Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/260

 "That is about the situation created by the new commerce court. The Interstate Commerce Commission, by years of investigation, has become familiar with the problems of transportation. The commerce court act simply makes this expert body subject to a body that does not know so much about transportation. That the general effect of the court will be to paralyze the Commission—at least, until such time as the court itself becomes expert in transportation—seems most likely."

A new procedure has been needed, but that does not excuse the courts from making every effort to meet the matter halfway by dispensing with a large part of the useless load of precedent and dilatory and costly practices adverse to the poor man. They can be blamed for that needless conservation and justly so. They must take even a broader notice of sociological factors or they will be discredited. A great deal of injustice is done before public conscience is sufficiently aroused to check by means of necessary statutes those evils which are constantly arising. But how shall we find a remedy for the rapidly accumulating evils of to-day, when the courts are still further hampered by precedent which is recognized by every one to be as dead as Adam?

Even statute law lags far behind public opinion, but as Judge Dicey says in his book "Law and Opinion,"Italic text:—