matter to which attention should next be directed and, 
 after lectures that day, I drafted an advertisement an- 
 nouncing the formation of a class in "practical law" 
 for young business men, which read as follows : 
 
 19 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 Beginning Oct. 17, class in practical law for young 
 business men. Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. 
 One hour each. "B 392," The Post. 
 
 I received one or two inquiries within the next few 
 days and each inquiry I answered in person. 
 
 I well remember a trip to Union Park Street to fol- 
 low up one of them. The man in question was a 
 house painter and decorator, a thrifty Norwegian 
 named Ole M. Dahl. I waited in his shop for half an 
 hour or so, before he came in and I studied him with 
 interest as he finally returned in his working garb. 
 He had ruddy cheeks and a good natured face, alto- 
 gether prepossessing except that his English was 
 very faulty. 
 
 "Can you learn me anything?" he finally demanded 
 anxiously. "Ain't I too old?" 
 
 I assured him that I knew many students in the 
 law school who were older than he and that I be- 
 lieved I could "learn" him something. As I remem- 
 ber it, before I left him he agreed to attend and filled 
 out one of the absurd little application blanks that I 
 had just had printed, the first person outside of my 
 acquaintance to become a member of the class.. 
 
 I decided to take up "Contracts" as the first sub- 
 ject, but there was a rule of the law school against 
 using lecture notes, except personally, without the 
 consent of the professor in whose course the notes 
 were taken. I promptly waited upon the late Pro- 
 fessor George E. Gardner, one of the wisest and ablest 
 teachers under whom I had the good fortune to sit as 
 a student, and easily obtained his permission to use 
 the notes I had taken in his course in Contracts the 
 previous year. 
 
 I was now ready for the opening lecture and within 
 ten days from the inception of the idea I had made 
 my bow as a teacher of law. 
 
 20 
 
MY FIRST LAW LECTURE 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 My First Law Lecture. 
 
 Although I had announced the opening as October 
 17th, yet, at the request of several of the men who 
 were to attend, I changed the date to Thursday even- 
 ing the 19th, and so altered my plans that the work 
 should be given on one evening a week in a two-hour 
 session instead of two sessions of an hour each on 
 different evenings. 
 
 When opening night came I arranged to have the 
 use of Room 744 instead of Room 826, because of 
 the greater seating capacity of the former. There 
 were eight men present, one of them a visitor, who 
 had no intention of studying law, but who roomed 
 in the house that I did and came because of his in- 
 terest in me. 
 
 The seven men who had enrolled for the course 
 were Carl Collar, Ole M. Dahl, Percival FitzGerald, 
 Harry Golden, Benjamin W. Manning, Hugh A. 
 Quinn and Thomas L. Talty. 
 
 I have never confronted a Freshman Class with 
 more trepidation than I did that first little assembly 
 of men. Oratory has never been one of my gifts, nor 
 do I deem it an essential quality in a teacher of law. 
 Multiplicity of words oftentimes seriously interferes 
 with a clear presentation of a legal principle. It has 
 ever been my policy to plunge directly into a topic 
 
 21 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 without elaborate preamble, and on this first occa- 
 sion I am sure that I wasted no time in introducing 
 the men to the law of contracts. My enthusiasm for 
 the subject (in which I had won a Magna Cum Laude 
 record the year before) soon made me forget my 
 stage fright. 
 
 Before the evening was over I was handling the 
 lecture with real pleasure and feeling that at last in 
 my teaching experience I had found my proper sphere. 
 But I realized that it was only an experiment, and I 
 wasted no thoughts on where it might lead me in 
 the future, my whole attention being absorbed in 
 rendering clear and vivid the principles that I had 
 determined as work to be covered for that evening. 
 
 The two hours passed swiftly and the men crowd- 
 ed around me after the lecture, to express their grat- 
 ification in the work of the evening or to pay their 
 tuition or to ask me again for some word they had 
 missed in the dictation. 
 
 When they had all left me, I closed up the office 
 and strolled to my lodgings, weary indeed, but glow- 
 ing with satisfaction at the obvious success of the 
 evening. I little realized then that not for three years 
 would I derive a similar amount of satisfaction from 
 the opening evening of a law course ; nor even that 
 there were to be other opening evenings, and strenu- 
 ous days to come. 
 
 But I had made my bow as a teacher of law and 
 definitely began the teaching experiments that finally 
 led me to found the Suffolk Law School. I was then 
 within ten days of my twenty-fifth birthday. 
 
 The first lecture had furnished me with informa- 
 tion as to how much dictation could be given in an 
 evening, and during the week that intervened before 
 
 22 
 
MY FIRST LAW LECTURE 
 
 the next lecture I occupied my odd moments in cut- 
 ting out certain portions of my Contracts notes and 
 in supplying the gap in my own language. 
 
 I have always had a faculty of compressing ideas 
 into brief compass and of eliminating the unnecessary 
 words in a sentence. This faculty proved of great 
 value to me now, and I found to my great surprise 
 and pleasure that I could condense the notes I had 
 taken as a student into about one-fourth their original 
 wording, still covering everything that they did and 
 expressing each principle of law in language more 
 readily understood by the beginner. 
 
 A nicely balanced sentence of great length, or long 
 winded legal phraseology may be well enough in dic- 
 tation to day students who have all the time there 
 is at their disposal, but the first thing I learned from 
 my teaching of evening students, with little time for 
 the lectures, was that it was entirely out of place in 
 dictation to them. 
 
 As I look back upon it now I believe that the suc- 
 cess of the Suffolk Law School was largely due to 
 that first year of experimentation while I was tutor- 
 ing these men. Although as some of my classmates 
 had informed me it was a very "nervy" thing to 
 teach others while myself a student, yet my very 
 position as a student and teacher gave me a tremen- 
 dous advantage over the ordinary teacher of law. 
 
 I was in a position to study from the student's 
 standpoint the methods of many different teachers 
 of varying capabilities and varying methods of work. 
 Being of an analytical turn of mind, I studied the 
 effect of different methods of teaching upon myself 
 and classmates. I easily recognized the methods that 
 produced good results, and also those that produced 
 
 23 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 the opposite. Whenever I discovered a particular 
 method in which the course I was myself taking was 
 faulty, I set about deliberately to remedy that defect. 
 
 For example, I had already found that I needed 
 review work, of which we got none at all in Boston 
 University Law School, and I had even the year be- 
 fore gotten together a little circle of classmates for 
 review work, I drawing up as we went along a com- 
 plete set of quiz questions on each subject; which 
 questions I propounded whenever we met, with the 
 result that everyone in our little circle won honor 
 marks in examinations. When devising m^ethods for 
 teaching I therefore incorporated review work in class 
 as of equal importance with advance work. 
 
 There were many ways in which I profited greatly 
 by my dual position as student and teacher, and be- 
 fore the first year of teaching was over I had quite 
 definitely mapped out the methods of teaching that 
 have rendered the Suffolk Law School so different 
 from other institutions, and so uniformly successful. 
 They were devised to meet the needs of students by 
 one who was himself a student at the time, and there- 
 fore far better able to appreciate those needs than 
 someone whose student days were already a thing of 
 the past. 
 
 24 
 
TRIBULATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Tribulations. 
 
 There were many other lessons that I was to learn 
 during the autamn of 1905, besides those to which I 
 have alluded in the previous chapter. One was that 
 the enthusiasm of men for new experiences, and espe- 
 cially for those that involve mental exertion, is some- 
 times of very uncertain duration. Within three weeks 
 of the opening lecture I had lost two students. Man- 
 ning and Golden; but it so happened that their places 
 were immediately filled by two new men, J. J. Smith 
 and A. J. Enman. 
 
 Further losses, however, reduced the ranks of the 
 little class. Singularly enough, Mr. Quinn, at whose 
 suggestion the class had been formed, was the next 
 to drop out, and with him his friend Talty. It was 
 therefore a most fortunate circumstance that I had 
 secured additional students beside Mr. Quinn and his 
 friend, otherwise the experiment would have ended 
 in failure within six weeks of its inception. 
 
 But a misfortune of more serious nature befell me 
 at this time, and very nearly ended my life. The 
 combination of overwork, city air to one who had 
 always lived in the country, and above all, improper 
 food in quick lunch restaurants, had so weakened me 
 physically that whenever I caught the slightest cold 
 it developed into acute bronchitis. 
 
 25 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 In November I was stricken with this malady, and 
 was obliged to substitute my brother Hiram as 
 teacher of my class. I grew steadily worse until my 
 life was so far despaired of that they sent for my 
 fiancee to come to Boston if she wished to see me 
 alive. Needless to say, she came, and her visit and 
 care aided materially in bringing me through the 
 crisis, 
 
 I recovered, after nearly a month of illness, and I 
 wonder now how, in my weakened condition, I had 
 the courage to attempt to make up all the work I had 
 missed at the Law School, for it must be remembered 
 that I was taking two years' work in one, and I had 
 therefore lost the equivalent of two months' work. 
 
 But kind classmates loaned me notebooks, and dur- 
 ing the Thanksgiving holidays I visited at the home 
 of my fiancee in Gilbertville, Mass., where her father 
 (Rev. Henry S. Snyder) was then preaching. To- 
 gether she and I copied the back notes, and I re- 
 turned to Boston with renewed courage. 
 
 But fate had not finished with me. There was 
 an even more grievous trouble to befall me. As I 
 sat in lecture at the law school on December 5th, 
 1905, a telegram was placed in my hand, telling me 
 that my mother, from whom I had just received a 
 cheery letter, was dying in the far-off backwoods 
 town in Maine, where I was bom. 
 
 This day was but the second day that I had been 
 able to attend the law school after my long illness, and 
 my friends told me that it was suicide in my weak- 
 ened condition to take the long trip through the bit- 
 ter cold, but there was a voice calling me stronger 
 than any voice of reason or prudence. 
 
 I notified the students that I could not meet with 
 
 26 
 
TRIBULATIONS 
 
 them that Thursday evening, and my brother and I 
 set out for home by the first train, telegraphing ahead 
 to Bangor for a team that could stand a thirty-five 
 mile dash into the country. 
 
 We rode all night, reaching Bangor at two o'clock 
 in the morning. The team was awaiting us, but we 
 found before we had driven five miles into the bleak 
 country that the horse was a decrepit creature, with- 
 out speed or endurance. We got off the road in the 
 darkness, but found it again and plodded on until 
 mid-forenoon, when we met a man who knew our 
 family, and had gotten word by telephone that very 
 morning that mother was dead. 
 
 We completed our sad journey, and after the 
 funeral I returned to Boston and plunged into my 
 work more desperately than ever. 
 
 27 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A Barrier Cleared. 
 
 One other man dropped out during- the winter term, 
 leaving but four men in the class, and these four re- 
 mained throughout the year. Two of them, Carl 
 Collar and Ole M. Dahl, afterwards completed the 
 course in the Suffolk Law School. 
 
 It must have been about midwinter that I began 
 definitely to consider the advisability and practica- 
 bility of enlarging upon my venture and founding a 
 regular evening law school. I had put my theories 
 to the test, and the success of them was clearly man- 
 ifest in the progress that my pupils were making in 
 the difficult subject of Contracts. These theories of 
 teaching were new and original in many respects, 
 and this I felt justified me in continuing the venture. 
 
 My brother was taken into consultation, and he 
 agreed with me in my conclusion. I thereupon an- 
 nounced to my pupils that I should continue the work 
 the following year. 
 
 But I realized that if I was to continue and attempt 
 to found a regular school there were two very im- 
 portant things for me to accomplish; the first to win 
 my law degree in June, and the second to pass the 
 Massachusetts Bar Examinations in July, 
 
 To plan was to act, and as soon as the January ex- 
 
 28 
 
A BARRIER CLEARED 
 
 aminations had been heard from, I called upon Secretary 
 J. Merrill Boyd and told him that I was a candidate for 
 graduation. 
 
 Now it was the usual thing for a man who was 
 to take the three year course in two years to have 
 taken Bills and Notes in addition to the Freshman 
 work during the first year. This I had not done be- 
 cause of the fact that I had had a great deal of trouble 
 with my eyes while in college and had undergone two 
 operations during the summer prior to entering the 
 law school. I was therefore uncertain whether they 
 would fail me or not, and had not dared to over-tax 
 them by taking Bills and Notes in addition to the Fresh- 
 man courses. 
 
 There was a rule of the school which provided that 
 no person could graduate in two years unless he had 
 attained a ten per cent, higher average than was re- 
 quired of the ordinary three-year student. Secretary 
 Boyd, who was the kindest official I had ever come 
 in contact with in the University, looked up my record 
 and informed me that so far as my marks were con- 
 cerned I was eligible, but that there was still another 
 rule of the University that a man must be a college 
 graduate in order to be entitled to take his law degree 
 in two years. 
 
 I clearly saw the dilemma I was in, for I had not 
 completed my college course, owing in part to jfinancial 
 circumstances and also to the serious eye trouble to 
 which I have alluded. Mr. Boyd referred me to Dr. 
 Melville M. Bigelow, who was then Dean of the Law 
 School, as the only one who could give me a final 
 answer. 
 
 I lost no time in invading the Dean's office. Dr. 
 
 29 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 Bigelow was always a very kind and sympathetic man, 
 and in this case I could clearly see that he would help 
 me if he could. But I knew also that he saw the ob- 
 stacle in the way of my graduation, so when he told 
 me to continue with my work and he would see what 
 could be done I feared that he was trying to be as 
 humane as possible, but suspected that, carrying all 
 the work that I was, it was inevitable that I should 
 flunk something and that he would thus be delivered 
 from the necessity of denying my plea to be allowed 
 to graduate, for that would bar me automatically. 
 
 I put the question more definitely. I assured him 
 I was going to pass everything, calling his attention 
 to the high marks I had gotten thus far in the school. 
 I told him frankly why I wanted to graduate and ex- 
 plained how much depended upon it. He was plainly 
 troubled in his kind heart, but he told me that the 
 rule stood in my way and that so far as he could then 
 see I would have to wait a year for my degree. 
 
 As I was passing out of the ofifiice he added that he 
 would consider it further and help me out if he could. 
 
 I was quite disheartened over the prospect, but it 
 has always been a habit of mine never to give up until 
 the last possibility has been exhausted. I passed a 
 sleepless night racking my brain in an effort to devise 
 some means of winning my degree. 
 
 A resolve gradually shaped itself in my mind to en- 
 list in my behalf the professors in both the college and 
 law departments, who were friends of mine, and I felt 
 that I could count upon several to urge my cause. 
 However, I did not wish to resort to this except as a 
 last extremity. 
 
 Then I hit upon a happy idea. While still in col- 
 
 30 
 
A BARRIER CLEARED 
 
 lege, I had taken the subject of Sales in the Law 
 School. I knew that Dean Bigelow delighted in fine 
 and technical distinctions, so I resolved to argue my 
 case afresh, having due regard to technical distinc- 
 tions. 
 
 I wrote him a long letter, urging that the two-year 
 rule did not apply to me, for I had been enrolled in the 
 law school more than two years. I further argued that 
 I was neither a two-year man nor yet a three-year man, 
 hence that the trustees had never provided a rule to 
 fit my case. That being true, it was an occasion in 
 which he was free to exercise his discretion. I recited 
 again my reasons for desiring the degree in June, 1906, 
 and ended by telling him that if he still felt doubtful 
 over my case I would like the privilege of having some 
 of my friends talk to him on the subject. 
 
 But the letter accomplished all that I desired and I 
 immediately received word from Dean Bigelow that I 
 should have my degree, provided that I passed in all 
 the second semester examinations. 
 
 I was very happy over this decision ; but I realized 
 that the battle was not entirely won, for a failure in 
 examinations w^ould defeat my purpose. In addition to 
 all that I was doing, there was a thesis to prepare, and 
 this had to be based upon original research work. 
 
 In the course of a few weeks I had written my 
 thesis, when all my plans came near to being frus- 
 trated by my old enemy bronchitis. My illness came 
 about in this way. About the middle of April, IQ06, 
 I was commissioned by the trustees of an estate in 
 Boston to go to the southern part of Ohio and inves- 
 tigate a tract of land owned by the estate, said to be 
 in a productive gas and oil region, but concerning 
 
 31 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 which they could obtain no trustworthy information. 
 
 I made the trip, and a wonderful trip it was for me, 
 never before having been out of New England. I se- 
 cured the information and returned with samples of 
 oil from adjoining properties. But pressure of time 
 had made necessary explorations during a rainstorm 
 which occurred while I was in Ohio, and I took a 
 severe cold which resulted in the inevitable bronchitis. 
 
 It was usually a matter of a few days before the 
 malady reached its height, so I managed to take one or 
 two senior special examinations immediately after my 
 return from Ohio. I then succumbed to the inevitable 
 and spent about two weeks in the Newton Hospital, 
 where I had been very ill with bronchitis several times 
 before. 
 
 Some people have an idea that a bad cold in the 
 chest is bronchitis, but acute bronchitis is a very dif- 
 ferent thing. With me it usually began in the throati 
 and spread and thickened until my bronchial tubes' 
 were so congested that I breathed with great diffi- 
 culty, developed a high fever and a brain-splitting 
 headache, with an inability to take nourishment fori 
 days at a time. ' 
 
 This was the plague that fell upon me when I should 
 have been preparing for or taking my senior special 
 examinations. I suppose I might have been justified 
 in feeling that I had been hopelessly beaten in my 
 fight for my degree, but instead, as soon as I was able 
 to sit up, I wrote to Dean Bigelow telling him of my 
 predicament, and asking the privilege of taking, in the 
 hospital, the examinations that I was missing. 
 
 Promptly, from the Dean's office, came a very kind 
 and sympathetic letter, assuring me that I would be 
 
 32 
 
A BARRIER CLEARED 
 
 allowed to make up all the examinations I had missed 
 whenever I was able to leave the hospital. 
 
 He was true to his word. I passed all my examina- 
 tions. It was a proud and happy day for me when I 
 received my degree on June 5th, 1906, with my brother 
 and aunt and fiancee gracing the occasion. I had won 
 the first of the two barriers that stood in the way of 
 launching the school in September. There remained 
 now only to pass the bar examinations. 
 
 33 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Preparation for Bar Examinations. 
 
 The balance of the month of June, 1906, was devoted 
 to a variety of labors, but my chief occupation w^as 
 that of reviewing my entire law school course, in 
 preparation for the bar examinations. I also com- 
 pleted the teaching of the subject of "Contracts," to 
 my little class, giving them their final examinations 
 June 2 1 St, 1906. 
 
 It is interesting to note that the total tuition receipts 
 for the year's work was $126.80, or an average of $4.09 
 a week, certainly not such a sum as would have 
 tempted any man to embark in the enterprise I was 
 contemplating if financial considerations were the only 
 inducement. 
 
 The month of June was memorable for another 
 reason — a salaried position in one of the finest law 
 offices in Boston was secured for me by an influential 
 friend. As I shall have occasion to mention the same 
 gentleman at other stages of this history, it may be 
 well to explain how it happened that he became in- 
 terested in me. In order to do so I must take the 
 reader back to a day in early August in the year 1903. 
 I had been working during my vacation in a hotel on 
 the south shore of Cape Cod as night clerk and watch- 
 man. The wages had been trifling, $25. or so a month, 
 but I was trying to earn money for college expenses 
 
 34 
 
PREPARATION FOR BAR EXAMINATIONS 
 
 and that seemed to be the only employment that I 
 could obtain. 
 
 But while about my duties in the hotel, storing away 
 some boxes in the basement, I had tripped up in the 
 darkness and been thrown to the rough cement floor, 
 mashing very severely the ligaments of my left knee. 
 For a time it appeared that the bones were fractured. 
 
 After several days of agony during which, on 
 crutches, I grimly stuck to my work, I was forced to 
 leave for Boston, in the hope of getting into the Massa- 
 chusetts General Hospital. It never rained harder 
 than that morning when I took the stage-coach for the 
 railroad station, but never did the guiding hand of 
 Providence lead me more obviously than on this oc- 
 casion. 
 
 Half a mile from the hotel, the driver called at a 
 cottage and took on another passenger, a prosperous- 
 appearing middle-aged man, with one of the most 
 genuinely sympathetic and noble countenances of any 
 man I had ever met. 
 
 It was George A. Frost, the manufacturer of the 
 world celebrated "Boston Garter." I had never seen 
 him before, and was in too great misery to regard him 
 with any degree of interest. But my obvious suffering 
 aroused his sympathy, and he questioned me concern- 
 ing its cause. 
 
 Such Avas the magnetism of the man, that before we 
 had reached the railroad station I had told him much 
 of my story, of the struggle I had made for an educa- 
 tion and of my lifelong ambition to be a lawyer. 
 
 I had read in fairy stories of wonderful good for- 
 tunes that had befallen young men in times of mortal 
 need, but never did I expect to see it enacted in my 
 
 35 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 own life. My "fairy story" is too extensive and too 
 wonderful to be told in this connection, but from the 
 day of that chance meeting in the stagecoach to the 
 day I graduated from the law school, George A. Frost 
 stood sponsor for me financially, beginning his three 
 years of assistance by sending me to a private hospital, 
 furnishing a skillful surgeon, who saved me from life- J 
 long lameness, and providing every comfort that could 
 have been furnished by the most indulgent father. 
 
 And ever thereafter it was not a question with him 
 of how much I would ask for in the way of financial 
 aid, but how much he could persuade me to accept, for 
 I continued my frugal ways of living, even to the ex- 
 tent of under-nourishment and resulting illness. 
 
 What would have been my fate had I not met this 
 man is difficult to conjecture, but it is safe to say that 
 the Suffolk Law School would never have been found- 
 ed, and, as will be seen later in this narrative, could 
 never have survived in its early days had it not been 
 for George A. Frost. 
 
 But in June, 1906, he rendered another great serv- 
 ice to me by securing for me a position with Carver 
 & Blodgett, at 28 State Street, Boston ; dependent of 
 course upon my passing the bar examinations. Mr. 
 Frost had thus fulfilled the promise made to me in 
 September, 1903, that if I proved myself worthy, he 
 would see me through school and established in my 
 profession. 
 
 During the month of June also I was busy mapping 
 out the next year's plans. I named the new venture 
 "Archer's Evening Law School," and prepared an 
 attractively printed four-page announcement. Under 
 "Methods of Instruction" appeared this first announce- 
 
 36 
 
PREPARATION FOR BAR EXAMINAITIONS 
 
 ment of the basic principles upon which the school 
 was founded. 
 
 "The substance of every lecture is given in dictated 
 notes, with citations of authorities. The important 
 principles are re-emphasized at every succeeding lec- 
 ture by thorough oral quizzes ; and by written prob- 
 lems, assigned each time, the answers to be brought 
 into the class in writing at the next succeeding lecture. 
 This continual re-emphasizing of the maxims and prin- 
 ciples already covered by the lectures enables even 
 the busiest person to acquire a thorough grasp of the 
 subject from the class room exercises alone." 
 
 Students in the Suffolk Law School will realize that 
 we have since added written quizzes in class and some 
 other important practical features of work, but all 
 will recognize this first announcement as a clear state- 
 ment of the basal feature of the school work. 
 
 Busy as I was, I must have felt that I still had 
 leisure for other things, for I prepared a set of lecture 
 notes on "Agency" to be used in the school the next 
 fall, also a set of lecture notes on "Sales." It is inter- 
 esting to note that the first course I prepared, 
 "Agency," has continued to be used practically un- 
 changed in form to this day, for when I ceased teaching 
 the subject personally, I turned over my lecture notes 
 to Mr. Douglas who has used them since. They will 
 be succeeded in the coming year by my new text book 
 on Agency, but no other course which I prepared that 
 summer, except Criminal Law, has survived un- 
 changed for so lengthy a period. 
 
 The launching of the school now hinged upon my 
 success in the bar examinations, as well as did my 
 position with Carver & Blodgett. But there was an- 
 
 37 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 other event in my life that also depended upon my , 
 success, the supreme event in any man's life — mar- | 
 riage. f 
 
 For over three years I had been betrothed to Miss 
 Elizabeth G. Snyder. We had resolved, at the time of 
 my graduation from the Law School, that if I suc- 
 ceeded in passing the bar examinations that summer 
 we would marry in October. 
 
 I was aware that the majority of men who took the 
 bar examinations failed in the first attempt and often 
 in the second also, but so much depended upon it that 
 I had resolved to pass in the first attempt, with the re- 
 sult to be seen in the next chapter. 
 
 38 
 
THE LAST BARRIER 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Last Barrier. 
 
 It was a very hot and sultry day when the large 
 body of young men gathered in a High School building 
 on West Newton Street for the State Bar Examina- 
 tions. All details of the seating of candidates had been 
 prearranged, so it was merely necessary to take the 
 seats allotted to us in alphabetical order. Upon each 
 desk lay official examination books. Promptly at nine 
 o'clock, we received our examination questions for the 
 forenoon session. 
 
 I read my questions through carefully and, at the 
 first reading, it seemed that I could not answer halt 
 of them. But I had steeled myself for the ordeal, and 
 I set about the task with careful deliberation. Since 
 there were fifteen questions I must average one an- 
 swer every twelve minutes in order to finish by twelve 
 o'clock. But there were some questions that I knew 
 I could not answer in so short a time, while there were 
 others that I could answer readily. 
 
 I hit upon a solution that I should strongly advise 
 for other men in a similar plight. I answered the easy 
 questions first, (for each question had a certain 
 amount of space allotted to it by number), and in this 
 way, cleared away a goodly number of the questions 
 in the first hour. 
 
 39 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 To my relief, I found that questions at first seeming- 
 ly outside of any principle of law that I had ever read 
 were, after all, possible of solution by analogy with 
 certain fundamental principles. It is probably true 
 that I answered some questions very wide of the mark, 
 but at five minutes of twelve I had answered every 
 question on the forenoon paper. 
 
 The heat of the day had been very oppressive in- 
 doors, but the sun was fairly scorching the streets 
 when I left the building for lunch. I walked up Tre- 
 mont Street to School Street in order to work off the 
 nervous tension under which I was laboring; ate a 
 frugal meal in a dairy lunch ; rested half an hour at the 
 ofhce in the Old South Building, and returned to the 
 examination building for the afternoon ordeal. 
 
 We began at two o'clock. The afternoon was a 
 repetition of the morning so far as my experiences and 
 methods of work were concerned. Again I answered 
 every question and was leaving the building when the 
 gongs rang to end the afternoon session. 
 
 I had done my best, and I felt that my chances of 
 passing were reasonably secure. But I had learned 
 enough from other men who had taken the examina- 
 tions to know that the ways of the bar examiners were 
 past finding out, and that no man could be sure of 
 success until notified of the result. 
 
 Subsequent observation has confirmed me in this 
 opinion, for in the case of my own students I have so 
 often seen the brilliant student flunk and the dull 
 student pass that I have given up the habit of fore- 
 casting even to myself the result of a bar examination. 
 
 I remember two of my own students in particular 
 who took the same examination. One had completed 
 
 40 
 
 I 
 
THE LAST BARRIER 
 
 his four-year course with a splendid record, the other 
 had taken only three years of work and had found 
 great difficulty in passing the school examinations up 
 to that point. I felt confident at the time that the 
 first man had ten chances to the other man's one, but 
 the second man passed and the other flunked. 
 
 I have often thought that more attention should be 
 paid to the school record of applicants for admission 
 to the bar, but schools are called upon merely to say 
 that a man passed his school examinations, without 
 specifying whether his rank was seventy-five per cent., 
 or ninety-five per cent. The bar examiners do not 
 meet the men personally, but pass judgment upon 
 them from one examination in writing, whereas there 
 is available information ten times more valuable which 
 they absolutely ignore — the entire record that each ap- 
 plicant from a law school has made during the years 
 of his preparation. 
 
 Immediately after the bar examinations, I took a 
 train for Maine to spend a month at my boyhood's 
 home while waiting to hear my fate. But I did not go 
 there exactly for rest. If I were to start the school in 
 September my lecture notes must be prepared during 
 the only time that remained open to me — the month 
 of July, for I was to assume my duties at Carver & 
 Blodgett's in the second week in August, provided my 
 name should appear in the list of lawyers-elect when 
 the results of the bar examinations were made known. 
 
 During the month of July I worked on the farm 
 more or less, fished, tramped through the woods, and 
 picked berries, but these were only incidentals, for my 
 main purpose was centered on the preparation of lec- 
 ture notes in "Contracts" and "Criminal Law." 
 
 41 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 In three weeks' time I had finished them. One day 
 as I returned from a few hours' fishing trip with my 
 youngest brother, I found awaiting me the fateful let- 
 ter. 
 
 It was printed, and couched in formal language. I 
 read it through twice before I realized that I had 
 passed — that the last barrier had been cleared away 
 and my life-long ambition was now to be realized! 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
 42 
 
I PREPARE TO FOUND THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 I Prepare to Found the School. 
 
 I reported for duty at Carver & Blodgett's the sec- 
 ond week in August, 1906, and was at once introduced 
 to my new duties. It is natural and proper that the 
 member of the office staff who is least experienced, 
 and whose time is therefore of least value, should be 
 given the routine work that every law office must 
 carry on. Copying legal documents, looking up rec- 
 ords, filing pleadings in court and dictating letters 
 in collection cases were the chief duties that came to 
 me at first. 
 
 But I was quite disconcerted day after day by the 
 fact that I was so absolutely ignorant of all practical 
 features of law practice. I was well grounded in legal 
 theories, but knew no more of how to start a law- 
 suit, or conduct it after it was started ; how to open a 
 case in court, or to examine witnesses, than the office 
 boy who had never studied law. I soon found that, 
 although these things were not taught in law schools, 
 yet they were perfectly well known to every lawyer 
 of experience. I resolved that in my own school these 
 practical matters should be as carefully taught as the 
 theory of the law itself. 
 
 My own experience as a student and a young prac- 
 tioner had, therefore, brought to my attention another 
 weakness in the current methods of teaching law. 
 
 43 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 From this discovery resulted another of the strong 
 features of the Suffolk Law School. I set about de- 
 liberately to learn all that I could of the practical 
 side of the law, whether it concerned my regular du- 
 ties or not. From this beginning resulted, as will 
 be later seen, my first law book, which I wrote in the 
 year 1909 — the only text book to this date that sets 
 forth the practical but unwritten customs of law 
 offices and courts. 
 
 On the morning of August 21st, 1906 I left my 
 office duties long enough to go to the Supreme Court 
 and be sworn in as a lawyer. The ceremony itself 
 was simple but very impressive. I am sure that each 
 of us in that large assembly of young men who, with 
 upraised right hands, repeated the oath of the lawyer, 
 did so with a prayer of thanksgiving to God that we 
 were now members of the great and noble profession 
 of law. 
 
 From the day I had returned to Boston I had been 
 devoting my evenings to house-hunting ; for I realized 
 that it was no easy task to locate apartments in which 
 I could instal my bride, when October should come, 
 and also that would contain a room large enough to 
 accommodate the school. I was aware that the slen- 
 der revenue of the school would be very heavily taxed 
 by the hiring of an office in Boston, so that the only 
 safe plan was to establish a residence in som.e conven- 
 ient location where I could also shelter the school 
 during its infancy. 
 
 I eventually located a house at 6 Alpine Street, 
 Roxbury, in which the first floor suited my needs ex- 
 actly. It had a fair-sized front room, with a bay- 
 window that overlooked the street. I could use the 
 room for lecture purposes, and place in the bay-win- 
 
 44 
 
I PREPARE TO FOlTND THE SCHOOL 
 
 dow transparent glass signs that would proclaim 
 "Archer's Evening Law School" to any one who ap- 
 proached the house from either direction. 
 
 The bargain was struck with the landlord. The 
 glass signs were made and installed and I began to 
 accumulate household furniture. I equipped the 
 school room with light wooden assembly chairs of a 
 folding variety, and a flat topped mission office desk 
 for myself. During my leisure moments I con- 
 structed about two dozen desks of my own invention 
 for the convenience of the students. 
 
 The increasing items of expense now gave me gen- 
 uine concern, for my salary was small and the money 
 that I paid out for school equipment and school ad- 
 vertising, with what must be set aside for rent, left 
 very little for the furnishing of the domestic portion 
 of my apartments. 
 
 I resolutely refrained from calling upon Mr. Frost 
 for a loan. It was a matter of pride with me to dem- 
 onstrate that now that I was a lawyer there was no 
 necessity of assistance from anybody. 
 
 But the results of the summer advertising were 
 much the more a matter of concern, for very few 
 inquiries had come in. A necessity of radical meas- 
 ures seemed apparent. Aside from the changes that 
 I made in the advertisements then running in the 
 newspapers, the measures that I adopted were not 
 only radical but also, as I look at them now, quite 
 useless as well. 
 
 I sent out a large number of advertising folders to 
 men in clerical employment, taking their names at 
 random from the Boston Directory. The only result 
 of this labor was that it bolstered up my hopes and 
 
 45 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 kept me busy when I might otherwise have been 
 worrying — a result not altogether to be despised. 
 
 But in the midst of my labors, when time was so 
 valuable, if I was to launch the school successfully, 
 I caught a severe cold. The inevitable occurred. For 
 ten days I was confined to my bed with bronchitis. 
 My brother Hiram was living with me. With what 
 attention he could give me night and morning, and 
 what hospital experience had taught me to do for 
 myself I parsed through the ordeal, a doctor visiting 
 me occasionally. 
 
 The fact that I was unable to carry on my work 
 at Carver & Blodgett's was of course my chiefest con- 
 cern, but the enforced neglect of the advertising sea- 
 son, — it was now the early part of September and the 
 school was to open in two weeks — filled me with 
 alarm. For a time I was of course too ill to worry 
 much about work or advertising, but during the lat- 
 ter part of my illness some of the prospective stu- 
 dents began to call at the house in the evening to ask 
 questions. 
 
 Mr. George A. Douglas, who later entered the 
 school and is now a member of the faculty, was one 
 of those who called at this time. As I was too , 
 ill to see him, my brother met him. From where I 
 lay, some of the conversation could be overheard. 
 He did not register, however. All students who have 
 taken "Criminal Law" and "Agency" under Mr. 
 Douglas will readily understand why, without having 
 seen him, I gained the impression from his voice that 
 he was a very large man. 
 
 When I was able to return to my office duties and 
 resume the advertising campaign, the outlook for the 
 opening of the school was very unpromising. 
 
 46 
 
I PREPARE TO FOUND THE SCHOOL 
 
 Three out of the five men who had registered dur- 
 ing the summer announced that they had given up 
 the idea of studying law. One of the regular men of 
 the previous year called at the house a few evenings 
 before the opening night and announced that he had 
 been attending the Y. M. C. A. Law School, for over a 
 week and should not return. 
 
 Several other men whom I had interested to the 
 point of studying law had also been secured by the 
 Y. M. C. A. Law School, but to have one of my "old 
 guard" desert me at this juncture filled me with dis- 
 appointment and alarm. Knowing as I did the strong 
 drawing powers of the Y. M. C. A. organization, and 
 not having heard from some of the other men, I 
 feared that my little venture had met a complete 
 shipwreck during my illness, and that other men of 
 my original four had joined the big evening law 
 school. I had made my first acquaintance with the 
 competition of a powerful rival, even though the 
 rival was probably not yet officially aware of my ex- 
 
 I istence or of the ambitious plan that I had in mind. 
 
 1 But, after the first sleepless night, I plunged into 
 
 i a last campaign ; realizing that only a desperate cam- 
 paign indeed, could save the school from utter failure 
 at the very beginning. New advertisements were de- 
 vised and every effort was put forth to reach new 
 
 imen. 
 
 47 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Humble Beginning. 
 
 The momentous opening evening, Tuesday, Sep- 
 tember 19th, 1906, at length arrived. The men came 
 straggling into the little lecture room at 6 Alpine 
 Street, Roxbury, until there were exactly nine of 
 them — just one more than had gathered in the Old 
 South Building when I opened my experimental class 
 in law the previous October. 
 
 But the situation was not near so favorable as on 
 that occasion. Then only one of the eight was a 
 visitor, whereas on this occasion five of the nine were 
 visitors. Messrs. Collar, Dahl and Smith of the pre- 
 vious class were present, but only one new man who 
 had registered. 
 
 Keenly aware of the expense that I had incurred 
 during the summer, this barren result was very dis- 
 heartening. But I had put my hand to the plow and 
 the furrow must be driven straight onward. So I 
 swallowed my disappointment and vowed that my 
 first lecture should be so interesting that I would 
 capture every one of the five visitors. 
 
 If I remember correctly, we took up Agency that 
 evening. It was not long before I could see that the 
 men were keenly interested in the subject, and just 
 as I was feeling' most confident of the success of my 
 lecture an event occurred that filled me with con- 
 sternation and alarm. 
 
 48 
 
 I 
 
THE HUMBLE BEGINNING 
 
 The chairs had never before been occupied and 
 were so new that the varnish had evidently failed to 
 properly harden. At any rate, the unseasonable 
 warmth of the evening had caused the varnish to de- 
 velop sticky qualities. To my infinite dismay I ob- 
 served that one of the students was stuck to his chair 
 and covertly endeavoring to free himself. 
 
 He succeeded, but the ominous stripping sound 
 with which the fibre of the cloth of his trousers parted 
 company with the varnish set every man in the room 
 on the move. There was a perfect chorus of similar 
 sounds from eight other chairs. 
 
 If anything could have been more shattering to the 
 composure of a lecturer under my circumstances than 
 this happening, it would be hard indeed to find it. 
 The majority of these men were visitors who might 
 or might not register according to the impression 
 made by that first lecture. To be seated in sticky 
 chairs that, for aught they knew, might ruin their 
 clothes was enough to make a failure of any lecture. 
 
 Thoughts of damage suits, and certainly of dam- 
 aged suits, flitted through my mind. I forged des- 
 perately ahead with my lecture, hoping against hope 
 that the thing would not happen again. But at the 
 second uprising, that occurred within ten minutes, I 
 abruptly suspended my lecture in scarlet confusion. 
 
 The men assured me, however, that no damage had 
 been done. Somebody produced a newspaper and 
 distributed a sheet to every chair and the men set- 
 tled down upon these rustling protectors with sighs 
 of relief. But the humor of the situation burst upon' 
 all of us. When the general laughter had subsided I 
 resumed my lecture, and continued to the end of the 
 period without further interruption. 
 
 49 
 
■ BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 I was cheered not a little by the manifest enthus- 
 iasm of the men — three of the visitors, George A. 
 Douglas, M. V. Connor and John J. Murphy imme- 
 diately registered, while one other asked to be al- 
 lowed to attend the lecture of the following evening. 
 
 After the first week the following lecture schedule 
 was pursued : Monday evening, "Bills & Notes ;" 
 Tuesday evening," Contracts ;" Wednesday evening, 
 "Agency," and Friday evening, "Criminal Law," all 
 of which I taught personally, the sessions lasting 
 from 7.30 to about 9.15 P. M. 
 
 During the second week five new men were regis- 
 tered: B. E. Hamilton, one of the visitors on open- 
 ing evening, George L. Bush, Israel Mostowitz, 
 Charles N. Chase and James F. O'Brien. 
 
 The third week added two others to the roll, B. H. 
 Zuccurello and James F. Quigley, making a total of 
 fourteen students, but only for a brief time, for 
 Messrs. Connor, Quigley and Hamilton dropped out 
 within the first month, leaving eleven men to finish 
 the fall term. 
 
 The story of this first term of school would not be 
 complete were I to omit the most important event of 
 all — my marriage to Miss Elizabeth G. Snyder, whose 
 loyal sympathy and unswerving faith in the future of 
 the institution were to do so much to strengthen me 
 in the trying days that were to follow. 
 
 50 
 
THE SCHOOL'S FIRST YEAR 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The School's First Year. 
 
 The winter term opened December 3rd, 1906, with 
 nine of the regular men in attendance, Mr. Zuccurello 
 and Mr, Larkin having dropped out temporarily. Sev- 
 eral new men were added through advertising in the 
 daily papers, and a new entering class was formed. The 
 new men were to take "Torts" with the r^ular class 
 and "Contracts" by themselves, two evenings per 
 week, under the instruction of Hiram J. Archer until 
 they should catch up with the regular class. 
 
 The additional men comprised, Hannibal L. Hamlin, 
 Andrew H. Morrison, Forrest B. Moulton and 
 Thomas L. Talty, whose name appears in the original 
 class formed in 1905. Roland E. Brown was also en- 
 rolled for Torts and Criminal Law. Mr. Larkin and 
 Mr. Zuccurello returned at this time. 
 
 Mr. Mostowitz dropped out during the third week of 
 the term, leaving fourteen men in attendance during the 
 winter of 1906- 1907. 
 
 An incident occurred in the early part of this term 
 that gives my wife the unique distinction of being the 
 only woman who has ever taught in the school. My 
 brother, Hiram, who was assisting the new men to make 
 up the work in "Contracts" fell ill and was unable to 
 continue his duties. My wife volunteered to dictate the 
 remainder of the notes, although she knew nothing of 
 
 51 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 what they were all about. The men were obviously 
 pleased at the prospect of so fair a teacher, but the joke 
 was on them. Mrs. Archer was not used to dictating 
 notes, and the men were too polite to tell her that she 
 was dictating too fast, so she went on to make a record 
 that can never be equalled again. At the end of the I 
 period the men were all on the verge of writers' cramps, I 
 and had taken twice as much dictation as was ever given I 
 in the school, even by Mr. Douglas years later in his ' 
 first lecture in "Criminal Law." 
 
 The winter term closed February 15, 1907, after a 
 very successful season. My brother's illness had made 
 necessary the employment of someone else to give the 
 course in "Partnership," which was scheduled to be 
 given in the Spring term. My choice fell upon Arthur 
 W. MacLean, who graduated from the Law School at 
 the same time I did, and whom I had known for several 
 years as a man of ability and of the very highest char- 
 acter. He thus became the first regular teacher whom I 
 appointed to assist me in the work. 
 
 Two men, Mr. Chase and Mr. Zuccurello, left the 
 school during the Spring term; but four others were 
 added, raising the total to sixteen men. The new 
 men were R. G. Reilly, Geo. A. Rose, Robert T. 
 Healey and A. L. Altmeyer. 
 
 Of the sixteen men who attended in the Spring Term 
 it is interesting to note that seven afterward grad- 
 uated from the school and nine of them became law- 
 yers. 
 
 As I recall it now, the eager enthusiasm of these 
 men — so different from what I had been accustomed 
 to among day students in the law school that I had 
 so recently attended — made a very profound impres- 
 sion upon me. As an illustration of this enthusiasm^ 
 
THE SCHOOL'S FIRST YEAR 
 
 I remember very well the first evening that I ex- 
 plained to them the different stages of an ordinary- 
 law suit. I prefaced my remarks by saying that I 
 was about to institute practical work which would 
 involve every stage of an ordinary court trial, the 
 drawing of writs, the entry of suits, the examination 
 of witnesses, etc. The effect upon the men was magi- 
 cal. Every one caught his chair, like a man perform- 
 ing the impossible task of lifting himself by the boot- 
 straps, and came crowding up around my desk, eager 
 not to miss a word ! 
 
 To be sure it was a very undignified performance, 
 but it illustrated more plainly than words the differ- 
 ence between these eager searchers for knowledge and 
 the ordinary day student with his self complacent 
 languor in class. 
 
 It dawned upon me that a great opportunity had 
 suddenly unfolded itself before me. In a great me- 
 tropolis full of young men such as these, the very 
 class from whom leaders of first magnitude arise, once 
 the shackles of ignorance are struck off and high and 
 noble ambitions are enkindled within them, what 
 might I not be able to accomplish ! 
 
 It was a blood stirring thought that but for me 
 these men would be denied the very advantages that 
 might place them on the road to destiny. I then re- 
 solved that so far as in me lay I would perpetuate the 
 school and dedicate it to the cause of the ambitious 
 boy, who, like myself, had known in his youth the 
 treadmill of poverty while shut off from education, the 
 means of liberty. 
 
 This was the very class of men most ignored by the 
 other law schools, permitted to enter if at all on suf- 
 ferance, but frowned upon and discouraged at every 
 
 53 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 point. There was a great unoccupied field for a non- 
 sectarian school that would strongly champion the 
 son of the workingman. Such a school I resolved to 
 permanently establish in Boston. 
 
 The first year of the school closed on May 17th, 
 1907. The attendance had steadily risen, from nine 
 men at the opening night to sixteen men at its close. 
 The tuition charge was forty-five dollars a year and 
 the total receipts for the year were only $533. But 
 considering all things in the year's perspective, I 
 could not but feel a satisfaction in the progress I had 
 made. 
 
 Clouds were lowering, however, and even before 
 the last month of school had passed I was vaguely 
 aware that there were difficult problems to be solved 
 and other battles to be won before the school should 
 open in the following September. 
 
 54 
 
A CONFERENCE WITH MY STUDENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A Conference With My Students. 
 
 The first grand glimpse of the destiny of the school 
 and its possible high mission left me like one who 
 has been suddenly dazzled by a bright light, keenly 
 aware of the dark shadows that immediately after- 
 ward surround him. I at once saw that, if I were to 
 work intelligently toward the goal, the present school 
 name must be abandoned, however my pride in hav- 
 ing the school bear my name might plead for its 
 continuance. 
 
 It was apparent that the name of an individual 
 would prove a great handicap, despite the fact that 
 the great universities of the country were so named. 
 I realized that no man in this age of the world could 
 hope to accomplish much with an institution named 
 for himself, unless he belonged to the aristocracy of 
 wealth, and could by that means awe the public into 
 respect for his plans. 
 
 Another problem that stood out ominously was 
 this : My Alpine Street apartments would not be ade- 
 quate to house the school for another year. I there- 
 fore began a systematic canvas of that section of 
 Roxbury, although my time was so limited that my 
 wife and I were obliged to utilize our Sunday after- 
 noon walks for that purpose. 
 
 Week after week passed, increasing if anything my 
 
 55 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 perplexity, for the rents were either prohibitive or the 
 rooms too small. Once or twice I located a house 
 that I thought would meet the requirements, but in 
 order to secure it for September it must be rented 
 immediately, an expense quite out of the question. 
 
 A greater and more ominous problem than either of 
 the others suddenly uprose before me. I learned that 
 the firm of Carver & Blodgett, with whom I was 
 employed, would dissolve in July. In that event I 
 should be obliged to seek a salaried position with 
 another firm, or open an office for myself. I was well 
 aware that a salaried position could not be had for 
 the asking, and, even if it could, I was doubtful of 
 the wisdom of further delaying the beginning of my 
 own law practice. 
 
 It has always been my belief, however, that if one 
 faces his problems unflinchingly, searching prayer- 
 fully for a solution of them while still to the utmost 
 of his ability performing the task next at hand, that 
 the way would ultimately open. 
 
 I have never had patience with that man who loses 
 his grip on his present tasks merely because he can- 
 not clearly see the solution of greater problems ahead, 
 thus becoming a ready prey to despair and failure. 
 Such a man is like a traveler on a road whose general 
 direction is toward his desired goal — the far off cita- 
 del on the heights, but who drops by the wayside in 
 despair because, forsooth, he cannot trace with his 
 present vision the entire course of that road. 
 
 With all the problems that confronted me in the 
 spring of 1907 there were no "ifs" nor "ands" about 
 my mental attitude toward them — they would each 
 be solved in due course, I was sure of that. But I 
 spent many a wakeful night pondering them. 
 
 56 
 
A CONFERENCE WITH MY STUDENTS 
 
 The loyalty of the students v/as comforting and 
 helpful. The first banquet ever held by the school 
 was arranged by the students for the night following 
 the last examinations — Saturday, May i8, 1907. But 
 I was unable to be present. The work and worry of 
 the past few weeks had rendered me an easy prey to 
 bronchitis, and I was sick abed. 
 
 I have in my possession one of the menus, printed 
 by a member of the class, and it possesses historical 
 interest for two reasons — first that it is a souvenir of 
 the first banquet, and secondly that it was the last bit 
 of printed matter to bear the original school name. 
 It marked a transition period, for the students had 
 already begun to drop the word "evening" and call 
 it the "Archer Law School." It was so printed on 
 the cover of the menu. 
 
 As soon as my wife's careful nursing had brought 
 me out of my illness sufficiently to attend my duties, 
 I felt that the time had come, now that the school 
 was over, to wrestle with the three great problems 
 that were still before me : the school name, the loca- 
 tion of the school for the following year, and the 
 question of a salaried employment. 
 
 Knowing as I did that the success of the school 
 would be tremendously afifected by the name and lo- 
 cation, I realized that the only way to approximately 
 ascertain the probable sentiment of young men in 
 general toward the name or location adopted was to 
 accurately ascertain the sentiment of my students. 
 I therefore wrote personal invitations to the students 
 to meet me at 6 Alpine Street to discuss the problems 
 confronting the school. 
 
