THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY 239 



apparent how frequently the law's delay in the case of the ordinary man 

 must defeat the ends of justice. So uncertain and expensive is justice 

 secured at the hands of lawyers and courts that many men of affairs 

 settle their controversies by arbitration. The ordinary man, unless of 

 a contentious nature, often finds the cost of justice prohibitory. One 

 result is to encourage aggression by wrongdoers. In trials before 

 Justices of the Peace, the defendant frequently permits judgment to 

 be rendered by default, and a year or two may elapse before the case is 

 tried in a higher court. Needless appeals and retrials may result in the 

 lapse of a much longer time before the case is finally decided. " Litiga- 

 tion for the sake of litigation ought to be discouraged. But this is the 

 only form of petty litigation which survives the discouragements in- 

 volved in American judicial organization and procedure." 4 Moreover, 

 many members of the legal profession to their discredit are averse to 

 changing a system which inures to their personal advantage. It is 

 little wonder, consequently, that among the well-established planks in 

 the platforms of the Socialist party is the demand for free justice. To 

 the end of remedying the existing condition the people of Ohio, in 1912, 

 provided for one trial and one review by amending the state constitution. 

 In the fourth place, the courts are not organized on a business basis. 

 The records which disclose the comparative amounts of work done by 

 the different members of the bench are usually sadly deficient. The 

 Municipal Court of Chicago " is the only court, as yet, which is so 

 organized as to be able to furnish adequate statistics of judicial adminis- 

 tration." 5 There is too much piecemeal dealing with cases by judges 

 whose jurisdictions overlap. As many as twenty-two different justices 

 have heard different proceedings in a single cause. 6 There is a lack of 

 supervising officers whose duty it should be to place the several members 

 of the bench where they can do the most effective work. The judges in 

 the circuit and superior courts of Chicago "draw lots to see who shall 

 hear chancery cases. There is no possibility of specialization. They 

 do their work in the criminal court for a year at a time in rotation." 

 The Courts of Common Pleas in Philadelphia "are split up into five 

 air-tight compartments, each an absolutely distinct court," with no pos- 

 sibility of transferring cases from one court to the other. In some 

 courts the time of lawyers and litigants is needlessly wasted by calling 

 cases from day to day that are too far down the list to stand any chance 

 of trial. 7 Another mistake lies in depending upon incompetent tribu- 

 nals to dispense justice in petty cases, such as those presided over by the 

 ordinary Justice of the Peace. Individual judges of the same court 



4 Professor Eoseoe Pound, "The Administration of Justice in the Modern 

 City," Harvard Law Review, Vol. 26, 1913, p. 320. 

 5 Ibid., p. 315. 

 olMd., p. 314. 

 7 George W. Alger, op. cit., Vol. 26, 1913, pp. 658, 662 and 663. 



