THE MODERN LEADER

Whatever may to the merits of the hill to abolish capital punishment now being considered by the legislature, Professor Chafee's active leadership in its behalf will certainly stimulate interest in the question. Although the individual opinions of the layman are likely to be determined by his emotions and prejudices, the essentials of the problem are fundamentally of a scientific nature. Consequently the expert judgement of a law professor is particularly valuable in assisting the legislators to come to intelligent conclusions.

Although the professor was until recent times ordinarily thought of as a cloistered individual unacquainted with the affairs of the world, the faculty of the Harvard Law School furnishes excellent examples of the way in which present-day teachers are attaining increasing recognition in public activities. In the study of contemporary social relations, Dean Pound, Professors Hudson, Sayre, Frankfurter, and Chafee, to mention a few outstanding examples, have been continually in the vanguard.

Rapid changes in a progressive society necessitate new legal codes and judicial methods. The average lawyer is too prone to cling to the traditional systems, which he absorbed in youth, without considering the advisability of their application today. State legislatures, for the most part, are composed of small-town lawyers too often bound not only by their legal but by the popular prejudices of their constituents. In such matters as this the opinion of the law expert, constantly in touch with all new ideas as well as familiar with the heritage of the past, may well be of significance in the determination of public policy.