Have We Lost the Ball?

Americans are devoted to a wide variety of ball games. In every season of the year millions of us are continually congregating to observe the swift, skillfully directed flight of baseballs, footballs, basket balls and golf balls. In all of these contests and exhibitions the existence, nature and condition of the involved ball \u27has become a remote secondary consideration. The ball is taken for granted. We are concerned exclusively with the skill and coordination of the players and their intelligent observance of the rules. Nevertheless, in all of these games it must be admitted that the ball is the thing that registers on the score board. I realize that the American Judicature Society is not a playful organization, and that any attempt to make a game, out of its most serious pursuits risks a rupture of the very point that I am trying to make. Nevertheless, I submit that our concern with the efficient administration of justice is not unlike the enthusiastic interest of a typical baseball fan in the hitting, running and fielding of his favorite team. What is this thing called justice that is being tossed and thrown around the evergreen field of the law? What are its standard ingredients, and its distinguishing marks and characteristics