days, and he builds for Virginia a state university, the first true university in America, the prototype of all those great state schools and universities, which today bring their united energies to the work of exalting the intelligence and virtue and patriotism of our common country.

The university which was Jefferson's ideal, the university which he strove to create, was a great democratic seminary, organized not for the advancement of learning, but for the training of men. Its product was not to be savants, but citizens. To his own university and to others like it, he looked for that gift of intellectual freedom which can alone make the Representative Democracy of America the ultimate solution of the great problem of state-craft. Slaves are unfit to govern either themselves or others, whether that slavery be of the body, or of the soul, or of the mind. Happy in all things, in his death as in his life, the old man was given time to accomplish this ultimate task and then lay down to rest. On the western slope of Monticello, facing the sunset glories of the region which his genius added to his country's domain, his ashes lie beneath the simple shaft on which stands the brief record of his wondrous life. He felt that heaven had granted him the grace to do for America three noble things-to achieve for his people political freedom, to establish for his country religious freedom, and to organize the foundations of intellectual freedom, and so he wrote for himself this modest epitaph:

Here was buried

Thomas Jefferson

Author

of the Declaration of Independence

of

The Statute of Virginia

for Religious Freedom and

Father of the University

of Virginia.

Gen. Cates:-Mr. President, I desire to move that we now tender to Dr. Thornton our sincere thanks for his splendid address upon that great advocate of human rights and the real founder of democrary, and by a rising vote.

Motion seconded.

The President:-You have heard the motion of Gen. Cates. All in favor of the motion will please stand.

The President:-It is unanimous.

Mr. R. G. Brown:-We have listened to a great paper; a masterly paper of English Literature, and I have been infused with the spirit of it. I, for one, as a member of this Bar Association, am unwilling that this paper should have its preservation merely in the memorials of our annual works, and I therefore move you, Mr. President, that this address be printed and bound by the Bar Association of Tennessee, and distributed among every member of this Association.

The President:-I will say, for the benefit of Mr. Brown, that this address is, as it should be, a copyright paper, and we can only print it in the annual minutes of the Association.

As to that, however, I will say that notwithstanding the fact that Dr. Thornton is not a member of the Bar, I have made an investigation of our constitution, and I find that he is more than qualified to Honorary Membership in this Association, which requires only that he should be learned in the law. I will therefore, recognize Mr. Brown in a motion to suspend the rules, and elect Dr. Thornton an Honorary member of this Association.

Mr. Brown:-I deem it an honor to make the motion.

Motion seconded, put before the Association and carried unanimously.

The President:-Dr. Thornton, you are unanimously elected an Honorary Member of this Association.

Dr. Thornton:-Gentlemen, I thank you.

The President:-The next paper on the program this morning is from a gentleman who is a guest, and yet a host. Some ten years ago he heard the call to more fertile fields and moved to another, and great state. But during that time he has continued his membership in the Tennessee Bar Association. I am delighted to be able to say to you that this gentleman whom I shall present to you, is yet young, as I now look upon youth; he has achieved such distinction at the Bar of Missouri, that he is, today, the general counsel of the largest corporation of its kind in the world.

I take pleasure, members of the Association, ladies and gentlemen, in presenting to you Mr. Thomas M. Pierce, of the City of St. Louis. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Pierce.

THE CITY AND THE RAILROAD.

BY T. M. PIERCE, OF THE ST. LOUIS BAR.

The Railroad and the Bible are the two greatest instrumentalities of civilization, and I purposely mention the Railroad first, because it is the means whereby the written truths of Christianity come within the reach of the benighted and unenlightened.

The Railroad brings the bricks and mortar and materials with which are fashioned the Temples of God and the abodes of Justice; the places where we are amused, and the houses in which we live; the stores for trade and commerce, and the structures for the factories, and the looms of industries. To speak collectively, the Railroad literally makes a City, which springs into being only after the various atoms and units of energy, imagination and perseverance have coalesced and crystallized into churches, court houses, theatres, stores, factories and homes. And so the Railroad is truly the essential artery through which is transmitted the blood of life into this aggregation of men and things known as a City.