 A number of the men responded. The decision of 
 the conference was unanimous that the best interests 
 
 57 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 of the school demanded a more central location. It 
 should be located in Boston. I inquired of each man 
 in turn for suggestions as to possible locations. A 
 Boylston Street address was given me ; also that of a 
 building recently vacated by a dental school on 
 Tremont Street. 
 
 The school catalogue for the coming year was dis- j 
 cussed. I was uncertain in my own mind whether a 
 folder similar to what I had issued the previous year 
 would be adequate, or whether I must undertake the 
 expense of regular school catalogue. The men were 
 divided on the question, but when it had been argued j 
 pro and con I announced that I should issue a cata- ' 
 logue. 
 
 But the school name proved the most fruitful topic 
 of discussion. All present favored a change of name, 
 as I had already surmised, but no two of them were 
 agreed upon any name that was brought forward. 
 Mr. Douglas offered two names during the evening, 
 "Boston Law School" and "Massachusetts School of 
 Law," but I ruled out the first name as too nearly 
 approaching the name of Boston University Law 
 School. His second suggestion I promised to con- 
 sider. 
 
 When the little company dispersed, after an en- 
 thusiastic meeting, I felt that I had made great prog- 
 ress in the solution of the questions confronting the 
 school. As I look back upon it now I consider it a 
 most fortunate occurrence, although in the perspec- 
 tive of years I can see that practically all the internal 
 dissentions, revolts and troubles among the students 
 that were later to try my very soul originated indi- 
 rectly from that meeting. Why and how these 
 troubles came to me will be disclosed in due course 
 in the pages of this history. 
 
 58 
 
A CRISIS IN THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A Crisis in the School. 
 
 Inasmuch as the school name was the first problem 
 that was actually solved, it may with propriety be 
 dealt with in this connection. It must not be sup- 
 posed, however, that any of the other problems were 
 neglected in the meantime, for all my odd moments 
 were devoted to an endeavor to locate a desirable 
 law firm that needed my services, and wherever I 
 went I was continually on the alert for a desirable 
 location for the school, as well as pondering much 
 upon a school name. 
 
 My wife and I would often discuss names for the 
 school. Such names as Bay State, Massachusetts, 
 Atlantic, New England and Suffolk were each con- 
 sidered. None of them seemed satisfactory at first, 
 but the name "Suflfolk" gradually emerged from the 
 lot as most appropriate of all. To be sure it was the 
 name of a county in Massachusetts, but it was also 
 an old English name derived from the more ancient 
 "South-folk." 
 
 The name of a school, as I regarded the question, 
 should possess alliterative qualities, be clear cut and 
 sonorous. The word Suflfolk possessed all of these 
 qualities. I finally decided to rename the school 
 "SuflFolk School of Law," and this was the school 
 name for seven years until 1914, when by an act of 
 
 59 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 the Legislature the official name was changed to 
 "Suffolk Law School." 
 
 On the day following the meeting described in the 
 last chapter I investigated the locations referred to 
 by the students and found each of them to be impoS' 
 sible, either from the standpoint of rental or because 
 of their inconvenient location. 
 
 For a time I considered the advisability of hiring 
 a building on Pinckney Street, Boston (within a 
 block of the present home of the school) but the prob- 
 lem of sub-letting the rooms that I would not need 
 was too precarious a venture, for they would have 
 to be let in the same manner as a lodging house. 
 
 Still intent upon securing this building, I proposed 
 to a young man who had previously managed the 
 building when it was used by college students as a 
 fraternity house, that if he would lease it I would 
 hire the first floor for lecture purposes. He prom- 
 ised to consider it, but later informed me that he had 
 decided against it. 
 
 The uncertainty of my own plans for the coming 
 year was a serious drawback in the solution of the 
 school location, and I soon decided that the matter 
 of location must wait until that question was deter- 
 mined. 
 
 One of the students who was acquainted with 
 Charles H. Innes, Esq., informed me that Mr. Innes 
 had expressed a desire to see me. I knew that this 
 gentleman had been tutoring men in law for many 
 years, and I rightly conjectured that law teaching 
 would be the subject of our interview. 
 
 I made an appointment by telephone and waited 
 upon him promptly. Our interview was quite ex- 
 tended. I well remember one of the first things he 
 said to me : 
 
 60 
 
 i 
 
A CRISIS IN THE SCHOOL 
 
 "I have been teaching law," he said, "for about 
 twenty years, and I have nearly seventy students, but 
 I call my enterprise a class. I don't call it a school. 
 People would laugh at me if I did. Now you have about 
 fifteen students, and it is only an experiment with you, — 
 yet you call it a school. I can't understand why you 
 do it." 
 
 I explained to him that I called my enterprise a school 
 because I proposed to make it a school and to conduct 
 it on the very same basis as the regular law schools. 
 Mr. Innes seemed mildly amused at my optimism and 
 doubteless regarded me as a hopeless visionary. 
 
 He suggested combining our schools, but since he 
 could not agree to my plans for a regular law school, 
 nor I with his scheme of teaching, we soon found that 
 we could not effect a merger. 
 
 Without making a definite proposition to me, he inti- 
 mated that if I would assist him in his teaching and 
 also become associated with the office (Vahey, Innes 
 & Mansfield) to assist in trial work, I might be al- 
 lowed a salary that seemed to me at the time quite 
 attractive. 
 
 These negotiations were continued for some days, 
 until I became convinced that Mr. Innes was more inter- 
 ested in absorbing my school than anything else, thus 
 to head off competition, so I let the matter drop. 
 
 My failure to secure a desirable position with a law 
 firm was driving me with much reluctance, because of 
 my financial condition, to the conclusion that I must 
 start out for myself. I consulted Mr. Blodgett, of the 
 firm of Carver & Blodgett, then about to dissolve, and 
 he advised me to take the step, declaring a temporary 
 shift to be a loss of time. I also consulted Mr. Frost, 
 and he urged me to take Mr. Blodgett's advice seriously 
 
 6i 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 I continued my search for a location, and discovered 
 that there was a suite of offices to let in the Old Suffolk 
 Savings Bank Building, at 53 Tremont Street, Boston. 
 The rent asked was reasonable, but combined with pay- 
 ing teachers, purchasing additional school furniture, ad- , 
 vertising, etc., would make necessary a school income 1 
 of at least $1,400. 
 
 There would be no weekly salary to help along in the 
 finances. The actual cash receipts from the school for 
 the previous year had been about one-third of the 
 amount the school must yield during the coming year if 
 I were to keep above water financially. Then, too, there 
 was a summer vacation without salary or school revenue, 
 during which money must be expended for advertising 
 and printing. 
 
 I had saved every possible dollar during the year, 
 but the fund could not by the most careful manage- 
 ment promise to hold out beyond the early part of 
 October for my household expenses alone, so I was 
 naturally not in a position to make withdrawals from 
 that fund for the school. 
 
 The whole matter, therefore, hinged upon my ability 
 to secure enough students to raise the school revenue to 
 $1,400. Several of my present students were unable to 
 pay tuition, or if at all, tardily ; so I must secure at least 
 twenty-two additional students. The situation was in- 
 deed a desperate one. 
 
 My wife and I discussed it pro and con for several 
 days, and in this first great crisis of the school she 
 proved herself to be a woman of rare courage and of 
 abounding faith in the future of the institution. 
 
 After much thoughtful and prayerful deliberation we 
 came to the firm conclusion that the step should be taken 
 and we would abide the result. 
 
 62 
 
THE FATEFUL SUMMER OF 1907 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Fateful Summer of 1907. 
 
 I lost no time in negotiating for the suite of offices at 
 53 Tremont Street. In one of my trips to the building 
 I met an elderly lawyer, Charles B. Stone, who occu- 
 pied as tenant-at-will a suite of offices on the floor 
 below, much more to my fancy. He signified his 
 intention to vacate in the fall, so I arranged it with 
 him that I would take over the place in August. He 
 offered to sell me a set of Massachusetts Reports, and 
 within a few days I purchased them for the school, 
 having borrowed the money of Mr. Frost. 
 
 The question of an associate in the practice of law 
 had been on my mind for some time. My brother Hiram 
 had been admitted to the bar during the previous winter, 
 but his health was in so precarious a condition that I 
 was uncertain whether he would be able to stay in Bos- 
 ton during the coming year. 
 
 My thoughts naturally turned to Arthur W. MacLean, 
 previously mentioned as having taught Partnership in 
 the school. Like myself, he had served a year's appren- 
 ticeship in a well known law office, and I was confident 
 that he would be favorably disposed toward opening an 
 office of his own. 
 
 So I invited him to join with me in a law partner- 
 ship, and he promptly accepted the ofifer. The bargain 
 
 63 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 1 
 
 was closed with the owners for the suite of offices on the 
 third floor, previously mentioned as occupied by Mr. 
 Stone. 
 
 The new firm was to open September first as 
 "Archer & MacLean." 
 
 With the dissolution of the firm of Carver & Blodgett, 
 which occurred within a few days, I found myself with 
 leisure time to prepare for the coming year. The cata- 
 logue was gotten out — a twelve-page booklet of very 
 respectable appearance. 
 
 The faculty as listed were Gleason L. Archer, Prin- 
 cipal ; Arthur W. MacLean, Hiram J. Archer, Frederick 
 O. Downes and Webster A. Chandler. 
 
 My experience of the previous year in losing so many 
 men to the Y. M. C. A. Law School had led me to 
 suppose that it would be wiser to open up my school 
 two weeks after the other had begun, thus giving me 
 more time to advertise after competition had to a certain 
 measure ceased. 
 
 The advertising campaign in September, 1907, brought 
 little assurance that the necessary twenty-two new stu- 
 derits could be secured, but it was not a time to repine 
 or turn back. Everything depended upon a successful 
 outcome. I was at the office day and evening waiting 
 and watching for prospective students ; allowing scarcely 
 time for lunch or supper, lest men should call during 
 my absence. 
 
 Financial difficulties loomed up ahead, and the law 
 practice tkat had come in was of a most unproductive 
 sort. Never did I have more occasion for worriment, 
 nor could I share my troubles with my wife, for she was 
 in a state of health when composure and freedom from 
 worry were imperatively necessary. So I kept her in 
 ignorance of the true state of affairs and went on day 
 
 64 
 
THE FATEFUL SUMMER OF 1907 
 
 after day and far into the evening several nights a 
 week in a disheartening vigil. 
 
 Could I have spent the time with some degree of 
 profit it would have been less difficult. I tried my hand 
 at literary work of one sort or another, but neither 
 stories nor sketches produced under these circum- 
 stances possessed commercial value, and I watched 
 my little bank account dwindle to the vanishing point. 
 
 During the latter part of September stragglers came 
 into the office occasionally, the most of them skeptical 
 and desiring "to be shown" that the school could act- 
 ually train men for the practice of law. The former 
 students had maintained an ominous silence, except 
 in a few cases where the loss of some of them wasi 
 made certain. One of the most desirable had enrolled 
 at Boston University Law School. Another an- 
 nounced that he had given up the further pursuit of 
 the study of law, and I feared every day that I might 
 learn that others had joined the Y, M. C. A. Law 
 School. 
 
 Up to the date of opening of the Fall Term only six 
 men had registered. A few days before opening night 
 I wrote personal letters to my former students, and 
 also to every man on my mailing list, inviting them to 
 be present as visitors at the opening lecture. 
 
 65 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A Student Mutiny. 
 
 On the evening of Monday, the last day of September, 
 1907, the Suffolk School of Law opened. We were at 
 that time under a three year system, so I shall denomin- 
 ate the second year class as Juniors. I had engaged a 
 large office across the corridor from the school head- 
 quarters for use on lecture evenings. The Juniors met 
 in this office, while the Freshman Class met in the large 
 outer office of our suite. 
 
 If I remember correctly, Mr. MacLean met the Juniors 
 and started lectures in Real Property. I met the Fresh- 
 men, as I always have done on the first evening of the 
 year. 
 
 All things considered, no opening lecture was ever 
 more trying for me. Among the visitors were several 
 "fresh" individuals, who seemingly came for the express 
 purpose of making trouble. They attempted to air their 
 superior knowledge of law and otherwise to annoy me 
 until I was obliged to "squelch" them, after which 
 they remained quiet and submissive the rest of the 
 evening. 
 
 The lecture itself was fairly successful, but I was dis- 
 tressed indeed at the outcome, for only two of the visit- 
 ors registered, although the fact that I had extended an 
 invitation to them to attend the remaining lectures of 
 the week doubtless had something to do with the fail- 
 ure to register. 
 
 66 
 
A STUDENT MUTINY 
 
 The lecture broke up, and the confusion of question- 
 asking by individuals ensued. Some men who attend 
 their first lecture are sure to have doubts about their 
 educational qualifications, or entertain incorrect ideas 
 as to the time when tuition is due. I had been suffering 
 from a headache before the lecture began, but it had now 
 so greatly increased that before the last questioner had 
 left me I was in a state of pain, mental confusion and 
 weariness such as I had never experienced before. 
 
 But to cap the climax, and to stamp that evening as 
 one of the most trying of my life, the Juniors filed into 
 the room, even before the last of the new men had left, 
 and their hostile and belligerent looks warned me at 
 once that trouble was in the air. The shock of this dis- 
 covery was all the greater because their loyalty of the 
 previous year had led me to suppose that I could rely 
 upon them in this crisis of the school's aflfairs. 
 
 The most of the men were silent, waiting for their 
 spokesmen to voice their woes. Nor were spokesmen 
 wanting, and soon they were pouring accusations of 
 shabby treatment because they had learned that I was 
 not planning to teach them personally that year. They 
 also asserted that our plan to use text books in Real 
 Property and Equity would result in half the class leav- 
 ing the school. Too surprised and dumfounded to meet 
 the issue that night, I mollified the class the best I could 
 and promised to take their grievances under advise- 
 ment, 
 
 I returned home, too exhausted to sleep, and on the 
 verge of despair. I could not for my life imagine the 
 reason for the great change that had come over the 
 Juniors, but a real change there was I felt sure. 
 
 Wednesday evening came. Even before my lecture to 
 the Freshmen, the Juniors began worrying me with com- 
 
 67 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 plaints; but I told them to see me after lecture, for I 
 realized that I must make a supreme effort to win new 
 men — only eight of the necessary twenty-two had 
 registered. The visitors were less numerous on this 
 evening, but the class was decidedly more friendly. One 
 or two new men had registered after the lecture, when 
 the trouble makers from the second year class appeared j | 
 to resume their interrupted interview. 
 
 Again they insisted that it was unfair for me to teach 
 the Freshmen and turn them over to others. They inti- 
 mated that I didn't care what happened to them now that 
 I had some other students, and they argued that because 
 they were to be the first graduates the success of the 
 school would depend upon their ability to pass the bar 
 examinations. They reasoned, therefore, that it was my 
 duty to teach them junior and senior subjects as well as 
 what I had taught them the previous year. 
 
 My predicament was a difficult one, and I realized that 
 a rash move would ruin the school. I felt that the 
 trouble had already hindered me greatly in winning new 
 students, but it was now likely to disrupt the class that I 
 had counted upon as a nucleus around which to build 
 the school. In the face of so grave a peril, I made a 
 sudden shift in my plans and told the men that I 
 would teach them Equity, and give my brother the 
 course in Criminal Law which I had expected to teach 
 the Freshmen. 
 
 This served to pacify the belligerents semewhat, and 
 they dispersed for the evenng. But the change had 
 placed an additional burden upon my shoulders. Equity 
 is a difficult subject for one to prepare to teach, especially 
 on so short a notice. 
 
 On Friday evening I made good my promise to teach 
 Equity, but I found the class so belligerent on the sub- 
 
 68 
 
A STUDENT MUTINY 
 
 ject of text books that I decided not to force the issue, 
 but to withdraw the text book requirement and give 
 notes in all subjects. 
 
 The last evening for visitors had now passed and only 
 eleven new men had registered. By this time I had 
 given up hope of the necessary number of students, my 
 whole concern now being to minimize the inevitable 
 deficit in the school exchequer as much as was possible. 
 
 By nature I am long suffering and slow to anger, but 
 when the second week came and the Juniors still hung 
 like a millstone about my neck, impeding my every 
 effort, I began seriously to think of disbanding the 
 whole class. I observed, however, upon watching them 
 narrowly, that only two or three of them were actively 
 hostile and that these few had not paid their tuition. It 
 was evidently a deliberate attempt to coerce me into 
 changes of plan — in other words these men were trying 
 to run the school. 
 
 I awaited their next move, ready to take swift and 
 summary action. They now came forward with two 
 additional demands. The first was for typewritten notes, 
 a matter I had already considered, but had ruled against 
 because it would have a tendency to encourage students 
 to cut lectures, and would result in a school but little 
 superior to a correspondence school. I told the men 
 flatly that they could not have typewritten notes, and 
 explained the reason. 
 
 Their second demand was for early and late divisions. 
 This might have given me a clue to all the trouble. I 
 had announced in the new catalogue that we would form 
 early and late divisions of classes if there was a sufficient 
 number of men to warrant it, but as a matter of fact, 
 there was no such division to be made of the Freshman 
 
 69 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 Class. The trouble makers had seized upon this an- 
 nouncement as a pretext for further annoyance, but as 
 there was less than a dozen men in the Junior Class the 
 new request was nothing short of preposterous. 
 
 My turn had now fully come. I told the men that 
 there would be no division of the class — they would 
 either attend in a body early or they would come late. 
 If there was even one man in the class who could not 
 come early, then there would be no early session. 
 
 Warmed up to the subject, I told the class that from 
 this day forth we were going to have fewer stu- 
 dents or harmony; that school poHcies were now clearly 
 defined, and any student who was still dissatisfied with 
 them should at once leave the class, for I had fully 
 resolved to expell the next trouble maker that showed 
 his head. 
 
 Upon the close of my remarks I requested every man 
 who would pledge himself to harmony and loyalty to the 
 school to manifest it by an upraised hand. Every man 
 but the two trouble makers raised his hand. Not only 
 that, but they crowded around me after the lecture and 
 assured me in most emphatic terms of their loyalty. 
 The discredited "leaders" withdrew. When the class 
 met again they were no longer members of the school. 
 But I was still entirely at loss as to the true explana- 
 tion of the hostility and malice of the trouble makers. It 
 was not until the following year that I learned the truth 
 from the lips of one of them. 
 
 The cause was in itself trivial. It is extraordinary 
 Aat any men should have taken offense, and adopted the 
 attitude they did. The ringleader of all the trouble had 
 been one of the men whom I had invited to the confer- 
 ence at Roxbur}^ on the previous year. It seems that the 
 invitation had so inflated his vanity that he considered 
 
 70 
 
A STUDENT MUTINY 
 
 himself one of the board of overseers of the school, and 
 that I had voluntarily given over the management of 
 the school to the students who had met me at that 
 conference. 
 
 Perhaps, also, the fact that nearly all of them were 
 older than I had something to do with it, but at any rate 
 this man chose to consider himself grievously slighted 
 because I had adopted a new name for the school, issued 
 a catalogue and selected a location in Boston, all without 
 consulting the "board of overseers." To vent his spite 
 and malice he was willing to go to any length, even 
 to disrupting the school — if such a thing were 
 possible. 
 
 71 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 School Finances, Real and Apparent. 
 
 But now that the trouble had subsided, we settled 
 down to a well ordered system. I flatter myself that 
 only a tactful handling of a desperate situation and a 
 firm dealing with the malcontents when they had been 
 singled out could have saved the school in this crisis. 
 There was another result not to be despised that flowed 
 from this experience. It had fortified me in my position 
 as head of the school and given me greater confidence in 
 my ability to handle other difficulties that later arose, 
 similar in character and traceable to the same original 
 cause. 
 
 Within the first three weeks of the Fall Term, the 
 Freshmen registration had risen to eighteen men. Later 
 in the term other men entered, but this increase was 
 offset by the number of those who dropped out, so the 
 average attendance of Freshmen for the Fall term con- 
 tinued at about eighteen men, four less than the number 
 which my estimate had called for as necessary to pay 
 expenses. But my estimate had been based upon a more 
 favorable situation in the Junior class. In addition to 
 the men that I had lost, with the resulting loss of reve- 
 nue, was also the fact that several men in the class were 
 unable to pay their tuition. 
 
 The dilatory payment of tuition throughout the school 
 became, in fact, one of my greatest trials, as it ever 
 
 72 
 
SCHOOL FINANCES REAL AND APPARENT 
 
 afterward remained during- the trying years when the 
 school expenses equaled or exceeded the tuition receipts. 
 Some men took great offense at being asked to pay up, 
 considering it a reflection upon their financial respon- 
 sibility. 
 
 One man that I recall, whose financial ability was un- 
 questioned, left the school in anger at this time because 
 he had received a bill. He upbraided me for not follow- 
 ing commercial usages and allowing payment "after the 
 service was rendered," as he expressed it. He had 
 chosen to raise this issue before the entire class and to 
 declare that he would quit the school rather than submit 
 to such an "outrageous custom," so I met his challenge 
 by telling him to go as soon as he pleased. He made a 
 dramatic exit from the class. 
 
 Had it not been for my law practice, scanty and un- 
 productive as it was, it is hard to say how I would have 
 gotten through that year. I had from long necessitj 
 reduced economy to a science, and many a time I walked 
 the three miles to or from my home to save a five cent 
 car fare. 
 
 Mr. Frost had still continued a custom that he had 
 begun when I was a student, of giving me liberal dona- 
 tions of clothing, and because of this I was able to 
 make a presentable appearance, even though I did 
 not spend twenty dollars on myself during the en- 
 tire year of 1907-1908. 
 
 My wife, although she did not realize in the least the 
 financial straits I was in, was nevertheless the most 
 economical of housewives. On January 22, 1908, 
 the great event to which we had both looked for- 
 ward with such eager interest occurred, and our 
 first child, Allan Frost Archer, was born. I believe 
 
 71 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL I 
 
 I was too happy to worry much over finances in those 
 days, for my relief that mother and child had passed 
 through the great ordeal was exceeding great. 
 
 I used to walk to the Boothby Hospital, where they 
 were until Allan was two weeks old, making myself a 
 daily nuisance to the nurses, I have no doubt. But to 
 be with my pug-nosed son and his mother, was a suffi- 
 cient inducement to cause me to brave even the 
 Gorgon Medusa herself. 
 
 Throughout this year of financial struggle I never 
 breathed to a soul, except to my wife and Mr. Frost, that 
 the school was not highly prosperous, for so to do would 
 have been suicidal to my plans. It is said that when 
 Washington was in command of the Continental Army, 
 he chafed sorely under the necessity of spreading broad- 
 cast optimistic reports of the size and equipment of his 
 army in order to keep the British from knowing the 
 truth, because these very optimistic reports misled the 
 people and caused them to misjudge Washington for 
 not accomplishing more. 
 
 During all the years of stress and hardship, I was. 
 placed in much the same position, not even daring to 
 disclose to the members of the faculty the financial 
 condition of the school, lest it should discourage them, 
 or by some mischance be noised abroad and reach the 
 ears of the rival school and cause redoubled efforts to 
 crush the youthful enterprise. 
 
 I verily believe that in years of the school's gravest 
 peril I would certainly have been forced to the wall 
 financially and thus obliged to discontinue the school had 
 our enemies known of their opportunity for successful 
 attack. But, as it was, they labored under the impression 
 that the school was a successful financial venture, and 
 their opportunity unwittingly passed. 
 
 74 
 
SCHOOL FINANCES REAL AND APPARENT 
 
 As I have intimated, however, this strategic silence 
 subjected me to misunderstandng from my assistants. 
 At times even when the school revenue was so small 
 that I had not only to serve without a salary myself, but 
 also to pledge my personal credit and borrow money to 
 pay the running expenses of the school, some of the fac- 
 ulty murmured because they were not being paid as 
 much as they deemed proper, because of the supposed 
 revenue of the school. 
 
 It is a favorite trick of the amateur financier to multi- 
 ply the tuition rate per year by the maximum number of 
 students who register during the year and call that 
 result the school revenue, whereas if the school revenue 
 reaches two-thirds of that figure the school treasurer is 
 indeed fortunate. 
 
 Not only does the uninitiated arrive at a false conclu- 
 sion as to the total, but he usually errs as much in the 
 opposite direction when trying to figure out the oper- 
 ating expenses of the school, for he knows nothing of 
 the hundred and one incidental but absolutely essential 
 expenditures that total a surprisingly large drain upon 
 a slender exchequer. 
 
 But I was obliged to accept these annoying misunder- 
 standings, particularly during the legislative contest, with 
 as good grace as possible; for an exposure of the finan- 
 cial weakness of the school would have been too great a 
 risk, even in justification of myself. I have spoken of 
 these matters at length, not because in the year 1907-1908 
 any of my teachers were inclined to misunderstand, but 
 because the policy was then inaugurated of outwitting 
 the enemies of the school by refraining from correcting 
 the amateur financiers in their estimates of the financial 
 strength of the institution, 
 
 75 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The School Wins Friends and "Free Advertising." 
 
 From all viewpoints, except financial, the school 
 year of 1907-1908 was a great success. The enthusiasm 
 and loyalty of the students seemed to increase with 
 every month of school. A school debating club was 
 formed in October 1907. It so happened that Hugh 
 A. Quinn, the young man referred to in the opening 
 chapter of this history, and at whose suggestion I had 
 embarked upon my career as a law teacher, was the 
 first President of the organization, for he had resumed 
 his study of law. 
 
 I made it a point to attend the sessions of the club, 
 and it became a means of staging mock trials and in- 
 troducing social features quite necessary to the well 
 being of the school. The club survived for two years 
 and was succeeded by class organizations, some of 
 them of very brief duration. 
 
 In preparing for the 1908-1909 catalogue, which was 
 issued about April 1908, I had determined upon a 
 number of important features for the new year. One 
 was the creation of an "Advisory Council," to which 
 I could take questions of school policy. In pursuance 
 of that plan I secured the following prominent men to 
 serve as my official advisers : Dr. Melville M. Bigelow, 
 Dean of Boston University Law School ; Judge John 
 A. Bennett of the Boston Municipal Court and J. 
 Merrill Boyd, Secretary of Boston University Law 
 School. 
 
 It had become necessary also to enlarge the faculty 
 of the school, which I did by appointing the following 
 
 76 
 
THE SCHOOL WINS FRIENDS 
 
 additional lawyers, A. Chesley York, George L. Ells- 
 worth and Thomas J. Boynton (later Attorney-Gen- 
 eral of Massachusetts). 
 
 I remember very well my first meeting with Mr. 
 Boynton. At that time he had recently been mayor of 
 Everett, Mass. We had a student in the school who 
 was a very warm admirer of Mr. Boynton, although 
 he was a Republican while Mr. Boynton was a Demo- 
 crat. The singular situation of a Republican so cor- 
 dially praising a Democrat, and especially because of 
 the splendid things he said of him, attracted my at- 
 tention and led me to believe that he would be just 
 the lawyer I needed to teach Legal Ethics to my 
 students. 
 
 So I called upon Mr. Boynton in his Boston office. 
 My first interview so fully confirmed all that had been 
 told me of the man that I explained to him what I was 
 trying to accomplish with the school, and invited him 
 to join the faculty. He promptly accepted, and from 
 that day forward has been a most loyal friend both to 
 myself and to the school. 
 
 I appreciated Mr. Boynton all the more after I had 
 attempted to induce other prominent men to lecture 
 to my students during the ensuing year, only to be 
 turned down flatly by the most of them and by the 
 others either ignored, or a price set for a lecture so 
 far above what the school could afford to pay, that it 
 was equivalent to a refusal. 
 
 I thus learned very early that I could expect neither 
 assistance nor encouragement from prominent lawyers 
 or judges of Boston who belonged with, or catered to, 
 the "high brow" element. My mission was the up- 
 lifting of poor boys ; and it was impressed upon me 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 many times during the course of years, especially dur- 
 ing the legislative contest with the "Educational Oc- 
 topus," that I was doing something very wrong; that 
 these young men belonged in the "lower order" in 
 which they were born, and to educate them was, as 
 one of the so-called "intellectuals" phrased it, three 
 years ago in my presence, "like trying to turn cart 
 horses into trotters." 
 
 I defended myself on the ground that nothing better 
 could be expected of me since I was born one of the 
 "lower order" and was therefore a "cart horse," but 
 one moreover that some of the "trotters" like himself 
 seemed to be afraid to try an intellectual race with. 
 
 I greatly appreciated, therefore, the spirit of Mr. 
 Boynton, so different from other prominent lav/yers 
 with whom I had come in contact. I appreciated es- 
 pecially his willingness to become a member of the 
 faculty of my unknown and, at that time, insignificant 
 school. 
 
 I appreciated also the kindness of Dean Bigelow and 
 of Secretary Boyd of the Law School from which I 
 had graduated, for in allowing their names to appear 
 in the 1908-1909 catalogue as members of the Advisory 
 Council they each rendered a great service to the school 
 in that critical period. The friendship of Judge Ben- 
 nett was also very helpful, for his office was in the 
 same building with the school, and he had opportunity 
 to observe what we were accomplishing. 
 
 In issuing the catalogue that Spring I felt sure that 
 the indorsement of my school, conveyed by the names 
 of these prominent men, would assist very materially 
 in the registration of new students, and so it proved.' 
 
 To that date the school had never been able to se- 
 
 78 
 
THE SCHOOL WINS FRIENDS 
 
 cure any recognition from the Boston newspapers. As 
 one of the editors of the Globe told me, at about that 
 time, news items concerning the school would be "free 
 advertising," and if I wanted advertising I must pay 
 for it. But through a bit of good fortune I secured 
 shortly after that some "free advertising" in a very 
 unexpected way, even from the Globe itself. 
 
 The incident occurred at the school banquet April 
 30th, 1908. We had as guests on that evening Mr. 
 Boynton, Judge Bennett, the late Professor A. C. Boyd 
 and Secretary Boyd. I was seated at the foot of the 
 table away from the rest of the speakers. One of the 
 enterprising members of the banquet committee had 
 sent tickets to the newspapers, and it so happened 
 that a reporter for the Globe sat beside me at the foot 
 of the table. This does not signify that our banquet 
 would have been mentioned in the morning papers, for 
 it has sometimes happened to the school that the re- 
 porter who ate the heartiest was least likely to men- 
 tion us in his paper next morning. 
 
 The reporter who sat beside me noticed Judge Ben- 
 nett at the head of the table and asked me what the 
 judge would talk about, casually mentioning that he 
 had sentenced a notorious agitator in court that day 
 for incendiary utterances. I had not heard of it, but 
 having been a reporter myself, I at once saw that if 
 Judge Bennett should refer to the agitator it would be 
 "news." 
 
 I therefore wrote, on one of my cards, a note to 
 Judge Bennett asking him to tell the company about 
 the incident of the day if he thought it proper. Sure 
 enough, when the Judge arose he told us he had given 
 the offender "the limit" because of the nature of his 
 offense. 
 
 79 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 The next morning the Globe came out with an ac- 
 count of the banquet and a long quotation from Judge 
 Bennett's remarks. Other papers copied it and the 
 school received a lot of "free advertising." 
 
 80 
 
ASSAILED BY SUFFRAGETTES 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Assailed by Suffragettes. 
 
 A few days after the banquet I was in conversation 
 with the city editor of the Boston Journal, who took 
 me to task for not notifying his paper of the banquet. 
 It was easy enough to excuse myself, for the banquet 
 committee had taken charge of the affair and notified 
 the newspapers. I assured him that I would not have 
 overlooked the Journal and gave him a glowing ac- 
 count of the school and my plans for its future. 
 
 When we parted he asked me to notify him of our 
 next public function and I promised to do so. Of 
 course I fully appreciated the value of news items in 
 establishing the reputation of the school, but at the 
 time I could not think of any occasion that would 
 come for a full year when I could make use of the kind 
 offices of the Journal. 
 
 That night, however, I awoke in the "wee small" 
 hours and worked out a plan that promised more pub- 
 licity for the school. We had as yet no graduating 
 class, but I conceived the idea of holding public exer- 
 cises at the close of the school year. 
 
 I at once got in touch with the debating club and 
 outlined a plan for an amusing mock-trial, an action of 
 tort for assault and battery with a soup bone, based 
 upon an actual happening to one of our students who 
 worked in a market. The Journal gave the affair an 
 
 8i 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 advance "write-up" with four photographs, and the 
 Boston Post did likewise, using two photographs, 
 mine being one of those used in each case. 
 
 I had engaged a hall in Tremont Temple and the ex- 
 ercises were there held May i8, 1908. Reporters from 
 various newspapers were present. I was the first 
 speaker, followed by Mr. Boynton and Judge Oscar A. 
 Marden, who later presided over the mock-trial. The 
 affair was a complete success. 
 
 My address was on a topic that I rightly divined 
 would attract attention — the que^ion of co-education 
 in our law school. I placed myself on record as square- 
 ly against it and announced our school policy to main- 
 tain classes exclusively for men. 
 
 The newspapers came out on the following morning 
 with long articles, the principal part of which con- 
 cerned my remarks. "The Record" had in big head- 
 lines, "Archer Would Bar Women" and the Journal 
 "Jolts Co-Education at Suffolk Law School," while 
 other papers had headings similar in tone. Mr. Boyn- 
 ton had commented mildly on my remarks on co-edu- 
 cation, so one newspaper ran three headings, "Would 
 Bar Women From Men's Law School." "Dean Ar- 
 cher Stirs Up Faculty to Reply." "Closing Exercises 
 of Evening Law School Marked by Lively Debate as 
 to Policy." 
 
 Some papers misquoted my words and I caused cor- 
 rected versions of m}^ remarks to be published the next 
 day in the offending papers. This correction was brief, 
 so I shall offer it in this connection to illustrate both 
 the incident and the policy, for it expressed my firm 
 conviction and has been adhered to by the school 
 throughout its history. 
 
 82 
 
ASSAILED BY SUFFRAGETTES 
 
 DEAN ARCHER MAKES CORRECTION. 
 
 To the Editor of the Advertiser : In view of the fact 
 that the morning papers misquoted my remarks on co- 
 education at the closing exercises of the Suffolk School 
 of Law at Tremont Temple last evening, I wish, in 
 justice to the school which I represent and to the very- 
 estimable young ladies who sometimes study law, to 
 make a correction. 
 
 "I am represented as saying the following: 
 
 "A lot of women is not conducive to progress in the 
 class. Men are gallant. No instructor can teach well 
 and no student can study acceptably under such a 
 system. If we admitted women we would be intro- 
 ducing a lowering element." 
 
 "But I really said. 'The Suffolk School of Law aims 
 to put in the way of each of its students the best possi- 
 ble conditions of study. Now there are some men, and 
 perhaps a large percentage, to whom the presence of a 
 lady in class is not conducive to strictest application 
 to the discussions of the class. Man is naturally senti- 
 mental and inclined to gallantries towards the op- 
 posite sex. A few such in a class will furnish amuse- 
 ment for all others. They will watch the shy glances 
 and miss no opportunity to tease the suspected party 
 or parties. An instructor cannot hold undivided at- 
 tention under such circumstances. So we feel sure 
 that in admitting lady students to our classes we would 
 be introducing a distracting element, that might lower 
 the high standard of scholarship hitherto maintained 
 by the students of the Suffolk School of Law." 
 
 May 20, 1908. Gleason L. Archer." 
 
 Nothing could have been more timely or valuable as 
 publicity for the school. But its value as a news feat- 
 
 83 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 ure was heightened by the fact that I was assailed by 
 the suffragettes. One of the Sunday papers came out 
 with a feature article, containing opinions from women 
 lawyers on the issue I had raised. One of the intro- 
 ductory paragraphs was as follows : 
 
 "When Dean Gleason L. Archer of the Suffolk Law 
 School came forth declaring that the presence of wom- 
 en in classes attended by men is not conducive to 
 study, he hardly realized the storm of adverse criticism 
 that his remarks would arouse." 
 
 It is true that I hardly realized the amount of pub- 
 licity my remarks would receive. But every assault 
 added to the interest taken by the public in the youth- 
 ful institution. 
 
 But a greater event was to occur within two months 
 that would demonstrate emphatically the real worth 
 of the school. 
 
 84 
 
THE FIRST LAWYER FROM OUR SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The First Lawyer From Our School. 
 
 The school had now been running for two years. I 
 was beginning to look forward to the time when my 
 students should meet the exacting test of the bar ex- 
 aminations, and the success or failure of the school be 
 thus publicly demonstrated. While no school should 
 content itself with merely imparting sufficient knowl- 
 edge to pass the bar examinations, yet it is the only 
 test by which the public can estimate the worth of a 
 law school. I knew from my own experience with 
 day students that the young men who were attending 
 my school were more firmly grounded in each subject 
 than the average day student. 
 
 But I realized that there were at least three obstacles 
 to a good bar examination record for my school. The 
 first, was the fact of the school's brief existence and its 
 humble origin. The second, was the prejudice existing 
 generally against evening students. The third, was 
 the most formidable of all — the young men attending 
 my school had very little general education. There 
 was only one man in the Junior Class who was even 
 a high school graduate, the rest of them having no 
 more than grammar school training. Whatever record 
 the school might make in the bar examinations must 
 be made by these untrained men in competition with 
 college graduates from Harvard Law School and col- 
 
 85 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 lege and high school men from the other law schools. 
 
 I was well aware that any law school can train a 
 college graduate, for the well-disciplined mind can as- 
 similate knowledge under the most indifferent system 
 of instruction, but to take the "raw material," as our 
 students might be termed, and train them by evening 
 instruction so that they might make a creditable record 
 in competition with splendidly educated day students 
 who had all their time for study, is the severest kind of 
 a test for any institution. 
 
 So when, in June, 1908, Roland E. Brown, of the 
 Junior Class approached me for certification to the bar 
 examiners for the time he had been studying, I was 
 quite aghast at the idea of his taking the bar examina- 
 tion. While I knew that day students sometimes 
 passed the bar after two years' study, (I had accom- 
 plished the feat myself) the cases were rare. In fact, 
 I knew of college graduates who had finished the 
 three-year law course and then been obliged to take 
 the bar examinations five or six times before passing. 
 Some of my own classmates in the law school were 
 still taking the bar examinations in 1908. 
 
 But Brown, a machinist by trade, with only a com^ 
 mon school education and two years of night training 
 in law, could not hope for success. Still I had a deep 
 sympathy for him. I cautioned him not to be disap- 
 pointed if he failed, for there was not one chance in 
 ten of his passing the bar examination. But I gave 
 him the certificate of two years' study. 
 
 It is needless to say that when, on July 23, 1908, the 
 list of successful candidates for admission to the bar 
 was published and I saw the name of Roland E. Brown 
 upon it, I was as happy as Brown himself. It was a 
 
 86 
 
THE FIRST LAWYER FROM OUR SCHOOL 
 
 wonderful achievement for the school. I at once saw 
 that if the fact became known, it would mean a tre- 
 mendous boom for the institution. 
 
 My own experience as a newspaper man led me to 
 adopt the very expedient that would make real news of 
 the incident. I immediately arranged a reception in 
 Brown's honor at my house and gave the story to the 
 Journal. 
 
 The next morning I arose very early and went out to 
 a news-stand for the "Journal." The eagerness with 
 which I scanned the paper was rewarded, for in a very 
 conspicuous place was Brown's picture, accompanied 
 by the following article. 
 
 10 YEAR STUDENT EEGOIUIES LAWYEe 
 
 Dean Archer, Who Advised Roland Brown to Wait, 
 
 to Give Reception in Honor at the Archer 
 
 Residence. 
 
 "The old, old story of T told you so,' has a modern 
 variation. Roland E. Brown of the Junior Class of the 
 Suffolk School of Law wanted to take the bar exami- 
 nation in June of this year. Dean Archer told him not 
 to be so rash, that he would fail without doubt and his 
 $15. would be thrown away. 
 
 "But Brown had confidence — lots of it, and he took 
 the examination. Now he is smiling, for the list of 
 successful candidates that came out yesterday had 
 "Brown" upon it in big letters. It also transpires that 
 Dean Archer has gracefully receded from his position, 
 
 87 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 for it is announced that a reception in Brown's honor 
 will be given at the home of the Dean next Monday 
 evening. 
 
 "Brown's record in passing the bar examination 
 after but two years of attendance at an evening school 
 is a remarkable one." 
 
 Several other newspapers gave the aflfair a news 
 item, and the Globe, which not long before had refused 
 to give the school "free advertising," sent a reporter to 
 me to get further details for a longer article, which 
 was later published with Brown's picture. 
 
 The reception was held according to schedule in the 
 old ^hool room at 6 Alpine street, where Brown had 
 begun his studies in December, 1916, as related in an 
 earlier chapter of this history. 
 
THE GOOD SAMARITAN 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Good Samaritan. 
 
 Some time prior to the bar examinations the ques- 
 tion of a suitable school seal had been under consid- 
 eration. Even while the school was in Roxbury the 
 demand for some visible insignia to be worn by the 
 students had resulted in a monogram pin in the form 
 of a letter "A" with "law school" upon it. Now that 
 the school name had changed from Archer Law School 
 to Suffolk School of Law, a new pin became necessary. 
 
 We had spent some time trying to devise a suitable 
 design for a seal. A firm of jewellers were also work- 
 ing upon plans to submit to me. But one day in June 
 1908, as I was sitting at my desk, the present school 
 seal flashed as a mental picture across my mind. I 
 sketched it out hurriedly on the back of an envelope 
 exactly as it exists today, even to the motto, scales of 
 justice, etc., so vividly had the picture impressed itself 
 upon me. 
 
 Taking it immediately to the jewelers' to compare 
 with their designs, we at once decided upon it and I 
 ordered the die made for school jewelry. The first 
 tangible reproduction of the school seal is on the gold 
 pin that I have worn ever since, the first pin made 
 from that die. 
 
 Shortly after, I had a cut made of the design and 
 ordered the first printed matter to bear the imprint of 
 
 89 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 the seal — a stock of letter heads, with the seal in the 
 left hand corner. 
 
 It so happened that the first use of the new letter 
 heads was called forth by Brown's success in the bar 
 examinations, for I purchased several hundred copies 
 of the issue of the Journal containing the article, 
 clipped them and sent out letters to all the men on my 
 mailing list, with a clipping enclosed. 
 
 I was my own office boy and stenographer. I well 
 remember how I labored in my dingy little office to 
 get out that issue of letters. I used an old style dia- 
 phram mimeograph. If I remember correctly, some of 
 the men who afterward became students in the school, 
 having read of Brown's success in the papers, called 
 at the office and found me in the humble employment 
 of printer's devil — and inquired for the Dean ! 
 
 But I was already somewhat used to those things, 
 for lack of funds to hire help obliged me personally to 
 act as janitor, office boy, stenographer and even car- 
 penter during the years of the school's adversity. 
 
 No immediate response resulted from the letters, but 
 I felt very confident that results would be forthcoming. 
 My greatest worriment was that of financing the 
 school until opening time. Quite a number of men 
 were still owing tuition. I sent out a special appeal 
 to the delinquents, oflfering a liberal discount upon 
 their bills if they would raise the money and pay up; 
 but very few of them responded, less than forty dollars 
 being paid. 
 
 Reduced to the last extremity, and unable to pay 
 either the rent, or finance an advertising campaign, I 
 was obliged to go to Mr. Frost for a loan. This neces- 
 sity was especially distasteful because of the fact that 
 
 90 
 
THE GOOD SAMARITAN 
 
 after I graduated from the law school Mr. Frost had 
 astonished me, in spite of all his wonderful kindness 
 previously, by saying that the loans which he had made 
 to me while I was a student, and which I hoped 
 shortly to begin to repay, were not loans but gifts. 
 Very naturally, therefore, I hesitated at asking for 
 more loans, lest it appear that I was of the barnacle 
 variety that repays one kindness by begging for an- 
 other. 
 
 However, I went to him and stated my case, and he 
 very promptly loaned me two hundred dollars. With 
 renewed courage I set about the advertising campaign. 
 By September i, 1908, thirteen new men had regis- 
 tered. The prospects were indeed rosy, and I began to 
 feel confident that my Freshman Class would exceed 
 both the upper classes combined. 
 
 But it was a long, weary season. I was on duty 
 day and evening at the office, until I felt hardly ac- 
 quainted with my baby boy, for he was always asleep 
 when I was at the house. But stragglers came in with 
 encouraging frequency, and when opening day arrived 
 I had already registered thirty-five new men. 
 
 To say that I was relieved and happy is to put it 
 mildly. Knowing that I had no lecture rooms at 53 
 Tremont Street large enough to accommodate the 
 crowd that was likely to attend the opening lecture, I 
 engaged Social Hall in Tremont Temple for opening 
 night. 
 
 91 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A Great Boom for the School. 
 
 \ 
 I 
 
 The school opened for the year on the evening oi 
 September 28, 1908, and opening night is always a 
 very strenuous occasion for me. This proved to be an. 
 especially busy evening, for a great many Freshmen 
 came to my office before going to Tremont Temple, 
 and many of the upper classmen desired to see me 
 personally, before the lectures began. Rumors kept 
 pouring in that a large number of Freshmen were 
 gathering in Social Hall, for some of the upper class 
 men called there out of curiosity before coming to the 
 school. 
 
 When I arrived at the hall to deliver the opening 
 lecture I was overjoyed to find that the rumors were 
 well founded. A far larger crowd than I had expected, 
 awaited my appearance. 
 
 The men eyed me with a good deal of curiosity, as 
 I opened my green bag and laid out on the lecture 
 table my lecture notes, application blanks, paper, in- 
 dex-cards, etc., each to be used later in the evening. 
 But I was as interested to see my new pupils as they 
 to see me, and it was a very gratifying sight indeed 
 — so many intelligent, earnest faces. 
 
 The lecture passed off with great apparent success. 
 When I distributed the index-cards for the names, 
 addresses and division, whether early or late, nearly 
 
 92 
 
A GREAT BOOM FOR THE SCHOOL 
 
 every man in the room signed his card. I organized 
 the class into three divisions, and appointed the lec- 
 ture rooms and evenings for those divisions. 
 
 Luckily for me, the building at 53 Tremont Street 
 was nearly tenantless, so I had secured the fourth 
 floor and a large room on the third floor opposite the 
 school office and library. This great influx of students 
 could, therefore, be handled without difficulty. 
 
 Little did I realize that not until 1914 would I meet 
 a larger class of Freshmen, nor that these men who 
 had just entered would participate as students in the 
 first great legislative campaign for power to confer 
 degrees, But I returned home that night, happy in 
 the belief that the school had passed through its 
 period of greatest adversity and trial, and that the 
 way from this time forward would be steadily upward 
 from one success to another, little dreaming of the 
 Educational Octopus whose tentacles were even now 
 creeping uneasily in my direction. The school had at 
 a single bound became a factor unwelcome to the 
 intrenched monopoly of the educational world. 
 
 By the close of the first week sixty-two Freshmen 
 had registered. This number was later increased un- 
 til more than seventy new students were enrolled. 
 The lecture rooms at 53 Tremont Street were taxed 
 to their utmost. 
 
 But in the midst of my busy labors troubles arose 
 in the Senior Class, the same class that had mutinied 
 the year before. The cause was not far to seek. In 
 a moment of unwise compassion I had allowed one 
 of the ringleaders of the trouble of the previous year 
 to return to the school. He had seemed properly 
 chastened and repentant, and I thought that his pun- 
 ishment had been severe enough. 
 
 93 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 But he had no sooner returned than he began to 
 foment trouble, secretly endeavoring to poison the 
 minds of the students, not only in his own class but 
 in the lower classes as well. 
 
 The first rumors of trouble had already come in 
 when an event occurred that brought matters to a 
 climax and roused my wrath as it has seldom been 
 roused by a student. We had in those days a common 
 bulletin board without a glass door in front. I came 
 into the corridor one evening just in time to see three 
 seniors scurry away from the bulletin board in a 
 manner that aroused my suspicion. 
 
 I had that day posted a notice with reference to 
 class meetings, stating among other things that stu- 
 dents would "be permitted" to use lecture rooms by 
 obtaining permission from the Dean. The word "per- 
 mitted" had been heavily underscored and something 
 had been printed in pencil underneath the notice, the 
 nature of which I have now forgotten but which was 
 a malicious insult to me and my authority as Dean. 
 I knew immediately that one of three possible culprits 
 had committed the act. 
 
 I met the challenge of my authority by posting an 
 exact copy of the mutilated notice, together with a 
 second notice to the effect that any student who there- 
 after in any way molested a notice on the bulletin 
 board would be expelled from the school. I then 
 visited the senior lecture room and informed the class 
 of the outrage, notifying them that unless the per- 
 petrators of the insult apologized to me within 
 twenty-four hours I would expel the suspected par- 
 ties from the school. 
 
 On the following day I wrote a letter of expulson 
 for each of the three men; for I had not yet heard 
 
 94 
 
A GREAT BOOM FOR THE SCHOOL 
 
 from them. But desiring to know if possible the one 
 who had done the printing I grilled each of the sus- 
 pected parties, all of whom denied the act. Finally, 
 the one that I least suspected, and concerning whom 
 I would never have entertained the slightest suspicion 
 had I not seen him with the others, confessed that 
 he had done the printing and humbly apologized. 
 
