him without witnesses. The whole community was stirred with instant prejudice against the Russian Jews, accusing them of anarchistic plots. Why are the best men and women of the South demanding that the negro be given fair trial and that lynching cease? The restriction of an overpowering atmosphere of prejudice is fatal to the administration of justice. No change of venue would avail here. No judge or jury can be found who is above it. It comes back to the individual citizen. It is a question of his attitude, of whether or not he can get free from race or class prejudice. VI Many of our current issues of justice are community matters; they involve classes and races. They are tried in the court of public opinion. In the last analysis it is a question of getting the case fairly before this court of last resort. How often does it get done? Editorial policies of newspapers are largely controlled by the business office. Department store accidents are kept out of the newspapers because of the advertising power of that business. A Middle Western editor says: "Of course our newspapers do not print things which the liquor interests do not want printed, because they are the dominant group in this city." News is frequently distorted and suppressed because of the political partisanship and economic interests of the owners of the paper. It is impossible to get the truth concerning labor struggles through the press. On one side is the deliberate suppression and on the other the unconscious distortion of class bias. It leads to half-truth on the one side and to exaggeration on the other. In a Southern city it was impossible for the people who stood for righteousness to get the facts concerning evil into the newspapers. They finally published a bulletin of their own which told the truth. Here is another challenge to a special group of workers. Will the journalists purge the press of its most heinous sin—the malformation of public opinion? The responsibility, however, cannot all be placed on the workers in this profession. What do the people read? What do they want to read? Why do they read scare headlines rather than solid facts? "I do not want to know the unpleasant things" is a common attitude. Scientific training boasts of its ability to face all the facts. It must cultivate and spread this desire through the whole community. Here is a task for those who would live out the social principles of Jesus in any community to secure equality in the making of law and the operation of the courts; to elect officials who will fairly administer the law; to allay race and class prejudice and to develop and inform public opinion—yet even these things are not sufficient to realize ideal justice. The final goal is social justice, a spiritual end. SUGGESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND ACTION I. Equal Justice in a Pioneer Community Imagine that we are settled in a new community-either a pioneer mining community, or a town in an agricultural region newly opened to settlement, or a newly created industrial city. Let us face the problem of establishing and maintaining equal justice in such a community. 1. What emergencies will first demand the establishment of the machinery of justice? What will be the first manifestations of lawlessness? 2. What effort will be made to defeat equal opportunity and right for all? What race or economic group is most in danger of being discriminated against? 3. What can a group of Christian citizens do who want to see law and order with equal rights for all established and maintained? II. Securing Equal Justice in an Established Community Now think in terms of some well-established community, preferably your own. Let some one do this for a foreign community. I. How far have we solved the problem of securing equal justice? 2. Where are the points at which we have failed? In what ways have we succeeded? III. Justice in Other Lands 1. Describe the machinery for making, interpreting, and administering the law in an African tribe; in a Chinese community. What chance is there to secure equal justice? 2. What changes are necessary in the court system of an Oriental country like China? What is being done? IV. Facing a Single Problem Take one of the most flagrant cases of defeat of justice, such as disobedience to liquor laws, or discrimination against a special group, such as the immigrants. What can be done? 1. If the present laws are inadequate to ensure equal justice, how shall we go about it to have them changed? How can the control of legislation by special interests be broken? Must the people use the same methods as the special interests? 2. If the courts are defeating the intent of the public will, what can be done by the people? What are the chief reasons for this misinterpretation of law? How far would the recall of judges solve the problem? 3. What are the chief forms of administration of law in our town? If the mayor, police officer, or judge fails to administer the law impartially, who is to blame? Where do they fail to cooperate? What can we do to secure the enforcement of law? 4. If equal justice is not secured, to what extent is public opinion to blame? How does public opinion manifest itself? How is public opinion formed and by whom? If the newspapers are on the wrong side, what can be done? 5. If a citizen allows injustice to go unchallenged, how far does he share in the guilt? To what extent can a single citizen secure the proper administration of law? CHAPTER IX GOOD GOVERNMENT The effort to Christianize community life requires the operation of government. All the great social reforms-the abolition of child labor, the reduction of infant mortality, the protection of children from vice, the improvement of education, the abolition of poverty-every one of them involves government action. Efficiency in government is an indispensable tool for social progress. But it must be another kind of efficiency than is commonly admired. It must be efficiency in caring for all the interests of all the people, in giving expression to the common vital desires of the whole community. Such a government is the people doing together in all justice and brotherhood the things they cannot do apart. Daily MediTATIONS FIRST DAY: Autocracy Fails The arrogant young Rehoboam thought that his imperial will gave him the right to oppress the poor. And the king answered the people roughly, and reigned over them. Then king Rehoboam sent Here is a glimpse at one of the long historical processes, the age-long attempt of the strong to control the weak. The robber bandit, the brutal chieftain, set themselves up in power. They pass on their power of exploitation to their family and then to a class. Intrenched in economic opportunity and governmental privilege, their descendants continue to rule at the expense of the weak. One of our modern students of government maintains that historically the state is the instrument of the strong for economic oppression. Witness the exploitation of China by the Manchus, and the land question in Ireland and Mexico. What powerful economic groups are seeking to shape the destinies of the people of the United States and to control her policies? SECOND DAY: Citizens Must Speak Out Then Amaziah the priest of Beth-el sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thou away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but prophesy not again any more at Beth-el; for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a royal house. Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a dresser of sycomore-trees: and Jehovah took me from following the flock, and Jehovah said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.-Amos 7: 10-15. |