Naturally, during its period of gestation and parturition, the City depends absolutely upon the Railroad. Every inducement is offered by the City to the Railroad to make its surround

ings convenient and commodious, and its transactions and dealings profitable. In a majority of instances the right-of-way is donated, the depot sites, sidings and switch tracks, and land for terminal facilities are gratuitously bestowed; aid bonds are voted, and taxes indefinitely remitted. The products of the mine, the farm and the forest must be brought to satisfy the insatiable cravings of the infant City, in order that it may be nourished, grow and wax strong. The Railroad is the provider of happiness, the conduit of plenty, and the harbinger of prosperity.

The advent of the Railroad is indeed a day for jubilation. Civic exercises and parades proclaim an occasion of hope and joy, while the eloquence of the orators mingles with the inspiring strains of brazen and orchestral music so as to form one splendid antiphonal chorus, and pealing anthems sound the praise of the originators and promoters of this great work of public benefaction. It is not only assumed and conceded, but loudly vociferated, that the Railroad is God's finest gift to mankind. The state and national representatives, together with the Mayor and local dignitaries, demonstrate to the satisfaction of all, that now the Railroad has come, a golden era has commenced. Worthless and arid wastes in the suburbs and environs, become suddenly priced at fabulous figures for industrial sites and commercial purposes. Real estate values bound upwards to the sky. The use of the municipal streets is tendered to the Railroad for its own purposes, and the public places accord a glad acclaim to Railroad tracks, like the welcome given the procession of a bridal pair down the aisle to the altar. With the present sense of recent need the City feels what the Railroad means to it, and fully realizes the difference between conditions before and after the Railroad came. During this period, a railroad official is a personage of consequence, a man to be honored and graciously received, and the good citizens vie with each other in extending to him the courtesies of life.

But the human mind and memory is fickle and variable. Transitions occur, conditions change and the years multiply. The City become a metropolis, and with a huge population is a concentration of strength and power. Land in the City, which so precipitously and miraculously enhanced in price, has

remained valuable so long that the owner forgets the original cause. He thinks the property is worth a large amount of money because located in the populous part of a thriving City, and does not recall the origin of the thrift. The chief value of a Railroad to a City, is that it brings supply and demand together for exchange and distribution, so that manufacturers and merchants may gather in the profits of the intercourse. The average citizen does not realize this, but regards merely the fact that the Railroad does nothing o ther than carry something from one point to another, without adding any improvement or ornamentation. There are people who think that the mere transportation of an article is so incidental to its value, that but a trifling charge for the moving service should be made, forgetting the tremendous outlays required to pierce mountains, span rivers with bridges, and then install and operate very costly equipment, to say nothing of the vast sums spent in the employment of operatives to man the engines and trains. So important is the location of a thing as affecting its value, that an article perfectly worthless in one place may become exceedingly precious if found somewhere else. An Easy illustration would be the difference between the price of coal in the Arctic and in the Infernal regions. I apprehend that the commodity rate on ice from Labrador to Hades would be exceedingly high if a carrier could furnish an unlimited amount of cooling material to such a locality where the demand will always be constant, and far beyond any possible supply.

And then, the citizens who live near the passage of trains complain that smoke emitted from locomotives consuming coal is very offensive, and that engines and cars are noisy and disturbing while being operated. The free travel over municipal streets is observed to be impeded by railroad tracks, and the streets obstructed and rendered dangerous at crossings. Manufacturers begin to complain because cars are not switched from and to their plants with proper frequency, and merchants find fault with the rates charged for the transportation haul and switching service. Since railroading is a hazardous business people get hurt. Many are killed, many maimed, mutilated. These derelicts go about as living monuments to the cruelty and inhumanity of the Railroad.