es, of his fellows in the community, or of his elders among whom
he grows up and, generally, in spite of whom the young man must make his
way to the top. There is another much more significant form of
chaperonage in English business circles, of which it is difficult to
speak without provoking hostility.

The English business world is solicitor-cursed. I mean by this no
reflection on solicitors either individually or in the mass. I am making
no reference to such cases as there have been of misappropriation by
solicitors here and there of funds entrusted to their charge, nor to
their methods of making charges, which are preposterous but not of their
choosing. Let us grant that, given the necessity of solicitors at all,
Great Britain is blessed in that she has so capable and upright and in
all ways admirable a set of men to fill the offices and do the work.
What I am attacking is solicitordom as an institution.

It is not merely that there are no solicitors, as such, in the United
States, for it might well be that the general practising lawyers who
fill their places, so far as their places have to be filled, might be
just as serious an incubus on business as solicitordom is on the
business of London to-day. Names are immaterial. The essential fact is
that the spirit and the conditions which make solicitors a necessity in
England do not exist in America. I do not propose to go into any
comparison in the differences in legal procedure in the two countries;
not being a lawyer, I should undoubtedly make blunders if I did. What is
important is that a man who is accustomed to walking alone does not
think of turning to his legal adviser at every step. Great corporations
and large business concerns have of course their counsel, their
attorneys, and even their "general solicitors." But the ordinary
American engaged in trade or business in a small or moderate way gets
along from year's end to year's end, perhaps for his lifetime, without
legal services. I am speaking only on conjecture when I say that, taking
the country as a whole, outside of the large corporations or among rich
men, over ninety per cent. of the legal documents--leases, agreements,
contracts, articles of partnership, articles of incorporation, bills of
sale, and deeds of transfer--are executed by the individuals concerned
without reference to a lawyer. Probably not less than three fourths of
the actual transactions in the purchase of land, houses, businesses, or
o