 It was somewhat of a shock to me, for this man 
 had appeared to be the most loyal of all my students 
 and had certainly enjoyed my confidence more than 
 any other student, either before or since. But he had 
 forfeited that confidence now. I believe that the 
 shame that he felt caused him to leave the school, 
 for he shortly thereafter withdrew as a student. 
 
 But he had given a clue to the real trouble maker 
 and this clue pointed straight to the very man who 
 had been the ringleader of the previous insurrection. 
 I had already interviewed the man, for he was one of 
 the three suspects, but he had denied complicity in 
 the affair. 
 
 Not wishing to have trouble with the man at the 
 school, I called at his office to have it out with him 
 in private. 
 
 Denials and evasions were of no use this time, for 
 I was determined to have the truth. My experience 
 as a cross examiner had taught me that one of the 
 surest ways to obtain real information as to a per- 
 son's motives was to get that person excited and mad 
 clear through. This I proceeded to do and I ob- 
 tained the information that I have mentioned in 
 Chapter XV, but not in connected form, for I gath- 
 ered it from various wrathful taunts that escaped 
 from his lips. 
 
 I had thus again reaped trouble from an imaginary 
 
 Vo 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 slight and from the same individual. A few months 
 later when his class was graduating he demanded his 
 diploma and threatened to ruin the school if he did 
 not get it. Needless to say, he did not get his diploma. 
 
 96 
 
^Y FIRST LAW WRITING 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 My First Law Writing and the Traveler Contest. 
 
 The great increase in students had wrought a cor- 
 responding increase in my duties at the school. I soon 
 found myself facing a difficult problem — that of 
 whether I should or could continue my law practice. 
 When I started the school I had not the remotest 
 idea of eventually giving up my practice, for I liked 
 court work — especially the examination and cross ex- 
 amination of witnesses. 
 
 But I soon came to the point where it was apparent 
 to me that I would eventually have to choose between 
 the school and law practice, for I could not hope to 
 divide my attention and perform either task to the 
 best of my ability. Then, too, it occurred to me that 
 it would be belittling the school for the Dean of a law 
 school to go into court and try ordinary cases, pos- 
 sibly against some of his own graduates. 
 
 In December, 1908 when the school work became so 
 burdensome, I reached the final conclusion that I 
 would close up my law practice and devote my entire 
 time to the school. This is a decision that doubtless 
 insured the permanence of the school, but the time 
 later came when I regretted that I had not a law prac- 
 tice to fall back upon. 
 
 I have previously mentioned the mock trials that 
 were held at the school. Co-incident with my deci- 
 
 97 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 sion to devote my entire time to the school I began 
 to extend the scope of the work of the school courts. 
 The jury was now drawn from the Freshman class 
 and thus the trials were participated in by all the 
 school. 
 
 I presided as judge at all trials, but was greatly 
 burdened by the fact that each trial meant instruction 
 of new men in the necessary routine of the court 
 room. The necessity of means of imparting this 
 knowledge impressed itself upon me more and more 
 as weeks passed. 
 
 I finally decided to prepare a scrap book (which is 
 still in my possession) of writs in common use with 
 full instructions concerning them. When this was 
 partially completed I realized that it would meet only 
 a part of the difficulty ; so I began to draft instruc- 
 tions for the complete handling of a law suit. My 
 intention then was to prepare a mere booklet. But 
 as I outlined the topics to be covered, I saw at once 
 that a booklet would never do. 
 
 Without any reasonable hope of the success of the 
 venture I began on January 26, 1909, what was to 
 prove my first law book, "Law Office and Court Pro- 
 cedure." Like the beginning of the school, it did not 
 impress me at first as of any great significance in 
 my life ; and I pursued its preparation in odd mo- 
 ments, either at the office or at my home. My wife 
 has always said that I am never happy unless I am 
 writing, and perhaps that is true, for there has rarely 
 been a month in the past ten years that has not seen 
 my pen busy at something. But I thoroughly en- 
 joyed law writing, and perhaps the very fact that I 
 wrote chapter after chapter of this book with so little 
 effort was what led me to esteem it so lightly. I have 
 
 98 
 
MY FIRST LAW WRITING 
 
 been lately reminded that my customary excuse in 
 the winter of 1909 for the time I was devoting to the 
 book was this, "Of course I never expect it to be 
 published ; but it will be useful for the students." 
 
 At about the time I began the preparation of the 
 material for the book, an event occurred that soon 
 brought about a decided change in the school's afifairs. 
 The building at 53 Tremont Street changed owner- 
 ship. I was notified of the fact by the agent of the 
 new owners, and requested to confer with him as to 
 tenancy of the additional space which the school was 
 using for lecture rooms. 
 
 Somewhat disturbed over this new development, I 
 met the agent and talked over the situation. A few 
 days later I received notice from him of a consider- 
 able increase in our rental. I was naturally very in- 
 dignant at what I considered a hold up, and I re- 
 torted by threatening to remove from the building. 
 But he evidently considered my threat empty words, 
 perhaps shrewdly believing that I could not secure 
 adequate quarters in any other desirable location, es- 
 pecially during the school year. 
 
 Prior to this break with the agent I had been well 
 satisfied with the school home, for it is one of my 
 characteristics to look on the bright side of any situa- 
 tion in which I find myself. But now that this 
 trouble had arisen, I could see a dozen reasons why I 
 should remove the school to better quarters. 
 
 Fortunately for me an organization that had oc- 
 cupied considerable space in Tremont Temple was 
 about to remove to the newly completed Ford Build- 
 ing after the termination of a long lease. The rental 
 of the place would be considerably in excess even of 
 the increased rental at 53 Tremont Street ; but I could 
 
 99 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 easily see that the superior accommodations and sur- 
 roundings might fully justify the change. 
 
 It was a matter of extreme regret to me however 
 that just as the school was getting onto its feet finan- 
 cially it should again be thrown into monetary diffi- 
 culties. I could readily foresee that the revenue for 
 the year, slightly in excess of $3500, would be inade- 
 quate for the school needs ; especially if we removed 
 to Tremont Temple, with a heavy rental during the 
 summer months. Such removal also involved a con- 
 siderable outlay for furniture, books and book cases, 
 for we had been having the use of Mr. Stone's law 
 library and furniture, and naturally could not take his 
 property with us to Tremont Temple. 
 
 I have previously mentioned two loans from Mr. 
 Frost of $200 each made to me in the school's behalf. 
 At the time this difficulty developed I had paid one of 
 them and a part of another. I now paid the second 
 one, and consulted with Mr. Frost as to the advisa- 
 bility of the change. 
 
 He met me by appointment at Tremont Temple 
 and we together examined the premises, both of the 
 prospective home and the present one. His decision 
 was heartily in favor of the change, and he asked me 
 for an estimate of the cost of equipment of the new 
 home, which I later gave him, and he loaned me $500 
 for that purpose. 
 
 So I closed the matter with the Tremont Temple 
 people and, with a great deal of satisfaction, served 
 notice on the agent of the new proprietor of 53 
 Tremont Street that I should terminate my tenancy 
 on March i, 1909. We were occupying as tenants at 
 will and one month's notice was sufficient. 
 
 Then followed so strenuous a season for me that 
 
 100 
 
MY FIRST LAW WRITING 
 
 my law book manuscript was laid aside. I had al- 
 ready been negotiating with Mr. John H. Fahey, now 
 President of the United States Chamber of Com- 
 merce, but then publisher of the Boston Traveler, for 
 a voting contest to be conducted by his paper in which 
 scholarships in the Suffolk School of Law were to be 
 offered as premiums. 
 
 Mr, Fahey went about the matter cautiously, but I 
 convinced him of the merits of my school, and on Feb- 
 ruary 24th, 1909, a formal contract was signed, under 
 the terms of which six scholarships were to be 
 awarded by the Traveler to the successful contestants. 
 
 The Traveler had already begun a series of articles 
 descriptive of the school. Our contemplated removal 
 to larger quarters was now worked up to the best 
 advantage in the columns of the Traveler. 
 
 At this time, also, I decided to institute a loan li- 
 brary of case books for the use of the students, and 
 the first announcement of the plan was made by the 
 Traveler. 
 
 It will be remembered in July, 1908, Roland E. 
 Brown of the Junior Class had passed the bar exam- 
 inations and thereby won great credit for the school. 
 The next examination was held in January 1909, and 
 in this examination also a Suffolk man was successful 
 — Carl Collar, then in his senior year. Thus, out of a 
 class of five seniors, (for that is all that now survived 
 of the original number), two were already members 
 of the bar. The Traveler gave the school a splendid 
 write-up on this latest achievement. 
 
 The scholarship contest opened March i, 1909, 
 and ran for two months with about fifty young men 
 as contestants. The advertising value to the school 
 of this contest was incalculable, but no doubt a mat- 
 ter of extreme concern to the other schools. 
 
 lOI 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 As I look back upon it now I consider the Traveler 
 contest to have been one of the greatest strokes of 
 success that I had won up to that time. When the 
 contest opened the school was practically unknown; 
 but after the two months' contest it was known to 
 every reader of the Traveler. 
 
 The immediate effect of the contest was, however, 
 disappointing to me. Very few of the unsuccessful 
 candidates ever entered the school, doubtless feeling 
 aggrieved because of their failure. Another result 
 was to alarm the Octopus and awaken the rival 
 schools to hostile action more or less concerted, but 
 after all, this was bound to come as soon as the school 
 had reached a degree of prominence in the public 
 eye. 
 
 )] 
 
 t 
 
 102 
 
HOSTILITY OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Hostility of Boston University. 
 
 The first evidence of hostility was manifested by- 
 Boston University, my Alma Mater. Because in later 
 years, during the legislative contest, classmates of 
 mine from the law school who were members of the 
 legislature and who fought viciously to kill the Suf- 
 folk Law School Charter, falsely charged me with in- 
 gratitude to my Alma Mater, I shall here for the first 
 time set forth the facts : 
 
 No graduate of Boston University could have been 
 more loyal than was I for several years after my 
 graduation. The teachers in the law department 
 were, many of them, very firm friends of mine and the 
 most cordial relations existed between us. I was fre- 
 quently in conference with Secretary Boyd on ad- 
 ministrative problems as they arose in my school. I 
 am sure that those in authority at the law school felt 
 that since the Y. M. C. A. Law School was the pro- 
 tege of Harvard Law School (considered by many 
 Boston University graduates to have been encour- 
 aged by Harvard for the express purpose of injuring 
 Boston University Law School), so my law school 
 whose founder and all its teachers were Boston Uni- 
 versity men should be regarded by them with favor. 
 
 I had heard more than once the expression "When 
 our own graduates are doing so well it reflects honor 
 
 103 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 Upon the University, and we at the law school ought 
 to give them the glad hand." For these sentiments 
 and for the active interest in my school manifested 
 by Dean Bigelow, Secretary Boyd and Professor 
 Boyd, I felt a warm sense of gratitude and was will- 
 ing to further the interests of the University even at 
 the expense of my own institution. As an evidence 
 of that I will offer portions of a long letter which I 
 wrote to Dean Bigelow January 7th, 1908. 
 
 Dear Dr. Bigelow : — 
 
 Since our interview of Saturday, I have been think- 
 ing very seriously of the suggestions you made in re- 
 gard to sending our men who desire academic de- 
 grees to the Boston University School of Law for 
 their final training. If we can come to some under- 
 standing as to the credit that such men will be given 
 for subjects taken in the Suffolk School of Law I 
 think we may be able to arrange other details. * * * 
 
 If your Faculty would allow students who have 
 passed examinations in a course in this school with a 
 mark of 80 or 85 per cent to enter B. U. Law School 
 for advanced standing without examinations on such 
 subject or subjects, it would be an inspiration to a 
 student here to put forth his best efforts. If in cer- 
 tain subjects he did not attain that mark, he should 
 be required to take examinations at your school in the 
 regular examinations on that subject Many students 
 who cannot afford to take a three year course at B. U. 
 Law School could manage to take their final year 
 there. * * * Of course your Faculty would naturally 
 desire to know what training a prospective candidate 
 for a degree might be getting in this school. Per- 
 haps an advisory board, composed of yourself. Sec- 
 retary Boyd and Professor Boyd * * * might solve 
 
 104 
 
HOSTILITY OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY 
 
 the difficulty, and you could keep in touch with just 
 what is being done here without any additional bur- 
 den of administration being imposed upon you. * * * 
 Some law schools, as you know, have evening de- 
 partments, but with this arrangement your school 
 would secure all the advantages to be obtained there- 
 from, without any of its resulting disadvantages. 
 * * * I trust that we can form some sort of an al- 
 liance. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 (Signed) GLEASON L. ARCHER. 
 
 I was later informed that the Trustees would not 
 agree to such an arrangement. But the interest and 
 good will of the law department is evidenced by the 
 fact that the very "advisory board" advocated by the 
 letter was shortly afterward formed (as has been noted 
 in an earlier chapter) . 
 
 At the time the Traveler Scholarship Contest opened, 
 March 1909, this "advisory council" was still in opera- 
 tion. About March 8th, 1909, I called at the college 
 department to see Professor Black who was to speak 
 at our Dedication Exercises. While waiting for him, 
 I got into conversation with one of the officials of the 
 college. 
 
 He had already noticed the Scholarship contest, for 
 it had been running now for ten days, and his attitude 
 was particularly cold and hostile. 
 
 "What kind of a deal have you got on with the 
 Traveler?" he asked me in a manner which I resented, 
 and I made no pretence of concealing my resentment. 
 But his next question was even more astonishing. 
 
 "Wasn't the Y. M. C. A. Law School doing the 
 thing well enough without your butting into the field?" 
 
 105 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 My acquaintance with this man while I was a 
 student in colleg-e had never been anything but slight, 
 for he was not then an executive officer. But while in 
 the law school he had urged me to complete my col- 
 lege course, which for financial reasons I was unable 
 to do. This was my first meeting with him since that 
 date. 
 
 But at his allusion to the Y. M. C. A. Law School, 
 and his evident partisanship in the matter (I did not 
 then know that he was affiliated with the organization, 
 nor realize that the University with its devout Meth- 
 odist Trustees would consider my rivalry with an 
 organization of the Young Men's Qiristian Associa- 
 tion as an attack upon religion itself) I replied with 
 some show of spirit that my school had the most 
 cordial approval of those who were in position to 
 judge its merits — the Dean, Secretary and professors 
 of the law department of Boston University. I gave 
 him a catalogue of the school and left his office. I 
 have never stepped over the threshold of the college 
 department of Boston University since. 
 
 It will be remembered that this interview occurred 
 on March 8th, 1909. One week later, March 15th, 
 1909, I received the following self-explanatory letter 
 from Dean Bigelow. 
 
 Boston University Law School, Ashburton Place, 
 Office of the Dean, March 15, 1909. 
 My Dear Archer, — 
 
 Certain friends of the University are sensitive to 
 my appearing to take any part between the two Even- 
 ing Law Schools, or appearing in any way in connec- 
 tion with either of them. Will you please therefore 
 drop my name at the close of the current year? 
 
 106 
 
HOSTILITY OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY 
 
 You will understand of course that this does not 
 import any want of confidence in you and your asso- 
 ciates ; it only means that the part for me to take is 
 one of pefect neutrality. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 (Signed) Melville M. Bigelow. 
 
 I at once waited upon Secretary Boyd, and I do not 
 think it is a betrayal of confidence to say that I found 
 him in an extremely belligerent mood, not toward me 
 but toward certain high officials of the University. I 
 later learned that they had been at the law school and 
 a merry row had taken place. But those in high au- 
 thority had prevailed and Dean Bigelow and Secretary 
 Boyd had been forced to withdraw ?rom the advisory 
 council of my school. Professor Boyd had also been 
 notified to quit our board of visitors. 
 
 To say that this calamity was a blow to me, is to 
 put it mildly, for I knew that their withdrawal would 
 be interpreted by the public as an evidence of lack of 
 confidence in my school. However, I survived the 
 shock, as I have many another. Later developments in 
 the estrangement between myself and Boston Univer- 
 sity will be related in connection with other events 
 later in this history. But to return to school affairs. 
 
 107 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Removal to Tremont Temple. 
 
 The last two weeks of February, 1909, were occupied 
 by many duties having to do with the removal of the 
 school. New floors were laid in the school headquar- 
 ters. Much of our furniture, being purchased new, 
 was delivered by the dealers at different intervals and 
 the final transfer of the school possessions took place 
 during the spring recess which occurred during the 
 last week in February. 
 
 I well remember my last visit to the dismantled 
 offices and lecture rooms at 53 Tremont Street, after 
 the movers had completed their work. It is always a 
 melancholy thing to survey scenes that, from long 
 familiarity, have impressed themselves upon one's life. 
 In these offices the gloomiest and darkest days of my 
 life had been passed, as well as days of success and 
 triumph. 
 
 Within six weeks I had passed, because of circum- 
 stances suddenly arising, from a state of complete con- 
 tentment with my surroundings to the actual volun- 
 tary severing of all connection with that place; had 
 signed a three-year lease and removed to a building 
 where the rent alone, for the space that I should need, 
 would very nearly equal the gross tuition receipts of 
 the previous year. I wondered if I had made a mis- 
 take ; and, as I paced the empty corridor, I prayed 
 
 108 
 
 J 
 
REMOVAL TO TREMONT TEMPLE 
 
 very earnestly that I might be guided wisely and 
 strengthened for anything that might befall me, so 
 that if the school were thereafter removed from Tre- 
 mont Temple it might be only because of growth and 
 prosperity of the school and not because of failure. 
 
 The admiration and delight of the students when 
 they surveyed the new home of the school opening 
 night of the Spring Term, March i, 1909, was un- 
 bounded. The change from the gloomy, gas lighted 
 rooms at the former home, to the tinted walls, polished 
 oak woodwork and electric illumination of the school's 
 new home was indeed great. Heretofore the men had 
 climbed the stairs to their lecture rooms, but elevators 
 were now the means of transit. In a measure, I was 
 reassured for the risk I had taken. 
 
 My office work, because of the scholarship contest, 
 had greatly increased, and I was obliged to engage a 
 stenographer, Miss Mary Hines of Wakefield, who 
 proved to be a very trustworthy and efficient young 
 lady. The change to Tremont Temple and the opening 
 of the loan library, made necessary the employment of 
 a regular librarian. The first librarian was Henry 
 Rossiter Snyder, then a student in the Massachusetts 
 Institute of Technology, but now Paymaster in the 
 United States Navy. 
 
 In celebration of our new home, it was resolved to 
 hold a sort of Dedication Exercises, and the date was 
 set for Thursday evening, March 11, 1909. As will be 
 remembered, it was concerning these exercises that I 
 had called at the College Department of Boston Uni- 
 versity as related in the previous chapter. 
 
 The exercises were held in Lorimer Hall and passed 
 off very successfully. Judge Bennett, Mr. Boynton 
 
 109 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 and Professor Frank L. Simpson of Boston University- 
 Law School followed me as speakers. We had a large 
 and enthusiastic audience. 
 
 The month of April was marked by the holding of 
 one of the most successful banquets that the school 
 has ever known. Harvey N. Shepard, Thomas J. 
 Boynton, Arthur W. Dolan, Register of Probate of 
 Suffolk County, Judge Charles M. Bruce and myself, 
 being the speakers. 
 
 My address was quite widely quoted, because of a 
 sentiment expressed on the subject of the drinking of 
 liquor at school banquets. I had given orders that no 
 liquor of any kind should be served at the banquet, 
 and in explanation of the order I had said: 
 
 "If the only duty of this school were the merely in- 
 tellectual training of our students, I should not attempt 
 to exercise any censorship over the school banquet. 
 But we believe there is a higher duty than mere in- 
 tellectual training. We should surround our students 
 with influences that make for ethical development as 
 well. I am aware that this idea is completely lost 
 sight of in some of the largest and most powerful in- 
 stitutions of learning in this country, but nevertheless 
 it does not abate our duty in the slightest degree. Many 
 of these young men have never touched their first 
 glass. Far be it from us to place in their way any 
 temptation; for a banquet is an occasion when it is 
 easy to take that first glass." 
 
 As the result of the publicity given these sentiments, 
 unusual at that time — before the present great tem- 
 perance movement had started, I received many let- 
 ters of congratulation and commendation for my ac- 
 tion. 
 
 lie 
 
REMOVAL TO TREMONT TEMPLE 
 
 The students accepted the dictum without question ; 
 and it is one of my proudest boasts concerning the 
 school, that no liquor was ever sensed at a school ban- 
 quet since the institution was founded. No doubt the 
 students have found me more or less of a crank on 
 the topic of temperance ; for I never miss an opportu- 
 nity to lecture them upon it and have on different oc- 
 casions, with very good effect, threatened to expel 
 students for coming into the class Avith liquor on their 
 breath. 
 
 But I firmly believe that one of the chief reasons for 
 the success of the school has been the high standards 
 of conduct as well as of scholarship that we have ex- 
 acted of our students. If there is one sentiment more 
 than any other that we have constantly impressed 
 upon them, it is that in order to win success a man 
 must first prove himself worthy of success ; that vice 
 and immorality are incompatible with high achieve- 
 ment. 
 
 Ill 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Y. M. C. A. Ethics. 
 
 At about this time I learned that the Board of Bar 
 Examiners were contemplating a change in respect to 
 the period of study required of candidates for admis- 
 sion to the bar. Up to that time, anyone could take 
 the bar examinations, irrespective of his period of 
 study. After a conference with Mr. Bailey, the chair- 
 man of the Board of Bar Examiners, I decided to 
 change our school curriculum from a three year to a 
 four year course. 
 
 I had already become convinced that a four year 
 course was essential to properly train evening stu- 
 dents, but I had difficulty to persuade our students to 
 study even three years, without taking bar examina- 
 tions. Once the bar examination bee begins to buzz 
 in a student's ear he ceases to be a well balanced stu- 
 dent, for he will neglect his regular work to study sub- 
 jects not yet taken, and sometimes fails in his class 
 work. He is in a state of feverish uncertainty. If he 
 passes the bar before finishing his law study the 
 chances are very strong that he will never complete 
 his course — especially if the school cannot confer de- 
 grees, as was the case with my school at that time. 
 
 But if he fails in the attempt he never settles down 
 to really good school work again, for he begins immedi- 
 ately another feverish attempt to prepare for the next 
 
 112 
 
Y. M. C. A. ETHICS 
 
 examination. So when the Bar Examiners proposed to 
 refuse to examine men who had not studied the equiva- 
 lent of three full years in a day school, I welcomed the 
 opportunity to lengthen our course to four years, 
 although I realized that it would mean a considerable 
 loss of students. 
 
 This change, meaning a loss of revenue in the face of 
 greatly increased school expenses in Tremont Temple 
 made necessary an increase of tuition if the school were 
 to continue. I fully realized that the advance in tuition 
 would also cause a falling off in attendance. 
 
 In the 1909- 19 lo catalogue, which was issued in June, 
 1909, I announced the new home of the school, the new 
 loan library, the change of tuition to $60 a year (not 
 applying at all to students then enrolled, for whom the 
 $45 rate continued) and the four year course of instruc- 
 tion. 
 
 If I had been concerned over the outlook for students 
 in the following September, I was more concerned over 
 a new development. The Y. M. C. A. Law School, 
 alarmed at the growth of the Suffolk School of Law, had 
 put over their first great competition "stunt." 
 
 Hitherto they had gotten out a blue vest-pocket folder, 
 in lieu of a catalogue, but the catalogues issued by my 
 school caused them to issue a catalogue also. In the 
 back of their catalogue, however, they had a lot of testi- 
 monials — patent medicine style — which purported to 
 show the esteem in which the Y. M. C. A. Law School 
 was held in the community. 
 
 There were letters from John L. Bates, John D. Long, 
 Louis Brandeis and Samuel J. Elder, indorsing the 
 educational work of the Boston Y. M. C. A., but not 
 one of them referred to the law school. I saw that 
 at once ; but I also saw the unworthy deception upon 
 
 "3 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 prospective students that would surely be practiced 
 by their presence in the law school catalogue under 
 the heading, "Opinions o£ leading members of the 
 bar." 
 
 There were two other letters that did refer to the 
 law school, but one of them was written by one of the 
 teachers in the Y. M. C. A. law school. The other, and 
 the very first one in the list, made my heart sink within 
 me, for it was from Hollis R. Bailey, chairman of the 
 Board of Bar Examiners, commending their school, and 
 especially advising them to maintain a four year course. 
 
 The tremendous value of such seeming partisanship 
 on the part of the Chairmxan of the Examining Board 
 was at once manifest, for my own students began to 
 murmur bitterly that Mr. Bailey ought not to take 
 sides between the two schools. There was a clause in 
 bis letter which could be construed as a slap at the 
 Sufifolk School of Law. I learned from my own stu- 
 dents that friends of theirs, who had intended to come 
 to the Suffolk School of Law in the fall, were going to 
 the Y. M. C. A. because they wanted to pass the bar 
 examinations and could not afford to antagonize Mr. 
 Bailey by going to any other evening school. 
 
 Had I known Mr. Bailey as well then as I did later, 
 I should have blocked the Y. M. C. A. by going to him 
 directly with the matter. 
 
 In order that the reader may see at this point what 
 an extraordinary method of competition the Y. M. C. 
 A. Law School authorities were employing, I will state 
 that two years later, after I had seen my school dwindle 
 to a total attendance of fifty-five students, I reproached 
 Mr. Bailey for taking sides, and found him totally una- 
 ware of the existence of the letter or how it was being 
 used. 
 
 114 
 
Y. M. C. A. ETHICS 
 
 He then discovered that he had written it two years 
 before rny school was founded, in 1904, when the Y. M. 
 C. A. Law School was trying to secure power to confer 
 degrees. But the pious gentleman who decided to use 
 it in the catalogue accidentally omitted the date, thus 
 making it appear to be a current letter of a partisan 
 nature of tremendous value as a weapon of competition. 
 Mr. Bailey thereupon ordered them to discontinue it in 
 their catalogue. 
 
 IIS 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 My First Law Book. 
 
 The summer of 1909 was not without its triumphs, 
 however. Because of the undoubted influence that the 
 event had upon the survival of the school through all the 
 Stormy days that were to come, I shall take time in 
 ^is connection to relate the circumstances under which 
 my first attempts at law writing bore fruit in the form of 
 my first book. Without this book and those that fol- 
 lowed it, and the standing that they gave me and my 
 school, we could never have won our legislative fight, 
 especially during the first year. 
 
 This book it was that established my reputation more 
 than any of the others ; for at the time of the legislative 
 contest it was already being used by the students of Yale 
 Law School, Harvard Law School, Boston University 
 Law, and even in the Y. M. C. A. Law School, much as 
 they hated me and my school, (as one of their graduates 
 in the legislature picturesquely phrased it to me, "I have 
 nothing but praise for your book, but to h — with your 
 school.") So when on the floor of the house, in 1912, 
 my school was attacked as an unknown quantity, whose 
 Dean was an inexperienced "boy," the existence of my 
 books, and the splendid indorsements they had received, 
 became the theme for the winning debate on our side. 
 
 I have already related how I began to write the manu- 
 script and finally laid it aside because of the strenuous 
 
 116 
 
MY FIRST LAW BOOK 
 
 days of the removal to Tremont Temple, and the begin- 
 ning of the scholarship contest. But after things had 
 settled down into normal channels I resumed my law 
 writing. 
 
 When I had prepared the first few chapters, I saw 
 the futility of attempting to print it by means of a 
 mimeograph, and I knew that the expense of printing 
 it in the ordinary way would be prohibitive. So, with 
 what manuscript I had prepared, and with my outline 
 of the contents of the proposed book, I called upon 
 Little, Brown & Company, then in their old building on 
 Washington Street. 
 
 If I remember correctly, it was the late Mr, Mclntyre, 
 of the firm, who granted me the first interview. They 
 were all busy at the time, and, while h€ did not say so, I 
 felt that it was sheer kindness on his part that led him 
 to even listen to me (I was afterward informed by the 
 representative of another publishing house to whom I 
 mentioned that I was preparing a text book, that he was 
 very sure that his house would not care to examine the 
 manuscript), for I was but twenty-eight at the time, and 
 less than three years in practice. 
 
 However, his kindly amusement soon gave way to 
 earnest attention. I explained the scope of the work 
 and read him all that seemed necessary to give him an 
 idea of the text. When I had finished, he enquired how 
 soon I could complete the manuscript. I replied that by 
 August I could have it ready, so he requested me to 
 submit the work to him as soon as I had completed it. 
 
 Greatly encouraged by this interview, I fell to work 
 wth renewed zeal, and, true to my words, submitted the 
 manuscript in August, 1909. I have in my possession 
 the original manuscript from which my stenographer 
 
 117 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 typewrote the others. It is interesting to note that I 
 changed the name of the book four times. First it was, 
 "The Young Lawyer's Handbook;" next, "The Young 
 Lawyer's Guide;" then I wrote again on the title page, 
 "Beginnings of Practice;" finally, to cross that out also 
 and to write, "Law Office and Court Procedure," un- 
 der which title the book exists today. 
 
 After some delay I received a letter from the publish- 
 ers, dated August 31st, 1909, from which I quote in part: 
 
 "We have made an estimate of the cost of setting type 
 and manufacturing of your work 'Law Office and 
 Court Procedure' and have given the whole matter 
 careful consideration and have consulted with assist- 
 ants in our law department. 
 
 "We regret to state that, taking into consideration the 
 large expense of the work, we feel that we should be 
 able to count upon a general sale throughout the country 
 linless the work is to be published at a loss. Feeling 
 as we do, we are compelled to conclude that we cannot 
 make a proposition which would entail our bearing the 
 whole cost of manufacture and publication. If you felt 
 that you could assume the cost of setting the type and 
 making the plates, we would be willing to pay for paper, 
 presswork, binding, selling and distributing, and press 
 copies, and pay you a royalty upon copies sold, but we 
 cannot see our way to making a more liberal proposition. 
 Should this meet with favor we can write you as to esti- 
 mate and royalty. 
 
 "The fact that you stated that you hoped the book 
 could be sold for a low price influences us to some 
 extent, but not wholly in the conclusion reached. The 
 only books that can be sold at a low price are books 
 which are likely to have a large sale ; and we are unable 
 to think that this would be the case with the book under 
 
 118 
 
MY FIRST LAW BOOK 
 
 consideration. We will hold the manuscript until we 
 hear from you." 
 
 All the happy dreams that I had entertained over writ- 
 ing the word "Archer" across the back of a law book 
 vanished instantly. My disappointment was extreme, 
 for I had put a great deal of labor into the venture and 
 spoiled my summer vacation into the bargain. 
 
 I called at the publisher's office and learned that I 
 would have to put up five or six hundred dollars in 
 order to get the book published, which in my financial 
 condition was a sheer impossibility. I went home by 
 the first train, resolved to forget that I had ever been 
 so unwise as to try to write a book. 
 
 Two months before I had moved from Alpine Street, 
 Roxbury, to Mishawan Road, Woburn, largely for the 
 sake of my young son who had been very sickly in the 
 city. I had been so deeply engrossed in my law writing 
 that I had had little time to enjoy the country; and this 
 sudden shipwreck of my plans would at least give me 
 a few days vacation. 
 
 But hope dies hard. Within three days of this first 
 defeat, I wrote to the publishers offering to purchase 
 every copy of a reasonable sized first issue that was left 
 on their hands after a certain time, for I could use the 
 books in my school. I suggested also that I might cut 
 down the size of the book, by omitting some of the il- 
 lustrative material in the work. 
 
 On September 8th the publishers sent me the manu- 
 script for revision, together with a letter which stated, 
 "Taking into account the changes you have in mind, we 
 do not think there is any doubt but that we shall be able 
 to arrange with you for the publication of the book, 
 bearing the entire cost ourselves. We send you the 
 manuscript herewith, and will be much obliged if you 
 
 119 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 will let us know how long it will be before you can place 
 it in our hands." 
 
 Needless to say this letter made me as happy as the 
 former one had made me sad. Before the opening of 
 the Fall Term I had delivered the revised manuscript. 
 It may be of interest to the many students of the Suf- 
 folk Law School, past and present, who have taken 
 Pleading and Practice under Webster A. Chandler (a 
 splendid teacher, but a most pessimistic correcter of ex- 
 amination books) to know that Mr. Chandler examined 
 the manuscript of "Law Office & Court Procedure" and 
 it fared like some of the examination books they have 
 written, received a very low mark. However, I didn't 
 tell the publishers what Mr. Chandler thought of the 
 book. The royalty contract was signed October i6, 1909 
 and the book came from the press January 15, 1910. 
 
 A source of great satisfaction to me was that, al- 
 though the publishers had gotten out all the copies they 
 dared in the first issue (fearing that they would be years 
 in disposing of the lot) yet the sale was so far beyond 
 their expectation that within six months they were 
 obliged to get out a second issue of the book. With the 
 exception of Wigmore's Pocket Code of Evidence, it 
 proved to be Little Brown & Co.'s best selling law 
 book of the year. 
 
 120 
 
A YEAR OF TRIBULATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 A Year of Tribulations. 
 
 It was a matter of regret to me that the annoimcement 
 of the publication of my book could not have been made 
 before the opening of the school, September 27, 1909. 
 I realized only too keenly the havoc that the Bailey let- 
 ter in the Y. M. C. A. Law School catalogue was play- 
 ing with my plans, and every counteracting influence 
 was imperatively needed. Had it not been for the fact 
 that another man, Frank Daly, had duplicated Brown's 
 record of the previous year, in passing the bar exam- 
 inations after but two years of study, and some other 
 students who had studied three years were successful in 
 the same examination, it is hard to say what would have 
 been the size of the entering class. 
 
 By a peculiar turn of fate. Dame Nature herself took 
 a hand against the school and dealt us a terrific blow by 
 staging a rainstorm for opening week of the school. It 
 had been our experience that we gained more men from 
 the visitors who attended opening evening than in any 
 other way. I had therefore sent out the usual invita- 
 tions to the men on our mailing list, but all during the 
 afternoon and evening of opening day the rain descend- 
 ed in such torrents that only the most hardy of our 
 registered students braved the storm. 
 
 I was appalled at the prospect, for I had figured out 
 the number of new students necessary to meet the heavy 
 
 121 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 additional expenses of the school. I saw that instead 
 of an increase over the previous year's attendance, 
 there was likely to be an actual decrease. With a heavy 
 heart, I faced the Freshmen that evening. But I pre- 
 served a smiling- and confident attitude until the exer- 
 cises of the evening were over. 
 
 Once alone in my office, with nothing especial to do 
 until time to take the 10.30 train for home, I figured up 
 the total attendance of the evening from the reports of 
 the other instructors. How I was to pilot the school 
 through the financial breakers ahead was more than I 
 could see. Completely worn out by the day and its cul- 
 mination, I dropped my face onto my arms and gave 
 way to momentary despair. 
 
 It was still raining the next day. Hoping that I could 
 yet stem the tide of defeat, I sent out new invitations 
 to the men on my mailing list, but with little eflfect. 
 
 The highest attendance during the year of 1909-1910 
 was 107 tuition paying students, with a number of addi- 
 tional men who were receiving scholarship aid; but that 
 number dwindled through desertions to the Y. M. C. 
 A. Law School, and otherwise, until the attendance 
 dropped to about seventy students. One new in- 
 structor was added to the teaching staff during this 
 year, Thomas R. P. Gibb, who teaches Equity. 
 
 The only bright spot in this school year was the 
 publication of my new book, "Law Office & Court 
 Procedure." But the school work went on with un- 
 remitting zeal, my brother Hiram proving a staunch 
 and dependable assistant, teaching four subjects 
 throughout this critical year. 
 
 It soon became evident to me that the enemies of the 
 school were intent upon its complete ruin; and the plan 
 of campaign which they adopted in the winter of 1910 
 
 122 
 
A YEAR OF TRIBULATIONS 
 
 came perilously near annihilating the institution. It had 
 been spread broadcast that the four year rule of the bar 
 examiners, adopted the previous year, had been intended 
 as a slap at the Suflfolk School of Law. These rumors 
 I had to endure with such patience as I could com- 
 mand. 
 
 It was also current belief among evening students that 
 the Y. M. C. A. Law School had "a pull" with the bar 
 examiners ; that to attend the Y. M. C. A. was a certain 
 appeal for their favor. In proof of this was cited the 
 Bailey letter, and also the fact that Mr. Bailey was 
 listed in the Y. M. C. A. catalogue as a special lecturer 
 in the school. Whether he was ever a teacher in the 
 Y. M. C. A. Law School Mr. Bailey can best answer; 
 but he has been so listed in Y. M. C. A. catalogues up 
 to the year 191 4. 
 
 But in March, 1910 the Bar Examiners passed a new 
 regulation requiring all candidates for the bar examina- 
 tion to be graduates of an approved high school, or to 
 pass the entrance examinations to the State Normal 
 Schools. To my consternation the bar examiners shortly 
 afterward ruled that graduates of the Evening High 
 Schools of Boston were not eligible to take the bar exam- 
 inations, but that graduates of the Y. M. C. A. Evening 
 High School were eligible, and the Y. M. C. A. High 
 School was the only evening school to be listed as an 
 approved school. The manifest unfairness in discrimin- 
 ating against the free public schools in favor of the Y. 
 M. C. A. School, which was not free but charged a con- 
 siderable tuition, was now seized upon as conclusive 
 evidence that the Y, M. C. A. did have a "pull" with the 
 bar examiners. 
 
 The effect upon my students was demoralizing in the 
 extreme. Many students left the school and a sullen dis- 
 content pervaded every class. I tried to stem the tide 
 
 123 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 by announcing that the Suffolk School of Law would 
 institute a summer preparatory department to train men 
 for the Normal school examinations. This undoubtedly 
 reassured many of the students ; but there was an unruly 
 element in some of the classes that grew more and more 
 troublesome. 
 
 124 
 
A STUDENT REVOLT 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 A Student Revolt. 
 
 The trouble came to a head at about the time of the 
 annual school banquet. This had always been the great 
 event of the year, the students turning out in a body. 
 But this year, although a large proportion of the students 
 then in the school had spoken for banquet tickets, the 
 discontented ones with the others, yet they treated me 
 to a rude surprise. Only a few of the faithful students 
 put in an appearance at the banquet, making the school 
 look ridiculously small in the eyes of our guests and 
 the reporters who were present. 
 
 My disappointment and mortificsation at the affair 
 would never have been translated into action had it not 
 been for the events of the following evening at the 
 school. I then found that a great deal of exultation was 
 being indulged in by a certain clique of students. Hints 
 were openly conveyed that the whole affair was deliber- 
 ately planned to humiliate me. 
 
 One of the very men whom I by that time knew to be 
 a fomenter of discontent, met me in the corridor and 
 openly indulged in some witticism over the banquet 
 fiasco, and remarked that there were too many "sore- 
 heads" in the school. I retorted sternly that he was abso- 
 lutely correct in his statement, and informed him that 
 there would be fewer of that variety in the school in a 
 very short time. I glared him in the eye meaningly, and 
 walked on to my office. 
 
 125 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 I later observed that the man was in earnest consulta- 
 tion with his circle of followers, but I was still uncer- 
 tain what action to take. The school was evidently 
 seething with suppressed feeling. One of the most faith- 
 ful of my students came into the office and told me with 
 great indignation that he had heard a certain freshman, 
 who was friendly with the troublemakers, orating in the 
 corridor to his classmates and uttering some very dis- 
 loyal statements concerning me and the school. 
 
 I was dumfounded at the report, for the very man 
 who was accused had been pleading all the year for 
 scholarship aid, and only the previous week I had at my 
 own expense awarded him a half scholarship. The day 
 before I had received a letter from him thanking me 
 most effusively for my kindness. To know him to be 
 such an ingrate roused me to instant action. 
 
 I summoned him peremptorily to my office within five 
 minutes from the time he had spoken the words, and 
 while he was still in conference with the insurrectos. 
 This action evidently spread alarm among them. It 
 certainly alarmed him, for he came to me very pale cind 
 concerned. I notified the librarian not to allow anyone 
 to enter my private office, and closed the door. 
 
 The culprit at first pleaded innocence, but my in- 
 formation had come from too reliable a source for his 
 denials to count with me, and I forced him to admit 
 his guilt. In punishment I at first sentenced him, 
 not only to a forfeiture of his scholarship, but also 
 ordered him to leave the school forthwith. 
 
 But he pleaded so hard for forgiveness and appealed 
 so effectively that I would not "ruin" him, as he ex- 
 pressed it, by expulsion from the school, that I finally 
 relented as to that part of the sentence and promised 
 him he could continue as a student so long as he con- 
 
 126 
 
A STUDENT REVOLT 
 
 tinued loyal in all his words and acts. The sequel is that 
 he completed his freshman year; but I have never seen 
 nor heard from him since. 
 
 While I was in the midst of this nerve-racking con- 
 ference my telephone rang, and to my amazement the 
 school librarian was on the line, somewhat out of breath 
 as if having reached it in great hurry. The librarian at 
 that time was John Stinchfield, a college student. 
 
 "This is Stinchfield," he said, "I am at the pay station. 
 I hurried downstairs to warn you, for the library is full 
 of men. There is trouble brewing and you will have to 
 be ready for it." He named to me the ringleaders, 
 and the names he gave were the very men whom I 
 suspected. 
 
 Mr. Stinchfield's quick wit in leaving the library and 
 notifying me by telephone of the insurrection was a very 
 considerable service to me at the time. Had I dismissed 
 the culprit through the library and been treated to the 
 surprise of meeting the hostile array without preparation, 
 it would have been a very difficult situation indeed. 
 
 As it was, I dismissed the culprit through my private 
 door to the corridor and stepped into the library and con- 
 fronted the assembled students, about twenty-five in 
 number. 
 
 They looked at one another uneasily, for I said noth- 
 ing, standing rigidly with my back to the closed door of 
 my office, waiting for them to speak. Some one of the 
 men informed me that they wanted to see me — to talk 
 with me on an important matter. 
 
 I replied, "I am ready, gentlemen, to hear all your 
 grievances. Go ahead, Mr. ." 
 
 He went on and on. When he paused for breath, I 
 calmly asked if he had anything more to say, or if anyone 
 else had anything to say. They tried in vain to draw me 
 
 127 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 into an argument, or to learn what my attitude was on 
 the demands already voiced ; but I informed them that I 
 would render my decision after hearing all the argu- 
 ments. All the time I stood rigidly at attention, narrowly 
 watching the faces of the men and noting all that the 
 spokesmen were voicing, for my attitude had evidently 
 misled them into thoughts of victory. 
 
 Their demands were certainly extraordinary. One of 
 their grievances was that I had recently adopted a very 
 effective expedient to secure the payment of tuition. A 
 few days before each instalment of tuition was due I 
 posted on the bulletin board a complete list of students, 
 crossing off the names as the students paid their tuition; 
 the result being that many of the dissatisfied ones, who 
 were notoriously slow in payment of their tuition, had 
 to undergo the humiliation of having everybody in the 
 school know it, instead of its remaining a secret with 
 me as theretofore. They demanded that I discontinue 
 the policy. 
 
 Another claim was that, since when they entered the 
 school we were under a three year system, I should 
 therefore give them the fourth year of instruction free of 
 charge. The irony of such a request in the financial 
 crisis the school was in, did not of course appeal to them. 
 
 The third demand was that because when they entered 
 the school there was no general educational requirement 
 it was the duty of the school to furnish instruction in our 
 projected preparatory school free of charge. There may 
 have been a few more minor requests which I have now 
 forgotten. 
 
 I began mildly by explaining to them a well known 
 principle of the law of contracts, "operation of law of 
 the jurisdiction." that proved untenable both their re- 
 quest for a fourth year of free tuition and also for free 
 
 128 
 
A STUDENT REVOLT 
 
 preparatory instruction. This put the "learned counsel" 
 who had conducted the hearing in so absurd a light that 
 I saw that I had detached the main body of their follow- 
 ers. 
 
 As for the tuition list, I explained the tribulations I 
 had tmdergone in trying to collect tuition ; and how on 
 several occasions I had been obliged to borrow money to 
 keep the school running, although at the time there were 
 hundreds of dollars due the school from the students. I 
 also informed them that there were men in the room at 
 that moment who owed the school more than forty dol- 
 lars apiece. I admitted that if we wanted to encourage 
 such a condition as that, the list was very annoying 
 and unfortunate for the gentlemen in question. 
 
 In closing my remarks I bore down pretty heavily on 
 the ringleaders of the trouble, and pointed out their dis- 
 loyalty and the trouble they had caused. I informed 
 them that it was not the first time that students had 
 attempted to run the Suffolk School of Law, but that 
 I had learned a way to deal with such men ; that there 
 were at least three men in the room who were very likely 
 to be expelled from the school. 
 
 The consternation and silence that fell upon the assem- 
 bly was almost painful. I dismissed the meeting by 
 assuring the men that I had no personal grievance 
 against any one of them. My contemplated action pro- 
 ceeded purely from what I considered to be my duty to 
 the school ; that even then I was not sure of what my 
 final action would be, for I would think it over until 
 morning. 
 
 The next morning, however, I was still of the same 
 mind, and I wrote a letter of expulsion to each of the 
 three men. This action roused a tempest that shook the 
 
 129 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 school to its foundations. The expelled students did 
 picket duty for several weeks near the downstairs en- 
 trance of the school, denouncing me as a tyrant to all 
 who would listen. 
 
 But an even more serious consequence resulted, for 
 they made a race issue of it, owing to the fact that all 
 three of the expelled students were of the same race. 
 Every student of that race with two exceptions deserted 
 the school and went either to the Y. M. C. A. Law School 
 or to Mr. Innes. 
 
 The race issue was farthest from my thoughts, al- 
 though I was perfectly well aware that to expel the 
 leaders of so formidable an insurrection would raise a 
 tremendous disturbance. I took the step as a matter of 
 principle, foreseeing grave consequences, but con- 
 vinced that the ultimate salvation of the school de- 
 pended upon it. 
 
 More than five years have passed since then, and I 
 have never had another insurrection of evening students 
 to deal with. 
 
 130 
 
MY SECOND LAW BOOK 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 My Second Law Book. 
 
 Accustomed though I was to adversity from my 
 childhood up, the wmter of 1910 with its haunting 
 nightmare of financial difficulties oppressed me great- 
 ly. Try as I did to forecast a brighter year for 1910 
 and 191 1, I was obliged to confess to myself that the 
 likelihood was very great that severer trials awaited 
 me. I had given up my law practice, and the royalty 
 on my book was the only source of income. 
 
 A fragmentary diary that I left in those days tells 
 of my vain endeavor to earn money by writing fiction. 
 I wrote a novel which went the rounds of the pub- 
 lishers and returned to me after many days. I wrote 
 many short stories, and sold one of them. 
 
 But an event occurred in April 1910, that resulted in 
 the writing of my second law book, I have already 
 spoken of Mr. Boynton's engagement as teacher of 
 Legal Ethics. Now in April 1910, his lectures were 
 scheduled, but owing to pressure of his law practice 
 he was unable to give them. 
 
 In the extremity, I undertook to prepare a course on 
 Legal Ethics and lecture in Mr. Boynton's stead. But 
 in looking around for a text book I could not find one 
 in Boston ; nor that any such text book existed. I 
 appealed to Little, Brown & Company, but their law 
 department could not help me out. 
 
 The only thing that I could find on the subject was 
 
 131 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 the recently adopted canon of Ethics of the American 
 Bar Association. My diary explains the incidents 
 leading to the writing of my second book quite fully, 
 and I shall therefore copy some entries verbatim. 
 
 "Monday, April ii, 1910. 
 
 "Today while at work upon a projected course in 
 Legal Ethics and finding no books on the subject, the 
 thought came to me that there might be a need for 
 such a book. As a preliminary investigation of the 
 possibility of writing a book I made note of a large 
 number of topics that might be used, taking the canon 
 of ethics as a basis. When I had satisfied myself that 
 there was quite an -extensive field for work I tele- 
 phoned to Mr. yoorhees of Little, Brown & Company. 
 He was not in, so, as an afterthought, I talked with 
 Mr. Mclntyre of the firm. He expressed himself as 
 interested and asked me to call and talk it over. In 
 the evening after my lecture (in Torts) I worked some 
 before going home in arranging the material I had 
 collected." 
 
 "Tuesday, April 12,1910. 
 
 "During the forenoon, completed the outline of the 
 law book, to be written in fifteen chapters. At 3.00 in 
 the afternoon called on Mr. Mclntyre at Little, Brown 
 & Co.'s offices. He called Mr. Voorhees and we three 
 went into the consultation parlor and held a session 
 behind closed doors. I explained the project and read 
 the outline of the first six chapters. Mr. M. then told 
 me that it was unnecessary to go farther — they wanted 
 the book as soon as I could write it and would suit 
 me on terms, etc. The price and title of the book were 
 discussed — price to be $3.00, title uncertain. After 
 lecture in contracts fin the evening) started Avriting 
 the book, doing only the first paragraph." 
 
