OF THE Seventeenth Annual Session OF THE North Carolina Bar Associ HELD AT THE Battery Park Hotel, Asheville AUGUST 2, 3, 4, 1915 The Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the NORTH CAROLINA BAR ASSOCIATION convened at the Battery Park Hotel, Asheville, N. C., at 8:30 o'clock P. M., on Monday, August 2, 1915. The meeting was called to order by the President, Judge J. C. Biggs. The President: Ladies and Gentlemen--the Seventeenth Annual Convention of the North Carolina Bar Association will now come to order. I take great pleasure in presenting Mr. Thomas J. Harkins of the Asheville Bar, who, on behalf of the local bar association, will welcome us to the city of Asheville. Mr. Thomas J. Harkins: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the North Carolina Bar Association: It has been said that things are divided into two classesthose which concern us and those which do not-and that dangers and disappointments constantly abide in those things which do not concern us. There is much gravity and wisdom in this. I do not recall by whom it was said, whether by a Roman sage or an Irish hod-carrier, and it makes little difference. The philosophy embodied is worthy of either. Being guided by the wisdom in this bit of philosophy and having neither the courage nor the desire to exhibit any unreasonable contempt for danger, I shall confine myself to a plain welcome and shall indulge in no attempt to enlarge upon the unceremonious, commonplace and prosaic welcome.so familiar to us all, nor to give to the aggregate of its peculiarly simple qualities a new interpretation or a new. individuality. Such a decision and a strict adherence to it will, I feel sure, be appreciated, and will especially gratify those who are to follow me on the program this evening. If I can cause you to feel the warmth of heart with which we extend our greetings on this occasion and can impress upon you the cordiality of our welcome by doing simply what I was put upon the program to do, that is, to say "welcome" to you, without presuming to discuss subjects foreign to the theme in hand, and foregoing what is usually considered the opportunity of a lifetime to rid one's system of any overplus of irrelevant and incompetent wit, I shall indeed be happy. It is sufficient evidence of the hospitality of our city and our people that, having on previous occasions held your meetings here, you come again. And we welcome you again with the same fervent welcome with which we have always greeted you. After all, Mr. President and Gentlemen, nothing in this connection can be more wholesome than a simple and genuinely wholehearted welcome. This is the welcome we extend to you, and with it all good wishes and friendly sentiments. It is our earnest hope that your sojourn in our mountain country will afford you comfort and pleasure, and that we may have the pleasure of doing whatever we can that will tend to render your meeting agreeable and profitable. We are especially pleased to welcome the distinguished gentlemen who come as your guests. We are honored by their presence in our community. And of course it goes without saying that our welcome extends to the ladies. We are happy always to have them with us and shall do all we can to leave with them, as well as with all of you, pleasant and agreeable recollections of this event and of Asheville. It is in this spirit, Mr. President and Gentlemen of the North Carolina Bar Association, that the members of the local bar and the citizens of Asheville extend to you a neighborly, warm-hearted and whole-souled welcome. The President: The response to the address of welcome will be made by Mr. F. C. Harding of the Greenville Bar, whom I have the pleasure of introducing to this audience. Mr. F. C. Harding: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Mr. Harkins: The Bar Association of North Carolina is deeply conscious of the distinguished honor which the city of Asheville confers upon us, and we recognize this fact in the beautiful address of welcome which has just been made, and we are charmed through the hum of the musical melody of it. In responding to the address of welcome, I can say nothing more appropriate than reiterate the sentiments expressed by old Scotland's noted poet: "Breathes there a lawyer throughout our commonwealth With soul so dead, who never to himself hath said," This, the beautiful city of Asheville, is the fairest of my own, my native land. If such there be (and I am sure there is not), go mark him well, for him no minstrel raptures swell. A year ago the Bar Association assembled down by the broad Atlantic's billowy sweep, where the gentle, though ceaseless, murmur of the restless sea lulled to sleep you and me. It is very appropriate then that tonight the Bar Association should gather here amid the eternal hills of North Carolina, and here pitch her tents where the grandeur of God stamps itself upon the mountain crags in your Land of the Sky. And so, Mr. Harkins, we are here with you and we are among you, and your beautiful welcome has touched a responsive chord in our hearts, and we already feel at home. Hospitality in the city of Asheville has a broader sense than elsewhere in all the world. Who does not love to come to Asheville, for here we meet and here we greet the grandeur of your beautiful city. Yea, every lawyer in North Carolina, especially every lawyer, loves your Asheville, with its hills and mountain crags to climb; every lawyer in North Carolina loves your sunshine with rosy hue, and most of us love your moonshine too, and I am told that of us there are still a few who still delight to sip your mountain dew. Ladies and Gentlemen of the City of Asheville, I assure you that we come into your beautiful city with the deepest sense of appreciation for the cordial manner in which you have received us. Asheville again honors us, and again we are grateful that we are greeted by the fair women on your mountain city. Yes, indeed, your presence is an inspiration to us in the very pursuit of the purpose of our coming, which after all is the pursuit of truth, the essence of which is most easily found in the human soul. Woman is, indeed, an inspiration to us all. Every man, and especially every lawyer, if I may be permitted to say this, in North Carolina, is proud of the twentieth century woman of America, yea the twentieth century woman of America, with her bright eye, her elastic step, with the glow of health on her cheek, her gentleness yet her firmness, and after all her bold, relentless defense of equal justice to man and woman in morals, and her demand also for an unrestricted field of usefulness; not that she would enter the political field, the busy marts of trade, the forum or the political arena, but because she demands cleanliness in politics, fair dealing in trade, justice in the forum, and honesty in all the professions of life. This is the type of the American woman that greets us in the city of Asheville tonight. Again, the Bar Association of North Carolina does itself honor in accepting hospitality from the manhood of the city of Asheville, because the manhood of the city of Ashe |