THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY 241 



ness conduct once in perfectly good standing is being called in question. 

 Are sweatshop conditions just and right? is a question asked on every 

 hand. The American people are waking up to the fact that an abun- 

 dance of free land rather than the excellence of their institutions has 

 been the secret of much of the success which they have achieved, and 

 that the disappearance of the former renders reliance upon a happy-go- 

 lucky system of dispensing justice no longer prudent. Moreover, jus- 

 tice has ceased to dwell among the clouds and a larger measure of it is 

 within the grasp of the ordinary man if he but asks for it. People are 

 demanding justice here and now and can no longer be put off with 

 promises of bliss in the hereafter. 



Modern civilization is imposing heavier burdens upon the courts in 

 still another way. The growing complexity of the environment has 

 greatly increased the sum total of human relations and changed the 

 character of many old ones. The relations between employer and em- 

 ployee when the two worked side by side bore little resemblance to what 

 they are to-day in connection with a trunk-line railway or gigantic trust. 

 The staple necessaries of life which every community once produced for 

 itself are now supplied through the portals of the world market. Pro- 

 ducer and consumer have ceased to be neighbors and the personal rela- 

 tions which once obtained between them have ceased to exist. The 

 problem of regulating the relations which exist between the public on 

 the one hand and the railways, trusts and labor organizations on the 

 other baffles the keenest minds. 



Again, we have become less exultant as a people, less confident of 

 our future, less disposed to leave our destiny as a nation to drift without 

 a guiding hand and purpose. There is a growing sense that a 



better future, just in so far as it is better, will have to be planned and con- 

 structed rather than fulfilled of its own momentum. . . . The way to realize a 

 purpose is, not to leave it to chance, but to keep it loyally in mind, and adopt 

 means proper to the importance and the difficulty of the task.n 



The suspicion is growing that the self-interest of the individual is 

 not at one with the public welfare. There is misgiving lest barriers 

 arise to obstruct the process whereby men of ability, no matter how 

 humbly born, have hitherto risen to positions of trust and leadership in 

 the community. There is fear lest a system of caste get such a foot- 

 hold that young men of promise will cease to aspire and rest content 

 with the stations in life in which they happen to be born. There is a 

 keener sense of social responsibility and less of a disposition to hold the 

 individual responsible for human failure. Poverty is not regarded as a 

 condition to which large numbers of men are hopelessly condemned. In 

 short, an atmosphere of seriousness has swept over the nation and im- 

 posed more difficult tasks upon the courts. 



11 Herbert Croly, ' ' The Promise of American Life, "pp. 6 and 24. 

 vol. lxxxiv. — 17. 