 132 
 
MY SECOND LAW BOOK 
 
 It should be noted that the student insurrection came 
 directly after that — during the same week. The next 
 reference I find to the book is under date of April i8th 
 when I wrote. 
 
 "Thought of a title for the book that suits me better 
 than any other — 'Ethical Obligations of the Lawyer.'-" 
 
 I completed the first chapter April 19th ; second 
 chapter April 26th, and from that time forward pro- 
 gressed speedily, finishing the book on July 6th, 1910. 
 It thus occupied me eighty-five days from start to fin- 
 ish. While I can now discern many crudities in the 
 book and various things that I will change in the next 
 edition, yet when it was published it received high 
 praise from some of the leading law magazines of the 
 country. 
 
 The book was accepted by Little, Brown & Com- 
 pany, July 26, and published November 17, 1910. I 
 had thus won the honor of having two law books pub- 
 lished in the same year by one of the leading firms of 
 law publishers in America. No^t only that, but there 
 were only three new law book^ gotten out by Little, 
 Brown & Co. in i9ro, two of them from my pen. 
 
 One of the press items at that time was as follows: 
 
 DEAN ARCHER HONORED AS AUTHOR. 
 
 "Dean Archer of the Suffolk School of Law, has been 
 honored by having his portrait used as the cover of 
 the October Law Book Bulletin of a publishing house. 
 
 This place of honor is reserved for their most suc- 
 cessful authors. The title of the Dean's new book is 
 "Ethical Obligations of the Lawyer." — Boston Rec- 
 ord, September 24, 1910. 
 
 133 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Low Water Mark. 
 
 In addition to my labors upon my new law book, I 
 undertook the heavy task of doing all the teaching in 
 the newly inaugurated preparatory department. Three 
 evenings a week, from the last of May to the middle of 
 August, 1910, found me at the school. No law teach- 
 ing was ever quite so burdensome to me as the teach- 
 ing I did throughout that hot summer. 
 
 Geometry, History and English were the chosen 
 topics, and the men who took the course seemed at 
 first very backward, especially in the subject of Geom- 
 etry. Before the summer was over I decided that 
 never again would I undertake so heavy a burden as I 
 was then carrying; and I have never done any teach- 
 ing in the preparatory department since that time. 
 
 It was a desperate attempt on my part to prove that 
 men could pass the Normal School Examinations in 
 the subjects named (being a part of the subjects re- 
 quired by the bar examiners) and not be obliged to 
 attend the Y. M. C. A. Evening High School. But all 
 my labors went for naught, as will be seen. 
 
 The chairman of the Board of Bar Examiners had 
 told me that he had arranged it with the State Board 
 of Education so that men could go to any of the State 
 Normal Schools for examination. To my dismay I 
 discovered that the Boston Normal School was not 
 
 134 
 
LOW WATER MARK 
 
 under State control, and that the nearest Normal 
 School available for our students was in Salem. 
 
 Accordingly, after the close of our course, the 
 students who had taken it, (about ten in all), went to 
 Salem for the examinations. I happened to be at the 
 office that morning, and received a rude shock when 
 one of the men called me by telephone and told me 
 that the authorities at the Salem Normal School had 
 refused to examine them, and knew nothing at all 
 about any arrangement with the bar examiners. He 
 announced that the students were on the way back to 
 Boston. 
 
 I called up the office of the chairman of the Board 
 of Bar Examiners and learned to my dismay that the 
 Chairman was in Europe and was not expected back 
 until the following month. 
 
 I then called up the State Board of Education, but 
 could get no one who knew about the arrangement 
 with the examiners. So I went to their office in person 
 and had my first meeting with Commissioner Snedden. 
 If I remember correctly he knew nothing of the 
 arrangement, it perhaps having been made with the 
 Chairman of the Board of Education. 
 
 But Commissioner Snedden agreed that if the men 
 would return to Salem they should be examined. I 
 returned to my office, but only two of the men, as I 
 recall it, would go back to Salem. The rest were full 
 of disgust and indignation at the whole affair, for they 
 had each been to great trouble to get a day off from 
 their employment, and it was now almost noon. 
 
 So far as I have ever learned, the two men who took 
 the examinations in Salem that afternoon were never 
 notified whether they passed or failed. 
 
 135 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 The bar examiners afterward explained the incident 
 by saying that inasmuch as their rule did not go into 
 effect for about two years they had not considered it 
 likely that any men would desire to take the qualifying 
 tests that summer — hence they had not caused the 
 Normal Schools to be notified. 
 
 But my school was the victim, as events amply dem- 
 onstrated. My students were practically the only 
 ones required to submit to the Normal School Exami- 
 nations, for the Y. M. C. A. Evening High School cer- 
 tificate was accepted as the equivalent of a day high 
 school diploma. 
 
 The inevitable happened, for the belief that was ram- 
 pant that it was neccessary to go to the Y. M. C. A. 
 Law School in order to get recognition from the bar 
 examiners, was seemingly confirmed by this incident. 
 These were in fact test cases and all the students in 
 the Suffolk School of Law were watching the result. 
 There was no excuse that I could offer. I had done 
 my best and the failure of the experiment was so 
 obvious that no one could overlook it. 
 
 The Y. M. C. A. Law School authorities were jubi- 
 lant Again the rumors were afloat that the Bar Ex- 
 aminers were allied with the rival school, and these 
 rumors became so annoying and persistent that I was 
 finally constrained to secure a signed repudiation of 
 this slander from Chairman Bailey himself, to show 
 to prospective students who openly challenged me on 
 that point. 
 
 Another report became current among the students 
 of my school at that time, to the effect that students 
 who attended the Y. M. C. A. would be slipped 
 through the high school department at the same time, 
 
 136 
 
LOW WATER MARK 
 
 upon the payment of certain tuition charges. Whether 
 this was knowingly used upon my students as an in- 
 ducement for desertion or not, the facts were that 
 there was a quite general desertion from the school, 
 one class alone losing about twenty men. 
 
 The effect of this desertion, together with the race 
 issue that had been raised by the students I had ex- 
 pelled the previous April, was demoralizing in the ex- 
 treme. Not even the fact that three men who had just 
 completed their Sophomore year in the school were 
 admitted to the Bar in the summer of 1910 (the four- 
 year rule had not yet taken effect) could to any extent 
 counteract these hostile agencies. With ever growing 
 despair I kept vigil in my office waiting for stragglers 
 to come in. 
 
 Had it not been for the financial success that "Law 
 Office & Court Procedure" was scoring, and the en- 
 grossing duties of proof reading of my new book, it is 
 hard to say how I should have kept from utter despair 
 during the waiting period. 
 
 The time came for the opening of the rival school 
 and the weather was perfect — just the sort of weather 
 that I was praying for for the opening night of my 
 own school. 
 
 I sent out the usual invitations, but I should have 
 sent life preservers with them, for on opening night 
 the rain was descending in torrents and the gutters 
 were roaring brooks, even worse than the year before. 
 
 However, the disappointment was not so keen as on 
 the former occasion, for I had become callous to dis- 
 appointment. I remember that in riding down the ele- 
 vator from my office in Tremont Temple to meet the 
 Freshmen in a downstairs hall, I jested grimly with 
 
 137 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 the elevator man over how the Y. M. C. A. Law School 
 had a "pull" even with the weather man. 
 
 It was a mere handful of bedraggled men that met 
 me — perhaps fifteen to eighteen, in a hall that would 
 hold a hundred men. But I lectured to them to the 
 best of my ability, and the first night of school for the 
 year 1910-1911 became a matter of history. 
 
 When I came to figure up the total attendance in all 
 classes I saw that I had left to me a mere remnant of 
 what the school had been — about seventy men in all 
 four classes from whom tuition could be expected, and 
 more than half of them were paying $45.00 tuition. 
 From these seventy I must expect the usual deser- 
 tions. The numbers in fact decreased until, during 
 the latter part of the year, there were only fifty-five 
 tuition paying students. 
 
 138 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF HOPE 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 The Resurrection of Hope. 
 
 The time had now come when it seemed to me that 
 optimism was no longer a virtue. I had given more 
 than four years of my life to the school ; I had aban- 
 doned my law practice; endured every hardship and 
 privation, and I was now a virtual bankrupt, with a 
 school on my hands that I was running at a considera- 
 ble loss. 
 
 In November 1910, a second child was added to my 
 family, a daughter whom we named Marian. In- 
 creased expenses brought home to me afresh the handi- 
 cap under which I was laboring. Could I but cut 
 loose from the school, and devote my entire time to 
 literary pursuits, or resume my law practice, I felt 
 very confident that I could greatly improve my for- 
 tunes. 
 
 In the school's behalf I had borrowed money to a 
 considerable amount. My total inability to repay that 
 money was a constant source of worriment to me. I 
 could not well overlook the duty that I owed my 
 family, for they were the real victims of my ambition 
 to found a school. 
 
 My wife and I often discussed the matter in an 
 earnest attempt to reach some solution of our great 
 problem. But we were agreed that my duty to the 
 
 139 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 Students who were then attending the school forbade 
 my closing it until the school year was ended ; or until 
 I could transfer the school to responsible proprietors. 
 The thought of trying to secure a professorship in 
 some desirable law school was also on my mind. 
 
 "Weeping beside the waters of Babylon" never ac- 
 complished much in this world. I soon roused my- 
 self to make the very most of every opportunity that 
 offered. I resolved that every influence that could 
 possibly be brought to bear for the betterment of the 
 school should be employed. 
 
 There is probably no situation in life, however diffi- 
 cult, but has some redeeming feature, if a person will 
 but look for it. And I soon found a redeeming feature 
 about my school — every student now in the school was 
 loyal and true. 
 
 I resolved to capitalize that loyalty and, if possible, 
 to build up the school anew on stronger foundations 
 than ever before. To that end I issued a special state- 
 ment to the students, from which I will quote in part : 
 
 "Measured in efficiency of instruction of our stu- 
 dents, we are entering upon the best year of the 
 school's existence. The school equipment is more com- 
 plete ; the system of instruction has reached a higher 
 degree of perfection and we have devised an improved 
 method of faculty co-operation, so that we can cen- 
 tralize our efforts to greater advantage. We expect 
 every student to do his best in his work and we pro- 
 pose to do our best for every student. 
 
 "If you wish to get the most good out of your 
 school, be loyal to it in word and act. It may not be 
 perfect, for I never knew a school yet that was perfect ; 
 but you should bear with us, even as we have to bear 
 
 140 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF HOPE 
 
 with you. If you have, or fancy you have, a grievance 
 I ask you to bring it to me. 
 
 "We propose to build up the strongest and highest 
 grade evening law school in the United States ; and if 
 we make mistakes from time to time we want to know 
 it, so that we can rectify them. I want you one and 
 all to feel that you have an interest in this school, and 
 that the school has a vital interest in you. Let us 
 work together like men who have a community of in- 
 terest, in a spirit of good fellowship and with a will to 
 accomplish what we have set about." 
 
 Desiring if possible, to unite the students in some 
 common object, I encouraged the various classes to 
 unite in the publication of a school magazine or paper, 
 and there was an immediate and enthusiastic response. 
 An editorial board was formed with two representa- 
 tives from each class. 
 
 The fact that our students could not secure law de- 
 grees was, as I well knew, a tremendous handicap to 
 the school. I now set at work to obtain if possible an 
 agreement with some other law school whereby our 
 students could obtain advanced standing and secure 
 the degree by a limited period of study at that school. 
 
 For some time I had known Dean W. E. Walz of 
 the University of Maine Law School. He had recently 
 written a splendid review of my "Ethical Obligations 
 of the Lawyer." Quite naturally, therefore, I opened 
 negotiations with him to secure an agreement with 
 his school. Much to my delight I succeeded, and 
 announced that result in the first issue of the "Sufifolk 
 Law Student," in December, iqio. Under the terms 
 Df this agreement, any student of the Suffolk School 
 of Law, who had completed his first three years' work 
 
 141 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 I 
 
 in a creditable manner, would be permitted to take his 
 Senior work in the Law School of the University of 
 Maine, and secure his degree ; provided he was a high 
 school graduate. 
 
 This announcement aroused considerable enthusi- 
 asm. But as a matter of fact none of our men ever 
 took advantage of it ; for, as will be seen, within a 
 year from that date our school began an aggressive 
 campaign to secure the power to confer degrees in its 
 own right. 
 
 
 142 
 
AN ATTEMPTED CONSOLIDATION 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 An Attempted Consolidation. 
 
 One day in December, 1910, a stranger walked into 
 my office and asked me if I could spare him a few min- 
 utes of time. He was a Boston lawyer, and my first 
 thought was that he desired to secure an appointment 
 to the faculty ; for every year quite a number of law- 
 yers make applications of that nature. But his mis- 
 sion at first surprised and alarmed me. 
 
 He declared that he represented certain gentlemen 
 of sound financial backing who proposed to found a 
 new evening law school in Boston — one that should 
 successfully rival the Y. M. C. A. Law School. He 
 stated that he was investigating the situation, and 
 intimated that the schools now in existence in Boston, 
 mine included, would be invited to consolidate with 
 the new venture. 
 
 He then suggested that inasmuch as my school 
 seemed to be the most systematically organized and 
 conducted, and already had some reputation in the 
 community, it might be that the movement could cen- 
 tralize about my school ; that the new organization 
 could retain the name Suffolk; that I continue as Dean 
 and that the whole affair be made to appear as though 
 the Suffolk School of Law were absorbing the smaller 
 schools, Innes's School and others. He asked me if 
 such a plan would appeal to me. I agreed that it 
 sounded good. 
 
 143 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 He enthused somewhat, and described how we 
 would incorporate and put a bill through the legis- 
 lature for power to confer degrees. Then he wanted 
 to know how much I would sell the school for, but as 
 I was not prepared to set a figure upon it he made an 
 appointment for a second conference and left me. 
 
 This new proposition appealed to me very strongly. 
 It seemed to point to a Heaven-sent deliverance from 
 a situation where I was no longer able to personally 
 finance the scjiool. If we were to consolidate and I 
 were to receive a guaranteed salary instead of nothing, 
 with accumulating school debts added to that, it would 
 indeed be a welcome deliverance. 
 
 At my next meeting with the gentleman, whom I 
 shall call "the promoter," I named a price for the 
 school, which I figured would be but a modest return 
 for the as yet unrewarded labor I had bestowed upon 
 the institution. He was visibly startled by the price 
 and said that his parties would never think of paying 
 so much. 
 
 He "beat about the bush" for some time; but I 
 finally told him that whatever offer were made it 
 would have to be a cash proposition, for I was begin- 
 ning to suspect that he was insincere. He argued that 
 if I were to be paid out of the school profits as they 
 came in, it would be as much as I could expect. But 
 I did not take kindly to his line of reasoning. 
 
 He then proposed that Mr. Innes should be brought 
 into the next conference ; and I saw at once that he 
 was merely an emissary from Mr. Innes. But I was 
 willing to see what was afoot from that quarter, so I 
 agreed to the suggestion, and we later met at the 
 promoter's office, December 21st, 1910. 
 
 144 
 
AN ATTEMPTED CONSOLIDATION 
 
 The first joint conference was barren of results, but 
 at a subsequent meeting, December 27th, Mr. Innes 
 and I reached a tentative agreement to merge our 
 schools, he paying me a stated sum to equalize our 
 equities. We were to form a corporation and apply 
 for a charter with power to confer degrees. He as- 
 sured me that he could easily secure the passage of the 
 bill and, from what I had heard of him as a power in 
 Massachusetts politics, I had little doubt of his ability 
 to accomplish the feat. In fact, that was one of the 
 chief inducements that led me to make the tentative 
 agreement to consolidate. 
 
 In my diary under date of December 31, 1910 I 
 wrote : 
 
 "As I look forward to the new year there are sev- 
 eral problems that seem to be impending. The first 
 is the merger of the Suffolk School of Law with the 
 Innes School. As things stand it looks as though 
 this would be successfully accomplished. The second 
 is, whether after the merger we can succeed in pro- 
 curing the power to grant degrees. The third is; 
 whether in incorporating the Suffolk School of Law- 
 we should found a day school as well as an evening 
 school." 
 
 The next entry in my diary concerning the merger 
 is under date of January 7, 191 1 : 
 
 "Came to town on 7.49 A. M. train to meet Mr. 
 Innes. He failed to appear at scheduled time and it 
 was after 10.30 when he finally came in. We discussed 
 many things, but came to no agreement on the date 
 when he was to pay the cash difference that stands 
 between us. He wishes to wait and allow me to take 
 it from school profits later. I asked for it now. He. 
 
 145 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 made a further appointment for Monday morning, 
 promising to be on hand early." 
 
 "Monday, January 9, 191 1. 
 
 "Came to town on the morning train (7.49) to meet 
 an appointment with Mr. Innes. Mr. Innes did not 
 keep his appointment. 
 
 "Have suspended all preparations on the incorpora- 
 tion affair and will await developments. If Mr. Innes 
 wishes to do anything he must now take the initiative. 
 I am through; for a failure to pass the bill would be 
 fatal, and unless Mr. Innes takes a hand in real earn- 
 est, there is little prospect of doing anything." 
 
 But on the following day "the promoter" arranged 
 for another conference with Mr. Innes. We had al- 
 ready partially drafted a bill, to be filed with the legis- 
 lature some time before Saturday noon, January 14th, 
 for the incorporation of the school with power to con- 
 fer degrees. But I told Mr. Innes flatly that I would 
 not file such a bill unless he first demonstrated his ab- 
 solute good faith by paying me the sum agreed upon. 
 Otherwise the failure of the bill would injure my 
 school without the slightest harmful effect to him. My 
 only guaranty that he would really work for the pas- 
 sage of the measure would be that he had something 
 to lose as well as I. 
 
 At this conference Mr. Innes gave me written sug- 
 gestions as to the terms of a consolidation agreement, 
 and promised to have it ready for signature by ten 
 o'clock the next forenoon, at which time he would pay 
 over the amount agreed upon. He requested me to 
 draw up estimates of school expenses for the balance 
 of the year and to compile certain statistics. When 
 we separated, it seemed that the matter was as good 
 as closed. 
 
 146 
 
AN ATTEMPTED CONSOLIDATION 
 
 I went to Boston on the early train the next morn- 
 ing, Wednesday, Jan. ii, 191 1, and worked nearly all 
 the forenoon on the estimate and statistics ; all the 
 while expecting to hear from Mr. Innes. But he failed 
 to put in appearance. I was thoroughly disgusted 
 with the whole consolidation affair, for I have always 
 made it a rule of life to keep my word with punctillious 
 exactness, never missing an appointment if it was 
 physically possible to keep it. For that reason, per- 
 haps, I have always lost faith in a man's dependability 
 if he manifested light regard for his promise, even in 
 such a matter as an appointment. 
 
 Dismissing the whole matter from my mind, I 
 turned my attention to a new and alluring task, to be 
 explained more fully in the next chapter, the writing 
 of my third law book. 
 
 The day was not to pass, however, without hearing 
 from Mr. Innes. He desired to postpone the matter 
 until the next day. 
 
 On the following day I worked steadily on my law, 
 book, hearing nothing at all from Mr. Innes. At five 
 o'clock in the afternoon I called up his office and 
 learned, to my consternation, that he had left for New 
 York a short time before and would not return until 
 Monday. My indignation at this treatment was only 
 exceeded by my grim satisfaction that he would not 
 find me the "easy mark" that he evidently expected. 
 
 My suspicion at the time was that he fancied me so 
 eager to secure power to confer degrees that I would 
 file a bill in the legislature before the time expired for 
 filing bills on Saturday, and thus be in a fine position 
 to have my school mercilessly slaughtered, and a dan- 
 gerous rival to his own school thus effectively dis- 
 posed of. 
 
 147 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 But I had had the experience once in my childhood 
 of being led up to a bee-hive by a designing companion 
 and being most decidedly stung. The lesson of caution 
 that it taught me had remained with me forever after. 
 
 However, I may have misjudged Mr. Innes. But 
 that the whole affair was prompted by covetous de- 
 signs upon my school is too obvious for comment. 
 
 It had one momentous result. He had unwittingly 
 rendered me a great service, for the germ of the idea 
 that later took form in our aggressive campaign in the 
 legislature had been sown in my mind; there to re- 
 main dormant for some months until in the natural 
 course of events it should rise up and bear fruit. 
 
 As I look upon the negotiations from this distance 
 of time it seems to me merely another manifestation 
 of that over-ruling Providence that has many times in 
 my life turned me aside from a mistaken course of ac- 
 tion, and gradually forced me to that course that was 
 wisest and best. It would have been a mistake to 
 have attempted to secure power to confer degrees for a 
 privately-owned institution. Even though we had 
 secured the charter, I very much doubt if two men 
 with such differing ideas of teaching, or with such 
 differing ideals of life as I now know us to possess, 
 could long have continued in the harmonious relation 
 essential to the progress of the school. 
 
 It may be that all the hardships and trials through 
 which I had passed, and the very competition of the 
 Y. M. C. A. Law School, all had their proper share in 
 forcing me into the seemingly desperate attempt to 
 secure a charter which has resulted so gloriously to 
 the Suffolk Law School. Unconsciously, I was paving 
 the way for victory when poverty forced me to extra 
 
 148 
 
AN ATTEMPTED CONSOLIDATION 
 
 endeavors in writing law books, for without the repu- 
 tation acquired through them, the fight could never 
 have been won in the face of such powerful opposition. 
 
 149 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 The Winter of igii. 
 
 The origin of my book on Contracts is thus told in 
 my diary under date of December 31, 1910. 
 
 "For some time I have thought that a few years 
 hence I would venture into the field of substantive law 
 and write on 'Contracts,' 'Agency," etc., for clear, con- 
 cise text books on these subjects are needed. But I 
 have not until today entertained any thought of im- 
 mediate writing upon either subject. 
 
 "Today, at 11:00 A. M., as I was going to Little, 
 Brown & Co.'s on business, and had just passed the 
 State House on Beacon Street, the thought sprang 
 into my mind of asking Mr. Mclntyre of the firm, 
 should I see him. if in his opinion, there was a field 
 for a book on 'Contracts.' 
 
 "The opportunity presented itself and I asked the 
 question. He promised to report to me shortly. As I 
 was leaving the building a momentary regret at what 
 I had done came into my mind. I felt that I had 'put 
 my foot into it,' for it occurred to me that I would not 
 care to write the book if they should chance to desire 
 it. But every hour since then my enthusiasm has in- 
 creased, and if they will take such a book, I will begin 
 its preparation immediately." 
 
 On January 3, 191 1, I began writing on the book, 
 finishing the second chapter that week. It will be 
 remembered that at this time I was in negotiation with 
 
 150 
 
 i 
 
THE WINTER OF 191 1 
 
 Mr. Innes, but after those negotiations were broken off, 
 I fell to work upon the book with great zeal. Between 
 Monday, January 16, and Saturday night, January 21, I 
 wrote ninety-seven pages of manuscript. 
 
 I completed the book March 16, 191 1, having occupied 
 fifty- three days in actual composition, out of seventy- 
 two days from start to finish. In manuscript, the book 
 contained five hundred and fourteen pages. My two 
 most productive days were February 9th and March 6th, 
 having written twenty-one pages each day. 
 
 The book was published, not in Boston, as I had orig- 
 inally planned, but by a publishing house in Chicago, 
 coming from the press in October, 191 1. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that my time during 
 the winter of 191 1 was entirely engrossed with literary 
 work and school duties, for the ever present knowledge 
 of the desperate straits into which the school had drifted 
 hung over me like a nightmare. 
 
 If I could then have sold the school to any responsible 
 parties for a sum sufficient to cancel the debts that I had 
 incurred in the school's behalf, it is more than probable 
 that I would have done so, irrespective of the years 
 of unrewarded labor that I had already bestowed upon it. 
 
 I did, in fact, offer to sell a half interest in the school 
 to several different lawyers of my acquaintance, at an 
 absurdly low figure, but fortunately without result. 
 
 There was one thing clearly apparent to me all along 
 — that power to confer law degrees was imperatively 
 necessary if the school were ever to become a success. 
 Despairing of securing assistance from individuals, I 
 turned my attention to what seemed to be a last hope — 
 affiliation with a certain nearby college that had recently 
 developed into a university, with several professional 
 schools, but with no law department. 
 
 151 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 I interviewed the President of the university and 
 offered to turn over my school to the university as a 
 nucleus around which to build a day and evening law 
 school. Such a school would be able to confer degrees 
 without special legislation, the power being inherent in 
 the charter of the university. 
 
 Although my proposal found cordial approval with the 
 President, it was, after some weeks, definitely rejected 
 by the trustees — some of whom were opposed to a law 
 department, whether day or evening. 
 
 The temporary encouragement afforded by these nego- 
 tiations was of great value to me. It led me to a clearer 
 view of the whole situation, and impressed upon me the 
 value that a day department would possess if run in con- 
 junction with our evening school. 
 
 I was aware that many students feel a sensitiveness 
 about having it known that they are evening students. If 
 the Suffolk School of Law had both day and evening 
 departments, the effect would be greatly to strengthen 
 the evening school, for a man could then feel that the 
 public could not label him as an evening student merely 
 because he hailed from our school. I reasoned, there- 
 fore, that even though we could not confer degrees, this 
 new feature would prove a counter stroke against the 
 Y. M. C. A. Law School. 
 
 But there was also another reason for the day depart- 
 ment. Already in my consciousness was shaping the res- 
 olution to launch a campaign to secure the power to 
 confer degrees. I was well aware of the prejudice that 
 existed among lawyers against the Y. M. C. A. Law 
 School having the right to confer degrees. It was 
 claimed that had the public been aware of what was 
 taking place when the Y. M, C. A. charter was "rail- 
 roaded" through the legislature in 1904, the bill would 
 
 152 
 
THE WINTER OF 191 1 
 
 not have passed. I feared that an attempt to charter 
 another evening law school, with the tremendous opposi- 
 tion that was sure to be encountered, would be disastrous 
 to my school. If we had a day department, I reasoned, 
 it would disarm in a large measure the prejudice against 
 the institution. 
 
 At about this time word came to me that Boston Uni- 
 versity Law School had become in some way cognizant 
 of my negotiations with the university to which I have 
 referred, and that ominous threats were being uttered 
 against me. 
 
 While I was in no way influenced by these rumors, yet 
 the fact that the desired enlargement would involve addi- 
 tional expense, raised an insuperable difficulty. The 
 failure of my efforts to sell an interest in the school now 
 seemingly cut off all possibility of enlargement and 
 closed the only avenue of hope. 
 
 153 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 A New Lease of Life. 
 
 Bankruptcy and the dissolution of the school were the 
 somber prospects before me on the first day of March, 
 191 1, I felt that I had done my utmost. I had fought a 
 long uphill fight, and had at length been overborne in the 
 contest. The school must be disbanded in May, unless 
 a Heaven-sent deliverance intervened. 
 
 With great reluctance to acknowledge my defeat, I 
 went to Mr. Frost and told him all. There were two 
 possible courses to be pursued, I assured him: I could 
 disband the school in May and definitely resume my law 
 practice ; or I could try it out for one more year, with a 
 day department and an appeal to the legislature for a 
 charter authorizing the conferring of law degrees upon 
 our graduates. 
 
 Whether Mr. Frost believed at that time in the event- 
 ual success of the school; or whether his advice was 
 prompted by a desire to save me from the heavy blow of 
 dissolution of the school, I have never been able to deter- 
 mine — but he advised the second course, and ofifered to 
 make me an additional loan of $500 for that purpose, 
 although the previous $500 loan was still unpaid. 
 
 As I look upon it now, that interview was the great 
 and crucial moment in the history of the Suffolk Law 
 School. Had Mr. Frost done what the ordinary busi- 
 ness man would have done, the school would doubtless 
 
 154 
 
A NEW LEASE OF LIFE 
 
 have closed for all time in May, 191 1; but he was not 
 the ordinary business man, and the school passed through 
 the crisis in safety. 
 
 With new strength and courage I flung myself into 
 the task of reorganization of the school. The first step 
 was to incorporate as a charitable educational institution 
 under the general law. The agreement of association 
 was signed March 10, 191 1, and the charter was shortly 
 after granted to the following incorporators : Gleason L. 
 Archer, Thomas J. Boynton, John A. Bennett, Wilmot 
 R. Evans, Jr., Sumner Robinson, Arthur W. MacLean, 
 and Webster A. Chandler. 
 
 Definite plans for the organization of the day school 
 now went forward rapidly, in spite of the fact that one 
 of the officials of Boston University Law School in- 
 formed me that, if I started a day school, the Univer- 
 sity would retaliate by opening an evening school that 
 would, as he expressed it, "wipe the SuiTolk Law 
 School off the map." 
 
 It may be of interest to quote from a letter which I 
 wrote to the Dean of the Boston University Law School 
 at that time : "The University authorities would continue 
 for five years to repulse and ignore me, and then when 
 I had matured plans that might possibly conflict with 
 their interests they say 'Archer is an ingrate. He doesn't 
 appreciate what we have done for him.' I do appre- 
 ciate what the university did for me when I was a stu- 
 dent, but I do not appreciate the attitude they have 
 adopted since. The university itself and its departments 
 were founded by men who were obliged in so founding 
 to enter into competition with their alma mater. How is 
 our case different? If the University sets out to ruin 
 my school they may speedily succeed. But of course I 
 shall do my best to weather the gale." 
 
 155 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 The first public announcement of the new day depart- 
 ment was issued May i, 191 1, and the result was very 
 pleasing. Requests for catalogues came in as never 
 before at that period of the year, and I felt that the 
 school had indeed a new lease of life. 
 
 156 
 
SCHOOL VOTES TO PETITION LEGISLATURE 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 The School Votes to Petition the Legislature. 
 
 The summer of 191 1 was full of interest for me. 
 My new book on Contracts was in the process of pub- 
 lication, with proof sheets to be read, and index and 
 table of contents to prepare, with all the other com- 
 plications that usually attend the publication of a 
 book. I was keenly interested, as may readily be sup- 
 posed, in the number of prospective students that 
 might register during the summer. 
 
 Despite the call for catalogues, it was not until the 
 latter part of August that the first day student regis- 
 tered. The evening department, however, was far ahead 
 of the previous year's record, and, to use a sporting 
 phrase, "was running strong." 
 
 The evening department opened September 25, 191 1, 
 with thirty freshmen in attendance, the number later in- 
 creasing to thirty-six. Small as it was, this class 
 afforded very encouraging evidence of renewed vitality 
 of the school, for it was fifty per cent, larger than the 
 freshman class of the previous year. 
 
 If I had entertained any illusions as to the size of the 
 entering class in the day department, these illusions were 
 speedily dissipated, for less than half those who had 
 registered put in appearance on opening day. 
 
 We had about five day students, but we resolved to be 
 
 157 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 "game" and carry out the regular schedule, irrespective 
 of the size of the class. 
 
 The new department had served its purpose in 
 strengthening the evening school. It was doubtless an 
 assurance to the public that the school was prospering, 
 for only the prosperous can be expected to add new 
 departments. It carried the lesson to me anew — we 
 must secure power to confer degrees or disband the 
 school. It was a case of now or never. I began defi- 
 nitely to plan the great contest that has resulted so glori- 
 ously to the school. 
 
 Before committing myself to any course of action, 
 however, I desired to learn the sentiments of the student 
 body, and ascertain definitely whether they would sup- 
 port me in the contest. I was aware that some of the 
 members of our corporation were adverse to a legislative 
 contest, so it was necessary to be armed with complete 
 information as to what support we could expect from the 
 students before presenting the matter definitely to the 
 trustees. 
 
 I caused a petition to the trustees to be circulated in 
 the various classes, calling for a legislative contest for 
 degree granting power. The name of practically every 
 student in the school was speedily enrolled. 
 
 After taking counsel with some of my friends as to 
 the best way of getting the matter before the legislature, 
 I decided that an illustrated booklet with photographs of 
 the faculty and representative groups of students would 
 be advisable. The expense of such a booklet was the 
 only objection. A few evenings before the corporation 
 meeting was to be held, I met each class personally and 
 laid the entire matter before them, with an estimate of 
 the expense of advertising, printing and postage incident 
 to the contest. 
 
 158 
 
SCHOOL VOTES TO PETITION LEGISLATURE 
 
 The response to my appeal was such as I had never 
 experienced in the history of the school. The great out- 
 pouring of loyal support thrilled me to the soul. I 
 vowed then and there never to quit in the fight for 
 the upbuilding of the school. 
 
 The students subscribed a fund of one hundred sev- 
 enty dollars or thereabouts, meeting in full my estimate 
 of the expenses to be incurred. Nor did these subscrip- 
 tions come from a few students, for the largest subscrip- 
 tion was five dollars, and the majority of them were 
 ones and twos, with eighty-two out of our ninety-four 
 students recorded. 
 
 Armed with these facts, I met the other members of 
 the corporation on the afternoon of November 17, 191 1. 
 Hon. Thomas J. Boynton presided, for he was the official 
 head of the corporation. Six of the seven incorporators 
 were present. 
 
 The entire meeting was devoted to the question of 
 the wisdom of instituting a legislative contest. Mr. 
 Boynton and Judge Bennett were not over-enthusiastic 
 at the prospect. But I had taken the precaution of 
 securing the votes of a majority of the board before the 
 meeting began, so I was reasonably sure of the result. 
 I received an affirmative vote ; but none of us realized 
 at the time the magnitude of the task that awaited us. 
 The die was cast, and the legislative campaign defi- 
 nitely begun. I returned home that night full of 
 agreeable anticipations, for a task that promises a 
 strenuous battle of wits has never found me lacking 
 in zest for the fray. 
 
 159 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Strengthening the Line-up. 
 
 A distinct shock awaited me, when I reached the 
 office next day — Judge Bennett had resigned from the 
 school corporation. Although he had voted for the 
 measure, or at least not opposed it in the corporation 
 meeting, he now decided that his position as a judge 
 precluded him from taking any part, even nominally 
 in a legislative contest. 
 
 I immediately visited him at his office, for I realized 
 that without him our corporation would have only 
 two men who were likely to have any weight with 
 the legislature, Messrs. Evans and Boynton. He 
 could not be persuaded to withdraw his resignation, 
 so I resolved to say nothing about it for a few days, 
 until I could arrive at some definite plan to retrieve 
 our loss. 
 
 Like other happenings that have filled me with dis- 
 may in some crisis of the school's history, this led me 
 to adopt the only course that could have succeeded in 
 the legislative fight — to secure the co-operation of 
 well-known men who had influence with the legisla- 
 ture. 
 
 My first thought was to obtain one such man to 
 fill Judge Bennett's place; but I soon realized that our 
 prospects would be greatly enhanced if all the peti- 
 tioners, aside from myself, were prominent in the pub- 
 lic eye. 
 
 i6o 
 
STRENGTHENING THE LINE-UP 
 
 Mr. Evans had recently completed several years in 
 the legislature, having been chairman of Judiciary in 
 the Senate during the previous year, and could there- 
 fore advise me what men to seek. Acting upon his 
 suggestion, I interviewed a number of prominent men, 
 the majority of whom turned me down on one pretext 
 or another. It was the latter part of November be- 
 fore the seven petitioners were definitely settled upon. 
 
 Hon. Charles W. Bartlett was the first to accept a 
 place on the board. I shall always carry a vivid recol- 
 lection of my first interview with him. Mr. Evans 
 had secured an appointment for me, and I waited on 
 the General with some trepidation. By reputation I 
 knew him to be a celebrated lawyer, and one who had 
 not long before been Democratic candidate for Gov- 
 ernor in an aggressive campaign. 
 
 General Bartlett's "bangs" and genial face were fa- 
 mous in the newspapers all over the State. I needed 
 no second glance to know that I was in his presence 
 when I entered his private ofifice. He removed his 
 cigar and shook hands with me, cracked a joke or two, 
 replaced the cigar — lighted it and told me to "fire 
 away." 
 
 He sat there, tilted back in his chair, facing me 
 across his flat top desk, and I began my story. He 
 scarcely uttered a word until I had covered the history 
 of the school and my present plan of action. 
 
 His cigar had been out for half an hour, but he con- 
 tinued to hold it in his mouth. When I invited him 
 to become a member of the board he began in his slow, 
 droll way to cast up the account as if he were adding 
 a sum, while going over the names of Messrs. Boyn- 
 ton, Evans and Robinson, expressing the value of 
 each in swear words and nods of approval. 
 
 i6i 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 A young lady stenographer entered occasionally, to 
 announce that Mr. So and So was waiting to see him ; 
 but each time the General would say, "The Professor 
 and I are having a d — n good time. That feller will 
 have to wait." And wait they did, for there was a 
 goodly array of dark looks that greeted me when I 
 finally emerged from the inner office. 
 
 After the General had told me a few stories, he fin- 
 ally came to the point of informing me, in his whimsi- 
 cal way, that once he had enlisted under "Old Abe," 
 and he was going to do it again. A picture of Lincoln 
 was hanging behind me on the wall and, from a fan- 
 cied resemblance, he had dubbed me "Old Abe." That 
 has been his favorite name for me ever since. 
 
 Having secured General Bartlett, there were two 
 other possible vacancies. Former Congressman 
 Joseph F. O'Connell was next on my list, and on the 
 following day, I succeeded in seeing him. 
 
 I had met him once before, during the second year 
 •of the school, and had at that time told him something 
 of what I was doing. But now that I was inviting 
 ^him to join our corporation, he manifested no great 
 ■enthusiasm. Had it not been for General Bartlett's 
 name on the list, I doubt very much if he would have 
 considered it at all. But he promised to give the mat- 
 ter thought for a day or two, and let me know. 
 
 Owing to the fact that I had found prominent Dem- 
 ocrats to be more approachable than prominent men 
 of my own political faith, I turned naturally to the 
 man who had twice been standard bearer of that 
 party in the State Election — James H. Vahey. 
 
 My acquaintance with Mr. Vahey was limited to a 
 single previous meeting; but one or two of his rela- 
 tives had studied in the school, so he was reasonably 
 
 162 
 
STRENGTHENING THE LINE-UP 
 
 familiar with the institution. He was as swift to ac- 
 cept as the others had been slow, for within five min- 
 utes he said : "You don't need to plead your case at 
 all, Mr. Archer. Your school is doing good work and 
 I will be glad to become a member of your corpora- 
 tion." 
 
 The next day Mr. O'Connell accepted a place on our 
 board, and the list of petitioners was complete. 
 
 As I look back upon it now the securing of these 
 three prominent Democrats was a master stroke, for 
 it lined up the whole Democratic vote of the House 
 and Senate. Had we gone to the legislature with the 
 original corporation, the majority of whom were un- 
 known, our contest must have ended in ignominious 
 defeat. Unconsciously I had selected three of the 
 most aggressive warriors that could have been found 
 in the city of Boston. Subsequent events will show 
 how loyally and effectively they supported me in the 
 great legislative contest that was to rage for three 
 years from that date. 
 
 163 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 Enter Joe Parks. 
 
 Even before the personnel of our new corporation 
 was complete, I had prepared the material for the il- 
 lustrated booklet; collected the photographs of the 
 faculty; had various student groups taken and half 
 tones made for our illustrations. Never before in my 
 life had I been so busy, for I was teaching daily in the 
 day school and two evenings a week in the evening 
 department, as well as attending to my regular ad- 
 ministrative duties. Preparation for the legislative 
 contest was merely side line work, but it occupied 
 every available moment of day or evening. 
 
 At the State House I conducted a careful investi- 
 gation of the various steps that had been taken in 
 1904 by the Y. M. C. A. Law School when it secured 
 power to confer degrees. I thereby nearly committed 
 a fatal error. 
 
 There is a provision of law in Massachusetts that 
 an educational corporation that desires a charter with 
 power to confer degrees must advertise for three suc- 
 cessive weeks in the newspapers, the last advertise- 
 ment to appear at least fourteen days before the legis- 
 lature convenes. 
 
 The Y. M. C. A. Law School had disregarded this 
 law. Its bill had been introduced very quietly and 
 rushed through the legislature in double quick time. 
 There was nothing in the State House to apprise me 
 
 164 
 
ENTER JOE PARKS 
 
 of the statutory requirement; so I went on calmly 
 with my preparations until about the twenty-third of 
 November. 
 
 By great good fortune, while looking up a statute 
 in the Revised Laws, I stumbled upon the provision 
 to which I have referred. If I acted quickly there was 
 yet time to comply with the statute. It may be im- 
 agined that no time was lost in notifying the State 
 Board of Education, and requesting the designation 
 of newspapers (as the law required). The newspapers 
 designated were the Boston Transcript and the 
 Springfield Republican. 
 
 The body of our advertisement, in the form of a 
 petition addressed to the legislature was as follows: 
 
 "The undersigned citizens of Boston and vicinity 
 respectfully represent that for some years past there 
 has been maintained in Boston a law school known 
 as the Suffolk School of Law ; that the attendance at 
 said school and the work done there has been such 
 as to warrant the incorporation of the said school 
 and the conferring upon it of the power to grant law 
 degrees upon its graduates. 
 
 "Wherefore your petitioners pray that the said 
 school be incorporated and may be empowered to 
 grant law degrees, and for such other and further 
 legislation as to the Honorable Senate and House of 
 Representatives may seem meet and proper. 
 
 Gleason L. Archer. 
 Thomas J. Boynton. 
 Wilmot R. Evans, Jr. 
 James H. Vahey. 
 Sumner Robinson. 
 Charles W. Bartlett. 
 Joseph F. O'Connell." 
 
 165 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 The booklets came from the printer about the middle of 
 December; and, as soon as I could secure an official list 
 of the members of the legislature from the Sergeant-at- 
 Arms, I mailed out a copy of the booklet, together with 
 a catalogue to each member. I also sent out a per- 
 sonal letter to each, calling attention to the printed 
 matter, and inviting the closest inspection of our 
 school. 
 
 There were two distinct results that flowed from this 
 letter of mine, the first a hostile response that forecasted 
 the serious nature of the contest that awaited us, and the 
 second, one of those Heaven-sent helpers that have 
 played so conspicuous a part in the history of the Suffolk 
 Law School. I shall treat them in the order in which 
 they occurred. 
 
 My circular letter was mailed December 20, 191 1, and 
 on December 28, I received a set of nine interrogatories 
 from a member of the House of Representatives, James 
 F. Cavanagh, of the 24th Middlesex District. 
 
 In answered these interrogatories in person. Mr. Cav- 
 anagh is a very formal young man upon first meeting, 
 something suggestive of an Alpine peak, with frigid 
 dignity that lays about him in chunks. However, I had 
 looked him up before I called and learned that he was 
 a graduate of the Y. M. C. A. Law School who had 
 exchanged his evening degree for a day degree at Boston 
 University, but who had been admitted to the bar only a 
 few months before Roland E. Brown of my school. 
 
 Quite naturally, therefore, his surprise at the youth 
 of my enterprise did not disconcert me when it came out 
 in our conversation. He abandoned the topic hastily 
 when I reminded him that only a few months after he 
 was admitted to the bar my first student was admitted. 
 Our conversation was in fact more or less of a verbal 
 
 166 
 
ENTER JOE PARKS 
 
 sparring match. While we were both perfectly cour- 
 teous, his icy hostility put me on my mettle and my 
 replies were far from meek. 
 
 One little occurrence in that meeting will sufficiently 
 indicate the nature of our interview. As I rose to go, 
 he said, "By the way, who are you planning to have take 
 charge of your hearing before the legislative commit- 
 tee ?" 
 
 "Mr. Evans." 
 
 Mr. Cavanagh laughed, "Better have him do it next 
 year. You won't need him this year. You can't even 
 file your bill this year." 
 
 "Is that so ! Will you kindly tell me why I cannot 
 file my bill." 
 
 "I am sorry to say to you, Mr. Archer, that a bill such 
 as yours must be advertised in the newspapers, and it is 
 now too late." 
 
 It was then my turn to laugh. 
 
 "I am sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Cavanagh, but 
 the advertising has been properly attended to. Can it 
 be possible that you haven't read the papers? Better 
 look up the Transcript and Republican." 
 
 When I left him he was writing down the dates I had 
 named. While this interview afforded me some satis- 
 faction and gave me an idea of the line of opposition we 
 were likely to encounter, yet I could not account at the 
 time for Mr. Cavanagh's opposition. 
 
 The second result from my letter was, as I have inti- 
 mated, tremendously important to the school, although I 
 did not appreciate its importance at the time. It hap- 
 pened in this way. 
 
 On the aftenoon of New Year's Day, 1912, I was at 
 my desk in the Dean's office when Robert N. Turner, 
 a lawyer friend of mine came strolling in. Turner is a 
 
 167 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 brainy young man of large stature, and a twenty horse- 
 power smile. His smile was lighting up the office and 
 cheering me up strangely when I saw that he was intro- 
 ducing a medium-sized, ruddy-faced man, who proved, 
 when I shook hands with him, to have an even more 
 contagious smile than Turner's own. It was Joseph A. 
 Parks, now of the Industrial Accident Commission, but 
 then a representative from Fall River. 
 
 Parks had read my illustrated booklet and catalogue, 
 and while lunching with Turner in Boston, had asked 
 about the school, expressing a desire to study law. 
 Turner had immediately brought him to see me. 
 
 My first impression of Mr. Parks was very favorable. 
 I have seldom met a man to whom I was more attracted 
 at first meeting than to this rising young man from the 
 mills. But it was not until I had seen him in action that 
 I appreciated the full measure of the man. 
 
 i68 
 
THE LEGISLATIVE CONTEST OPENS 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 The Legislative Contest Opens. 
 
 Mr. Parks began his studies at the school immediately, 
 I tutoring him personally at odd moments until the sec- 
 ond half year should open. The result was that we rap- 
 idly became acquainted, and he in his turn undertook to 
 initiate me into the mysteries of legislation ; for he had 
 served eight years in the House of Representatives. 
 
 My first experience at the State House was to attend 
 the second inaugural of Governor Foss as a guest of 
 Representative Parks. 
 
 Foss was then afflicted with "Presidential fever," and 
 his speech was calculated to take the Nation "by the 
 ears." The affair was well staged and brilliant; but I 
 was glad enough when it was all over, for the great hall 
 was packed to suffocation. It had given me an oppor- 
 tunity, however, to personally meet quite a number of 
 the members of the legislature. It was duly impressed 
 upon me by all that it was quite necessary that I should 
 make the acquaintance of as many as I could, for num- 
 bers of them had never heard of the school before. 
 
 This was my first view at close range of the Massa- 
 chusetts Legislature, and my impression was altogether 
 favorable, an impression that three years of close observ- 
 ation has never effaced. To be sure, I met during the 
 three years lobbyists and legislative agents galore; and 
 had opportunity to see something of the hidden influ- 
 ences that are at work in all legislative bodies. 
 
 169 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 Of course I had read the statement from no less an 
 authority than the saintly Tom Lawson, that the Massa- 
 chusetts Legislature "was bought and sold like fish in 
 the market." I never tried to make any such pur- 
 chases, and, with one or two exceptions, never saw any 
 actual evidence that any member of the legislature 
 was expecting a "hand out" of any sort. 
 
 But I was destined to undergo a complete disillusion- 
 ment concerning the gentlemen that are popularly con- 
 sidered "angels of light" in the legislature, and those 
 who are denounced in the public prints as "Czars and 
 workers of darkness." But more of that anon. 
 
 The week following the opening of the legislature 
 was examination week at the school. Our annual mid- 
 year vacation of two weeks succeeded it. Having been 
 assured that no action could be expected on the school 
 charter before the first of February, I settled down to 
 school work and to the pursuit of a new task which I 
 had set myself — the writing of a text book on "Agency." 
 
 It may seem to my readers the height of folly for me 
 to have undertaken the writing of another book in the 
 midst of such strenuous days. At this distance of time 
 it does seem even to me to have been foolhardy, yet 
 writing is such an absorbing pastime with me that I 
 probably indulged in it as an agreeable diversion from 
 my many cares. 
 
 At any rate, on January i6th, 191 2, I was in my study 
 in my home in Woburn, in the midst of the composition 
 of Section 65, "Ratification of simple written contracts," 
 in my present book on "Agency," when my telephone 
 rang. My Boston office was calling and I received the 
 astounding news that a notice had been received through 
 the mail from the clerk of the Committee on Education 
 informing me that the Suffolk Law School bill was 
 
 170 
 
THE LEGISLATIVE CONTEST OPENS 
 
 scheduled for a hearing two days hence, January i8th, 
 at lo.oo A. M. 
 
 Instant action was necessary if I were to reach the 
 State House in time to see the clerk of the committee. 
 A train left Mishawum Station in twenty minutes. The 
 sentence I had been writing was left unfinished. 
 
