=The Law’s Delays.=—Much complaint is heard nowadays because lawsuits are so long and involve so much expense. The courts are often so overwhelmed with cases that a lawsuit which is brought today cannot be tried for many months. The privilege of appealing from the decisions of lower courts is so widely granted, moreover, that when lawsuits are once begun they may not be ended for years. The claim is often made that all this gives a great advantage to the rich man or the large corporation as against the ordinary individual who cannot afford the expense involved in prolonged litigation. Lawsuits require the hiring of lawyers by both sides and the assistance of lawyers is costly. Judicial procedure can be much simplified, and it ought to be. It probably would be simplified were it not for lawyers. Lawyers profit by the law’s delays; the more lawsuits and the more prolonged they are, the more profitable it is for them. And lawyers form a large element in the legislatures which make the laws relating to court procedure. This is not to imply, however, that lawyers on the whole fail to promote the interests of justice. They do perform great services in this respect. The ends of justice would be far less perfectly served were it not for lawyers. [Sidenote: Reasons for these delays.] The main reason for the slowness with which justice is administered in the United States can be found in the great (and perhaps unnecessary) amount of care which is taken to assure every individual his legal rights. This has multiplied appeals, encouraged technicalities, and given the courts far too much to do. The right to be given a full and fair trial, to have a jury in most cases, to appeal, and to have due process of law with all that this implies—these are rights which the constitution guarantees and which we greatly value. Valuable they are, no doubt, but they make the course of justice slower in the United States than in other countries where these constitutional safeguards do not exist. A famous Prussian king, Frederick the Great, once ordered that every lawsuit should be brought to an end within a year. Despots can make their courts move quickly in this way; but nothing of the sort is possible in a democracy. [Sidenote: Keep the courts incorruptible.] Yet the courts are, when all is said and done, the most important among the institutions of free government. Corruption and incompetence in legislatures, or in the executive branch of the government, are serious evils when they exist, to be sure; but when incompetence and corruption invade the judiciary they reach to the very heart of the Republic. The Great Charter of 1215 provided that “justice should not be sold, delayed, or denied to any man”. That is a principle which must be maintained at all costs. General References C. A. BEARD, _American Government and Politics_, pp. 294-314; _Ibid._, _Readings in American Government and Politics_, pp. 273-290; 488-508;