 I changed my clothes in double quick time and sprinted 
 to the station in season to clamber onto the train as it 
 puffed out from the station. When I reached the State 
 House, I called, in the Representatives' Lobby, for Mr. 
 Parks, and was duly instructed by one of the attendants 
 to fill out a card at a little shelf for that purpose beside 
 the entrance to the House Chamber. 
 
 Mr. Parks could not be found by the page, so I called 
 for the clerk of the committee, Mr. Edward T. Morse. 
 He was a dapper little man of sandy complexion, with 
 a miustache to match. He declared that he could not 
 assist me in getting the hearing postponed. 
 
 It should be explained, in this connection, that the 
 reason I was so greatly concerned over this early assign- 
 ment was that Mr. Evans, who was to conduct our 
 hearing, and who understood every phase of legislative 
 procedure, was in Florida on a shooting trip and was 
 not expected back until the following week. I have 
 always suspected that the reason for such a speedy 
 assignment was the fact that the absence of Mr. Evans 
 was well known to some members of the legislature who 
 presently revealed their animosity to the school. 
 
 The clerk of the committee expressed himself as being 
 sorrowful at Mr. Evans' absence ; but declared that I 
 would have to see the House Chairman, Benjamin F. 
 Haines. Even as we were talking, Mr. Haines appeared 
 in the throng that usually eddies back and forth in the 
 lobby when the House is in session. I was introduced 
 
 171 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 to the man who was to play the most conspicuous part 
 in the opposition to our bill. 
 
 Mr. Haines was afterward to experience such a change 
 of heart in respect to our bill that he actually fathered 
 the bill in its third and last year, but now he was the 
 "Ben Haines" of the opposition. 
 
 Of his opposition I was at the time unaware. He is 
 a dark complexioned young man, with a strong and 
 pleasing countenance, and an air of engaging frankness. 
 He assured me in his turn that the date of our hearing 
 could not possibly be changed. 
 
 "You can attend, can't you?" 
 
 "Yes, but Mr. Evans has charge of the affair, and I 
 know nothing whatever of legislative procedure." 
 
 "That is all right. We want to know a little some- 
 thing about the school. We don't need anybody but 
 you. You can tell us all that is necessary." 
 
 Argument was useless. The hearing must take place 
 on January i8th; so I resolved to make the best showing 
 possible. By good fortune I reached Mr. Boynton, and 
 he agreed to introduce the speakers. Mr. O'Connell 
 was in Washington, but General Bartlett and Mr. 
 Vahey promised to attend. 
 
 172 
 
THE OCTOPUS SHOWS ITS HEAD 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 The Octopus Shows Its Head. 
 
 The morning of the hearing dawned. I was at the 
 State House with a large delegation of students and 
 about ten men who were to speak in behalf of the bill. 
 The hearing room originally assigned was too small to 
 accommodate the crowd, and we adjourned to a larger 
 one on a different floor. 
 
 It was a morning of tense anxiety for me, for I feared 
 that some of our speakers might fail to show up. But 
 one by one they appeared. General Bartlett, with a car- 
 nation in his buttonhole, being the last, for he had gotten 
 lost in the corridor. 
 
 Although I had never met President Lowell of Har- 
 vard, yet I was sure that I saw him in the hearing room. 
 I wondered what he was there for, never dreaming 
 that he was the intellectual giant relied upon by the 
 opposition to annihilate us with a word. 
 
 There were many strange faces, and an air of expec- 
 tation pervaded the assembly. I saw Dr. Snedden, the 
 Commissioner of Education, with other complacent "in- 
 tellectuals" that I rightly divined were from the State 
 Board of Education. 
 
 One or two other matters were taken up by the 
 Committee before our bill was reached, a circumstance 
 that enabled me to marshal my array of speakers he- 
 fore the fatal moment. 
 
 173 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 But when our bill was reached and House Chairman 
 Haines announced that, as the hour was late, the peti- 
 tioners would be allowed thirty minutes to present their 
 case, every atom of courage was knocked out of me. We 
 were marked for slaughter, I could see that. A bill to 
 license dogs would be given more time than thirty min- 
 utes; but for an educational institution to be limited to 
 that period outraged all my ideas of fairness. 
 
 Mr. Boynton was on his feet, however, recounting 
 in his calm tones the history of his connection with the 
 school, and urging upon the committee that so cosmo- 
 politan a population as Boston's needed a school like 
 ours. \\'Tiile he was speaking I recovered from my 
 panic, and stood ready to suggest the next speaker, for 
 he was relying upon me for that. IMr. Vahey now urged 
 that the school deserved the same treatment that had 
 been accorded the Y. M. C. A. Law School by the legis- 
 lature of 1904, and General Bartlett, who followed him, 
 spoke along the same line 
 
 It was then my turn, and all but five minutes of our 
 allotted time had expired Fortunately, I had prepared 
 my address in writing, and for that reason could not be 
 cut off as readily by the chairman when my time was 
 up as if I were speaking extemporaneously So I went 
 on to recount the history of the school and to explain 
 our methods of teaching. 
 
 \\'hen I had finished, Chairman Haines at once showed 
 where he stood by propounding a long list of hostile 
 questions, much after the Cavanagh interrogatory style. 
 I welcomed this action on his part, for it enabled me to 
 come back with effective answers, every- one of which 
 told for our side. 
 
 An amusing incident occurred during this questioning. 
 One of the questions could only be answered by refer- 
 
 174 
 
THE OCTOPUS SHOWS ITS HEAD 
 
 ence to the school catalogue. I stepped back down the 
 aisle to where I had left my green bag. A man had 
 just taken a Suffolk catalogue from a green bag, and, 
 supposing him to be a student who had anticipated 
 my desire, I took it from him with thanks; only to see 
 as he straightened up in surprise, that it was President 
 Lowell of Harvard. 
 
 I restored the catalogue with my apologies, and se- 
 cured my own green bag from the place to which it 
 had been moved. 
 
 The Chairman's questioning, which extended for a 
 period almost equal to the half hour allotted to us. had 
 in reality extended our time, for every new question 
 brought out further favorable evidence for the school. 
 He wound up by passing me typewritten extracts 
 from my book on "Ethical Obligations of the Lawyer" 
 and challenged me to say whether they were from my 
 book. 
 
 A great deal of laughter at the chairman's expense 
 was called forth by my cautious reply that I should 
 wish to compare the statements with the book in order 
 to be sure. I explained hastily that I did not mean to 
 reflect upon the chairman's honesty, but my explana- 
 tion only added to the merriment. 
 
 The quotations were totally without reference to 
 page or section ; but from my knowledge of the book I 
 located them, and found them to be viciously garbled 
 statements when lifted from their proper context in 
 the book. I called attention to this fact. The House 
 Chairman explained that he knew nothing of it, the 
 paper having been given to him before the hearing. 
 
 The opposition to our bill was now called for. There 
 was a hurried consultation between President Lowell 
 and the members of the State Board of Education. 
 
 175 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 President Lowell then advanced to the table to speak. 
 For a second time that morning, my hopes came crash- 
 ing to the ground. With the President of the greatest 
 university in America opposing us, what chance had my 
 little school in the unequal contest? 
 
 But as I listened, in a hopeless despair, I noted that 
 his arguments were very weak ; that he contradicted him- 
 self and seemed to be feeling his way along, like one 
 groping in the dark. So I came back to earth and began 
 to jot down questions to ask the learned gentleman. 
 
 He urged that the matter of conferring degrees was 
 of such grave importance that the bill should be referred 
 to the State Board of Education for investigation and 
 report. But a moment later he assured us that a degree 
 had only a sentimental value, and the withholding of it 
 was no hardship to my school. 
 
 At this point one of the Committee, Mr. Greenwood, 
 as I recall it, asked him why the school should not 
 have the power, if degrees were empty words. The 
 learned gentleman was somewhat at a loss how to 
 answer him. 
 
 Before he had finished, my fears had rolled away, for 
 the "giant" had obviously failed to annihilate us. Then, 
 because I was wholly ignorant of legislative procedure, 
 I did something that I have never seen even attempted 
 since by anyone not a member of the committee. I 
 asked the Senate Chairman, Dr. Ezra Clark, if I might 
 ask the speaker a question. 
 
 "Just one," snapped the little doctor in his high pitched 
 voice. I proceeded to ask several. My first was as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "Suppose there are two schools of equal value in the 
 same locality and one can confer degrees and the other 
 
 176 
 
THE OCTOPUS SHOWS ITS HEAD 
 
 cannot, will not the one that can confer degrees get the 
 lion's share of students?" 
 
 President Lowell admitted that it would. Then I 
 asked him whether or not our charter ought to be granted 
 if we could prove that our school was equal to the Y. 
 M. C. A. Law School. He replied that we would be 
 clearly entitled to our charter if we could prove equality 
 as alleged; an answer that caused great discomfiture to 
 our opponents later on. 
 
 The other speaker in opposition was Dean Frank P. 
 Speare, of the Y. M. C. A. Law School, who uninten- 
 tionally rendered us more assistance than any speaker 
 on our side. One of President Lowell's introductory 
 remarks had been that Harvard was in no way interested 
 in the bill under discussion, because an evening school 
 could not compete with Harvard. I was therefore as- 
 tonished and delighted to hear Dean Speare declare 
 with evident pride that his school was and always had 
 been under the wing of Harvard ; with the Dean of 
 Harvard Law School as president of its corporation. 
 
 President Lowell had also urged that since our school 
 had no endowment it could not long survive; but Dean 
 Speare unintentionally demolished that argument when 
 he urged rejection of our measure on the ground that 
 evening law schools had tremendous money making pos- 
 sibilities. Certainly if an institution could be run at a 
 great profit it needed no endowment. 
 
 After he had finished, I asked him a few questions 
 that must have been very embarrassing to him ; for he 
 was forced to admit that although dean of a law school 
 he had never studied law a day in his life. When I 
 pressed him to explain how he could direct technical 
 instruction in law, he replied that he was not at all 
 troubled, for he was a "Creator of Educational Oppor- 
 
 -^77 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 tunities," an answer so absurd and irrelevant that the 
 hearing broke up in roars of laughter. 
 
 178 
 
VICTORY IN COMMITTEE 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Victory in Committee. 
 
 There were eleven members of the Committee on 
 Education, eight representatives and three senators. 
 In my ignorance of legislative matters I had supposed 
 that the committee would now be polled like a jury 
 and the result speedily announced ; but I was straight- 
 way informed that the contest before the committee 
 had just begun. It was now a question of which side 
 could pledge the greater number of committee votes. 
 
 I learned a further thing; that members of the legis- 
 lature have far more regard for the will of their con- 
 stituents than for the most logical and convincing of 
 arguments. If a vote of a constituent is to be lost by 
 a certain course of action, the ordinary "statesman" 
 will shun that course. If votes are to be lost either 
 way, then, if he cannot dodge his responsibility, he 
 will vote with what he considers to be the most in- 
 fluential side. 
 
 The contest had now centered on the committee. 
 Our opponents were very active, and there were days 
 of suspense when the issue was uncertain. 
 
 Needless to say, the students of the Suffolk Law 
 School were keenly alive to the situation and resolved 
 to exert all possible legitimate influence upon the com- 
 mittee. 
 
 I procured a splendid letter of indorsement from 
 Herbert Parker, the former Attorney General, and 
 
 179 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 mailed a copy to each member of the committee. I 
 also had printed two effective documents, showing up 
 in one the inconsistency of the arguments as to neces- 
 sity of endowment and the other a frank comparison 
 of the Y. M. C. A. Law School and the Suffolk Law 
 School. These were mailed to the committee. 
 
 Unlike the custom as to dealing with a jury into 
 whose hands a law case has been committed, it is con- 
 sidered perfectly proper, under legislative custom, to 
 talk with members of the committee, either before or 
 after a hearing. I remember very well a long confer- 
 ence with Representative Greenwood of the commit- 
 tee, whom I happened to meet on Ashburton Place one 
 morning shortly after the hearing. There were cer- 
 tain things he did not clearly understand about the 
 school, and I explained them to the best of my abil- 
 ity. But when I left him I had no idea which way he 
 would vote. 
 
 Reports began to come in however, of a very en- 
 couraging nature. Two friends of Mr. Vahey were on 
 the committee, and one of General Bartlett; and each 
 had expressed himself heartily in our favor. There 
 was one socialist member who had been outspoken in 
 our favor from the beginning. Even before the execu- 
 tive meeting of the committee, when the fate of our 
 bill was to be decided, at least five of the committee 
 had declared in our favor. 
 
 By this time I had found a very efficient ally, in the 
 State House itself, in the person of Henry C. Berlin, 
 a newspaper reporter who had once been a student in 
 our school, but who had gone to the Y. M. C. A. Law 
 School in order to secure a law degree. Knowing both 
 schools, he was emphatically of the opinion that our 
 
 i8o 
 
VICTORY IN COMMITTEE 
 
 school deserved power to confer degrees. With Mr. 
 Berlin in touch with everything that went on in the 
 State House outside of the legislative assembly, and 
 with Representative Parks in the legislature itself, 
 very little could transpire without my knowledge, as 
 our enemies later found out to their sorrow. 
 
 I was at the State House daily, always in constant 
 touch with the progress of the bill. Every school even- 
 ing I reported to each class and directed attention to 
 this or that object of attack. In a surprisingly short 
 time we had a powerful and well-ordered organization, 
 each man reporting to me what he had learned or ac- 
 complished through friends in the district of any given 
 legislator. 
 
 It was a full two weeks before the fateful executive 
 meeting of the committee. On the day of the meeting 
 I was at the State House, in the corridor near the com- 
 mittee room, as full of anxiety for the verdict as 
 could be well imagined. One by one I saw members 
 of the committee pass into the room, but, to me, a 
 very long time elapsed before there was any sign of 
 adjournment. 
 
 Mr. Berlin was talking with me and assuring me 
 that we would win, when Senator Nason emerged, 
 smiling broadly. We hurried up to him. He con- 
 gratulated me warmJy and announced that the bill 
 had won by a vote of seven to three. Senator Clark not 
 voting. 
 
 We had a jubilee at the school that night, for to win 
 in committee so handsomely is usually a sure indica- 
 tion of an easy victory in both branches of the legis- 
 lature. We were yet to learn the power of the 
 Educational Octopus and its eager allies. 
 
 i8i 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 The First Great Debate in the House. 
 
 The lineup of the committee had been as follows: 
 for the bill, Senators Arthur L. Nason of Essex and 
 John H. Hunt of Worcester, Representatives J. Her- 
 bert Baker of Medfield, Francis M. Cummings of Bos- 
 ton, Fred P. Greenwood of Everett, James A. McEl- 
 aney of Boston and Charles H. Morrill of Haverhill. 
 
 Those recorded against the bill were Representatives 
 Benj. F. Haines of Aledford, Edward T. Morse of East 
 Bridgewater and Judson I. Wood of Gardner. 
 
 But it will be remembered that the Senate chairman 
 had declined to vote either way, so House Chairman 
 Haines had a free hand in the matter. Representative 
 Greenwood was the ranking member of the delega- 
 tion who supported the bill and, had precedent been 
 followed, he should have reported the bill to the 
 House. 
 
 But with the subtle ingenuity of the man, Haines 
 devised the brilliant scheme of causing the bill to go 
 to the House with a socialistic label ; for passing over 
 all others he gave it to Representative Morrill, the 
 only socialist in the legislature, to report. This meant 
 that in case of a debate on the floor of the House, Mor- 
 rill was to be the official sponsor of the bill. 
 
 Now Charles H. Morrill is a splendid type of man, 
 182 
 
THE FIRST GREAT DEBATE IN THE HOUSE 
 
 sincere and conscientious to a degree. But it was well 
 known to all that the prejudice in the House against 
 his political faith could command more votes in op- 
 position to a measure which he fathered than the most 
 logical of adverse arguments. 
 
 This was the opening strategic move of the com- 
 mander in chief of the opposition. That the opposition 
 was to be conducted on a large scale was soon appar- 
 ent. It was reported to me that every member of the 
 House and Senate were being systematically lobbied 
 by the opposition. A number of students of the Y. 
 M. C. A. Law School, who were members of the legis- 
 lature, were reported as especially active. 
 
 Representative Parks became alarmed at the out- 
 look for the bill : and, in order to stimulate the activi- 
 ties of our students to bring counter pressure to bear, 
 he spoke at a mass meeting of the students one even- 
 ing, declaring that never in his legislative experience 
 had be seen more lobbying on a bill than was then 
 going on in opposition to our charter. 
 
 Whenever I met Haines in the corridor, or else- 
 where, in the State House, he would always greet me 
 with a handshake and a good-natured grin and inquire 
 in a bantering tone for "my champion," meaning Mor- 
 rill the Socialist; so I was well aware that Morrill 
 would be forced to take the floor in behalf of the bill. 
 
 But when the clash came on the floor of the House 
 it raged with a violence that I had never even dreamed 
 possible. All other business was suspended in the 
 legislative session of Thursday, February 8th, 1912, 
 and the first great debate on the school charter was on. 
 
 Through the courtesy of Mr. Parks I was seated on 
 the "side lines" at the right of the House floor; for it 
 
 183 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 was desirable that I be where I could furnish informa- 
 tion or statistics in reply to any attacks from the op- 
 position. 
 
 Before our bill was reached, it was obvious even to 
 the unpracticed eye that a great contest was impend- 
 ing. Representatives, whom I knew to be enemies of 
 the school, were moving hurriedly from desk to desk 
 throughout the chamber, whispering in the ear of this 
 man and that; obviously lining up the vote. 
 
 I was comforted not a little to see Representative 
 Parks in his place half way across the hall, his face 
 shining with expectation. A large delegation of Suf- 
 folk Law School students were in the galleries. Pen- 
 sion Commissioner Richard R. Flynn, then a Fresh- 
 man, stood in the right hand doorway of the chamber, 
 waiting for the show. 
 
 The calendar had been read some time before. It is 
 a legislative custom when a matter is to be debated to 
 cry out "pass" when it is reached in the first reading 
 of the calendar. A perfect roar of "passes" had 
 greeted House Bill 123. 
 
 So I knew just when to expect the fight to begin, and 
 my pulses quickened strangely when the speaker 
 called out "The next matter passed over is House Bill 
 123." 
 
 A ringing cry, "Mr. Speaker," rang out, and Haines 
 was given the floor. While I cannot recall the exact 
 words nor all the details of the debate, I do remember 
 the opening challenge and reply. 
 
 "Mr. Speaker," cried Haines, in a voice that reached 
 every corner of the great hall ; "as House Chairman of 
 the Committee that reported this bill, and as a dis- 
 senter to the bill, I want to call upon the gentleman 
 
 184 
 
THE FIRST GREAT DEBATE IN THE HOUSE 
 
 who has charge of the bill to explain why he is sup- 
 porting it." 
 
 There was another ringing cry of, "Mr. Speaker," 
 and Parks was in the arena even before Haines had 
 resumed his seat. 
 
 "In all my experience, Mr. Speaker, I never knew 
 a dissenter to a bill to try to put over a thing like that. 
 This bill was reported from the committee by a vote 
 of 7 to 3. It is up to the dissenters to show why they 
 dissent." 
 
 There was a murmur of applause. Haines saw that 
 he was checkmated. He sprang to his feet and again 
 obtained the floor. The debate now opened in real 
 earnest and resolved itself for some time into a duel 
 of words between Haines and Parks. It was then that 
 I began to realize what a powerful champion we had 
 in Joe Parks. Every attack of Haines was countered 
 effectively. Other speakers in opposition were heard. 
 While I was the subject of the debate for a time, their 
 heaviest accusations were that I was "an inexperi- 
 enced boy." 
 
 I had anticipated something of the sort, so I had 
 come prepared. I sent a messenger to Mr. Parks with 
 printed extracts from the many favorable reviews of 
 my books. This was seized by him with great eager- 
 ness, and no one could have made better use of the 
 material. 
 
 He read the extracts from the Yale Law Review, 
 Columbia Law Register, Virginia Law Register, Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Harvard 
 Law Review on two of my books. After each of the 
 quotations he would exclaim triumphantly, "That's 
 what they think of this inexperienced boy," saving 
 Harvard as the last authority. 
 
 185 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 Representative Greenwood came in strongly in sup- 
 port of the bill. Representative Walter R, Meins made 
 a remarkably effective speech for the school and Rep- 
 resentative Morrill closed the debate. 
 
 I will never forget the tense excitement of the next 
 few minutes when the voting began ; nor the stunning 
 shock that came to me when the speaker announced, 
 after the voice vote, that the bill was lost. 
 
 But Parks was on his feet shouting, "I doubt the 
 vote, Mr. Speaker." 
 
 "The vote is doubted. All those in favor of ordering 
 the bill to a third reading will rise and stand in their 
 places until counted." 
 
 It was done. Seventy-three members arose. The 
 opposition was called for, and again seventy-three 
 members arose ; so again the bill was declared lost. 
 
 But Mr. Morrill doubted this vote also, and de- 
 manded the calling of the ayes and nays. Under the 
 rules of legislative procedure in the House, when a 
 roll call is demanded at least thirty members must 
 join in the call. In this case many more than that 
 number arose. 
 
 The roll call began and in the first letters of the 
 alphabet we were badly beaten. But when the letter 
 "M" was reached, with its Democratic host, we were 
 saved. The bill won by a vote of 98 to 93 with six 
 pairs ; (that is six men absent who had arranged with 
 six men of opposing views who would be present to 
 present their names as paired with them on the vote, 
 and thus be recorded in the roll call.) But we had 
 won ; and the House adjourned for the day. 
 
 186 
 
 1 
 
LIVELY LOBBYING 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Lively Lobbying. 
 
 The victory of our bill in the House was the signal 
 for a general alarm among our opponents. The bill 
 had still to be passed to engrossment. There was yet 
 time to defeat it if the opposition were skillfully man- 
 aged. That it was skillfully managed there is not the 
 slightest possible doubt. 
 
 It is customary for a bill that has been advanced to 
 third reading to go to the Committee on Bills in Third 
 Reading. It was well known that the chairman of 
 that committee was an opponent of the measure, so 
 the expected happened. The committee held the bill, 
 as it had power to do, until the following Tuesday, 
 February 13th, thus giving the opposition the time de- 
 sired for further agitation. 
 
 Circular letters were sent out by Dean Speare of 
 the Y. M. C. A. Law School calling upon all friends 
 of the Y. M. C. A. in one letter February 8th, to "write 
 at once to your senator, as a citizen of his district, urg- 
 ing him to insist that the bill be referred to the State 
 Board of Education :" and on the following day, Feb- 
 ruary 9th, "get in touch with your Representative and 
 Senator and urge them to vote against the measure. 
 You need not necessarily state that vou are identified 
 with the Y. M. C. A. but approach him as a citizen." 
 
 On the same day, February- 9th, Dean-elect Homer 
 Albers of Boston University Law School, wrote a two- 
 
 187 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 page letter to each member of the legislature urging 
 the defeat of the measure. In his letter, ostensibly- 
 written as from a disinterested lawyer, he urged as 
 one of the reasons for defeat of the measure that he 
 was "informed" that the Dean of Boston University 
 Law School was opposed to the measure, when as a 
 matter of fact he was himself the Dean, (although the 
 fact of his election was not then generally known). 
 
 It was several days before I got possession of any of 
 these letters; but I knew at once after the victory in 
 the House that a tremendous agitation was going on. 
 I learned that not only were agents of the Y. M. C. A. 
 and Boston University lobbying against us, but was 
 also informed that the State Board of Education, the 
 Boston Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar 
 Association, were actively at work to defeat our 
 bill. The Educational Trust of Massachusetts were 
 out in martial array to defeat the Sufifolk Law School. 
 
 How effective a campaign they waged may be 
 judged from the fact that of twenty-five Harvard men 
 in the legislature, twenty-three voted against us ; of 
 eighteen Boston University men, sixteen voted against 
 us ; of nine Y. M. C. A. graduates, seven voted against 
 us. This meant that forty-six opposing votes were 
 cast by alumni of the three schools that opposed us. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the friends of the meas- 
 ure were in the meantime idle, for eternal vigilance is 
 the only safe rule in the support of any bill however 
 meritorious. If we could hold the votes we had won 
 there was still a chance, even against the powerful 
 forces that were opposing us. But we feared deser- 
 tions, for by this time I was aware how fickle is the 
 legislative mind. 
 
 i88 
 
LIVELY LOBBYING 
 
 An instance in point, Mr. Vahey and I were in con- 
 versation with a certain senator. He told us frankly 
 that he favored the bill, but that he should vote 
 against it because there were so many Y. M. C. A. 
 sympathizers in his district that it would be disastrous 
 to do otherwise. That night I gave the name of the 
 senator to each of our students from his district. With- 
 in two days, a student, who had been designated as 
 chairman, called at the Senate chamber with a book 
 bag full of personal letters from prominent men o7 the 
 district. One of the students had even circulated a 
 petition in the factory where he worked and had se- 
 cured hundred of signatures calling upon the senator 
 to vote for the measure. 
 
 Within twenty minutes the senator in question had 
 come to me in the corridor and assured me in most 
 emphatic terms of his support. No more loyal sup- 
 porter did we have in our three-year fight. He even 
 stood against the governor when the veto contest was 
 on. 
 
 This is the way votes are legitimately gotten, and 
 this is the only method to which we resorted through- 
 out the long contest. It is not the way I would have 
 chosen, for I believe in trying the case as before a jury 
 with nothing whatever to do with those who are to 
 decide ; but it is politics, and the only way of accom- 
 plishing the passage of any legislation to which there 
 is opposition. 
 
 Knowing, therefore, how votes are won and lost, I 
 was in constant fear lest our opponents had unsettled 
 the stand of a sufficient number of our friends in the 
 House to encompass our defeat. They came perilously 
 near it, as will be seen hereafter. 
 
 189 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 A Double Shuffle. 
 
 During the first few months of each legislative ses- 
 sion in Massachusetts neither House nor Senate hold 
 forenoon sessions. From lo A. M. to i P. M. of each 
 legislative day the State House hearing rooms, espe- 
 cially on the fourth floor, are occupied with hearings 
 before the various legislative committees. 
 
 Throngs come and go. At one moment the corri- 
 dors are full of hurrying humanity and the babel of 
 voices and laughter. At another moment, they may 
 be empty, save for an occasional straggler, wandering 
 aimlessly from one hearing to another in quest of in- 
 expensive amusement ; or a belated "statesman" hur- 
 rying to his committee and held rp again and again 
 by those who have been lying in wait unobtrusively 
 in the corridor. 
 
 The calm, slow-moving lobbyist may saunter down 
 the corridor; or sit on the steps of some deserted 
 hearing room ; or perch himself, with others of a sim- 
 ilar calling, on the broad ledge of a window that opens 
 onto the airshaft but commands a view of the corri- 
 dors on both sides of the building — a strategic van- 
 tage point. 
 
 But the busy part of all the day begins when both 
 branches convene at 2 P. M. The larger body is much 
 the more picturesque. The House lobby then rapidly 
 fills. Members hurrying to the cloak rooms to de- 
 
 190 
 
A DOUBLE SHUFFLE 
 
 posit their outer g-arments meet members sauntering 
 forth from the inner lobby to which the public is 
 denied. Greetings and jests, and serious conferences 
 are everywhere in evidence. Venerable deputy ser- 
 geants-at-arms stand guard, holding the crowd of 
 civilians from crossing- the dead line unless they have 
 a plausible pretext for mingling with the "elect." 
 
 The numbers of these "elect" in the lobby decrease 
 appreciably when the House is in session ; but there 
 is always a fair number of them in evidence. They 
 do not tarry long in the House chamber as a rule; for 
 they either emerge voluntarily, or are called forth 
 singly by attendants to meet some constituent who 
 has sent in his card. They are invariably happy to 
 meet a constituent, whether a total stranger or not, 
 and thrice happy if the constituent is a female, which 
 happens but seldom ; although occasionally a digni- 
 fied solon may be seen piloting a bevy of high school 
 girls, or a quartette of schoolma'ams through the 
 sacred precincts. 
 
 These were the scenes that were daily enacted be- 
 fore my eyes, as with growing anxiety I overlooked 
 the busy campaigning that went on against our char- 
 ter. I spoke but seldom with members of either 
 branch, for I did not know them personally and felt 
 a delicacy about seeming to approach them on our 
 measure. My presence at the State House was chiefly 
 to keep in close touch with every move that was be- 
 ing made ; to stimulate the activity of our friends in 
 the legislature by receiving their reports at first hand, 
 and to impart to them whatever news from "the 
 front" had come to my knowledge from other sources. 
 
 Tuesday, February 13th, 1912, brought again a 
 great forensic battle on the Suffolk Law School char- 
 
 191 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 ter. We had expected it for days. But now the stage 
 was set for a greater contest than the one of the pre- 
 vious week. Again from my seat on the side lines I 
 saw the ominous activity of our opponents while the 
 House calendar was being read. Again the angry 
 storm of "pass" challenged House Bill 123, now up 
 for engrossment. 
 
 Mr. Parks was in his place, worried but ready for 
 battle. The bill was reached. Although Haines had 
 told me that he was through fighting, it was he that 
 led the debate. A more skillful move would be hard 
 to imagine, for he was offering an amendment to the 
 bill providing that the Bar Examiners of Massachu- 
 setts be ordered to investigate the school and report 
 to the next Legislature. 
 
 Around this amendment the battle raged. Parks, 
 in an eloquent appeal to the House, declared the 
 amendment to be a last desperate effort to defeat the 
 bill. From every quarter of the House men were 
 clamoring for recognition when Parks sat down. 
 With tense eagerness I awaited the name of the next 
 speaker, fearing lest it should be that one whom I 
 dreaded above all others, Robert M. Washburn. 
 
 I had heard him before on other measures, a man 
 of great power of eloquence, and a satirical wit that 
 could smother in laughter any ordinary bill to which 
 he was opposed. He was a graduate of Harvard, 
 therefore opposed as I thought. 
 
 But the speaker recognized an alumnus of the Y. 
 M. C. A. Law School, Sanford Bates, who cham- 
 pioned the amendment with much sound and fury. 
 As he subsided, the clamor for recognition broke out 
 again. This time it was Washburn who gained the floor. 
 
 192 
 
A DOUBLE SHUFFLE 
 
 But Washburn, instead of opposing us as I had 
 expected, set the House into roars of laughter in his 
 humorous description of Ben Haines, and of Medford 
 from which he hailed. Then in serious vein he eulo- 
 gized Parks and spoke eloquently for the rejection of 
 the amendment and the passage of our bill. 
 
 Henebery of Worcester, another graduate of the 
 Y. M. C. A. Law School, was the next speaker; and 
 his speech was a shining example of misformation 
 and ignorance, for he solemnly assured the House 
 that the Suffolk Law School had never graduated a 
 single student, nor had a man from the school ever 
 succeeded in passing the bar. 
 
 To this Walter R. Meins of Boston made spirited 
 response, setting forth the real facts. Representative 
 Cavanagh to whom I have referred in a previous 
 chapter, opposed the bill ; but Charles R. O'Connell 
 of Peabody, who had attended both our school and the 
 Y. M. C. A., came in with a ringing eulogy of the 
 Sufifolk Law School. 
 
 Plaines now offered his second surprise — an amend- 
 ment to his amendment, naming the State Board of 
 Education in place of the Bar Examiners. 
 
 From then on the debate was "fast and furious," 
 and at this juncture an event occurred that amazed 
 and electrified me. Martin Lomasney, the man whom 
 the newspapers had taught me to believe the embodi- 
 ment of selfishness and greed; the man who out- 
 Tammanied Tammany, jumped into the fray in behalf 
 of the bill. 
 
 I say "jumped" advisedly, for no man who has 
 seen Lomasney in action, his teeth snapping, his arms 
 thrashing the air, his trip hammer utterance pouring 
 
 193 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 4 
 
 forth a native eloquence that reaches the inmost emo- 
 tions of his hearers, can characterize his entrance in- 
 to a debate by any lesser word. 
 
 And Lomasney's speech on this occasion was most 
 powerful. He is a shrewd judge of the psychological, 
 moment and in this case hit it exactly, drawing to a 
 dramatic close the long debate. His closing appeal 
 was this : "Don't let the lawyers of this body make 
 a trust of legal education in Massachusetts." 
 
 On the roll call that followed, the amendments were 
 rejected by a vote of 96 to 94. This was the signal 
 for a general uprising of the members, for the hour 
 was late. When the chamber was half empty the 
 speaker put the bill to vote and declared it lost. The 
 vote was doubted and on a standing vote the bill was 
 again lost by a vote of 6y to 73. 
 
 Again Lomasney was in action. "Mr. Speaker." 
 he cried, "I doubt the vote and ask for the calling of 
 the ayes and nays." 
 
 Owing to the depleted chamber and the lateness of 
 the hour, I was fearful lest the necessary thirty mem- 
 "bers should fail to respond. But I could hear 
 Lomasney's excited undertone ordering them up, and 
 the ayes and nays were ordered. 
 
 The gong in the corridor began its insistent peal, 
 the invariable accompaniment of a roll call. Friends 
 and foes were darting hither and thither in a tense 
 struggle for mastery. The monotonous roll call be- 
 gan. But as the fateful "no" or "yes" came in re- 
 sponse to the long list of two hundred and forty 
 names the excitement rose to fever heat. The pairs 
 had already been announced, but now when the list 
 was complete and the opposition saw victory in sight 
 
 194 
 
A DOUBLE SHUFFLE 
 
 they caused two of their men who were paired with 
 two of our absent ones to withdraw their pairs and 
 vote instead. 
 
 Then in that crisis the quick wit of two men saved 
 the day for the Suffolk Law School. Realizing the 
 treachery the opposition had practiced, Parks per- 
 suaded one of our men to withdraw his pair and vote. 
 Even while Parks was laboring with his man 
 Lomasney cornered a Boston University Law School 
 student and by sheer power of will compelled him to 
 announce that he was paired with one of our men 
 who had been paired but dropped in the treachery 
 referred to — thus was executed a double shufHe of 
 tremendous importance to us. 
 
 So swiftly had these changes taken place that the 
 speaker announced the vote before I knew what it 
 was all about. We had won by a vote of 98 to 97. 
 The opposition was furious, for had they not planned 
 it 97 to 98? They would surely have polled that vote, 
 as will be seen from a little figuring. With two men 
 released from the pair and the man voting that 
 Lomasney captured they would have polled 98 votes; 
 but with our side still continuing its pairs our vote 
 would have been 97. 
 
 Only the quickest of wit could have saved the day 
 for us. The whole transaction did not occupy two 
 minutes of time. But to me the most amazing thing; 
 about the whole matter, and even the debate itself 
 was the revelation it had given me of Martin M. 
 Lomasney. 
 
 That he had acted in our case without the slightest 
 suggestion of self interest was most strikingly man- 
 ifest. He, the deep villain of the popular supersti- 
 
 195 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 i 
 
 tion, had acted the hero; the champion of the cause 
 of the sons of the workingman, while the so-called 
 "guardians of the rights of the people" to whom I 
 had looked for succor were laboring diligently to de- 
 feat those rights. 
 
 My world had turned topsy-turvy. That was the 
 beginning of a great disillusionment. I looked at 
 things from thereforward with my own eyes, rather 
 than through the colored lenses of an inspired press. 
 
 I came to see that Martin Lomasney, so far from 
 being the political ogre he has been painted, was after 
 all a highly respected member of the legislature ; a 
 man who never breaks his word, and who is usually 
 found on the side of the people in any contest or 
 debate. 
 
 I even found, in three years of observation, that 
 the very men who would go out in a political cam- 
 paign and win their election by representing that un- 
 less they were returned the "unspeakable Lomasney" 
 would be elected Speaker of the House, would never- 
 theless admit, in private conversation, that "Martin" 
 was one of the squarest men in the Legislature. 
 
 While I hold no brief for Lomasney, who may have 
 conducted many questionable political transactions, 
 yet I do hate hypocrisy and sham, and cry out against 
 the injustice of depicting the champion of the masses 
 as a villain and worker of darkness, but the cham- 
 pions of the privileged classes heroes and saints — 
 when their political methods are one and the same as 
 any observing man who has watched them well 
 knows. 
 
 They say Lomasney has been known to turn a 
 political trick to benefit his friends. The great and 
 
 196 
 
A DOUBLE SHUFFLE 
 
 mighty of the legislature are continually turning 
 tricks for State Street and the interests, and strang- 
 est of all, making a goat of Lomasney and "guardians 
 of the dear public" of themselves. 
 
 197 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 Victory in the Senate. 
 
 To add to the chagrin of our opponents, it now oc- 
 curred to them that had Speaker Grafton Gushing" ex- 
 ercised the presence of mind to vote on our measure 
 a tie vote would have resulted ; and the bill would 
 accordingly have been defeated. But now the op- 
 portunity had passed. 
 
 It must have been that the opposition sensed the 
 real situation in the Senate, and despaired of success 
 in that quarter; for on the next day they adopted the 
 desperate expedient of trying to secure reconsidera- 
 tion of the measure. 
 
 Anticipating this move, and alarmed indeed at the 
 prospect, I spent the next forenoon "rounding up" 
 our trustees. To tell the truth I found them in bellig- 
 erent moods and ready for battle, for the newspapers 
 had come out with stories of the debate. 
 
 Mr. Boynton, Mr. Evans, Mr. Vahey, Mr. O'Gon- 
 nell and General Bartlett each came to the State 
 House in person; so all but one of our Trustees were 
 in the thick of the fray, either in the House or the 
 Senate corridors, conferring with their friends in each 
 branch. 
 
 Mr. Evans, who had been Republican leader of the 
 Senate during the previous year, held an impromptu 
 reception of his Republican brethren; while Mr. 
 
 198 
 
VICTORY IN THE SENATE 
 
 Vahey, with characteristic vigor, personally conversed 
 with every Democratic Senator. General Bartlett and 
 Mr. O'Connell added their influence to that of Mr. 
 Vahey ; and the outlook for success in the Senate 
 looked very favorable should we succeed in leaving 
 the House in safety. 
 
 Mr. Boynton, while working earnestly for our suc- 
 cess, was a downright pessimist so far as the Senate 
 was concerned. "I tell you, Mr. Archer, the Senate 
 is the graveyard of all good bills," was a frequent 
 sentiment with him. 
 
 But every effort was put forth to prevent reconsid- 
 eration of the previous day's vote in the House. Re- 
 consideration must be voted if at all before the orders 
 of the day were reached, and I was fearful lest our 
 friends should fail to put in appearance early enough 
 to prevent a successful demonstration by the opposi- 
 tion. 
 
 It was with fear and trembling that I surveyed 
 the half empty House next day when Haines took 
 the floor to move for reconsideration But the seats 
 filled while the sharp debate was in progress. When 
 the motion was put to vote, Haines lost by the over- 
 whelming vote of 27 to 93. A roar of laughter went 
 up at the result. Haines promptly doubted the vote 
 and called for the ayes and nays ; but only a dozen 
 or so responded to his call. Haines' last chance had 
 faded away. The House was evidently tired of the 
 long contest and disposed to leave us in possession of 
 our hard won victory. 
 
 The scene of battle now shifted to the Senate, and 
 a merry battle it was. Senator Nason told me that 
 great quantities of mail were already pouring in upon 
 every member of the Senate, urging them to vote 
 
 199 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 against the measure ; that unless something were 
 done to counteract it, we would have great difficulty 
 in passing the bill. 
 
 By good fortune I had now gotten possession of 
 two of Dean Speare's circular letters; sent me, by the 
 way, by students of his own school who resented his 
 action. Believing that copies of one of his letters 
 would make many votes for us in the Senate I had 
 prepared the following document which I mailed to 
 every member of the Senate: 
 
 To the Members of the Massachusetts Senate : 
 
 I invite your attention to a letter which will ex- 
 plain in a large measure the letters and protests that 
 are being filed with you against the Suffolk School 
 of Law. Please note the suggestion that the students 
 of the Y. M. C. A. deceive you by pretending to act 
 as disinterested "citizens ;" this from the head of the 
 Young Men's Christian Association. This is only a 
 sample of the methods used by our opponents. 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 GLEASON L. ARCHER, 
 Dean of the Suffolk School of Law. 
 Feb. 12, 1912. 
 
 (COPY.) 
 
 ASSOCIATION INSTITUTE 
 
 BOSTON YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN 
 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 
 February 9, 1912. 
 To the Students of the Association Institute, 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 The Suffolk School of Law, a commercial enter- 
 200 
 
VICTORY IN THE SENATE 
 
 prise, conducted in Tremont Temple, is seeking to 
 gain the right to grant degrees. They are being op- 
 posed by Harvard University, Boston University, 
 Tufts College, The Massachusetts Bar Association, 
 and educators in general. They have seen fit to use 
 the Association Law School as a sledge to break down 
 the educational traditions and standards of the State, 
 and force an entrance. 
 
 The Bill has been reported for a third reading in 
 the House, and then, if it passes, will go to the Senate. 
 I therefore, write to urge you to at once get in touch 
 with your Representative and Senator and urge them 
 to vote against the measure. You need not necessa- 
 rily state that you are identified with the Y. M. C. A., 
 but approach him as a citizen. Please let nothing pre- 
 vent your doing this, as you will be conferring a great 
 benefit to all existing institutions and helping to up- 
 hold the proud educational standards of the Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 If I have written to you previously, this letter sim- 
 ply reinforces what was said before. The Bill comes 
 up again in the House for discussion Monday after- 
 noon, February 12th, so that immediate action is nec- 
 essary. Please see these persons if possible ; if not, 
 write or telephone. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 FRANK PALMER SPEARE, 
 
 Educational Director. 
 
 Mr. Evans also came out with an open letter to the 
 Senate urging the passage of our bill. 
 
 Senators Nason and Hunt were the natural cham- 
 pions of the bill in the Senate, being members of the 
 committee that reported it. Senator Nason, however, 
 
 201 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 took the most interest in the measure, and as he was 
 recognized to be a skillful debater and aggressive in 
 action, we were well pleased to have him become 
 sponsor of the bill in case there should be a debate. 
 
 That there would be a stiff battle in the Senate we 
 had no doubt. Senator Harry N. Stearns, the Repub- 
 lican leader of the Senate, a graduate of Harvard, was 
 especially active in opposition to the bill, and it was 
 reported that he would lead the opposition. 
 
 The opening gun was fired in the Senate on Feb- 
 ruary 19th, when Senator Stearns gave notice that 
 he should on the next day move for the adoption of 
 the following order. 
 
 "Ordered that the Board of Education be requested 
 to furnish the Senate with the following information: 
 
 (i) What is the proper standard of instruction or 
 efficiency to entitle a law school, or an educational 
 institution giving instruction in law, to grant the de- 
 gree of Bachelor of Laws? 
 
 (2) Has the Suffolk School of Law, located in 
 Tremont Temple, Boston, such a standard of instruc- 
 tion and efficiency as to make it proper that it should 
 be authorized to grant the degree of Bachelor of 
 Laws?" 
 
 I immediately got out a circular letter to the Sen- 
 ators urging defeat of the Stearns order; because the 
 State Board was not as well qualified to give this 
 information as the Bar Examiners who had already 
 declared the proper standard, which standard the 
 Suffolk Law School fully complied with. I quoted 
 from statistics to show that only four other evening 
 law schools in the United States maintained a four 
 year course, all the others three years or less. I also 
 quoted in full a letter from the Chairman of the Board 
 
 202 
 
VICTORY IN THE SENATE 
 
 of Bar Examiners giving the bar examination record 
 of our students and graduates. 
 
 I had the satisfaction, when the Senate convened, 
 on February 20th, of seeing the majority of the Sen- 
 ators open their mail (they seem to make a practice 
 of reading their mail during the formal Committee 
 Report stage of the session) and observing the length 
 of time spent with my letter. I sat in the gallery and 
 could easily identify my letter by the school seal on 
 the letterhead. 
 
 The order was finally reached, and Senator Stearns 
 opened the debate. After what I had experienced m 
 the House debates, the Senate affair was mild by 
 comparison. 
 
 Snator Arthur L. Nason was the chief speaker for 
 our side, but quite a number of short speeches were 
 made on both sides before the matter was put to vote. 
 On a roll call, the Stearns order was killed by the 
 emphatic vote of 8 to 22, with four pairs. 
 
 The bill was passed to a third reading without fur- 
 ther opposition. Senator Stearns informed me that 
 he was through ; that Speare's letter which I had 
 mailed to the Senators had killed all chances of de- 
 feating the measure, so I need expect no further 
 trouble in the Senate. 
 
 He was true to his word. On the following day 
 the bill passed to engrossment and was soon returned 
 to the House for the enactment stage. 
 
 203 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 The Bill Goes to Governor Foss. 
 
 We now felt that all legislative dangers had been 
 overcome and that our charter was as good as signed. 
 Rumors came to us, however, that Haines would make 
 a desperate effort to kill the bill on enactment. So 
 alarming became these rumors that I sent the fol- 
 lowing letter to every member of the House who had 
 voted for our bill: — 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 The Suffolk Law School bill for which you so 
 kindly voted has won an overwhelming victory in 
 the Senate — 22 — 8. The bill will return to the House 
 Monday for enactment. I have just learned that our 
 opponents are planning to endeavor to kill the bill on 
 enactment. Now, we have won fairly and honorably 
 and I feel assured that you will do your utmost to 
 prevent selfish partisans of a wholly selfish opposi- 
 tion from depriving us of the fruits of victory. May 
 we count upon you to be present without fail at 
 Monday's session to vote for the enactment of our 
 bill? 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 GLEASON L. ARCHER, Dean. 
 Feb. 23, 1912. 
 
 204 
 
THE BILL GOES TO GOVERNOR FOSS 
 
 But the bill did not return to the House Monday 
 for enactment. Tuesday, February 27th, however, I 
 was informed that the bill had been engrossed in 
 concurrence,, and was then in the hands of the chair- 
 man of the committee on engrossed bills, Walter R. 
 Meins. It will be remembered that Mr. Meins was a 
 firm friend of the school and had spoken for the bill 
 twice in the House. 
 
 It is a custom in the House, when bills are ready 
 to be enacted, for the chairman of the committee to 
 cause them to be placed on the speaker's desk and for 
 the speaker, at the first lull in proceedings or during 
 the formal part of the session, to present the bills to 
 the House. In three years of observation I never saw 
 but one attempt made to kill a bill on enactment, and 
 that attempt was made on our bill. 
 
 From my seat in the House gallery, I saw our bill 
 placed on the speaker's desk. I noted with concern 
 that he paid no attention to it. Several of our friends 
 who were watching it went to the Speaker's desk to 
 request action, but the Speaker declined. He did not 
 in fact find it convenient to touch the bill until the 
 business was over for the day and the members were 
 leaving. 
 
 He then called the bill very distinctly (not in the 
 monotonous undertone customary with bills to be en- 
 acted.) Haines sprang to his feet and moved to have 
 the enactment clause of the bill stricken out. Such 
 action would defeat the measure. Fortunately a few of 
 our friends were in the chamber, and one of them, I 
 have now forgotten who it was, challenged such action 
 on the ground that there was not a quorum present. 
 Such was the case, so the House was declared adjourned. 
 
 The bill had been saved; for before the House con- 
 
 205 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 i 
 
 vened on the following day I had stationed friendly 
 members of the House at every entrance to acquaint the 
 other members as they arrived of the attempt to 
 assassinate our charter. The indignation was so gen- 
 eral that no further action was attempted. The bill 
 was then enacted February 28th as a matter of regular 
 routine in the House, and February 29th in the Senate. 
 The fight had occupied six weeks of time. Having 
 been "in the harness" over fifteen hours a day five days 
 a week, I was so exhausted physically that it was with 
 effort that I kept up at all. I had found the long after- 
 noons in the legislature when waiting for our bill to be 
 reached most exhausting of all. 
 
 My friends had frequently urged me to give up my 
 regular attendance, but I had persisted because I found 
 that when any new move of the opposition was made 
 instant action was our only salvation; and I dared not 
 trust it to others who had many distracting duties that 
 might blind them to what was going on. I was there 
 with a single purpose, to watch the bill — and I watched 
 it to the end. 
 
 Now that the end of the long vigil had come I felt 
 like taking a week's sleep ; but rumors had come to me 
 with disconcerting frequency that Governor Foss would 
 veto our bill. It seemed incredible that a Democratic 
 Governor would veto a bill that had the support of every 
 Democratic Senator and of eighty per cent, of the Dem- 
 ocrats in the House. Both General Bartlett and Mr. 
 Vahey, of our trustees, had been Democratic candidates 
 for governor. To them, and to Mr. O'Connell, Foss 
 owed in large measure his election as governor. That he 
 would affront them by vetoing the bill — in effect to 
 declare them unworthy to be entrusted with degree 
 granting power — was absolutely beyond belief. 
 
 206 
 
THE BILL GOES TO GOVERNOR FOSS 
 
 But there was still another reason why Foss should 
 not act. He was trustee of the Y. M. C. A. Law School, 
 and, as an interested party, could not honorably veto 
 the bill. 
 
 But when I saw with my own eyes, as well as being 
 credibly informed of other such happenings, that men 
 who had fought our bill most persistently were lingering 
 in the executive offices, I decided not to take chances on 
 the governor, but to wait upon him with a delegation of 
 our friends. 
 
 207 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XL VI. 
 
 Veto and Defeat. 
 
 On the day that the bill was enacted in the Senate, 
 February 29th, 1912, I gathered together the faculty and ^ 
 four trustees, (General Bartlett, Mr. Boynton, Mr. 
 Evans and myself), as a delegation to wait upon the gov- 
 ernor. By good fortune, we met in the State House 
 Judge Thomas P. Riley, then a close adviser of Foss. 
 Judge Riley was a good friend of the school, and went 
 with us to the governor's office. 
 
 We were duly presented to the governor. The whole 
 party stood, the governor himself standing, plump, sleek 
 and self-satisfied, during the conference. Judge Riley 
 was the first speaker. General Bartlett, Mr. Boynton and 
 Mr. Evans also spoke. I myself spoke at some length, 
 for the governor seemed disposed to ask me questions. 
 They were the time worn objections that we had re- 
 futed hundreds of times in the last six weeks. 
 
 We departed somewhat besmeared with gubernatorial 
 "soft soap," for the "Old Boy" was in fine fettle and up 
 to his usual game of beguiling his intended victims 
 with pleasant words. Not knowing the man, I was 
 quite convinced of favorable action, and it came to me 
 as a distinct shock when Judge Riley declared, when 
 we reached the outer corridor, "I'm afraid the Old 
 Boy will veto that bill. He acted just like it to me." 
 
 That night I wrote a long letter to the governor, re- 
 viewing all the arguments that had been advanced 
 
 208 
 
THE BILL GOES TO GOVERNOR FOSS 
 
 against the bill, answering them briefly, paying special 
 attention to the question he had raised of why the State 
 Board of Education should not be consulted. I quote 
 this portion of the letter: "Now they are carrying these 
 exploded arguments to you, and trying to induce you to 
 do what the Committee on Education refused to do, 
 what the House refused to do, what the Senate by an 
 overwhelming vote refused to do — refer the matter to 
 the State Board of Education." 
 
 "After the attempt in the House had failed, our op- 
 ponents repeatedly declared in debate that the Board 
 of Education was opposed to the bill and urged that as 
 a reason why the bill should be killed. Dean Speare, in 
 one of his circular letters by which he directed the 
 attack upon us, declared "All we desire is that the bill be 
 referred to the State Board of Education," and in a 
 letter written on the following day, a copy of which I 
 gave you today, he asks the friends of the Y. M. C. A. 
 to ask their Representatives and Senators to vote 
 against the bill, thus demonstrating that he consid- 
 ered reference to the Board as equivalent to killing 
 the bill. 
 
 "Now I ask you, as a common sense proposition, if 
 your enemies should try repeatedly to drag you into a 
 certain alley, would you not be justified in suspecting 
 from that fact alone that that alley was not a healthy 
 place for you? But we have positive evidence that the 
 chairman of this Board, and the only lawyer on the 
 Board, has without the slightest investigation declared 
 his hostility to our bill. Therefore, we have double 
 reason to shun this particular alley." 
 
 On the following day I drew up a formal paper signed 
 by all the incorporators, setting forth all the essential 
 facts concerning the school, analyzing the vote in the 
 
 209 
 
BUILDI^rc A SCHOOL 
 
 
 House and Senate and closing with a strong appeal for 
 favorable action. 
 
 On this day, also, Mr. Vahey and Mr. O'Connell 
 had separate conferences with the governor. Delega- 
 tions from both House and Senate waited upon him in 
 our behalf. 
 
 But without notice to us, a fact which came to my 
 knowledge a year later, the governor gave a secret hear- 
 ing on our bill to which only the avowed enemies of the 
 school were invited. The fact of this hearing was dis- 
 closed to me in a remark dropped by WilHam G. Thomp- 
 son, Esq., in December, 1912, nine months after it oc- 
 curred. Mr. Thompson was one of those present. Upon 
 questioning him he gave me the names of many of 
 those who attended the hearing. 
 
 The first positive evidence that I received of the gov- 
 ernor's hostility was when, in response to a telephone 
 request, I called at the office of the State Board of Edu- 
 cation and found to my utter amazement that Governor 
 Foss had referred the whole matter to Commissioner 
 .Snedden. 
 
 But most amazing of all was the fact that my personal 
 letter to the Governor, in which I had paid my respects 
 in no uncertain terms to the State Board, was upon Mr, 
 Snedden's desk — doubtless to put him in a favorable 
 frame of mind toward us. 
 
 From that moment I was sure of the fate of our 
 bill. The governor was seeking a pretext to veto it. 
 That he would secure such a pretext from this 
 source, I was as certain as that the sun would rise on 
 the following day. 
 
 Commissioner Snedden had called me to ask a few 
 questions and arrange a hearing, to which I could 
 
 210 
 
VETO AND DEFEAT 
 
 bring one other of the trustees or faculty. I named 
 Mr. Evans as my associate, and departed with the 
 solemn assurance that I would be notified of the time 
 and place of the hearing. But this promise was never 
 kept. No hearing took place, and the first word that 
 I received from Commissioner Snedden was that he 
 had rendered his report to the governor, and he re- 
 fused to show me even a copy of the report. 
 
 The report, moreover, contained the grossly inac- 
 curate statement that a charter once granted in Mas- 
 sachusetts could not be revoked (a powerful reason 
 for a veto if there was any question as to the rights 
 of the matter) and had we been permitted to see it 
 this statement would never have gotten into Foss's 
 veto message, as it did. 
 
 The learned commissioner later excused himself for 
 this grave mistake by declaring that he got his infor- 
 mation from Professor of Harvard Law School, a 
 
 sad commentary on the legal knowledge of that dis- 
 tinguished authority ; for the law laid down by the 
 ancient Dartmouth College case, which the professor 
 evidently had in mind, has been abrogated in Massa- 
 chusetts by statute for over eighty years. 
 
 The Educational Octopus had gotten us at la.st. 
 Governor Foss vetoed the bill and incorporated Com- 
 missioner Snedden's astonishing interpretation of law 
 in his veto message. 
 
 One more stormy day in the House, when the veto 
 was acted upon, and our 1912 charter was quietly and 
 decently interred. 
 
 On the day of the veto I posted the following notice 
 on the bulletin board and will ofifer it here as the epi- 
 taph of our ill-fated measure: 
 
 211 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 "To the Students : 
 
 Governor Foss's veto of our bill will be fought to 
 the last ditch, but if we fail to pass it over his veto, 
 it will not affect the school in the slightest degree. 
 The school will continue precisely as before. We 
 have lost nothing that we possessed before the fight 
 began, but in reality have gained much through the 
 advertising that the school has received through the 
 press. I thank the students one and all for the splen-| 
 did spirit of loyalty they have manifested throughout. 
 
 Gleason L. Archer." 
 March 8, 1912. 
 
 The incorporators issued a public statement scor- 
 ing the governor for his action and prophesying that 
 he would live to regret his action ; a prophecy that has 
 in all probability been amply fulfilled. 
 
 212 
 
 i 
 
PREPARING FOR SECOND LEGISLATIVE CONTEST 
 
 CHAPTER XL VII. 
 
 Preparing for the Second Legislative Contest. 
 
 The school year of 1911-1912, despite the great con- 
 test in the legislature with its heavy demands upon 
 my time, had been a most successful year from all 
 points of viev/. My own courses in both departments 
 had gone on much as usual, and they would have been 
 the ones to suffer if any, owing to my personal activi- 
 ties in the legislative contest. 
 
 But a wonderful spirit of loyalty and good fellow- 
 ship had sprung up in the school. There was not a 
 luke-warm individual in the entire student body. It 
 was then that we laid the firm foundation for the 
 greater Suffolk Law School that now exists. Men 
 cannot be drawn together into more certain unity of 
 thought and action than by some common wrong or 
 injustice that must be righted at their hands. 
 
 The year 1912 saw perpetrated upon the Suffolk 
 Law School a great injustice which roused in every 
 student of the school a spirit of intense resentment, 
 that translated itself into concerted action in the 
 school's behalf and loyalty to the institution itself; 
 for men love best that for which they have fought 
 most valiantly. 
 
 The January 1912 bar examinations had resulted 
 in a splendid showing for the school. Our annual 
 school banquet which occurred shortly after the veto 
 
 213 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 contest, was a great success. The spirit of battle was 
 strong among us. Everyone pledged his efforts to 
 the defeat of our enemies in the legislature and vic- 
 tory for the school on the following year. 
 
 The close of school in May found no abatement of 
 zeal either among the students or the corporation 
 members. The sentiments of the latter may be 
 judged from the fact that during the summer of 1912 
 two sets of Massachusetts Reports were added to the 
 school library, one the gift of General Charles W. 
 Bartlett and the other presented by Wilmot R. Evans, 
 Jr. These were the first gifts the school ever received 
 from any person other than myself. 
 
 I have neglected to mention that before our legis- 
 lative fight began I had given the school to the cor- 
 poration (so that it might not be attacked on the 
 ground that it was a privately owned institution.) At 
 the next meeting of the corportion this deed of gift 
 had been formally accepted. Since that date, my 
 connection with the institution has been merely that 
 of an executive officer. The results have more than 
 justified the sacrifice. 
 
 The summer advertising campaign, after the wide 
 publicity that the legislative contest had brought us, 
 resulted in an increasing number of new students. 
 When the school opened in September, 1912, we were 
 gratified to learn that our total attendance had risen 
 from 94 of the previous year to 108 students. 
 
 The new men quickly assimilated the eager loyalty 
 of the upper classmen; and by the time the Septem- 
 ber primaries were over the entire student body were 
 thirsting for battle ; to help our friends and to defeat 
 our enemies. It will be remembered that the year 
 1912 was the year of the national election, when the 
 
 214 
 
PREPARING FOR SECOND LEGISLATIVE CONTEST 
 
 Progressive Party made its appearance and stirred 
 both the old parties to great activity. 
 
 This also had its effect upon our students. "Bull 
 Moose" were proudly wearing their "founders 
 badges," and Democrats and Republicans were roam- 
 ing the corridors; but on the subject of Foss and the 
 legislative contest they were perfectly non-partisan. 
 
 At the request of the students, I posted a list of the 
 candidates for the legislature who had supported our 
 bill and also those who had opposed it, leaving it to 
 the students to do what they saw fit. But that they 
 were making themselves felt I was not long in doubt, 
 for many the dire threat was sent to me by distressed 
 opponents of the school, who declared that they were 
 being "shamefully knifed" by our students in their 
 district. 
 
 Even Haines made overtures of peace; but no at- 
 tention was paid to his plea, for he had given me too 
 many assurances during the legislative fight that he 
 had abandoned his opposition, only to spring some 
 new surprise upon us. Hence, we feared his prom- 
 ises now. The whole spirit of the school seemed to 
 be that we should teach the opposition that it was 
 not a healthy political pastime to continue to oppose 
 our bill in the legislature. 
 
 When the November election occurred, although 
 some of our friends had been defeated, the result was 
 the signal for rejoicing among the students because 
 of the defeat of many of our bitterest enemies. 
 
 I sent out personal letters to every new member 
 of the legislature, one clause of which was as follows: 
 "All we desire is your free, unbiased judgment. We 
 wish you to hear our story before making a decision, 
 for we know from last year's experience that the op- 
 
 215 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 position will speedily present their side of the case." 
 I later mailed to each an illustrated booklet and a 
 school catalogue. 
 
 Although Governor Foss had been re-elected, we 
 had nevertheless resolved to present our bill to the 
 legislature of 191 3. Again we advertised the bill in 
 the newspapers as required by law. 
 
 There had in fact been a new law enacted in the 
 
 spring of 1912, which provided that all educational in- 
 stitutions applying thereafter for power to confer de- 
 grees must be investigated and reported upon by the 
 State Board of Education. This law was of course 
 aimed at the Suffolk Law School, being fathered by 
 Senator Stearns and supported by the Educational 
 Trust. But we had not opposed its passage, believing 
 so to do would injure our cause more than it would 
 help it. The State Board with all its accumulated 
 animosity would, therefore, have its opportunity to 
 attack us before the legislature. 
 
 From remarks that had been made the previous 
 year, I divined that they would centre their whole at- 
 tack upon our Day Department, which was of course 
 our weakest point. The original charter had con- 
 tained a provision that might be construed as giving 
 our day department the right even to confer degrees 
 of Doctor of Laws as well as the Bachelors degree. 
 
 I reasoned, therefore, that since our Day Depart- 
 ment was absurdly small, and a mere experiment, I 
 could effectively checkmate the State Board and elim- 
 inate much of the hostility of the day law schools 
 by striking out the provision as to the Day Depart- 
 ment in our 1913 charter. 
 
 To plan was to act, for although some of the trus- 
 tees were opposed to the plan, yet the majority fa- 
 
 216 
 
PREPARING FOR SECOND LEGISLATIVE CONTEST 
 
 vored the idea, so I drew the new charter in the form 
 indicated. We received no new day students after 
 1913 and continued the department only so long as 
 to graduate those already enrolled, closing the Day 
 Department officially in May, 1915. 
 
 217 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER XL VIII. 
 
 The Bar Association Investigation. 
 
 Late in December the first evidence of activity of 
 the opposition developed. General Bartlett called me 
 to his office one day and told me that William G. 
 Thompson, Esq., a Harvard alumnus of very pro- 
 nounced views, had told him that he was on a commit- 
 tee of the Bar Association to investigate the school, 
 and desired him to arrange the matter with me. 
 
 I invited the gentleman in question to come with 
 his committee and investigate as much as he desired. 
 It may be mentioned in passing that the chairman of 
 the committee was a man who had been president of 
 the Corporation of the Y. M. C. A. Law School for 
 many years ; that it consisted chiefly of men who were 
 closely identified with the other law schools. 
 
 The sub-committee that investigated the school 
 were Mr. Thompson and Henry A. Wyman, formerly 
 a professor in Boston University Law School. That 
 the report would be adverse, I was as certain as that 
 the two gentlemen were in my office when they made 
 their first visit. This does not by any means reflect 
 upon the integrity of either, for they are both able 
 and conscientious men, but they were so hopelessly 
 prejudiced that there was no possibility of reporting 
 except in one way. 
 
 218 
 
BAR ASSOCIATION INVESTIGATION 
 
 Mr. Thompson himself is a picturesque character, 
 large and ruddy of countenance, very aggressive of 
 manner, and the most outspoken lawyer that it was 
 ever my fortune to meet. 
 
 As an example of his refreshing frankness, he an- 
 nounced the purpose of his first visit to the school 
 something in this manner: 
 
 "I don't want this job of investigation. From your 
 standpoint, I'm probably the worst lawyer in the city 
 of Boston to investigate you. I don't mind telling you 
 candidly that I don't believe any evening school should 
 have the right to confer degrees. If I had my way I 
 would shut up every law school in the United States, 
 Harvard included, for six years. There are too many 
 lawyers already." 
 
 In spite of his prejudice, however, he and Mr. Wy- 
 man set about their work with conscientious thorough- 
 ness. They visited lectures, and also gave a hearing 
 before making their report. They had the courtesy, 
 moreover, to give me a copy of the report before it 
 went to the Committee on Education. 
 
 While the conclusion of their report was adverse, I 
 was surprised and pleased at some of the genuine com- 
 pliments paid to the school and to me. 
 
 In one place in the report it was said : "Mr. Archer 
 has had little experience in the practice of law, but he 
 appears to us to have considerable natural gifts as a 
 teacher, and a genuine interest in teaching." 
 
 Again, "One cannot, however, pass from the subject 
 of Mr. Archer's books without expressing admiration 
 for the energy and ability which have enabled him un- 
 der such difficulties and at such an early age to occupy 
 a place in the field of respectable legal authorship." 
 
 219 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 Of the school, the report declares: "We were im- 
 pressed by the spirit of interest, earnestness and strong 
 desire to learn manifested by the students at the lec- 
 tures which we attended. The discussions carried on 
 between instructors and pupils were intelligent and in- 
 teresting." 
 
 Again, "In the course of this investigation, we have 
 acquired a respect for Mr. Archer and the instructors 
 of the Suflfolk School of Law whose work we observed. 
 We do not think they should be charged with mercen- 
 ary or other improper motives. The students of the 
 Sufifolk School of Law receive more than adequate re- 
 turn for the tuition which they pay." 
 
 Their conclusion was, "It also seems to us clear be- 
 yond reasonable doubt that it would be a serious and 
 unwarranted departure from the high standards and 
 traditional policy of this Commonwealth in regard to 
 institutions of higher education to confer upon the 
 Suffolk School of Law the power to grant the degree 
 of Bachelor of Laws or any other degree." 
 
 220 
 
BOARD OF EDUCATION'S "INVESTIGATION" 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 The Board of Education's "Investigation." 
 
 It will be remembered that Dr. Snedden of the 
 State Board of Education had made a lengthy report to 
 Governor Foss on our bill. In this report he stated 
 that it was highly desirable that a careful investigation 
 should be made "with special reference to the scope, 
 fitness and probable success of the Suffolk Law 
 School in maintaining the standards of legal educa- 
 tion." 
 
 Shortly after this and through the agency of Sen- 
 ator Stearns and others who had opposed our bill, a 
 law was enacted, (Chapter 481, Acts of 1912) giving 
 the State Board power to make the investigation re- 
 ferred to, and providing that the State Board's report 
 should be forwarded to the legislature during the first 
 week of the session. 
 
 I notified the Board in November that the school 
 would present a new petition to the legislature. I 
 naturally expected prompt action on their part, but 
 not until January 3rd, 1913, did I hear in any way 
 from the Board. On that day, however, they filed 
 with me a list of seventeen interrogatories which I 
 answered in writing. 
 
 One week later I received a letter which speaks for 
 itself. 
 
 221 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 Massachusetts Board of Education 
 
 Ford Building, Boston. 
 January lo, 1913. 
 Mr. Gleason L. Archer, 
 
 Tremont Temple Building, Tremont St., 
 Boston, Massachusetts. 
 "At a meeting of the Board of Education today, a 
 special committee composed of Mr. Fish, Mr. Conant 
 and Miss Arnold were appointed to take such action 
 as may be necessary in connection with the submis- 
 sion of the Board's recommendations to accompany 
 your petition to the legislature. 
 
 "Mr. Fish and Miss Arnold live in Boston, and I 
 can arrange that you meet them sometime next week. 
 Mr. Conant is Dean of the Polytechnic Institute in 
 Worcester, and inasmuch as he must leave for the 
 west next Wednesday, he begs that you will endeavor 
 to see him in Worcester, Monday at three o'clock in 
 the afternoon, which hour he will reserve for you. I 
 am sorry to have to trouble you, but since Mr. Conant 
 is a very busy man, I must ask you to endeavor to see 
 him on that date and explain your case to him. 
 
 "I will communicate with you later about seeing 
 Miss Arnold and Mr. Fish. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 (Signed) David Snedden." 
 
 January 11, 1913. 
 Dr. David Snedden, 
 
 Ford Building, Boston. 
 Dear Dr. Snedden, — 
 
 "Your letter reached me by special delivery last 
 evening but, as it was then too late for me to get in 
 
 222 
 
BOARD OF EDUCATION'S "INVESTIGATION" 
 
 touch with any of my associates on the Board of 
 Trustees of the school, I could not answer until today. 
 
 "I see no reason why I should go to Worcester to in- 
 terview Mr. Conant, even though he is "a very busy 
 man" and will depart for the west next Wednesday. 
 He was appointed to the committee yesterday, and I 
 presume the Board of Education was well aware of 
 the limited time at his command. 
 
 "We have already had too much of these investiga- 
 tions on paper. Our school is in Tremont Temple. If 
 your committee desire to make an investigation they 
 should make it as the sub-committee of the Bar Asso- 
 ciation did — by actual visit at the school when it was 
 in session, supplemented by conferences and a hearing. 
 We have always been ready to give anybody who de- 
 sired to investigate our school the fullest opportunity 
 to do so. 
 
 "Perhaps you will remember that last year the op- 
 ponents of our bill struggled for six weeks to have it 
 referred to the State Board of Education. We opposed 
 such reference because we were credibly informed that 
 the chairman and only lawyer on the board had with- 
 out the slightest investigation, openly condemned our 
 school. The bill was not referred to your board. 
 
 "When the bill went to the Governor for his signa- 
 ture, he called upon you as an expert for your opinion. 
 You promised me that we should have a hearing on 
 the matter before you reported to the Governor, and 
 were to notify me of the date. You did not notify me 
 and we had no hearing. You sent a long letter to the 
 Governor, in which you stated as an expert that, "in 
 Massachusetts, when the power is once given to issue 
 degrees, the State exercises no further supervision and 
 
 223 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 under existing laws, is not able to rescind the author- 
 ity once given." This statement was inaccurate in 
 every respect, although uttered in ignorance — but an 
 ignorance that was inexcusable under the circum- 
 stances. For more than eighty years it has been the 
 law in this state that the legislature could amend, al- 
 ter, or repeal the charter of any corporation created 
 by it or under general laws. (See Mass. R. L. Chap. 
 109.) 
 
 "You further recommended that the bill be vetoed 
 (or called for a delay which meant veto) so that the 
 State Board of Education could have ample time to 
 investigate. The governor followed your suggestion 
 and vetoed our bill. 
 
 "Then, in order that your board have power to in- 
 vestigate, a bill was passed authorizing such investi- 
 gation and calling for a report from your board during 
 the first week of the legislative session. 
 
 "Our school has been in session for a total of seven 
 months since the governor's veto; yet no member of 
 the State Board of Education has ever visited our 
 school, nor even talked with any of the school officials 
 concerning it. In November, I suggested to you the 
 advisability of investigation, and also spoke to another 
 member of the board concerning it. We advertised in 
 the newspapers as required by law. On January i, 
 1913, I filed with you our petition, as required by law. 
 On Jan. 3rd, you sent me a set of interrogatories to be 
 answered in writing, which answers I returned to you 
 January 7th. 
 
 "Now, after the school has closed for our annual 
 mid-year vacation of two weeks — and two days after the 
 time set by statute for your report on our bill has ex- 
 
 224 
 
BOARD OF EDUCATION'S "INVESTIGATION" 
 
 pired — your board appoints a committee of three to 
 investigate our school. One of them must leave Mass- 
 achusetts on Wednesday. Of the two remaining mem- 
 bers, one is the very person to whose prejudiced atti- 
 tude we objected twelve months ago. 
 
 "It is a great hardship and handicap to us to be in- 
 vestigated when our school is closed for vacation, but 
 if we can have notice of a hearing, we will endeavor 
 to get together some of our corporation and faculty 
 members and meet your committee as a committee, 
 somewhere in Boston, preferably at the school." 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 GLEASON L. ARCHER, 
 
 Dean. 
 
 Some days after this correspondence Miss Arnold 
 called at my office, full of righteous indignation ; and 
 upbraided me for obliging the members of the sub-com- 
 mittee to call at the school and waste their valuable 
 time. She reminded me reproachfully that the Board 
 were not paid for their services. I defended myself 
 mildly on the ground that we had fought for six weeks 
 in the legislature the previous year to avoid troubling- 
 the distinguished Board ; but that the zeal of the oppo- 
 sition, including certain members of the Board, had 
 prevailed against us. 
 
 On January 20th, Mr. Fish, busy, bustling and bellig- 
 erent, honored me with a call. We had a few minutes of 
 interesting and lively conversation and he departed. The 
 report had already been "tentatively" drawn before 
 Mr. Fish called, as was admitted by Dr. Snedden at 
 the time. It was now filed with the legislature. 
 
 225 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL I 
 
 This was all the investigation ever made of our school 
 by the State Board of Education which opposed our 
 school so zealously during the three years of our con- 
 test. That it was unfair and inadequate is obvious to 
 everybody. 
 
 The Board in the report which it filed with the 
 legislature advanced four tests as the criterion for 
 law schools and ruled against our school because it did 
 not meet these tests. In answer to their report, I issued 
 a pamphlet entitled "State Board of Education vs. Suf- 
 folk Law School," from which the following is an ex- 
 tract : 
 
 THE FOUR TESTS PROPOSED. 
 
 I, "A resident faculty, whose chief purpose it is to 
 give instruction required by the institution," etc. In other 
 words, they believe that a lawyer who teaches one even- 
 ing or two evenings a week (none of our instructors 
 teach on more than two of the three school evenings), 
 should abandon his private practice and devote 
 himself entirely to the work. Could any body of 
 sane men propose such a test if seeking a bona fide 
 objection to our school? A live lawyer can carry 
 on his practice and still do ample justice to one or 
 two evenings a week of teaching, as the State Board 
 well know, for all the teachers at the Y. M. C. A. 
 L,aw School carry on their private practice ; prac- 
 tically every member of the faculty at Boston University 
 Law School maintains his private practice, even to Dean 
 Albers himself ; and at Harvard Law School, where they 
 pay princely salaries, many of the faculty practice law. 
 In other words, the State Board have proposed a test 
 for our school that no other law school in Massachusetts 
 
 226 
 
BOARD OF EDUCATION'S "INVESTIGATION" 
 
 could meet, and I cannot credit them with such utter 
 ignorance of conditions as to suppose that they are una- 
 ware of that fact. The first test is, therefore, abso- 
 lutely unfair and valueless. 
 
 2. "An adequate endowment, etc." This point has 
 been fully covered under interrogatory 14* and the 
 reader is respectfully referred to the answer to the same 
 as submitted to the State Board of Education. After 
 reading the answer, the reader may draw his own con- 
 clusions as to whether this test is a fair one. 
 
 3. "Affiliation with other institutions of higher learn- 
 ing." If it is a disqualification for a professional school 
 to be unaffiliated it does not appear that the Massachu- 
 
 * Question 14. How is the financial future of the school guar- 
 anteed? 
 
 Answer. As to the financial future of the school, perhaps no 
 more reassuring picture could be drawn than that indicated by 
 an eminent expert on Evening Law Schools, Frank Palmer 
 Speare, for fifteen years dean of the Y. M. C. A. Law School. 
 He spoke in opposition to our bill last year before the legisla- 
 tive committee. He declared that, owing to the fact that even- 
 ing law sciiools needed very little and in the way of equipment 
 and could be run at comparatively small expense, they possessed 
 tremendous money making possibilities. 
 
 If that is true, then endowment is unnecessary. It can very 
 easily be demonstrated that evening law schools, unlike day 
 law schools, can be run at a very modest figure, so that with a 
 patronge of even one-third of the evening students now study- 
 ing law schools needed very little in the way of equipment 
 a margin to cover all necessary expenses. As for "tremendous 
 money making possibilities," that can only exist when one school 
 has a monopoly of the granting of degrees and a resulting at- 
 tendance of four-fifths of the evening students of Massachu- 
 setts. If there should be a decline in the number of students so 
 that endowment became necessary, it is reasonabl to suppose 
 that as the school grows older in a community traditionally so 
 liberal to educational institutions as Massachusetts, it will 
 readily receive the modest endowment that would suffice for 
 all its needs. 
 
 227 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 setts Institute of Technology has been in any way handi- 
 capped because it has no college, divinity, or medical 
 school connected with it. In fact it would appear that a 
 Board of Trustees who could give undivided attention to 
 a single department, could accomplish greater results 
 than if their attention were divided among several de- 
 partments. For instance, a Board of Trustees, all of 
 whom are lawyers, as in the case of our school, ought to 
 be able to run a law school far better than they could run 
 a university with departments of law, arts, medicine, 
 divinity, etc. 
 
 Furthermore, there are eighteen evening law schools 
 in the United States, not connected with colleges or uni- 
 versities, that can confer degrees. 
 
 4. "Supervision by some body directly responsible to 
 the State and not financially interested in the institution." 
 
 As for the fourth test I have reason to believe that the 
 State Board are not advancing this argument in good 
 faith, but merely as another trumped up reason why they 
 should hold against our school. The reason for my 
 statement is this : 
 
 Mr. Fish advanced this argument in conversation with 
 me January 20, 191 3, and Dr. Hamilton and Commis- 
 sioner Snedden were present at the time. I assured 
 Mr. Fish that we would favor the creation of such a su- 
 pervising body, and proposed to him that the State Board 
 recommend to the present legislature the creation of the 
 body referred to. He hesitated and, when I pressed 
 him upon the matter he astonished me by replying, "It 
 would not be wise at present; Massachusetts isn't ready 
 for it. The time isnt ripe." He made this statement in 
 the presence of the two gentlemen to whom I have 
 already referred. I assured him that I considered his 
 attitude very extraordinary — opposing our school be- 
 
 228 
 
BOARD OF EDUCATION'S "INVESTIGATION" 
 
 cause this body had not yet been created, and yet refus- 
 ing to create such a body because the time was not ripe. 
 The four tests proposed by the State Board are, 
 therefore, virtually an acknowledgment by that body that 
 they cannot find genuine fault with our school and in 
 their frantic endeavor to find some justification for an 
 adverse repoirt, they have invented these specious tests." 
 
 229 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 Before the Committee on Education, 1913. 
 
 When Speaker Gushing announced the legislative 
 committees for the season of 1913, we had immediate 
 misgivings. It was at once evident that at least five 
 members of the Committee as named were enemies of 
 the school, for they had served during the previous 
 year; and we feared that out of the members who 
 were serving their first legislative term, and of whom 
 we had no record, there would be one or more to 
 espouse the cause of the opposition. 
 
 It was commonly reported that the committee was 
 "packed" against us, and that we were listed for de- 
 feat in the committee. 
 
 The situation was a critical one, for an adverse 
 committee report would render much more difficult 
 the passage of the bill. It should be added that our 
 only hope of success in case of another veto was to 
 pass the bill over the veto, which required a two 
 thirds vote in each branch. So defeat in committee, 
 even though the report was overturned by the House 
 and Senate, would assuredly defeat all chances of a 
 two thirds vote. 
 
 The committee hearing was listed for February 
 13th, and was very largely attended. There was prac- 
 tically no opposition except for the hostile report of 
 the State Board of Education. Because of the wide 
 
 230 
 
BEFORE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, 1913 
 
 interest in the bill, called forth by the previous yearV 
 contest, the newspapers now gave the progress of the 
 bill ample attention. I cannot better summarize the 
 hearing before the committee than by quoting from 
 the Boston Record of that date. 
 
 SOFPOLK LIIW JfiHOOL DEGREES 
 
 The committee on education gave a hearing on the 
 bill to permit the Suffolk Law School to grant the de- 
 gree of LL.B., the same bill which passed both 
 branches of the legislature last year, but was vetoed 
 by Gov. Foss at the suggestion of the state board of 
 education. Ex-Rep. Walter R. Meins appeared for the 
 petition. He said the school has been incorporated 
 for seven years and has at present 150 students. It 
 has graduated 30 students, of whom 24 have success- 
 fully passed the bar examinations. 
 
 The bill was vetoed last year by Gov. Foss, acting 
 upon information which the petitioners believe was 
 erroneous. The report of the board of education to 
 him stated that the granting of this right to the school 
 would be irrevocable. Such is not the case. The leg- 
 islature can at any time rescind or revoke a right 
 granted by a previous legislature, and would undoubt- 
 edly do so if sufficient cause was shown. 
 
 Another reason given for the veto was that oppor- 
 tunity had not been offered for full and complete in- 
 vestigation of the school. That opportunity has since 
 been afforded, and the results of that investigation are 
 before the committee. 
 
 Several years ago the legislature granted the right 
 to grant degrees to the Y. M. C. A. law school. There 
 
 231 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 is no good reason why a similar right should not be 
 granted to the Sufifolk school. This is an evening law 
 school where young men who cannot give their days 
 to study can qualify as members of the bar. Its stand- 
 ards are high and it has the endorsement and support 
 of some of the best-known lawyers in Boston. 
 
 Charles W. Bartlett, a trustee of the school, said 
 that every opportunity has been given for thorough 
 investigation of the school by the committee of the 
 Bar Ass'n. This is a very important crisis in the 
 state's handling of institutions of learning. The grad- 
 uates of this school are ornaments to their profession 
 and to the legislature itself. There is no good reason 
 why an evening high school should not have the op- 
 portunity to produce men and lawyers if its stand- 
 ards are high enough. 
 
 METHOD OF INVESTIGATION 
 
 Gleason L. Archer, dean of the Suffolk School of 
 Law, called attention to the mode adopted by the 
 state board of education to investigate the institution 
 upon which it filed its report. The order for an in- 
 vestigation was passed by the last legislature, and the 
 state board of education did not turn a hand towards 
 making any investigation until the first of January of 
 this year. At that time two of the members of the 
 state board of education called at the office of the 
 dean of the Sufifolk School, "looked over the office 
 furniture," according to Dean Archer, and after ask- 
 ing a few perfunctory questions, concluded its investi- 
 gation. 
 
 The state board have not attempted to study the 
 standards of study in the institution ; have not at- 
 tended the sessions of the school, and their report is 
 
 232 J- 
 
 1 
 
BEFORE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, 1913 
 
 based on the most superficial investigation. It is this 
 report, based on that investigation that the legislature 
 is asked to accept as determining the question in is- 
 sue. 
 
 ^'BOARD WAS HOSTILE." 
 
 Dean Archer called attention also to the hostility 
 of the state board of education to his institution, 
 Frederick P. Fish, the president of the board, before 
 the matter even came before the legislature, at the last 
 session, made the statement in the presence of Dr. 
 Snedden that he was opposed to the measure. 
 
 Dean Archer then went on to explain the work of 
 his school. He explained that no student can grad- 
 uate who has not at least a high school education or 
 its equivalent. The standard of the school is as high 
 as that of any evening law school. The instructors 
 are all practicing attorneys of experience and training. 
 Every facility afforded by other evening law schools 
 in the country are afforded to the students of the Suf- 
 folk School of Law. He reviewed in detail the work 
 of the school, calling attention to the success of these 
 students who have been admitted to practice." 
 
 For some days after the hearing we were in doubt as 
 to the result. The exultation of our opponents, how- 
 ever, led them to commit the fatal error of delay after 
 they had won in committee. One of them tauntingly 
 advised us that the report of "leave to withdraw" 
 would be filed the next day, and advised us scornfully 
 to get a certain member of the committee to vote for 
 the bill ; for a change of one vote would give us the 
 victory — the committee being divided 6 to 5 against us. 
 
 We accepted his challenge. Before the session 
 opened the next day one of our students, who was a 
 
 233 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 popular representative from the senatorial district of 
 the member referred to, stirred up so formidable a 
 tempest for the worthy senator that he actually re- 
 versed his vote and sulkily agreed to sign the bill if it 
 w^ere brought to him. 
 
 The representative in question hurried to House 
 Chairman Haines to acquaint him with the Senator's 
 change of front. The report had already been filed 
 with the clerk of the House. It was not too late, how- 
 ever, to recall the report; it not having been read in 
 the House. So the bill was rushed over to the Senate 
 for the desired signature. 
 
 Thus it was that we won the contest in committee. 
 The line up of the committee is sufficiently indicated in 
 the following quotation from the Boston Journal of 
 that date : — 
 
 "The committee on education has at last been able 
 to sit down for a seance with the Suffolk School of 
 Law problem. As understood now. Representatives 
 Haines, Armstrong, Sanborn, Wood and Grady are 
 against granting the request of the petitioners. Rep- 
 resentatives Lawler, Greenwood, Morill, Halley, Ross 
 and Clark are reporting for it. 
 
 "The delay was because of the absence of Senator 
 Ross and a doubt in the mind of Dr. Clark. There 
 will be a mighty sharp battle in the Legislature over 
 it, a battle which promises to be as long continued as 
 that of a year ago, when it became a fighting issue." 
 
 234 
 
THE BILL PASSES THE LEGISLATURE 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 The Bill Passes the Legislature. 
 
 The question of who would champion our bill in the 
 House of 1913 had given us much anxious thought, for 
 Representative Parks, who had fought so ably for its 
 passage, was no longer in the legislature, having been 
 appointed to the newly-created Industrial Accident 
 Board. 
 
 It soon became apparent however that Representa- 
 tive James F. Griffin of Ward 22, Boston, who was 
 now a student in the school, could be relied upon to 
 watch the bill and battle for its interests as valiantly 
 as Parks had done. Two other representatives had 
 recently enrolled at the school, Edward N. Dahlborg 
 of Brockton, and John J. Murphy of South Boston. 
 With their able assistance I had no fear of the issue 
 in the House. 
 
 The bill was in charge of Fred P. Greenwood for the 
 Committee on Education. But when the debate oc- 
 curred, February 25, 191 3, that gentleman was una- 
 voidably absent and Charles S. Lawler of Boston, also 
 a member of the committee, took his place. 
 
 The debate itself was very mild in comparison with 
 the previous year's contest. Representative Haines 
 led the opposition as previously, but not with the old 
 time animosity. He had already begun to manifest 
 
 235 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 symptoms of that change of view that arrayed him on 
 our side in the following year. The burden of his ar- 
 gument was the fact that the State Board of Educa- 
 tion and the Bar Association were opposed to the 
 granting of the charter. 
 
 Representative Griffin, in reply, scored the State 
 Board of Education and warmly defended the school. 
 
 Armstrong of Somerville and Duncan of Clinton op- 
 posed the measure, while Lawler of Boston, Underhill 
 of Somerville, John J. Murphy of Boston and Morrill 
 of Haverhill spoke in defense of the bill. 
 
 To my surprise and delight the bill was passed to a 
 third reading on a voice vote. I had expected that the 
 opposition would demand a roll call, but they did not. 
 On the following day the bill passed to engrossment. 
 
 Considerable newspaper notice was elicited by the 
 debate and its result. One Boston newspaper, the Rec- 
 ord, came out with an editorial approving the action 
 of the House. 
 
 In the Senate we had a new situation to meet, for 
 practically every senator who had spoken for our bill 
 the previous year was no longer a member of that 
 body, while nearly all our opponents in that body, 
 with some reinforcements, were still in evidence. By 
 good fortune we persuaded Senator Claude L. Allen 
 of Melrose to champion the bill. 
 
 There was a long delay on one pretext or another, 
 and it was not until March ii, 1913, that the bill came 
 up for debate in the Senate. I was an interested spec- 
 tator in the Senate gallery when Senator Stearns 
 opened up his verbal batteries against the bill. Al- 
 though Senator Allen was not a member of the Com- 
 mittee on Education, and had not heard our presenta- 
 
 236 
 
THE BILL PASSES THE LEGISLATURE 
 
 tion of the case, yet the delay in the senate had given 
 me ample time to supply him with all necessary in- 
 formation. 
 
 That he used such information very skilfully in the 
 senate debate is unquestioned. He quoted facts and 
 figures so convincingly that other senators rallied to 
 Steam's support. 
 
 Senator Fisher, with much sound and fury, plunged 
 into the debate with the announcement that he was 
 "going to tear the mask from the whole proposition," 
 but Senator Allen sharply demanded his authority for 
 his absurd charges, and he was obliged to lamely con- 
 fess that he had no proofs except his "own intuition 
 and common sense." 
 
 Senator Allen further punctured Fisher's charges of 
 "money-making institution" by showing that the total 
 revenues of the school did not exceed $5,000 a year — 
 hence that it could not be a source of profit to anyone. 
 
 Senator John H. Mack also spoke in favor of the 
 bill. 
 
 On a voice vote the bill was rejected, as all bills are 
 when there is opposition and the presiding officer is 
 himself opposed. Half a dozen men can shout "no" 
 louder than twice that number can shout "yes" ; partly 
 because of the greater ease of speaking the word, 
 but also because they have the advantage of having 
 heard the exact volume of sound of the "yes" vote. 
 
 A roll call was ordered and there was a great scurry- 
 ing to and fro in the Senator chamber. Senators came 
 in from the lobby and cloak rooms. When the vote 
 was recorded we had won by a vote of 17 to 10, with 
 four pairs. 
 
 237 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 A third reading had already taken place without 
 opposition, so this vote was on engrossment. Once 
 more the Suffolk Law School charter had passed suc- 
 cessfully through both branches of the legislature. 
 Within three days the measure was in the governor's 
 office, awaiting executive action. But the Educational 
 Octopus had been intrenched in the executive offices 
 for some days. 
 
 2,^8 
 
THE "PLEASANT EASTER" EPISODE 
 
 CHAPTER LII. 
 
 The "Pleasant Easter" Episode. 
 
 We had hoped that the passage of the bill for a 
 second time through the legislature, especially by so 
 sweeping a majority, would influence Governor Foss 
 to at least permit it to become a law without his signa- 
 ture. Some more optimistic political prophets de- 
 clared that now that he realized how popular the 
 measure had become he would sign it as a bid for 
 popularity. 
 
 The governor was then in the midst of one of his 
 comedy turns. This was his third term and he had 
 likened his terms of office to three pieces of pie and 
 hinted that he would like a fourth piece. The news- 
 papers had made much of it and he was taking advan- 
 tage of his opportunity by frequent allusions to his ap- 
 petite for pie. Popularity was what he most needed, 
 for no governor for many years had ever been given 
 a fourth term. The Democratic lieutenant-governor, 
 David I. Walsh, was his logical successor and, should 
 Foss run again, Walsh must either openly oppose him 
 in the primaries or be delayed another year. The 
 interest taken by politicians and citizens in the Foss 
 candidacy was therefore considerable. 
 
 Immediately upon enactment of the bill in the legis- 
 lature the students of the Suffolk Law School drew 
 up a petition to the Governor asking him not to veto 
 
 239 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 the bill without at least giving a public hearing at 
 which both friends and enemies of the bill could be 
 heard. 
 
 In commenting upon this editorially, the Boston 
 Journal remarked : 
 
 "There is an element of real pathos in the make-up 
 of the petition which has been sent to Governor Foss 
 from the students of the Suffolk Law School begging 
 that, if he has thought of vetoing the bill this year, 
 that they be given a public hearing at which they can 
 set forth their case. It may be that the document in 
 question has been framed by some clever attorney 
 for the school, but there is a ring of fair play in it 
 that commands attention," 
 
 The allusion to "clever attorney" in the editorial 
 was of course unfounded, for it was the work of the 
 students, drawn up in my office and merely submitted 
 to me for approval. 
 
 On the following day I wrote an open letter to the 
 Governor, reviewing the entire situation and present- 
 ing the strongest argument of which I was capable, 
 in an effort to influence him to allow the twice-re- 
 peated verdict of the legislature to stand. This letter 
 attracted some newspaper comment and I was much 
 gratified to have the Boston Advertiser come out with 
 a strong editorial review of the letter, its opening and 
 closing sentences being as follows : — 
 
 "The appeal which Dean Archer of the Suffolk Law 
 School has made to the governor is strong and con- 
 vincing. * * Governor Foss should approve the 
 bill." 
 
 Every legitimate effort was put forth to counteract 
 the manifest activity of the opposition. One of the 
 strongest moves that we made at that time was when 
 
 240 
 
THE "PLEASANT EASTER" EPISODE 
 
 I interviewed Grenville S. MacFarland, one of the 
 most influential advisers of the Governor, Mr, Mac- 
 Farland is a man of great ability and breadth of 
 vision. After a careful survey of the matter he warmly 
 espoused our cause and had repeated conferences with 
 the Governor in our behalf. 
 
 Under the law in Massachusetts if a bill remains in 
 the Governor's office for five days without the lat- 
 ter's signature it automatically becomes a law. Day 
 after day passed and no veto was reported. The last 
 day for executive action was Saturday, March 22, 1913. 
 When noon came and no news from the bill I aban- 
 doned the long vigil, for the State Houses closes at 
 that hour, and returned to my home in Woburn, 
 
 Mr, O'Connell was to see the Governor to make a 
 last appeal sometime during the day. At two o'clock 
 I received a telephone message from Mr. O'Connell, 
 saying that the Governor had just declared to him 
 that his only objection was that he feared that the 
 school was a "commercial enterprise" (one of the 
 arguments that had been refuted a hundred times dur- 
 ing the two years,) This news convinced me that 
 there was no hope, 
 
 A few minutes later I telephoned Henry Berlin, the 
 newspaper reporter who had rendered such signal 
 service to the school during the long contest, and 
 told him what I had heard. The bill had not then 
 been vetoed, Mr. Berlin suggested that I telephone 
 personally to the Governor, for it could not make mat- 
 ters any worse than they evidently were. 
 
 The more I thought of it the better I liked the idea,, 
 for I always prefer action to inaction even though the 
 result may be the same, I called the Governor's office 
 and learned that he was at lunch at a certain hotek 
 
 241 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 I called the hotel and was quickly put into communi- 
 cation with the Governor. It was then about 2 :30 
 P. M. 
 
 I apologized for calling him at such a time, but as 
 this was the last day for action on the bill I desired 
 to correct any erroneous impression that he might 
 be entertaining concerning the school. I called his 
 attention to the Bar Association report that had espe- 
 cially exonerated the school from the charge of "com- 
 mercialism." 
 
 But he declared that he was not troubled on that 
 score at all — it was the adverse report of the State 
 Board of Education. 
 
 I said, "Governor, I wish I could have had the 
 opportunity to tell you the real facts about the oppo- 
 sition of the State Board." 
 
 "It isn't too late now," he declared very heartily. 
 "Come right in and see me. Come to my office in the 
 State House at 4 o'clock." 
 
 I told him that I was so far out of the city that I 
 could not reach the State House before 4:30 P. M. 
 He set the date for our conference at that hour. 
 
 I made haste to reach Boston on time, and at 4:20 
 was at the State House. The Governor had not re- 
 turned and was not expected back, for the executive 
 offices were deserted. I hunted up Henry Berlin in 
 the press room, and we talked over the likelihood of 
 the Governor's return. 
 
 While we were in conversation on the stairs over- 
 looking the entrance to the executive department, 
 Governor Foss and another man hove in sight. They 
 approached the rear door of the executive offices, 
 beside the elevator. The Governor opened the door 
 with a pass key and entered, with his companion. 
 
 242 
 
THE "PLEASANT EASTER" EPISODE 
 
 After a moment I approached the door and knocked. 
 It was some time before I was admitted, but pres- 
 ently the man I had seen with the Governor opened 
 the door and admitted me. I sat down for a moment 
 until the Governor called me into his private office. 
 
 He introduced me to his companion, Daniel J. 
 Kiley, and asked me to draw up my chair. 
 
 "This man, Archer," he told Kiley, laughingly, "is 
 the most persistent man that ever came before the 
 legislature." 
 
 He fairly embarrassed me with compliments until 
 I came back at him with this remark: "I have often 
 heard that you were some 'jollier,' Governor. Now I 
 am sure of it. But if you regard me so highly why 
 don't you sign my bill?" 
 
 Thereupon we launched into a long discussion of 
 the measure. No man could have exhibited more sin- 
 cere and earnest attention than did Governor Foss. 
 Every objection that he raised I answered fully until 
 he dismissed it as of no further concern to him. I 
 gave him a history of the school, and a vivid account 
 of how we had been treated by the opposition during 
 the legislative contest. He expressed his surprise and 
 indignation, especially at the State Board of Educa- 
 tion, and declared that he was going to give them a 
 "call down" for it. 
 
 He waxed reminiscent and told of his own boyhood 
 struggles, which gave me a good chance to remark to 
 Mr. Kiley, "Does it seem possible that a man who has 
 been through such experiences would veto a bill that 
 gives a poor boy a chance to get an education?" 
 
 Foss laughed, and repeated as he had a dozen times 
 during the interview, "You're going to win. They can't 
 
 243 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 stop you. You've made a good fight and you deserve to 
 win." 
 
 When I pressed him for a definite answer, he evaded 
 the issue; although several times during the interview 
 I heard him say over the telephone that he was still con- 
 sidering the bill and was then "in conference with Dean 
 Archer." 
 
 Our interview lasted for an hour and a half. When 
 I rose to go I reminded the governor that the next day 
 was Easter Sunday and that my sick wife (the governor 
 well knew, for I had told him, that she was near nerv- 
 ous breakdown because of the sudden death of our baby 
 boy a few weeks before,) would be greatly cheered if 
 I could tell her that Governor Foss was going to allow 
 our bill to become a law. 
 
 "It's all right," he assured me, "you go home and 
 don't you worry." 
 
 He accompanied me to the next room where I had left 
 my coat. I had exhausted every means of securing a 
 direct avowal, but now I made a last attempt. 
 
 "The case has been tried twice before the legislature 
 of Massachusetts and we have won both times. Why 
 not let this second verdict stand? If you have vetoed 
 the bill, governor, withdraw that veto." 
 
 I hoped thus to surprise him into saying that there 
 was no veto, for if there was then no veto in existence 
 it was too late to file one, for the clerk's offices of both 
 branches were closed and had been for hours. 
 
 His response to my query was to take my hand in 
 both of his at parting, and, with "tears in his voice," to 
 assure me that I deserved to win ; he was proud to 
 know me as a man, and that his office would be open to 
 me at all times — come when I would. 
 
 244 
 
THE' "PLEASANT EASTER" EPISODE 
 
 I pressed him again for a definite answer, and he 
 assured me fervently that I need not worry at the out- 
 come. 
 
 I hurried home, full of happy assurance that the long, 
 nerve-wracking contest was over. All the evening 
 newspaper reporters were calling me to learn what Foss 
 had said to me, for the fate of the bill was a mystery 
 that excited the interest of every Sunday paper in 
 Boston. 
 
 I was finally assured that no veto had been filed and 
 that the Governor had gone to his home for the night. 
 
 Sunday morning dawned — Easter Sunday — and a 
 reporter informed me that he had talked with the Gov- 
 ernor by telephone and had been assured that he had 
 not vetoed the bill. The Boston Sunday Post came 
 out w^ith the following article : 
 
 LIIIN SCilOOL OEGEjILL iT VETOEO 
 
 Hard Fought Measure Became Law At Midnight. 
 
 "The bill which would allow the Suffolk Law School 
 to confer degrees has probably become a law. The Gov- 
 ernor legally had no longer than until midnight last 
 night to file a veto with the clerk of the House. At 
 midnight no veto had been filed. 
 
 It was impossible to file any, because Clerk Kimball 
 left after waiting until 6 o'clock, and the messengers on 
 duty all night had admitted nobody to the clerk's office 
 thereafter. 
 
 In order to file a veto message it would have been 
 necessary for one to force an entrance. 
 
 245 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 A veto had been expected all day, but the governor 
 was in conference late in the afternoon with Gleason 
 L. Archer, Dean of the Suffolk Law School, and held 
 out hope that the bill might be allowed to become a law. 
 
 The governor, however, refused to state, when he 
 left the State House at a little after 7 o'clock, whether 
 or not he intended to allow the bill to become a law." 
 
 The article then went on to give a history of the two 
 years of legislative controversy over the bill. 
 
 The article was widely read, for at intervals all day 
 Easter Sunday I received congratulations by telephone 
 from students and friends of the school. It was a day 
 of rejoicing indeed — one of the very happiest days of 
 my life. The name of Foss was no longer hateful to me. 
 I had forgiven him amply and fully for all the heart- 
 ache and sorrow he had given me the year before. I 
 told myself that it was better to have the contest end 
 as it had than to have won in 1912. 
 
 Then, because my gratitude to the governor was so 
 great, I arose early Monday morning in order that I 
 might call upon the governor in person at the beginning 
 of his day at the State House to express my fervent 
 thanks. It was early when I reached the State House, 
 so I proceeded to the City Press Room to exchange con- 
 gratulations with Henry Berlin and to thank him for his 
 long continued zeal in behalf of the school. 
 
 But to my utter amazement I found him, not over- 
 flowing with enthusiasm as I had expected, but in a state 
 of extreme agitation. He grasped my hand and in a 
 torrent of oaths and imprecations conveyed the aston- 
 ishing intelligence that I had been the victim of a fiend- 
 ish hoax — that Foss had secretly vetoed the bill two 
 hours before my interview with him on Saturday. 
 
 246 
 
THE "PLEASANT EASTER" EPISODE 
 
 So stunning was the blow that I could not believe 
 him. Not until I had seen the veto message in the 
 hands of Clerk Kimball of the House, could I be 
 brought to believe that a veto existed. Even then I 
 refused to credit that it was there with the governor's 
 acquiescence. It must be the work of some of our 
 enemies — the governor had changed his mind after 
 signing it and it was filed without his knowledge. I 
 hurried to the governor's office, but the attendants in- 
 formed me that he had not arrived. 
 
 So I paced the corridors in a tumult of emotions, 
 trying in vain to fathom the mystery. Somebody in- 
 formed me that the governor was in, despite the report 
 I had heard. I returned and demanded an audience with 
 the governor. While the attendants were making the 
 excuse that he; was too busy to see me, I caught sight 
 of the governor as he passed an inner door and before 
 the astonished clerk knew what had happened I had 
 "sailed" past him and was confronting the governor. 
 
 Foss started violently when he saw me, but instantly 
 recovering his self possession, rushed up to me and 
 passed his arm lovingly through mine and marched me 
 down to the window that overlooks the State House 
 grounds. We were in the long corridor-like office 
 between the outer office and the council chamber. 
 Foss stood beside me making believe look out of the 
 window. 
 
 "Governor," I began, "I have just heard that a veto 
 of our bill has been filed with Clerk Kimball." 
 
 He chuckled gleefully and replied, "Well, the strang- 
 est things do happen around this State House." 
 
 "Can't you call it back, governor?" 
 
 He laughed some more and said, "No, I can't call it 
 back." 
 
 247 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 "But," persisted I, "if it got in there by mistake it is 
 not in law a veto. You can call it back." 
 
 "It didn't get in there by mistake. I sent it in." 
 
 "You sent it in there!" I cried, just beginning to see 
 the truth. "You sent it there two hours before' — two 
 hours before our interview. Why didn't you tell me 
 Saturday night?" 
 
 "If you wanted to see me I had no objections," he 
 chortled. 
 
 "For God's sake, governor," I burst out, "how could 
 you do such a thing!" 
 
 "I wanted you to have a pleasant Easter Sunday," 
 he cried, and laughed himself purple in the face. 
 
 What I said after that I have no clear recollection. 
 The desire to plant my fist on his ugly mouth was an 
 •almost overmastering passion. Perhaps he saw some- 
 thing of it in my face, for he turned upon me with a 
 face of such malignant hate as I never beheld in any 
 other human countenance, and cried out in tones of 
 menace, "Now don't make a fool of yourself. You 
 deserve to get licked. You've got it in the neck. Now 
 don't squeal." 
 
 It is a matter of pride to me now that I got out of 
 the governor's office without having committed a 
 breach of the peace. 
 
 248 
 
"PITILESS PUBLICITY" 
 
 CHAPTER LIII. 
 
 "Pitiless Publicity." 
 
 My intense indignation at the treatment 1 had re- 
 ceived was by no means lessened when I reported the 
 occurrence to the newspaper men in the City Press 
 room. 
 
 "Give out a statement to the press, give him his 
 own 'Pitiless Publicity' " — (that had been a campaign 
 slogan of his) — urged Mr. Berlin, and the others 
 joined in the request. 
 
 They argued that it would be a public service to 
 show the people just the sort of man they had placed 
 in the governor's chair. They related other stories of 
 outrageous duplicity of which the governor had been 
 guilty, but which had never come to light. 
 
 They besought me to dictate a statement. The late 
 Mr. Copeland even started to write an article to sub- 
 mit to me. But I told them that I needed time to re- 
 cover my self possession before I could be sure what it 
 was wisest to do. 
 
 Leaving the State House, I consulted hurriedly with 
 my friends and found them as outraged as I at the 
 governor's conduct, but hopelessly divided on the 
 question of whether I should issue a statement. 
 
 One of them, for whose political sagacity I had great 
 respect, pointed out to me that if I issued the state- 
 
 249 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 ment, although it were perfectly true, it would be j 
 promptly denied by the governor and the people would 
 take his word rather than mine — that I would be the 
 "goat" and the school permanently injured. 
 
 However, I consulted others, for I desired greatly 
 to expose the astounding treatment I had received. It 
 was General Bartlett's telephone advice that turned 
 the scales in favor of exposure of the governor. When 
 the General's first explosion of rage at the happening 
 had subsided, he said, 
 
 "I never knew telling the truth to hurt anybody. Go 
 ahead and we'll all stand by you." 
 
 The die was cast. I locked myself into my office; 
 refusing even to answer the telephone which rang in- 
 sistently, and addressed myself to the task of writing 
 an open letter to the legislature, setting forth the 
 treatment I had received. I wrote it out long-hand 
 and afterward typewrote it. The eager newspaper men 
 had supplied me with a book of "flimsy," (sheets of 
 tissue paper with special carbons between), so that 
 from one writing on the typewriter I produced a dozen 
 or fifteen copies. 
 
 The majority of these copies I turned over to Henry 
 Berlin for distribution to the State House reporters. 
 Fortunately for me, it was vacation at the school so I 
 went home and to bed with a raging headache. 
 
 The next morning I was almost appalled at the sen- 
 sation I had created. Every newspaper that I could 
 put my hands on had my story in conspicuous form. 
 It was the big feature of the day. The story in the 
 Globe had four headings. 
 
 250 
 
"PITILESS PUBLICITY" 
 
 SAYS FOSS [)EGEIVED--III]CI{EII WRITES 
 
 LEeiSLATORS. GONFEIIRED WITH 
 
 HIM-VETO ALREAOY \l m- 
 
 ERNOR WANTED TO "GIVE 
 
 Hlim A PLEA W EASTER" 
 
 Other newspapers throughout the state took up the 
 story and it at once became a state-wide sensation, 
 destined to have far reaching results, as will be seen 
 hereafter. In this connection, therefore, I will offer 
 the letter exactly as it was published in the news- 
 papers, March 25, 1913. 
 
 "To the Members of the Legislature: — 
 
 I invite your attention to the conduct of Governor 
 Foss with reference to the Suffolk Law School veto. 
 The students of the school had petitioned the governor 
 for a hearing on the bill, but no hearing was granted. 
 Saturday last at half past two in the afternoon, I talked 
 with the governor over the telephone and expressed 
 my earnest desire to be heard on the bill before he 
 took action. He invited me most cordially to meet 
 him at the State House at four o'clock. I told him 
 that as I was out of town it might not be possible to 
 reach his office at four, so he set the time at half past 
 four. I met the governor at his office at the time 
 stated and there was a Boston man present at our in- 
 terview, which lasted for nearly an hour and a half. 
 
 251 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 The governor discussed the case at length, and seemed 
 to be sincerely endeavoring to reach a conclusion. 
 
 'T did not know at the time that he had already ve- 
 toed the bill — that he had sent his message to the 
 clerk's office before inviting me to meet him — that he 
 was practicing a cruel deception upon me. While he 
 made no promises, he certainly gave me the impression 
 that he would act favorably. After I reached home in 
 the evening I was called up on the telephone by news- 
 paper reporters who informed me that the governor 
 had gone home and that the bill had not been vetoed. 
 Sunday morning a reporter informed me that he had 
 just talked with the governor over the telephone, and 
 that he had declared that he had let the bill pass and 
 that it was already a law. 
 
 "So after receiving congratulations innumerable on 
 the success of the measure, and a day of happy assur- 
 ance that our two years of bitter contest were ended, I 
 was dumfounded to learn this morning that it was all 
 a cruel hoax, perpetrated by the man who has three 
 times been honored by the people of this common- 
 wealth by the highest office in their gift. 
 
 "When I called at Governor Foss' office this morning 
 he gloated over the trick he had played and declared 
 that he merely wanted to give me "a pleasant Easter 
 Sunday." Ye Gods ! A pleasant Easter Sunday. But 
 what of Monday? 
 
 "Why did Governor Foss invite me to see him when 
 he had already vetoed the bill, and put me to the 
 trouble of making the trip to Boston? Why did he 
 give me a hearing from half past four to six o'clock when 
 one little word would have ended it all? Why did he 
 tell the newspaper reporters that the bill was a law? 
 
 252 
 
"PITILESS PUBLICITY" 
 
 Because, forsooth, he desired that I should have a 
 pleasant Easter Sunday! 
 
 "Do you, as a member of the legislature, approve 
 such conduct? I know you do not, but will you not 
 manifest your disapproval by voting to pass this bill 
 over the governor's veto? But aside from the personal 
 matter — this bill has been enacted by two successive 
 legislatures. We all believe in majority rule. Why 
 should the will of one man be allowed again to set 
 aside the carefully considered verdict of the 280 repre- 
 sentatives of the people of Massachusetts? 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Gleason L. Archer, 
 Dean of Suffolk Law School. 
 
 When I visited the State House on March 25th, I 
 found myself the object of considerable attention. The 
 governor's ears might well have burned at the uncom- 
 plimentary remarks concerning him, voiced to me by 
 members of the legislature who came to me to express 
 their sympathy — and to promise vengeance when the 
 veto fight should come on. 
 
 Nor were these expressions confined to members of 
 the legislature. Everyone at the State House who 
 had suffered from the gubernatorial jests, now saw an 
 opportunity to revenge themselves by helping to 
 swell the tide of resentment that was so rapidly rising. 
 
 One young man in particular, Walter L. McMenni- 
 men, State House legislative agent of the Locomotive 
 Engineers, came to me and introduced himself. 
 
 "I never have taken a hand in anybody's fight but 
 our own," he announced, "but if I can help you to put 
 your bill over Foss' veto, I am going to do it." 
 
 253 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 41 
 
 He then related a similar experience that his organi- 
 zation had had with the governor on the "full crew" 
 bill of the previous year. No more energetic worker 
 did we have during the next two days than Mr. Mc- 
 Mennimen ; and it was a time when the fighting blood 
 of every friend of the Suffolk Law School was at fever 
 heat. We were all on the battle line at the State 
 House. 
 
 254 
 
A JOLT FOR THE JOKER 
 
 CHAPTER LIV. 
 
 A Jolt for the Joker. 
 
 To tell the truth, I did not entertain very much op- 
 timism at the outlook for victory over the Governor 
 in the House ; for a two-thirds vote would be neces- 
 sary, and we must rely largely for whatever vote we 
 might receive upon the members of the Governor's 
 political party — the Democrats. For this reason on 
 Wednesday afternoon, March 2, 1913, I took a seat 
 in the front of the crowded gallery, rather than on 
 the side lines of the House floor, where I was accus- 
 tomed to sit when a battle was in progress. 
 
 A sharp debate was expected, and a perfect mob of 
 spectators were on hand. Nor were they disap- 
 pointed. Representatives Griffin, Murphy, Green- 
 wood and E. E. McGrath scored the Governor in 
 the severest language. The only person to rise in 
 opposition to the passage of the bill over the veto was 
 Haines of Medford, who openly confessed that he 
 deeply resented the governor's conduct and wished 
 that he might vote accordingly. 
 
 One of the best descriptions of the debate that I 
 saw at the time was contained in the New Bedford 
 Standard, as follows : — 
 
 "Governor Foss came about as near repudiation by 
 the members of his own party as is possible for a chief 
 executive. The fight on passing over the governor's 
 
 255 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 veto the bill allowing the Suffolk School of Law to 
 confer degrees became purely a personal issue, and 
 many members who had previously voted against the 
 bill on principle voted to override the veto simply be- 
 cause they felt that the governor had been guilty of 
 practices unbecoming a gentleman, and particularly 
 the chief executive of the Commonwealth. 
 
 "It was stated in debate on the floor of the House 
 that the governor had deliberately misstated facts, 
 and while such language ordinarily results in a re- 
 sounding whack of the speaker's gavel, on this occa- 
 sion it passed unnoticed by the presiding officer and 
 there was not a single member of the governor's po- 
 litical family to protest." 
 
 The roll call began. I endeavored for a time to 
 keep tally — a somewhat difficult feat even for one who 
 is not laboring under excitement as I was at the time. 
 We were polling a heavy vote but not, I feared, suffi- 
 cient for success, and I gave up the attempt to keep 
 tally. 
 
 I was in the midst of as excited a crowd of "fans" 
 as ever gathered at a ball park, and I was comforted to 
 learn, as I did speedily, that they were violent parti- 
 sans of my side, although I had never met any of them. 
 
 Groans were offered on every occasion when a group 
 of "yes" votes were recorded, and chortles of laughter 
 when a long string of "Nos" came up from the floor 
 below. When they began to exult "we're licking him 
 — we're licking him" I began to take interest, and in- 
 quired of the group beside me how the vote stood. We 
 had two thirds and one vote to spare at the moment, 
 but the tide turned instantly and soon we lacked half 
 a dozen of the necessary two-thirds. This was but 
 momentary, however, for representatives who had 
 
 256 
 
A JOLT FOR THE JOKER 
 
 been in' other parts of the building came flocking in to 
 be recorded, and nearly every vote was hostile to the 
 governor. Whereupon the "fans" went mad. 
 
 Some of them had leaned over the railing and peered 
 down into the portion of the House where I usually sat, 
 and one said to me, "Why isn't he here today — he 
 ought to be here." 
 
 "Who?" I asked. 
 
 "Dean Archer!" 
 
 But just then the vote was announced. We had won 
 by a vote of 155 to 67. Forgetting its dignity, the 
 House cheered. The gallery was wild with enthusi- 
 asm. Certain newspaper men from the press gallery 
 began a frantic gesticulation for me to meet them out- 
 side in the corridor. 
 
 This revealed my identity to the gallery in which I 
 sat. When I arose and went hurriedly out, the crowd 
 was cheering me to the echo. 
 
 We had inflicted heavy chastisement upon the gov- 
 ernor, and the gloom of Easter Monday was quite for- 
 gotten. 
 
 257 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 I ' ' ' The Governor at Bay. 
 
 It is but natural for people in general to espouse a ' 
 cause after a victory has been won. Our victory in the 
 House certainly brought out hosts of friends. A clip- 
 ping bureau, that had been engaged during our legis- 
 lative fight, now began to bombard me with bulky en- 
 velopes of clippings from newspapers all over the state. 
 
 News items and editorials came pouring in, and the 
 great majority of them took my side of the contro- 
 versy. It would be an unwarranted use of space in 
 this volume to attempt even a summary of these items 
 and editorials, for I have a large scrap book full of 
 them. 
 
 The remarkable change of tone of the leading news- 
 papers toward the governor now roused his political 
 enemies to a sense of the opportunity to rid the party 
 of his unwelcome leadership. 
 
 Even on March 26, the morning before the veto 
 contest, the Boston Herald had declared at the close 
 of a long and bitter editorial arraignment of the gov- 
 ernor : 
 
 "It is not the first time that men of repute and prom- 
 inence have been the victims of the governor's curious 
 taste in joking. * * * We respectfully suggest to Gov- 
 ernor Foss that before he makes further arrangements 
 
 258 
 
THE GOVERNOR AT BAY 
 
 to obtain a fourth cup of tea, he mend his ways in the 
 matter of joking. The hilarity following his official 
 ventures into fun making is altogether one-sided." 
 
 But the most significant political prophecy of that 
 period was voiced by the Fall River Globe of March 
 29, 1913, a prophecy that months later was strikingly 
 fulfilled. 
 
 "Governor Foss has undoubtedly seriously injured 
 his chances of securing a re-nomination at the hands 
 of his party." 
 
 After discussing the facts of the "Pleasant Easter" 
 episode, the editorial concludes : 
 
 "The conviction is growing every day that if Foss 
 runs for governor again next fall, he will be forced to 
 do so without any organized party behind him," 
 
 Ex-Mayor John F. Fitzgerald of Boston was the 
 first Democratic leader to openly break away from the 
 governor. In his "Republic" he commented thus upon 
 his former chief: 
 
 "Governor Foss certainly got himself in bad in his 
 treatment of Dean Archer of the Suffolk School of 
 Law on the question of his signature to the bill which 
 passed the legislature giving the school the right to 
 confer degrees. Unfortunately for the governor this 
 is not the first time he has done like things, though 
 they have not gotten the publicity that this last inci- 
 dent has received. People that know Governor Foss 
 the longest and the best cannot explain his peculiar 
 point of view on many matters. He will turn down 
 his best friends and those closest to him, and, slapping 
 his hands upon his knees, assure them that they are all 
 right, and that the thing that he is doing is the best 
 thing for them. He does not hesitate to say things to 
 
 259 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 people and 24 hours afterward to say the opposite 
 thing. Dean Archer makes the statement : 
 
 " 'When I called at Governor Foss' office this morn 
 ing he gloated over the trick he had played and de- 
 clared that he wanted to give me a 'pleasant Easter 
 Sunday.' Ye Gods ! a pleasant Easter Sunday — but 
 what of Monday?' 
 
 "This is not a statement that a man who thought 
 himself fitted for the Presidency should feel proud of." 
 
 But the most caustic editorial of all was that of the 
 Boston Sunday Herald, March 30, 1913: 
 
 WHY THIS COMMOTION? 
 
 "It is extraordinary the attention now given by press 
 and public to the commonplace and undramatic ex- 
 perience of Dean Archer of the Suffolk Law School* 
 with Governor Foss. Even the phrase, 'I wanted you| 
 to feel happy over Easter,' which his excellency subse- 
 quently used in explaining to the Dean why he had so 
 elaborately misled him as to the situation, has passed 
 into current slang. The man on the street introduces 
 a project, jocular or otherwise, for getting the better 
 of his associate with the words, 'I wanted you to feel 
 happy over Easter.' This sentence has become the 
 countersign of the 'Flim Flammer.' * * * Associates 
 of Governor Foss have given way to no extreme emo- 
 tions of surprise over the episode. They merely said 
 'Why not?' and then, when they had occasion to tell 
 how Smith 'did' Jones in a horse trade, they have 
 made the point clear by saying that the former wanted 
 Jones to be 'happy over Easter.' Thus our language 
 grows ! Thus its phrases ripen into new meaning. * * 
 It is now nearly half a century since Massachusetts 
 
 260 
 
THE GOVERNOR AT BAY 
 
 has given a governor more than three terms. That 
 governor was the sainted John A. Andrew." 
 
 It is small wonder that Governor Foss took great 
 alarm at the storm I had raised about his head — a 
 storm that started the landslide which so effectually 
 buried him a few months later. When my story had 
 been given out to the press, he was only mildly 
 amused. In the words of the Globe on the morning 
 my statement first appeared : 
 
 "When the governor heard of Dean Archer's com- 
 munication to the members of the House on the sub- 
 ject he only smiled." 
 
 The smiling stage was now past, however, and the 
 governor was bending every power of his office to de- 
 feat the bill in the Senate and thus to vindicate him- 
 self. All his political lieutenants were at work. 
 
 When the veto came up in the Senate it was re- 
 peatedly postponed, a ruse to gain time. One by one 
 our friends were whipped into line with the governor. 
 One of the very senators who had spoken most elo- 
 quently for our bill was now openly proclaimed in the 
 newspapers as leading the fight against the bill. An- 
 other who had been very loyal in support of the bill 
 for two years was chosen by the governor to read a 
 grossly untruthful eleventh-hour statement to influ- 
 ence the vote in the senate. 
 
 So even before the day of decision in the senate, I 
 was painfully aware that the veto would be sustained. 
 
 261 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 Exit Governor Foss. 
 
 On April i, 1913 the veto contest took place in the 
 senate. The governor's forces had evidently an- 
 swered "ready." The prearranged plan of action was 
 now to be carried out. But the governor was quite 
 evidently taking no chances on the result; for his 
 "political secretary," George Harlow, came into the 
 Senate chamber at the beginning of the session and 
 stood near the messengers' desk, as though to witness 
 the delivery of the vote. 
 
 This action so incensed Senator James H, Brennan 
 of Charlestown that, in the course of the debate, he 
 paid his respects to the governor in a burst of fiery 
 denunciation, for "sending his representative into the 
 senate chamber." 
 
 Senator Allen opened the debate for the school ; and 
 his efforts were ably supported by Senators Brennan, 
 McCarthy, Bagley and Garst. Those who spoke 
 against the measure were Senators Stearns, Fisher and 
 Quigley. It was Senator Quigley to whom the gov- 
 ernor had intrusted the mission of reading a personal 
 letter, which declared that my statement was "a des- 
 perate fabrication contrived and circulated for the ob- 
 vious purpose of affecting legislation." 
 
 The vote was taken, and six of the Democratic Sen- 
 ators were now against us. One Democrat senator who 
 
 262 " 
 
EXIT GOVERNOR FOSS 
 
 voted with us, Thomas M. Joyce, came from a sick 
 bed to register his rebuke of the governor. The vote 
 was 14 to 21 and the Governor's veto was sustained. 
 
 But the governor's letter had now added a new 
 chapter to the ''Pleasant Easter" controversy. On the 
 following morning the newspapers were full of it. 
 The Globe devoted nearly half the first page to the 
 matter, with my picture in a very conspicuous display. 
 
 GOVERNOR FOSS GIVES LIE TO DEAN G. 
 L. ARCHER. 
 
 STATE SENATE KILLS SUFFOLK LAW 
 SCHOOL BILL BY SUSTAINING VETO BY 
 VOTE OF 14 TO 21. 
 
 QUIGLEY OF HOLYOKE MADE OFFICIAL 
 SPOKESMAN TO THE BODY. 
 
 PUBLISHED VERSION OF INTERVIEW IS 
 FLATLY DENIED BY LETTER. 
 
 HEAD OF INSTITUTION INVOLVED RE- 
 TORTS THAT ACTION OF EXECUTIVE WAS 
 COWARDLY AND IN BAD FAITH. 
 
 Then followed a long article summarizing the entire 
 controversy, and giving the governor's statement and 
 mine. 
 
 But the report of the matter in the Boston Traveler 
 of that date had all other papers outdistanced for spec- 
 tacular handling. Almost the entire front page was 
 devoted to the affair. In a large horizontal panel 
 across the top of the page they had placed my picture 
 on one side, with the governor's on the other; and be- 
 tween us were two articles, "What Gov. Foss said of 
 Dean Archer," and below it, "What Dean Archer says 
 of Governor Foss." 
 
 263 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 In order that the reader may fully comprehend the 
 exact situation, the Foss letter and my reply are here- 
 with printed in full. 
 
 GOV. FOSS' LETTER: 
 
 "Dear Senator : — A public official cannot deny every 
 erroneous report concerning his public or private acts, 
 and it is my general rule to pay no attention to such 
 matters. When, however, a personal statement that 
 is at every essential point a pure fabrication is sent to 
 members of the Legislature for the obvious purpose 
 of influencing the vote on an important public ques- 
 tion, it becomes necessary to take cognizance of a 
 matter otherwise unworthy of attention. 
 
 "On Saturday, March 22, Dean Archer of the Suf- 
 folk Law School asked for an interview in order that 
 he might make a statement concerning his case. I 
 therefore arranged to see him, and in the interview 
 went over the entire matter. I did not tell him in ad- 
 vance of the reading of the veto message to the Legis- 
 lature that I had vetoed the bill, but the entire con- 
 versation, like others I had the same day with other 
 advocates of the bill, proceeded upon the assumption 
 that it was my intention to veto the measure. Almost 
 the last words of Mr. Archer as he left the office were : 
 'The Legislature has passed the bill twice. Won't 
 you recall the veto and let it go by?' My recollection 
 on this point is confirmed by a gentleman who was 
 present during the interview. 
 
 "Mr. Archer's statement concerning the interview of 
 Saturday is therefore incorrect at every point. In his 
 futher statement that I told the newspapers that the 
 bill had become a law he is also wrong. The news- 
 
 264 
 
EXIT GOVERNOR FOSS 
 
 paper representatives were told before my office closed 
 for the day that no statement concerning my action 
 would be made until Monday. The same announce- 
 ment was made from my home Saturday evening in 
 reply to repeated telephone calls. Mr. Archer's further 
 statement about our interview on Monday morning 
 is as incorrect as the others. Since he received on 
 Saturday no intimation of an intention to allow his 
 bill to become a law there could have been no point in 
 the poor jest he attributes to me. 
 
 "This statement I issue not for personal reasons, 
 but in order to counteract the effect of a desperate 
 fabrication contrived and circulated for the obvious 
 purpose of affecting legislation. The concurrent 
 opinion of the State Board of Education, the Massa- 
 chusetts Bar Association and the Boston Bar Associa- 
 tion is against the proposed measure ; and the frantic 
 attempt to win sympathy by a false statement con- 
 cerning an interview in this office should convince 
 every one that it is unwise to confer further powers 
 upon the institution in question. 
 
 "Yours very truly, 
 
 "EUGENE N. FOSS." 
 
 MY STATEMENT: 
 
 "Gov. Foss in his letter to Senator Quigley, which 
 the latter read in the Senate yesterday before the vote 
 on the Suffolk Law School veto was taken, asserts 
 that my letter to the members of the Legislature, 
 March 24, was 'at every essential point a pure fabri- 
 cation.' Every word contained in my letter was ab- 
 solutely true, and, in spite of his outrageous asser- 
 tion, the Governor himself admits the truth of prac- 
 
 265 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 tically every one of them in his letter to Senator Qiiig- 
 ley. He admits that he 'arranged' to see me; that he 
 did see me, and that we went over the entire matter, 
 although, as he alleges, the veto had already been filed 
 two hours before. 
 
 "These are the material points of my statement that 
 the Governor characterizes as 'a pure fabrication.' He 
 says that he did not tell the reporter Sunday morning 
 that he had taken no action on the bill, yet I can pro- 
 duce the man and he will take oath to the correctness 
 of his statement. He says that my statement of our 
 interview on Monday morning, when he gloated over 
 me, is incorrect. I stated then, and I am willing to 
 take oath to the fact now, that he explained his decep- 
 tion by saying that he wanted me to have 'a. pleasant 
 Easter Sunday.' When I reproached him he became 
 abusive and said among other things: 'You've got it 
 in the neck. Now don't squeal.' 
 
 "It is significant that the Governor waited for eight 
 days before replying to my statement and then had 
 his letter read to influence the vote of the Senate just 
 before the vote was taken, and when I could not 
 possibly respond. 
 
 "He asserts that I used the expression, 'Won't you 
 recall your veto?' I did use the expression, but only 
 after I had exhausted every other means of getting a 
 direct reply. I hoped thus to surprise him into saying 
 that there was no veto in existence. His response to 
 my query was to take my hand in both of his at part- 
 ing and with 'tears in his voice' to assure me that I de- 
 served to win ; that his office was open to me at all 
 times — come when I would. I pressed him again for 
 a definite answer and he assured me fervently that I 
 need not worry at the outcome. 
 
 266 
 
EXIT GOVERNOR FOSS 
 
 "I was guileless enough to believe that no human 
 being could be guilty of such hypocrisy, especially 
 after he had assured me during the interview that he 
 was convinced that the state board of education had 
 used the school shamefully in reporting adversely 
 without having investigated the school. 
 
 "Were it not for the fact that the Governor's charge 
 that I had falsified in my statement to the Legislature 
 was so made that it is in law an absolutely privileged 
 communication I would sue him for libel ; but as it is, 
 I must submit to the outrageous insult from his ex- 
 cellency. 
 
 "But now that Gov. Foss has started to explain 
 things at all I wish he would tell the public how he 
 justifies himself for twice vetoing our school charter 
 when he is himself a trustee of the Y. M. C. A. law 
 school, the rival school that has been our chief op- 
 ponent in both contests. 
 
 "I wish he would explain also how he justifies him- 
 self for being trustee of a school whose degree-grant- 
 ing power he refers to in his veto message as a 'wrong' 
 that should not be repeated. 
 
 "I wish he would explain how he justifies himself 
 for coercing senatorial support, as he did so shame- 
 lessly in the recent contest on his veto, forcing friends 
 of the measure to vote against it, contrary to their in- 
 clinations. Is there not a provision in the constitution 
 that none of the three branches of the government 
 shall usurp the functions of the others?" 
 
 For some days there were echoes of the personal 
 issue thus raised ; but of the editorials that came to 
 my attention each took my side of the controversy. 
 The one most pleasing to me, however, was that in 
 
 267 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 the Boston Traveler-Herald, April 4th, entitled, "Foss 
 versus Archer," a portion of which w^as as follows : 
 
 "The fact remains that, in a public statement, the 
 Governor of the Commonwealth was charged with de- 
 ceit and unveracity by a gentleman with whom, less 
 than forty-eight hours before, he had had an intimate 
 discussion by appointment. Instead of replying as 
 soon as the charge was made, the governor waited for 
 more than a week, and then wrote a personal letter to 
 the young senator from Holyoke, who had undertaken 
 to defeat for the governor a measure to which he was 
 very much opposed. 
 
 "The letter to the average man did not represent an 
 indignant repudiation of a serious charge against the 
 Governor's veracity so much as it did a desperate at- 
 tempt to undo in the Senate what had been done in 
 the House. * * * The governor should take to heart 
 his experience with one man who could not appreciate 
 the intellectual processes of the chief executive of this 
 commonwealth, and was not afraid to say so." 
 
 The Chelsea Gazette, in the course of an editorial on 
 the Governor's conduct, expressed its convictions in this 
 wise: "There is no man so dangerous in public life as 
 the trimmer; you can watch a thief, but a liar is beyond 
 control." 
 
 As I have before indicated, this controversy had far 
 reaching effects. It was the subject even of anti-Foss 
 poets. The Boston Chamber of Commerce in its 
 spring "gambols" dramatized the affair, with actors 
 impersonating the governor and myself. It was said 
 to have been the "hit" of the evening. 
 
 But as a political weapon, my story was turned upon 
 Foss in the following autumn with telling effect. The 
 words of the Fall River Globe had come true. Foss 
 
 268 
 
EXIT GOVERNOR FOSS 
 
 was running for re-election as an independent, without 
 a party behind him. All three of the great parties, 
 Democrat, Republican and Progressive, each fearing 
 the governor as much as their regular opponents, were 
 belaboring him with might and main. My "Pleasant 
 Easter" letter was being read at political rallies all 
 over the State. 
 
 When the votes were counted in the state election, 
 Governor Foss had received but twenty thousand as 
 against about two hundred thousand the year before. 
 I will close this chapter with a statement that ap- 
 peared in the Boston Globe of November 6, 1913 : 
 
 "It is to be feared that Dean Archer of the Suffolk 
 Law School hasn't a forgiving disposition. He quotes 
 to Governor Foss now what he says the governor said 
 to him last spring, 'You've got it in the neck. Now 
 don't squeal.' " 
 
 269 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER LVII. 
 
 The Great Victory. 
 
 The State Election of 1913 resulted most pleasingly 
 for the school. Not only did David I. Walsh win the 
 governorship but the whole Democratic state ticket 
 was also elected, including Thomas J. Boynton, presi- 
 dent of our school corporation, as attorney-general of 
 Massachusetts. The way was now apparently open 
 for the Suffolk Law School charter. 
 
 The school itself had increased to a total attendance 
 of one hundred and forty students. In December 1913, 
 we tendered a grand reception to our new attorney- 
 general. In January 1914, the third year of our legis- 
 lative contest opened, with the usual preliminary skir- 
 mishes with the State Board of Education. 
 
 The hearing before the Committee on Education 
 was held February 17th, 1914, and what transpired 
 there was well summarized in the Boston Globe of 
 that date, from which the following is quoted : 
 
 SUFFOLK LAW SCHOOL FIGHT IS ON AGAIN. 
 
 Atty. Gen. Boynton Heard In Behalf of Bill. 
 Petition for Right to Give Degrees Opposed by the 
 State Board. 
 270 
 
THE GREAT VICTORY 
 
 "The fight in behalf of the Suffolk Law School, which 
 seeks the right to grant the degree of bachelor laws to 
 its graduates, was resumed again at a hearing this 
 morning before the committee on education. This is 
 the institution made famous through Ex-Gov. Foss' 
 controversy with Dean Gleason L. Archer. * * * This 
 morning's hearing was made especially notable by the 
 fact that Atty. Gen. Thomas J. Boynton appeared in 
 behalf of the bill as president of the Board of Trustees ; 
 also by the fact that a senator and a representative, 
 who last year were against the measure, came before 
 the committee to say they wished to be recorded in 
 favor. Dr. David Snedden of the State Board of Edu- 
 cation, spoke in opposition, presenting his chief argu- 
 ments in the form of a report made by the commission 
 concerning the school at the request of the legislature. 
 * * * Representative Haines, who in previous years has 
 opposed the institution as a member of the legislature, 
 came before the committee to say that this year he 
 favors the passage of the bill because the school has 
 stood the test and has proved its stability. 
 
 Senator Henry J. Draper, who last year voted to 
 sustain the governor's veto, announced that he is with 
 the institution firmly this year." 
 
 The weakness of the opposition arguments is evi- 
 dent from the following : 
 
 "Chairman Snedden of the State Board of Education 
 said the board does not pretend to pass upon the 
 question of granting degrees, but he believed the com- 
 mittee should consider the matter very seriously, as 
 a degree means that the State indorses a man. It isn't 
 a question of the poverty or the wealth of the appli- 
 cant, but a certificate that the holder of a degree 
 
 271 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 1 
 
 possesses certain qualifications. The State Board of 
 Education, he asserted, takes no responsibility for the 
 State granting the power to give degrees to the Y. M. 
 C. A. Evening Law School and does not defend it. A. 
 L. Goodwin, secretary of a committee of the Boston 
 Bar Association, said that the association, as the re- 
 sult of its investigation, is not prepared to change its 
 attitude in the matter of granting the Suffolk Law 
 School the power asked. 
 Hearing closed." 
 
 Of the legislative contest there is really little more 
 to tell. From this time forth the course of the school 
 charter was like a triumphal march. It received a 
 unanimous report from the Committee on Education. 
 It passed the House as a matter of parliamentary rou- 
 tine. In the Senate it bowled over the opposition to 
 the tune of 26 to 9. It went to the governor. 
 
 I took no chances this time. When the bill arrived 
 from the senate, I had so arranged it that Attorney- 
 General Boynton, Secretary of State Frank J. Dono- 
 hue, and State Treasurer Frederick W. Mansfield, 
 three staunch friends of the school, were in the execu- 
 tive office to urge immediate signing. 
 
 Although every power of the opposition had been 
 exerted on Governor Walsh to move him to a veto, he 
 signed the bill in the presence of his three distin- 
 guished colleagues and presented the pen to Represent- 
 ative George J. Wall, a student in the school, who im- 
 mediately presented it to me. 
 
 I did not personally witness the last act in the 
 drama. I was anxiously waiting in the outer office — 
 "Agony Corner," as it has so aptly been dubbed by the 
 newspaper men. My first knowledge of the great 
 
 272 
 
THE GREAT VICTORY 
 
 event was when Mr. Wall, suddenly emerging, execut- 
 ed a war dance in my presence, flourishing the fateful 
 goose-quill pen with which the charter had been signed. 
 
 I have since learned that when the governor started 
 to affix his signature, someone suggested that I be 
 called in to witness the act, but Mr. Boyton said, 
 
 "No, not for a thousand dollars a second would I 
 stop him now that he is signing the bill," and to this 
 sentiment I have a hundred times added, "Amen." 
 
 The great battle was over. The dream of my life 
 had been realized, and even the splendid newspaper 
 articles of congratulations that were forthcoming 
 could not add to my happiness in this hour of triumph. 
 
 For three years the strangling arms of the Educa- 
 tional Octopus had striven mightily to crush us, but 
 had utterly failed. The eager efforts of boards, com- 
 mittees, associations and a venomous governor, will- 
 ing tools of the great octopus (and also allied with the 
 lesser octopi that sought to profit by the downfall of 
 our school), were now swept aside at a single stroke 
 of a pen, a pen which now hangs in my office, framed 
 with the charter which it signed. 
 
 273 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER LVlll. 
 
 The School Goes House Hunting. 
 
 With the close of our legislative fight came leisure 
 for other things. Nor was it long before another 
 task, fully as engrossing, commanded all my time and 
 energies — the procuring of a new home for the school. 
 
 It will doubtless be remembered that the decision 
 to remove the school from 53 Tremont Street to Tre- 
 mont Temple in 1909 had come about very abruptly. 
 The chief cause had been the sudden boosting of rent. 
 
 The decision to remove from Tremont Temple came 
 about even more suddenly and after more than five 
 years of confident belief that the school would coa- 
 tinue in that location for all time. 
 
 It had frequently been suggested to me by different 
 individuals, for several years back, that the school 
 would soon need a home of its own, bvit I had unhesi- 
 tatingly put the suggestion aside. Even after the 
 signing of the charter by Governor Walsh I had con- 
 ferred with Supt- Plympton of Tremont Temple with 
 reference to the securing of additional space in the 
 building. 
 
 But there were influences at work that were to 
 precipitate a change of plans. For several months 
 prior to the signing of the charter, we had been 
 greatly annoyed on lecture evenings by a boys' club 
 that had been given headquarters on the floor where 
 the school and lecture rooms were situated. 
 
 The noise of scampering through the corridors ; of 
 
 274 
 
THE SCHOOL GOES HOUSE HUNTING 
 
 talking and laughing, and even of practice on a drum 
 in the office of the club had interrupted our lectures 
 again and again. Very often I had spoken to the 
 offenders personally. I had complained to the super- 
 intendent's office, but the effect in each case was only 
 temporary. 
 
 The continual recurrence of these annoyances, and 
 the complaints of students and teachers wore my 
 nerves at last to the breaking point. On Friday eve- 
 ning, March 27th, 1914, the boys' club fairly outdid 
 itself and, in spite of all the "policing" I could secure 
 from the building authorities, the senior lectures were 
 obliged to suspend because of the noise. 
 
 I saw at once that the school would be ruined. Men 
 would not continue to attend lectures while bedlam 
 was reigning in the corridors. 
 
 The trouble weighed heavily upon my mind when 
 I returned home that night. But it was too important 
 a matter to be decided hastily, so I resolved to take 
 time to think it out from all possible angles, lest now 
 at the time when the school should rightly become 
 large and prosperous, a rash decision might cripple its 
 future. 
 
 My tendency to sleeplessness when any great prob- 
 lem is on my mi ad now took a hand in the matter. I 
 lay awake nearly all night thinking of how I might 
 save the school from this impending peril. But from 
 whatever angle T viewed the matter, I came to but 
 one conclusion — the school must leave Tremont 
 Temple. 
 
 But having come to this vital decision, I saw at 
 once that I must speedily investigate all available 
 locations, in order to make an announcement to the 
 students on the following Monday evening. 
 
 275 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 Saturday morning dawned, cold and threatening 
 with clouds — and Saturday was my day at home. But 
 when I told my wife that I was going to Boston to 
 look for new quarters for the school and explained 
 the reasons, she acquiesced in my judgment, albeit 
 somewhat dubiously. 
 
 When I reached the car line, there was no sign of 
 an approaching trolley — street cars have a way of 
 being late on a disagreeable morning! I have often 
 noted that rain or disagreeable weather is a very effec- 
 tual damper upon the most ardent of resolutions. With 
 more time to reflect upon the matter, it now occurred 
 to me that I was acting rashly in thus rushing off to 
 Boston. But pride or irresolution kept me from turn- 
 ing back. 
 
 To while away the remaining moments of waiting 
 for the car, I drew from my pocket, a little book — a 
 volume of Shakespeare's plays. It was a pocket 
 edition of "Ji^^lhis Caesar." I opened it at random, 
 and my eye fell upon a passage that electrified me be- 
 cause of its uncanny application to the state of mind 
 I was then in. 
 
 Had someone, knowing my circumstances, said to 
 me what that book said, I could not have been one- 
 half so impressed. It seemed to me then the very 
 voice of Providence, and it fixed my resolution abso- 
 lutely. 
 
 "There is a tide in the affairs of men. 
 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
 
 Omitted, all the voyage of their life, 
 
 Is bound in shallows and in miseries.. 
 
 On such a full sea are we now afloat ; 
 
 And we must take the current when it serves 
 
 Or lose our ventures." 
 
 — Julius Caesar, Act. IV, Scene III. 
 
 276 
 
THE SCHOOL GOES HOUSE HUNTING 
 
 Just then the trolley car hove in sight around a turn 
 in the street. I swung onto the rear platform in full 
 confidence that I was taking the tide at its flood, not 
 only figuratively, but literally, for it began to rain in 
 the muddy street. 
 
 When I reached Boston the rain had increased. 
 Taking a subway car to Boylston Street, I set out 
 under the protection of an umbrella to make the cir- 
 cuit of the Common along Tremont and Beacon 
 Streets, looking for "to let" signs. On Beacon Street 
 there were one or two prospects of which I made 
 note. I also made an excursion into Mt. Vernon 
 Street, noting that 47 Mt. Vernon Street was on the 
 market. 
 
 But when on the way to State Street, to look up the 
 agents of some of the property, it occurred to me that 
 the Industrial Accident Board had recently vacated 
 their former quarters in the Pemberton Building, so 
 I called upon the agents to investigate the proposition. 
 
 As the result of our conversation, the suggestion 
 was made to me that the school could secure the en- 
 tire building at No. 30 Pemberton Square. The rent 
 named was considerable, but I at once saw that by 
 subletting the space the school did not need, we could 
 reduce the annual expenses to a safe figure. 
 
 I hastened to the office of Wilmot R. Evans, Jr. 
 of the Board of Trustees, for he was more of an au- 
 thority on real estate than any other member o¥ the 
 board. Mr. Evans is conservative. He was doubt- 
 ful of the ability of the school to handle the proposi- 
 tion. 
 
 But I had become convinced that no better propo- 
 sition could be found. Pemberton Square was a good 
 location, and I believed that the ten year lease that 
 
 277 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 was offered would insure the school from interruption 
 for a long time to come. 
 
 On Monday evening, I called a mass meeting of 
 the students and stated that I had found a way for 
 the school to deliver itself from the annoyances that 
 then existed in Tremont Temple. I suggested that an 
 endowment campaign might now be feasible, for the 
 school needed financial assistance in the contemplated 
 venture. 
 
 My enthusiasm was at once contagious. A cam- 
 paign committee was immediately organized. So 
 swiftly did we work that on the following evening, at 
 a second mass meeting, the students themselves 
 signed pledge cards to an amount exceeding $500 
 (about $400 of this sum was later paid in). 
 
 This action convinced Mr. Evans of the feasibility 
 of the plan. The other trustees being favorably dis- 
 posed, I took up the matter of lease with the agents 
 of the building. The necessary alterations would in- 
 volve an estimated expense of ten thousand dollars, 
 so it became necessary for me to meet the trustees of 
 the building and convince them that the outlay was a 
 reasonably safe proposition. In this I succeeded. They, 
 in their turn were to secure the consent of the owners 
 of the building to the placing of a mortgage on the 
 property to raise funds for the alterations. 
 
 The endowment campaign entailed an immense 
 amount of work for me. I was very busy for the next 
 week or so, all the time hopefully believing that the 
 Pemberton Square proposition was as good as closed, 
 but anxious nevertheless to hear the final verdict of 
 the owners. 
 
 A surprise and disappointment was in store for me. 
 The agents sent for me and announced that one of 
 
 278 
 
THE SCHOOL GOES HOUSE HUNTING 
 
 the owners had refused to consent to the mortgage. 
 They now proposed that we take the building and 
 make the alterations ourselves. But not even my en- 
 thusiasm for the place could tempt me to undertake 
 so impossible a venture. 
 
 I had done my best to secure the building, and that 
 in a measure consoled me. It has always been one of 
 the tenets of my philosophy of life that if I had done 
 my very utmost to accomplish a given thing, and then 
 failed in the attempt, it was because a Wiser Intelli- 
 gence than mine was turning me aside to a more de» 
 sirable object. But I always make it a point to ex- 
 haust every possibility of accomplishing the object 
 before I can be sure that there is a better one in store 
 for me. 
 
 Never was my faith more amply justified than in 
 this instance. To have taken a ten year lease of such 
 restricted quarters would have been, as after events 
 demonstrated, a calamity of first magnitude. We 
 should have outgrown the place within a year. 
 
 279 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER LIX. 
 
 Buying a School Home. 
 
 Eliminating the Pemberton Square proposition from 
 mind, I set about in search of a different location. It 
 soon became apparent that it would be impossible to 
 rent a desirable building. I was reluctantly brought 
 to the conclusion that we must purchase a building. 
 
 One thing that influenced me in this was the fact 
 that some of the students believed that, if we could 
 find a desirable building, some of Boston's wealthy 
 citizens might endow scholarships or give the school 
 a substantial sum for the privilege of naming a mem- 
 orial hall. Propositions of this nature were in fact 
 reported to me, but nothing came of them except the 
 temporary encouragement afforded by the proposi- 
 tions themselves. 
 
 I investigated building after building and finally 
 decided to examine the^ premises at 47 Mt. Vernon 
 Street Now numbers 45 and 47 were buildings of 
 quite similar construction, but No. 45 had, during the 
 previous year, been renovated at an outlay of between 
 seven and eight thousand dollars. The real estate 
 agents, with commendable sagacity, instructed their 
 young man to show me No. 45 before taking me 
 through No. 47 in order, as they expressed it, that I 
 might see how the other building would look if it 
 were fixed up. 
 
 280 
 
BUYING A SCHOOL HOME 
 
 The young man explained to me that No. 45 was 
 then an apartment house and that we might have some 
 difficulty in seeing the building, for the tenant Avas 
 very much afraid that the building might be sold. 
 He was a true prophet. 
 
 No icy-faced butler could have received us with 
 more frigidity than did the dark, slow-moving maid, 
 who answered our ring. She would take the real 
 estate man's card — yes, and she would find out from 
 "Her Majesty" if we could see the building. We 
 were permitted to step into the marble paved foyer 
 and wait while she was gone. This was my first 
 glimpse of the splendid building which is the present 
 home of the school. It was only a glimpse, for the 
 maid returned with the information that we could not 
 see the building. 
 
 The young man from the real estate office was visi- 
 bly put out, but he asked permission to see the first 
 floor which consisted of reception hall, dining room 
 and kitchen. We received a stony refusal and retired 
 in good order from the building. 
 
 We went through No. 47. and I was impressed by 
 the spacious rooms, so dififerent from those in the 
 other buildings I had seen. Although it was dis- 
 tressingly dirty and out of repair, the possibilities of 
 the place were apparent. The price, moreover, was 
 reasonable, so I took up with our trustees, the ques- 
 tion of the advisability of purchase. 
 
 By appointment the next day, a member of the real 
 estate firm met me and the chairman of the under- 
 graduate endowment campaign committee, Richard 
 R. Flynn, now State Commissioner of Pensions, and 
 together we invaded the forbidden premises at No. 
 45 Mt. Vernon Street. This time the maid could not 
 bar us. and we went through the building. 
 
 281 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 I was delighted at the interior of the building- and 
 its complete adaptability to the needs of a school. At 
 every new revelation of its spaciousness, Mr. Flynn 
 would nudge me and whisper, "Oh my, oh my, Dean, 
 if we could only have this building! It would be the. 
 making of the school." Each time I smilingly agreed ' 
 with him. But I knew that this building would cost 
 us seven thousand dollars more than the other one, 
 and in addition to that me must pay two thousand } 
 dollars in order to cancel the lease of the present 
 occupants, so I put the matter out of my mind. 
 
 The upshot of it was that I took a thirty-day option 
 on the building at 47 Mt. Vernon Street, paying four 
 hundred dollars which would be forfeited if we did 
 not make good. But the man from whom I had taken 
 the option did not himself have title, holding merely 
 an agreement from trustees under which he would 
 acquire title before our option expired. In other 
 words, he was a speculator. 
 
 It might be thought that when things had gone to 
 this pass if either building was to be acquired by the 
 school it would be No. 47 and not No. 45. But again 
 fate was taking a hand in the afifair. 
 
 The speculator had placed No. 47 in the hands of 
 several brokers, but being under an agreement with 
 the trustees not to sell to anyone of the race of Solo- 
 mon, he had laid that injunction on the brokers. One 
 broker had violated the restriction, accepted money, 
 and given a receipt in the speculator's behalf. His ac- 
 tion had been promptly disavowed. Directly after 
 this I had come to the speculator and readily secured 
 an option which of course, he was anxious to fulfill. 
 
 But the people who had paid money to the broker, 
 although receiving it back, brought injunction pro- 
 
 282 
 
BUYING A SCHOOL HOME 
 
 ceedings against the speculator to restrain him from 
 selling to Suffolk Law School or to anyone else. I 
 looked into the matter enough to satisfy myself that 
 they could not hope to win their injunction proceed- 
 ings, so I went ahead with my plans to purchase. 
 
 Troubles now thickened, however, for the student 
 campaign for endowment fizzled out and my own ef- 
 forts had won but a single gift of $ioo for the school. 
 The trustees, nearly all of them poor men, could not 
 assist me personally and certainly they did not exert 
 themselves much to secure donations, so the entire burden 
 was thrown upon me. 
 
 It was indeed a very hard predicament. I realized 
 that the school must have a home of its own, and I 
 spent many a sleepless night and prayed many a fer- 
 vent prayer that the way might be opened to me where- 
 by that home could be won. 
 
 While the greater part of the necessary sum could 
 be raised by a mortgage on the building itself, yet to 
 purchase the equity in the building was the great prob- 
 lem. The school had nothing save the money already 
 paid for the option. To purchase the equity was 
 therefore impossible, unless I were to raise the money 
 on my own personal credit. 
 
 Aside from royalty contracts my assets consisted 
 wholly of a country home which I had just succeeded 
 in paying for. To mortgage it again after a five-year 
 struggle with a mortgage was a bitter thought indeed, 
 nor was I at all sure that my wife would consent to 
 the sacrifice. 
 
 But finally when no other way was open, I told her 
 what was in my mind. We discussed it from all 
 angles, for the contemplated step involved not only 
 financial disaster for the school but the loss of our 
 
 283 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 
 very home if it failed. But my wife rose to the oc- 
 casion as she had done in other crises of the school 
 and bravely resolved to make the sacrifice of signing 
 away her dower rights in the property. 
 
 I thereupon set about to find how large a loan could 
 be secured and finally closed the matter with a man 
 with whom I had had business dealings before. By this 
 time the date for the transfer of the property at 47 
 Mt. Vernon Street was at hand and the injunction 
 proceedings still held fire. I had already gotten esti- 
 mates of how long it would require to put the building 
 into condition for school use and was painfully aware 
 that unless something was done immediately we 
 would not have time to put the building into shape 
 before school opened in September. 
 
 June I, 1914, came, the date for the passing of 
 papers, and still no decision upon the injunction. 
 Then when I remembered that an adverse decision 
 could be appealed and the property tied up all sum- 
 mer I at once gave up the idea of buying No. 47, de- 
 manded and received my option money back, and 
 turned my attention to No. 45. 
 
 The owner was in Europe and the cable was re- 
 sorted to. When we finally came to terms as to mort- 
 gages, etc., I found that I lacked $4500, even consider- 
 ing what I had raised on my house. The seeming 
 •hopelessness of the task plunged me for a time into 
 blank despair. I remember of sitting for hours in my 
 office in Tremont Temple and thinking bitterly of my 
 useless sacrifice in mortgaging my house and of the 
 utter defeat that had overtaken all my plans. We 
 must stay in Tremont Temple until by some chance 
 the way might open, but to lose the beautiful building 
 at 45 Mt. Vernon Street was bitterness in the extreme. 
 
 284 
 
BUYING A SCHOOL HOME 
 
 I finally left the office and took the 3.05 train for 
 Woburn. On the way home, a new thought came to 
 me. I had life insurance that could be pledged if I 
 could but find a person who would take it as security. 
 The only person that seemed at all likely was my 
 father-in-law, Rev. Henry S. Snyder, a retired con- 
 gregational minister, who lived near me in Woburn. 
 I doubted if he could loan me so much, or whether 
 he would consider the venture as too uncertain; for 
 he is a shrewd business man, else he never would 
 have been able to accumulate a competence on the 
 meagre salary that clergymen are paid. 
 
 Without stopping at my home, I walked a brisk 
 mile and a quarter to his home finding him at work 
 in his garden. My time was limited so I stated then 
 and there the object of my visit. He promised to let 
 me know his decision that evening. 
 
 In great uncertainty of mind, I retraced the mile and 
 a quarter of country road to my home and had scarcely 
 reached there when my telephone rang and Mr. 
 Snyder told me that he would loan me $3500. With 
 the goal so near, I knew that I could raise the rest. 
 My relief and joy were unbounded. 
 
 Six weeks must elapse before papers could be 
 passed, so I signed the agreement to purchase and 
 paid the two thousand dollars to cancel the lease of 
 the tenant. Even then it took some diplomacy to 
 secure the premises on time. By the terms of the 
 lease, the tenant could have held over until October i, 
 1914. She was very much displeased at losing the 
 place and I feared she would, out of spite, hold it to 
 the last minute. 
 
 But I assured her that our lease at Tremont Temple 
 did not expire until 1915 (which was quite true) and 
 
 285 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 that we could use Ihe rent money which she would 
 pay us until October to pay the school rent. I casu- 
 ally mentioned, however, that if it would be an obliga- 
 tion to her to escape paying rent during the dull 
 season, we would cancel the lease August ist, pro- 
 vided the premises were vacted by that time, other- 
 wise we would not move from Tremont Temple until 
 after school opened, holding her liable for rent in the 
 meantime. 
 
 My satisfaction was unbounded when I learned that 
 the tenant had taken the bait and did not propose to 
 pay Suffolk Law School any rent and would vacate 
 August ist. 
 
 But in the meantime, an event occurred that, how- 
 ever much it increased the labours of a busy summer, 
 enabled me to overcome the last financial obstacle in 
 the way of purchasing the building. 
 
 I was appointed by the Attorney General Boynton 
 and Commissioner Bump of the State Board of Con- 
 ciliation and Arbitration chairman of a special com- 
 mission to arbitrate the Springfield Street Railway 
 muddle. It was a long, weary task, but my decision 
 was unanimously accepted by both railway com- 
 pany and its employees, and the compensation which 
 I received for my services supplied the last necessary 
 dollar for the purchase of the building and its altera- 
 tion into a school building. 
 
 The great battle was won. But when the owners 
 came to make the conveyance they would deal only 
 with me ; so the honor was forced upon me of being 
 for a whole day the owner of 45 Mt. Vernon Street. 
 As soon as I could draw a deed and get my wife's sig- 
 nature to it, I conveyed the property to the school, 
 all the papers being recorded about August i, 1914. 
 
 286 
 
BUYING A SCHOOL HOME 
 
 But the whole issue had turned upon Mr. Snyder's 
 loan to me in the great crisis, and he should there- 
 fore be written down in this history as one of the 
 substantial benefactors of the School. 
 
 287 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER LX. 
 
 The School Year of 1914-1915 
 
 We took possession at 45 Mt. Vernon Street on 
 August I, 1914, and began immediate alterations for 
 the accommodation of students. The chief alterations 
 were in the basement. A large fireproof smoking 
 room was constructed as well as lavatories and such 
 equipment necessary for a school. 
 
 It was a new experience for me, after being so many- 
 years in cramped quarters, to have a large building 
 entirely devoted to the school. We hung out a school 
 flag; installed an illuminating sign, and in many ways 
 gave evidence that Suffolk Law School had at last 
 intrenched itself on the very top of Beacon Hill, close 
 by the State House where so much of its history had 
 been enacted. 
 
 Prospective students now began to call in increasing 
 numbers. I soon foresaw trouble from the very tide 
 of popularity that was now enveloping us. 
 
 For one thing I could no longer combine in my own 
 person all the myriad functions of Dean, Secretary, 
 Treasurer, Professor of Law, and Keeper of Records. 
 It was in fact the keeping of school records that bur- 
 dened me most, so I cast about for a suitable man to 
 whom I might entrust the duties of recorder. My 
 choice fell upon Wm. G. Dolan, Esq., a recent grad- 
 uate of the school, whose integrity and loyalty I had 
 
THE SCHOOL YEAR OF 1914-1915 
 
 long appreciated. Much to my satisfaction he ac- 
 cepted the appointment. 
 
 The matter of the school cashier for the receipt of 
 tuition gave me less trouble — not that the question 
 was less in importance, but that my choice was instan- 
 taneous. My wife's father, Rev. Henry S. Snyder» 
 whose loan to the school had made possible the pur- 
 chase of our building, had previously assisted me on. 
 tuition nights, and was now the logical man for the 
 place. 
 
 I therefore offered him the position of Assistant 
 Treasurer and Superintendent of the school building. 
 Both positions he accepted. For more than four 
 years he filled them with a fidelity and ability that is 
 beyond appreciation of words. Mr. Snyder came to 
 live in the building, for its upper stories were well 
 adapted to purposes of habitation but not to school 
 needs. 
 
 I was soon obliged to do likewise. So great be- 
 came the demands upon my time that in early Sep- 
 tember of 1914 I closed my country home and brought 
 my wife and children to live in Boston, for I was: 
 unable, except at great hardship, to get home at all,, 
 my presence being necessary at the office from 9 A. M. 
 to 9.30 P. M., six days a week. 
 
 The school opened for the year on the evening of 
 September 14, 1914 with about one hundred new stu- 
 dents enrolled. But this number increased by leaps 
 and bounds until we reached the surprising total of 
 two hundred and thirteen men who attended a part 
 or all of the school year. This meant that our entire 
 attendance exceeded three hundred students — nearly 
 three times the attendance of the year before. 
 
 The most pleasing feature of all was that more than 
 
 289 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 a hundred men, who entered the school after opening 
 night, were brought in by other students. So far from 
 there being a lessening of loyalty and school spirit 
 after the necessity of unity of action had passed, the 
 students were even more loyal and enthusiastic than 
 -ever. 
 
 We were now receiving as students various state 
 officials, senators, representatives, aldermen from near- 
 by cities, one of the City Council of Boston, as well 
 as prominent men in the various walks of life. Two dis- 
 tinguished Naval Officers, one a retired Rear Admiral, 
 were enrolled during the school year of I9i4-'i5. 
 
 Our annual school banquet, in April, 191 5, was a 
 very brilliant afifair, with Governor David I. Walsh 
 and Mayor James M. Curley of the City of Boston in 
 attendance. 
 
 290 
 
BUILDING THE ANNEX 
 
 CHAPTER LXl. 
 
 Building The Annex. 
 
 The year of 1914-1915 had many surprises in store 
 for mC; and none greater than the wonderful and un- 
 expected increase of students. From a school of 
 slightly over one hundred men we sudenly found our- 
 selves under the necessity of housing over three hun- 
 dred students. The largest hall in the building proved 
 adequate only for the freshman class. 
 
 It came to me as a distinct shock that however 
 easily we could manage affairs for the current year, 
 another such entering class could not be housed in 
 the building. Clearly, we must arrange for additional 
 space. But how was it to be accomplished? Many 
 indeed were the plans concocted, but all embraced one 
 central idea — the utilizing of such additional land as 
 the school possessed in the rear of the main building. 
 But the awkward part of the whole matter lay in the 
 fact that an ell of irregular shape occupied more than 
 half the space. Any building plans must be formu- 
 lated with that fact in view. 
 
 But a greater problem than any number of ells was 
 that of raising the funds necessary for building oper- 
 ations. The experience of the endowment campaign 
 of May, 1914 had demonstrated the futility of attempt- 
 ing to raise money in that fashion. I therefore went 
 to the agents of the building to learn if it were pos- 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 sible to raise the money by securing irom the mort- 
 gagees an increase in the mortgage indebtedness. 
 
 My errand was fruitless and for several months I 
 put the whole matter aside, praying and hoping that 
 before spring came the way might be opened. But 
 with the beginning of the second half year the ques- 
 tion began to assume such proportions in my mind 
 that I could not sleep nights. Night after night I 
 would awaken at one and two o'clock to wrestle with 
 the problem. 
 
 An incident occurred one day that turned my 
 thoughts into a new channel. We had recently hung 
 in the foyer a beautifully engrossed memorial, con- 
 taining the names of all who contributed to our en- 
 dowment fund of the previous spring. One of the 
 students, after reading it, came into my office and 
 said: "Dean, aren't you going to give us a chance to 
 contribute to an endowment fund? That memorial 
 out there in the hall looks pretty good to me. I wish 
 my name were up there too." 
 
 I was well aware of the splendid loyalty of our 
 students, but this remark turned my thoughts toward 
 them as the possible means of providing for the fur- 
 ture of the school. 
 
 The following day, I called to my office Mr. Harris 
 C. Porter of the Class of 1917, who had made the alter- 
 ations in the original building and asked him to make 
 an estimate of the cost of enlarging the building over 
 our back yard, and running up two stories. He in 
 turn called in an architect friend, Edward P. Lynch, 
 and I outlined to them my plans, which at the time 
 involved preserving the ell above the second story. 
 
 The figures for this work involved an expense more 
 than ten times as great as the total amount secured 
 
BUILDING THE ANNEX 
 
 by the late endowment campaign. I knew that my 
 own financial credit could not suffice. All my assets 
 were still pledged toward the building itself. In this 
 dilemma I resolved to seek the opinions of the more 
 substantial men among our students as to the pos- 
 sibility of raising the money, or at least a part of it by 
 personal loans. Luckily the very first man I called 
 upon was Commissioner Joseph A. Parks of the Indus- 
 trial Accident Board, who had rendered such signal 
 service to the school in the first year of our legislative 
 fight. 
 
 Mr. Parks was then a sophomore in the school. We 
 had a long and earnest talk in Mr. Park's private 
 office. The upshot of our conversation was that a 
 bond issue might be the most convenient mode of 
 accomplishing the work. 
 
 The more I thought upon it the more it appealed to 
 me so I prepared subscription blanks, setting forth 
 the terms of the bond issue and on Monday evening, 
 March 8, 1915, I laid the matter before the freshman 
 class to whom I was teaching Torts on that evening. 
 
 My proposal was to raise six thousand dollars in 
 seven per cent debenture bonds of a par value of $20 
 each, redeemable in one, two and three years. I had 
 prepared on a blackboard a diagram of three hundred 
 squares, each representing a twenty-dollar bond, 
 which I proposed to cross off as each bond was sub- 
 scribed. 
 
 The class were taken by surprise and I offered to let 
 the matter stand until the next night, but after several 
 speeches from the floor by students — one in particular 
 by George F. Hogan of Lynn which elicted great ap- 
 plause, the subscription blanks were distributed. 
 
 I was amazed at the result. All the hardships and 
 
 293 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 -i 
 
 sacrifices that I have undergone for the school were I 
 felt atoned for in the tremendous demonstration of 
 loyalty on that evening by the first division of the 
 Freshman class. They subscribed for over two thou- 
 sand dollars worth of bonds and nearly every man 
 afterward made good upon his subscription. 
 
 The response from the balance of the school was 
 about equal in amount, bringing the total student sub- 
 scription to four thousand dollars. Feeling confident 
 that I could myself complete the amount (I afterward 
 contributed about $1900) I laid the matter before our 
 trustees. It was officiall}'^ voted that I be authorized 
 to build the annex. 
 
 The architect was now instructed to draw up definite 
 plans as a basis for official bids. But the problem of 
 the ell was still unsolved. The architect finally sug- 
 gested that if the ell were torn down completely it 
 would simplfy matter greatly. This was finally agreed 
 upon and the annex as it now stands was laid out under 
 my direction by Architect Lynch. 
 
 Several weeks passed and it was the latter part of 
 A.pril before the complete plans were filed for approval 
 with the building department at City Hall. Students 
 had already begun to pay for their bonds, when an 
 event occurred that seemingly blasted every prospect 
 of a new annex and even threatened to deprive us of 
 our school building itself. 
 
 I have met many a surprise and disappointment in 
 the history of the school, but none more complete nor 
 more unexpected than this — our plans were rejected by 
 the building department and the architect was ordered 
 to provide for a six-foot passage way open to the sky 
 on each side of our building extending from the back 
 alley to Mt. Vernon Street. Imagine it if you can ! 
 
 294 
 
BUILDING THE ANNEX 
 
 With such an alley on each side of our building we 
 would, after allowance for walls, have a structure fif- 
 teen feet wide, and ninety feet long, not to mention 
 seventy feet high. 
 
 Needless to say, I cursed the day the building de- 
 partment was born. The department had just closed 
 up several halls in Boston and I pictured to myself a 
 pompous official closing up Suffolk Law School any 
 day, for it had now been officially called to their at- 
 tention that our building had no passageways from the 
 alley to Mt. Vernon street. Mr. Porter's language was 
 more expressive than mine, for he is a capital and 
 effective swearer on occasions. I could not help feel- 
 ing, however, that he did the subject no more than 
 justice. 
 
 But he and the architect had done all they could do, 
 so I resolved to take a hand personally in the matter, 
 comforted by the thought that I could not make mat- 
 ters any worse than they were, and that I should at 
 least derive some satisfaction from a real good "scrap." 
 
 My first move was to demand the legal authority by 
 which such an outrageous ruling was made. They 
 cited a certain section in the building laws that pro- 
 vided that any building in which halls were maintained 
 must subscribe to the building requirements as to 
 theatres. I secured a copy of the building laws and 
 sure enough under "Theatres"! found the provision as 
 to passageways. My school duties were sadly neglect- 
 ed that day. I sat in my office wrestling with the 
 dilemma, every little while reading the offending sec- 
 tion as to passageways and the other clause to which 
 I was first referred. 
 
 It was not until afternoon that I discovered any 
 ground for hope, but I finally decided that the Ian- 
 
 295 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 guage of the clause, while it did refer to theatres, did 
 not say anything about passageways. It did speak of 
 aisles, exits, etc., and this I reasoned was all that the 
 law intended. 
 
 So I made another trip to city hall and had a long 
 conference with one of the building department offi- 
 cials. I explained my interpretation of the law. He 
 declared that they had always ruled that way and 
 ■"gotten away" with it; but I assured him that it meant 
 so much to us that we should take the matter to the 
 Supreme Court if necessary. 
 
 I have a strong suspicion that he was more than half 
 convinced that I was right. But at any rate, he called 
 for the plans, so that he could see just what I wanted. 
 
 I explained them, but my heart came into my throat 
 when he placed his finger on the plan of our present 
 Junior hall on the second floor of the main building and 
 said : 
 
 "What are you using this for?" 
 
 "Why," I replied, fearful least my answer should 
 cause our building to be closed up, "why, we use it 
 just for a class room — just as we want to use these 
 others — for class rooms." 
 
 The magic word "class rooms" chased away every 
 cloud in the sky, for the man suddenly beamed upon 
 me with a forty-horse power smile and said, "Class 
 rooms — well, that changes the whole situation. Your 
 architect has got it 'halls' on the plan. If you want 
 classrooms, why go ahead with your plans — they're all 
 right." 
 
 I stood there for a moment too amazed and relieved 
 to speak. 
 
 "We can build over all our land," I gasped? 
 
 "Yes." 
 
BUILDING THE ANNEX 
 
 "And no trouble about passageways?" 
 
 "No, no passageways necessary." 
 
 "And is there a limit to the size of the halls — class 
 rooms I mean?" 
 
 "No, no limit to the size of classrooms. You can 
 make 'em as big as Boston Common if you want to." 
 
 I made record time from city hall to 45 Mt. Vernon 
 Street, it may be well believed. . Nor did I waste any 
 time in telephoning the architect to change the word 
 "hall" to class rooms and to rush the plans back to 
 City Hall. He did so. The plans were then promptly 
 accepted and the work begun. 
 
 It so happened that on Commencement day May 26, 
 1915, the actual work on the annex was begun. The 
 foundation was laid after overcoming many unexpected 
 difficulties. The workmen encountered deep beneath 
 the paving of the back yard an old cistern, ancient 
 vaults and even two old wells that recalled the early 
 days of Boston when the great metropolis was a mere 
 village. 
 
 The ell was gradually demolished and every brick 
 of its walls was relaid in the walls of our new annex. 
 In spite of an unusually rainy season, with torrents of 
 water soaking down through the dismantled ell and 
 even driving into the main building, Mr. Porter kept 
 his forces at work with splendid determination to com- 
 plete the annex before school opened. 
 
 Had it not been for the loyalty and executive ability 
 of Harris C. Porter of the class of 1917 the annex 
 would not have been a complete reality in September, 
 1915. Not only that, but through his watchfulness the 
 school was enabled to construct the building at a fig- 
 ure nearly two thousand dollars below the lowest bid. 
 The annex was formally dedicated September 29, 191 5, 
 with Gov. Walsh, who had signed the school charter, 
 as guest of honor. 
 
 297 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER LXII. 
 
 A Year of Momentous Problems. 
 
 The completion of the annex was barely accom- 
 plished when the school year of 1915-1916 officially 
 began. September 13th witnessed the gathering of 
 Suffolk Law School's growing family — and an enthu- 
 siastic gathering it was. The spacious halls of the 
 annex called forth endless praise from those in the 
 upper classes, as well as enthusiastic comment from 
 the Freshmen. So newly plastered were the walls that 
 no time had been left for paint or decoration, and dur- 
 ing all that year their white expanse surrounded us at 
 our work and reminded one and all of the magnitude of 
 our summer's achievement. 
 
 The rising tide of students set a new mark for the 
 school, with four hundred and sixty as its total. My 
 fondest hopes had never pictured the school so great 
 in numbers. In the long years of adversity and strug- 
 gle we had builded better than we then realized. 
 
 But a very grave danger was also before us. Our 
 success with a small school had been based upon per- 
 sonal attention to the needs of each student, and the 
 school had now vastly outgrown our old machinery. 
 It was no longer possible for the teachers even to 
 know the names of all their students. It was no longer 
 possible for the teachers to correct the written work of 
 so considerable a body of men. In other words, the 
 
 298 
 
A YEAR OF MOMENTOUS PROBLEMS 
 
 very popularity of Suffolk Law School was now invit- 
 ing its ruin, unless I could devise some news means 6i 
 carrying on our work with its old time efficiency. 
 
 During the busy summer of 1915, however, I was 
 building more than an annex. I was working out plans 
 for a new department of the school which should take 
 over that portion of the teaching functions that the 
 regular teachers were unable to fill. 
 
 Even during the previous year I had instituted a 
 "Recording Department" to care for the great mass of 
 written work that came in each week. Its success had 
 given me the germ of the idea destined to meet the 
 present crisis. 
 
 I now inaugurated a "Department of Problems and 
 Quizzes" and pursuaded my brother, Hiram J. Archer, 
 Esq., previously a valuable assistant in the school, to 
 come from Maine and assume the duties of "Director" 
 of the department. 
 
 In order to secure uniformity of work I laid out a 
 regular programme for each semester, giving the ex- 
 act date in each class when problems and quizzes were 
 due . Every faculty member was then required to pre- 
 pare at the beginning of each semester a complete set 
 of problems and quizzes as called for by the pro- 
 gramme. 
 
 All such were to be officially approved by the Direc- 
 tor; to be printed or stenciled, and sufficient copies 
 turned over to the Recorder, by him to be distributed 
 to the classes on the dates when they were due. 
 
 ThuS; uniformity in all classes was secured. But to 
 the Problem department fell the great task of the cor- 
 rection of the avalanche of written work, more than 
 tAvelve hundred papers a week. Under my brother's 
 direction an efficient corps of examiners was formed, and 
 
 299 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 thus each student received personal attention and per- 
 sonal advice when needed through the medium of his 
 written work. 
 
 Filing cabinets were provided for each class to which 
 all corrected papers were returned after the rank of 
 such papers had been recorded in the official records. 
 
 The co-ordination of the two departments — the Re- 
 cording Department under the direction of Wm. G. 
 Dolan, and the Department of Problems and Quizzes 
 under my brother, was like that of a well oiled ma- 
 chine — very quiet and very efficient. 
 
 The great problem had been met, and met triumph- 
 antly. I was thrilled with the joyful consciousness 
 that we were not only maintaining our old time effi- 
 ciency but setting a new and higher standard. 
 
 There was little time for self congratulation, how- 
 ever. The demands for new departments and new 
 helpers now arose in a new quarter — the treasury de- 
 partment. In addition to my other duties I was treas- 
 urer of the corporation and charged with the duty of 
 keeping accurate accounts. 
 
 But to keep straight^ and free from error the tuition 
 accounts of nearly five hundred men, was becoming 
 almost an impossibility. A bookkeeper seemed essen- 
 tial. Mr. Snyder, whose duty it was to receive tuition 
 and give receipts therefor, had also become over- 
 whelmed with work. He needed, it seemed, not one 
 but several assistants. 
 
 Then it was that I devised a new plan for the treas- 
 ury department that dispelled all our woes and enabled 
 us both to handle our work with utmost ease. Under 
 the new plan Mr. Snyder no longer wrote receipts. 
 The students themselves did all the writing — filling in 
 a double voucher with the name, date, and amount and 
 
 300 
 
A YEAR OF MOMENTOUS PROBLEMS 
 
 bringing the same with tuition to the Treasurer's win- 
 dow. Mr. Snyder was called upon merely to make 
 change if need be and to stamp one of the vouchers 
 "paid" as the students receipt, retaining the other for 
 our official records. 
 
 In my office I dispensed with a ledger, using instead 
 a manila card for each student. These cards were ar- 
 ranged alphabetically in an appropriate vertical file 
 and the tuition vouchers, as payments came in, were 
 pasted upon them in spaces for the purpose. Thus, 
 mistakes were rendered well nigh impossible and the 
 condition of each student's account was to be seen at a 
 glance. While I still retained the cash book in which 
 all tuition was entered at the close of the school each 
 night it was merely as a possible recourse in case a 
 student's tuition voucher should be lost and as a sum- 
 mary of tuition receipts. 
 
 This new plan, together with a monthly accounting 
 system that I worked out during the same year, com- 
 pletely freed the Treasury department from the bug- 
 bears of drudgery and of expensive assistants. 
 
 This was indeed a year of progress in which we 
 inaugurated many new policies called forth by the 
 growing needs of the school. 
 
 In October, 1915 appeared the first issue of the 
 "Suffolk Law School Register," a monthly magazine of 
 thirty-two pages ; written, edited and published by the 
 students — perhaps the first undergraduate evening law 
 school magazine in America. It was of course neces- 
 sary for me to exercise a paternal oversight over the 
 affairs of the magazine ; to write special articles for it 
 and to co-operate generally. But Vv'hile such co-opera- 
 tion .added to my labors, especially when I was later 
 obliged to take over the financial affairs of the periodi- 
 cal, it was a valuable adjunct to the school. 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 In its pages appeared the first chapters of the "Edu- 
 cational Octopus," the first edition of this history, 
 which I was then writing. Special articles on legal 
 topics appeared in the "Register." Each class had its 
 own page of news and classroom chatter. A special 
 page was reserved for "the Dean," and I used it for 
 a series of intimate "talks" with the students upon 
 matters connected with the school and of vital interest 
 to all. Nearly half the magazine was devoted to re- 
 view questions in various courses ; problems and 
 quizzes, bar examiantion questions and the like. 
 
 I also inaugurated a series of special Wednesday eve- 
 ning lectures open to all the school. "International 
 Law" by Dr. Geo. F. Tucker ran for ten weeks during 
 the first Semester of I9i5-'i6, while "Conveyancing" by 
 Albert L. Partridge, Esq., ran for a similar period in 
 the second semester. These lectures, particularly the 
 latter series, were very popular, although it is difficult 
 for evening students to attend an extra evening every 
 week. 
 
 This year saw also the resurrection of the school 
 debating society. I arranged, for the benefit of the 
 club, a practical course in "Public Speaking and De- 
 bate." But the difficulty confronting busy law stu- 
 dents when extra evenings are called for, even though 
 it be but twice a month, caused the club to languish as 
 its predecessors had done. It quietly expired during 
 the following year. Its friends lamented its departure 
 as a formal organization, but its spirit lives on to this 
 day in the smoking room and corridors or wherever our 
 students congregate before and after lecture. 
 
 I have, in fact, come to the conclusion that these 
 informal and more or less heated arguments on vital 
 topics teach self-expression perhaps more effectively 
 
A YEAR OF MOMENTOUS PROBLEMS 
 
 than could formal debate. Certainly a participant in 
 such informal arguments must reason logically and ex- 
 press himself clearly else he will meet derision and 
 frankness that is good for the oratorical soul. 
 
 For some yearr. we had maintained a summer pre- 
 paratory department which had been very ill attended. 
 The reason for this lay in thq fact that I had been un- 
 willing to require students to attend this department, 
 and had given them the option of attending our school 
 or preparing in any other way they chose. 
 
 Experience had now demonstrated that men with 
 defective preliminary training who did not attend our 
 summer school did not train at all. We were now 
 conferring degrees and I found myself under the em- 
 barrassing necessity of refusing in behalf of the faculty 
 the applications for graduation of many such applicants. 
 Much wrath was manifested by disappointed candi- 
 dates. The Senior class were in almost open rebellion 
 because classmates of four years' standing could not 
 graduate, totally ignoring the slothful neglect of such 
 candidates to complete their general educational re- 
 quirement. 
 
 The second semester of 1915-1916 was one of the 
 most difficult ones in my experience, all because of our 
 standards of general education. The faculty were 
 divided. One enterprising candidate even canvassed 
 each of the trustees and secured an oral promise from 
 nearly all of them that they would vote to give him the 
 degree if "Dean Archer was willing." That left me in 
 an embarrassing position and I was obliged to get 
 the trustees together and give them the facts as to the 
 scholastic record of the candidate in question. Suffice 
 it to say that the board voted unanimously to sustain 
 my ruling, and moreover to be more guarded in their 
 promises thereafter. 
 
 303 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 Another candidate enlisted very formidable political 
 support. A congressman and local leaders mixed in 
 the fray. The school was even threatened with the loss 
 of its charter — a most ridiculous threat, for who ever 
 heard of a school being deprived of its charter for main- 
 taining standards? But the legislator who made the 
 threat was doubtless too angry to think of that. Even 
 members of the trustees endeavored to secure leniency 
 for some of the unfortunate ones. But I realized that 
 these were test cases and if the school permitted these 
 men to graduate it could not in justice deny similar 
 treatment to all other men of defective education in 
 the school. 
 
 The result was that the faculty and trustees sus- 
 tained my rulings and the first great contest ever edu- 
 cational standards was won. 
 
 But now I resolved upon a plan to meet the situation 
 thus painfully revealed. This plan involved the re- 
 organization of our summer preparatory department 
 and the appointment of regular high school teachers to 
 conduct the work. It involved also the plan of com- 
 pulsory attendance of defectively trained students who 
 were candidates for a degree. 
 
 AVhen proper announcement had been made, I took 
 a census of the school and required each student to 
 answer in writing whether he was a high school grad- 
 uate. All those with less than a high school training 
 were required to state whether they were candidates 
 for the degree ; if so, whether they would attend the 
 preparatory department during the summer of 1916. 
 The questionaire contained the following significant 
 clause : 
 
 "Note: — Candidates for a degree who are not 
 high school graduates are expected to attend the Suf- 
 
 304 
 
A YEAR OF MOMENTOUS PROBLEMS 
 
 folk Law Summer Preparatory Department at their 
 earliest possible convenience. Failure to do so will 
 be deemed an election to remain a special student." 
 
 This action brought about results beyond expecta- 
 tion. Since that date, the summer school has been a 
 strong adjunct of the law school, with an average at- 
 tendance of from seventy-five to one hundred men a 
 summer. 
 
 The school year came to a close with the most in- 
 spiring commencement in point of numbers and enthu- 
 siasm that the school had ever known. Ford Hall, 
 where the exercises were held, was packed with 
 friends, relatives and students. It should also be added 
 that the class of 1916 made the highest bar examina- 
 tion record of any class that has ever graduated from 
 Suflfolk Law School, seventeen out of eighteen who 
 took the Massachusetts bar examinations passed be- 
 fore the end of the year of 1916. 
 
 305 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER LXIII. 
 
 The Banner Year of 1916-1917. 
 
 Although for two years the world war had been 
 writing itself into histor}- and had called from our 
 shores many adventurous and idealistic young men, it 
 had thus far had but slight effect upon Sufifolk Law 
 School. It remained for our inconsequential Mexican 
 border disturbance to call the Nation to arms in the 
 summer of 1916. Villa's raid and our unsuccessful pur- 
 suit are well known to all. But to the Suffolk Law 
 School it had special significance. Our students of 
 military status were called away, some of them from 
 the summer preparatory school, and all absentees re- 
 maining away for a month or more after the opening 
 of school in September. 
 
 Notwithstanding these absentees, the school opened 
 for its banner year in point of numbers September i8th, 
 1916. Five hundred and ten students was the total 
 attendance. A more enthusiastic student body would 
 be hard to find. This was also the tenth anniversary 
 of the founding of the school, so on the appropriate eve- 
 ning we made brief and informal recognition of the 
 fact. An oil portrait of the founder of the school 
 painted by an artist whose son was a student in one 
 of the classes was hung in the freshman hall, and like- 
 nesses of the trustees and faculty were installed in the 
 foyer. 
 
 306 
 
THE BANNER YEAR OF 1916-1917 
 
 In December occurred the sad death of Gen. Charles 
 W. Bartlett, a member of our board of trustees and a 
 staunch friend of the school. That left a vacancy in 
 our official board which was filled January 10, 1917 
 by the election of Hon. James M. Swift, a former At- 
 torney-General of Massachussets. 
 
 Comparatively few domestic problems arose during 
 this year. There was one, however, that merited con- 
 cern and that had to do with bar examination reviews. 
 Our official bar examination review had hitherto been 
 given after the close of school. 
 
 For several years I had known that many of our 
 students were entering the classes of certain outside 
 "bar exam specialists" far in advance of our regular 
 review. It had now come to the point that as early as 
 February these outside classes were beginning and our 
 Seniors were being enrolled in increasing numbers by 
 emmisaries of the "specialists" who were charging as 
 high as fifty dollars for the review. 
 
 There were two reasons why I objected to this ar- 
 rangement. First ; it interfered with our regular Senior 
 work of the second Semester owing to neglect of regu- 
 lar studies. Second ; that in order to stimulate attend- 
 ance at such reviews, the reviewers were endeavoring 
 to convince our Seniors that they could not pass the 
 bar examinations without the special services of such 
 reviewer. In other words, it was a system of propa- 
 ganda calculated to breed distrust of the efficiency of 
 Suffolk Law School. 
 
 At any rate, it had the effect of turning each Senior" 
 class into two groups, one loyal to the school, and the 
 other loyal to the "specialists," and more or less dis- 
 loyal to their Alma Mater. It impressed me as an un- 
 just and intolerable situation that Suffolk Law School 
 
 307 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 should labor so unstintedly for four years to train 
 men for their life work only to have private individ- 
 uals, for purposes of their own, by in wait for theip 
 at the end of that period and turn them against their 
 Alma Mater. 
 
 I realized also the grim fact that made that result 
 possible. Men forget a great deal in four years. Prin- 
 ciples once familiar have been forgotten. I have even 
 known one senior to declare that he had never heard 
 of the statue of Frauds, which he had studied for 
 weeks in his freshman year as well as in the subjects 
 of Equity, Real Property Sales, etc., of later years. 
 This being true, a crafty reviewer could readily con- 
 vince such students of the inadequacy of their course. 
 
 So in January, 1917 I announced a new policy. 
 Thereafter, our official bar examination review would 
 begin in January of each year, given by our regular 
 faculty, and continue on other than school evenings, 
 throughout the second Semester and June. The re- 
 view would be required work for all candidates for a 
 degree, and examination upon freshman and sopho- 
 more subjects would be exacted. Unless the work 
 were compulsory it would be of little value and the 
 attendance would be light. Under the new plan, a 
 maximum attendance was assured and maximum effi- 
 ciency guaranteed. 
 
 The plan was not to take effect for a year, but the 
 Senior class immediately voted to place themselves 
 under its provisions. The new bar review schedule 
 was, therefore, immediately put into effect. 
 
 Having had at this writing more than two years of 
 experience with it I can say with assurance that it is 
 a very great success. After four years of study, the 
 student is in a position to marshall all the chief sub- 
 
 308 
 
THE BANNER YEAR OF 1916-1917 
 
 jects of the law with telling and lasting effect. Need- 
 less to say, the school was delivered from the menace 
 of the outside reviewer, and strengthened in a pecu- 
 liarly important respect. 
 
 One other change in our school policies that oc- 
 curred during the same year is worthy of mention. 
 Because of the mounting cost of supplies, equipment, 
 lighting, and other things, the trustees voted in Febru- 
 ary, 1917 that all future students be required to pay 
 $75 a 5^ear for tuition, in place of the $60 rate that had 
 prevailed for eight years. 
 
 In April came the world war. One of the first of 
 our students to offer his services to the nation was 
 Real Admiral George B. Ransom (retired) of our 
 senior class, who at sixty-six, still retained the fire 
 and patriotism of youth. Admiral Ransom remained 
 to graduate in May but many of oar students left be- 
 fore the end of the year ; some of them for the officers 
 training camps while others departed for France with 
 the first of "Pershing's crusaders." 
 
 Our 1917 commencement was a brilliant affair. The 
 presence of khaki-clad men in the line of black gowned 
 graduates lent a patriotic tone to the occasion that 
 rendered it memorable in the history of our school. 
 Twenty-two out of the forty who graduated that 
 night have since served in the great war, and one of 
 them. Lieutenant Charles M. Toole was killed in action 
 in the great battle of the Argonne forest in October, 
 1918. 
 
 309 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER LXIV. 
 
 Suffolk Law School and the War. 
 
 The summer of 1917 was one of great anxiety for 
 the future of the school. Every week brought to my 
 desk reports that this student and that had left for 
 the training camps. The operation of the selective 
 draft was rapidly thinning out the various classes. 
 New students were seldom registered and even then 
 under the shadow of the draft. 
 
 But toward opening time the tide turned. Men who 
 were uncertain as to their war status enrolled. Upper 
 classmen returned, so that our grand total for the 3^ear 
 of 1917-1918 was four hundred and forty-six men. 
 But this number were never in attendance at any one 
 time. Men came and went. Some of them went sadly, 
 but the majority of them called to leave their adieus 
 and departed from my ofhce with the light of the great 
 adventure in their eyes. Our numbers dwindled week 
 by week until some divisions were almost negligible. 
 At the close of a very uneventful year, so far as the 
 school was concerned, the attendance had shrunk to 
 about three hundred men. 
 
 The summer of 1918 found a much reduced summer 
 school attendance, but the war made calls even upon 
 this. The change in draft regulations calling for 
 registration and classification of all men between the 
 ages of eighteen and forty-five struck all professional 
 schools a body blow. 
 
 310 
 
SUFFOLK LAW SCHOOL AND THE WAR 
 
 During the six weeks from July ist to August 12th, 
 not a single new student enrolled at Suffolk Law 
 School Knowledge came to me that several large 
 law schools had closed their doors. The great war 
 was rolling up heavy casulty lists, and predictions 
 were freely made of several years more of carnage. 
 
 Under date of September 9, 1918, I wrote in my 
 diary : "With fifteen freshmen registered as against 
 eighty-one on September 9, 1916 and forty-eight Sep- 
 tember 9, 1917, the conclusion is inevitable that days 
 of hardship and struggle are at hand. Yet is it war — 
 the greatest war that the world has known. Mean 
 spirited indeed would be the man who did not rejoice 
 to bear his part in the common sacrifice." 
 
 One week later the school opened, and but one hun- 
 dred and seventy-three students appeared on opening 
 evening, many of them even uncertain whether it was 
 wise to begin the year's work with the shadow of the 
 draft overhanging them. I issued a reassuring state- 
 ment that unexpended tuition would be refunded to 
 all students who were called during a tuition period. 
 This had visible effect upon the irresolute. 
 
 Opening night, September 16, T919, was a memor- 
 able one for me in several respects. Just as the upper 
 classes assembled at six o'clock (the freshmen class 
 was not to convene for organization into divisions 
 until 7:30 P. M.) all electric lights in the building ex- 
 cept in the library and Junior hall blew out and 
 plunged us into chaotic darkness. 
 
 With a step ladder and a supply of new fuses I 
 spent ten frantic minutes in trying to locate the 
 trouble but in vain. I called the Seniors into 
 the Junior hall, for I had previously decided to com- 
 bine the two classes and give them all Senior work 
 during the current year. In a few words I explained 
 
 311 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 that it had become necessary to return to an old policy 
 of the school of alternating the Junior and Senior 
 courses ; that the classes would thus receive all sche- 
 duled training and graduate on time, although the 
 order of third and fourth year subjects would be re- 
 versed. I explained also that there was no special 
 reason except convenience for the arrangement of the 
 subjects of the last two years. 
 
 I had expected dissatisfaction, if at all, from the J 
 Junior class, but to my astonishment, a storm of re- 
 volt at once broke out in the Senior class. They 
 objected mightily to having the Juniors study with 
 them! Distracted as I was by the knowledge that 
 the Sophomore class was receiving its lecture on 
 Equity in darkness, and that new students were gath- 
 ering in an unlighted hall, I had scant time for argu- 
 ment or diplomacy. I am sure that I responded with 
 some spirit; ordered the work to go forward and 
 promised to settle the matter Friday night. 
 
 Then I resumed my hunt for the defective fuse this 
 time with one of our students who was an electrician. 
 But our building, having been wired at different 
 periods and by different electricians, has a strange and 
 wonderful system, defying all known laws of reason 
 or logic, so we were forced to give up the task. Help 
 came, however, in the shape of a call man from the 
 Edison Company, with his testing apparatus. He 
 soon located the trouble. Never did illumination seem 
 more luminous than when our lights resumed their 
 functions at about seven o'clock on opening evening. 
 
 Thus the school opened for the year. On Tuesday 
 night our attendance had increased by ten, and in a 
 few days our total had reached the two hundred mark. 
 On Friday evening I met the Senior-Junior class. 
 The Seniors were in a very belligerent mood but 
 
 312 
 
SUFFOLK LAW SCHOOL AND THE WAR 
 
 when I had frankly discussed the reasons, the heavy 
 deficit in the school exchequer and the grave need for 
 retrenchment wherever it could be accomplished with- 
 out sacrifice of school standards of education they 
 responded with their Suffolk loyalty and voted their 
 unanimous support. 
 
 But greater woes were in store for us. The great 
 epidemic of Spanish Influenza was already in our 
 midst. Even on opening night word came to us that 
 one of our Juniors had died with it. Others were 
 reported ill, and at the end of our second week all 
 greater Boston schools were closed by the health 
 authorities. Suffolk Law School remained closed for 
 nearly four weeks, during which time scores of the 
 students were ill, several died, and we suffered the 
 great loss of Professor Webster A. Chandler, who 
 succumed on October 7th. He was a dear and loyal 
 friend to me, and a very able teacher of law. The 
 influence of his sterling character had done much for 
 Suffolk Law School and all its students. 
 
 The school reopened October 21st with an attend- 
 ance of more than two hundred students. The excite- 
 ment of politics and the last great contest of the 
 world war were very much in evidence in the school 
 corridors. Then came the surrender of Turkey, the 
 armistice with Austria and the great day when Ger- 
 many bowed her wicked head. 
 
 Suffolk Law School was forced to suspend Monday 
 and Tuesday evenings while the mighty celebration of 
 peace of November nth and 12th was in progress. 
 
 Since that happy date there have been no interrup- 
 tions. The school has moved steadily forward in its 
 allotted tasks with an efficiency equal to the best tradi- 
 tions of its past. In the December 1918 bar examina- 
 tion, practically one-third of all successful candidates 
 
 313 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 from the entire State were from Suffolk Law School, a 
 remarkable record when it is remembered that four 
 other law schools shared between them the remaining 
 two-thirds of the successful list. 
 
 The class of 1919 staged a most brilliant graduation. 
 Sixty-seven cap-and-gowned seniors marched from the 
 school building to Ford Hall, several lieutenants and 
 many other veterans of the great war imparting a mili- 
 tary aspect to the procession. The hall was crowded. 
 A unique feature of the occasion was the presentation 
 by the class to the school of an electric clock to oper- 
 ate the corridor gong for the assembling and dismissal 
 of classes. 
 
 The summer school of 1919 was the most successful 
 in the history of the department. The July bar exam- 
 inations were especially pleasing, with more than forty 
 Suffolk Law men on the successful list. 
 
 Advance registrations for the new year indicated, 
 even a month before school opened, that we should 
 experience a return to pre-war conditions. But the 
 results were far beyond expectation. Three hundred 
 freshmen have enrolled to this date, a number equal 
 to the present attendance of the three upper classes 
 combined. 
 
 Thus a new problem has suddenly presented itself. 
 Our school building is filled. We must straightway 
 enlarge or construct a new building of greater capacity 
 on a nearby site. To this problem we are turning 
 thought and energy, confident of the future and rend- 
 ered more zealous by an abiding consciousness of the 
 greatness of mission of Suffolk Law School. 
 
 314 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 CHAPTER LXV. 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 Thirteen years have elapsed since the founding of 
 the school. Those years of the institution's history I 
 have "sketched, but the influences that have radiated 
 from the school through the lives of its graduates and 
 students are beyond power of analysis or of record. 
 I have seen men transformed mentally and physically. 
 
 I have seen the humble clerk attain through Suf- 
 folk Law School's ministrations the sure knowledge 
 that has led him to found a business of his own and 
 already to become the President of the Merchant's 
 Association of his city. I have seen the mechanic win 
 admission to the bar and, using his legal knowledge in 
 his employer's behalf, become superintendent of the 
 very establishment where in his student days he was 
 an ill paid workman. I have seen the newsboy trans- 
 formed into the lawyer of ability and recognized stand- 
 ing. T have seen the street laborer become one of the 
 most successful lawyers in his section of the State. I 
 have seen the instalment collector of insurance among 
 the very poor, after a few transforming years, plead 
 cases before the United States Supreme Court in 
 Washington. 
 
 And all these things in the brief compass of thirteen 
 3'ears ! The history of the institution itself is there- 
 fore but the history of the source gf influences that are 
 
 315 
 
BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 
 already reaching beyond the boundaries of the State 
 and even of the Nation. 
 
 In our student body will be found men of every 
 race and creed. Books written solely for use in the 
 school have been adopted by two of the great univer- 
 sities of Japan. They are selling in Holland, Cuba, 
 Porto Rico and all over the United States. Surely 
 the great mission of Suffolk Law School has abun- 
 dantly been made manifest and its future status ren- 
 dered secure. 
 
 However the founder of the school may have erred 
 in judgment or discretion at times, and however, as 
 author of this book, he may have offended through 
 egotism or imperfect execution of his task, he begs the 
 reader to remember the mission and not the man ; to 
 remember also that Providence works its will through 
 imperfect instruments, that men may recognize the 
 Guiding Power that transcends the doer of the deed. 
 
 9^3 
 
 316 
 
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