much fault to be found with the courts. The injunction is only another form of delay and it is possible that any change which will result in increasing the promptness of courts in rendering decisions will decrease use of the injunction.

Suggested Activities.

1. Organize your class or your room into a county or circuit court You will need a judge of the court, a sheriff, a clerk of the court, a grand jury, a petit or trial jury, also attorneys to conduct each side of the case. While the attorneys are not a part of the legal organization, they are always present in court. In order to understand how a trial is conducted, you will need to know the duty of each of the above officers as well as the jurors.

2. Find out what is meant by Justice Court, Police Court, County or Circuit Court, Court of Appeals, State Court of Appeals, State Sp preme Court. What is meant by conviction, by acquittal, a new trial, by "taking an appeal."

3. Organize the Supreme Court of the United States and find out the kind of cases it is called upon to decide.

4. Choose sides and debate one or more of the following questions: (a) Resolved, that right is might rather than might is right.

(b) Resolved, that international courts will be as successful in dealing with controversies between nations as our courts have been in settling differences between individuals.

(c) Resolved, that a pupil who sees another willfully breaking a school house window should report the wrong to the teacher.

(d) Resolved, that citizens who do not report law violations to the proper officers have no right to complain about lax law enforcement.

(e) Resolved, that judges of state courts should hold office during good behavior as federal judges do.

Study Questions.

1. Compare the rules of playground games with the laws in your community. What is your definition of "being a good sport?" What is a "square deal?"

2. Some pupils are continually "telling the teacher" when they think they are not getting a square deal on the playground; you perhaps know pupils who never go to the teacher with such complaints. Some persons seem much afraid that somebody will "run over them" and nearly always have a case in court; others have never been in court except to see how it is conducted. How do you account for such

differences?

3. A man "went to law" with his neighbor over a very small sum— so small that it would not half pay his lawyers. He said: "I do not care for the money, but it is the principle of the thing." Argue for or against going to law in such cases.

4. Make a list of your schoolroom rights and of your schoolroom duties.

5. "Laws are a dead letter without courts to expound and define their true meaning and operation." (Alexander Hamilton.) Explain. 6. Contrast the following descriptions, one of the United States Supreme Court, the other of an important city court:

(a) “Etiquette of the Supreme Court is formal; justices wear long black silk robes, and everything is done according to a set and established order."

(b) “An ill-omened looking man, flashily dressed and rude in demeanor, was sitting behind a table, two men in front were addressing him, the rest of the room was given up to disorder. Had one not been told that he was a judge of the highest court of the city, one might have taken him for a criminal." Bryce (AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH, p. 637.) What reason can you give for preserving seriousness and good order in a court session? Describe the order in a court session which you have visited.

7. By means of an illustration explain the meaning of deciding by precedent.

8. In Turkish courts the judge decides according to law, if one has been made which covers the case. If not, he uses his own "clear light of reason," ignoring all precedents. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this plan?

9. What does trial by impartial jury mean? (Constitution, Amendment VI, page 270.)

10. How do the Seventh and Eighth Amendments strengthen the right to trial by jury?

11. Make clear the difference between petit jury and grand jury. 12. In selecting a jury, blood relatives of the accused are excluded. What passage in the Constitution justifies their exclusion?

shall be the supreme law

of the land." Select from Article V, Clause 2, the important words omitted from the foregoing.

14. Arrange these in the order of supremacy in case of conflicting authority:

Laws passed by State Legislature.

Laws passed by Congress.

Constitution of the United States.
State Constitution.

Ordinance passed by City Council or Board of Aldermen.
Treaties made by the United States.

15. In each of these cases the proposed law is unconstitutional. Cite the provisions of the Constitution which would help you to decide if you were a judge.

(a) A law is passed forbidding women to vote.

(b) A law is passed providing that train robbers may be tortured until they reveal the names of all the members of their gang.

(c) A tax is imposed on wheat brought into one state from another.

16. By means of an illustration, make clear the difference between criminal and civil cases. What is a plaintiff? A defendant?

17. How are judges of United States courts appointed? What is the term or office? How may they be removed?

18. What is meant by appealing to a higher court? Explain original jurisdiction, appellate jurisdiction, final jurisdiction.

19. Of the eight kinds of cases over which the United States courts have power (Constitution Article III, Section 2) which requires most of the time of the federal courts?

20. What are the duties of the Court of Claims? Of the Court of Customs Appeal?

21. In what courts would each of the following cases be tried?

(a) Dispute between North Carolina and South Carolina over a boundary line.

(b) A burglar is caught breaking into a grocery store in your community.

(c) A burglar breaks into the post office.

(d) A man makes and circulates a counterfeit dollar.

(e) Theft occurs on an ocean liner.

(f) A dispute arises between a merchant of your community over a large bill of goods purchased from a corporation in another state.

(g) A cow escapes from a pasture and destroys part of a garden. The owner of the garden tries to collect five dollars for damages.

22. Read Amendments I-IV. List all the rights guaranteed to the people in these brief paragraphs. Which justifies the statement that every man's house is his castle?

23. Review the causes of the Revolutionary War in your history. Which of the rights mentioned in Amendments I-IV had England violated in dealing with the colonies? Which of these violated rights are mentioned in the Declaration of Independence?

24. Show how the courts are able to affect the actual effect of law making without making laws themselves.

25. A large majority of the people in the United States favored an income tax. Congress passed a law providing for such a tax, but the Supreme Court by a five to four vote decided that the law was unconstitutional. Much fault was found with the court. Some were

in favor of reducing its power; they said that five men kept the people from governing themselves. To what extent was this true? How was the income tax matter finally settled? (Amendment XVI, page 273.)

CHAPTER XII

RECENT POLITICAL EXPERIMENTS

Do You Know These Terms?

franchise, 155.

civil service, 156.
competitor, 154.
city manager, 153.
patronage, 156.
referendum, 153.
short ballot, 154.

Workingman's Compensation
Law, 160.

commission government, 159.

initiative, 161.

recall, 154.

spoils system, 157.

civil service commission, 156.
merit system, 157.

direct primary, 158.
impeachment, 160.

direct legislation, 161.

public service utilities, 162. boards and commissions, 162.

Political Experiments. Sometimes new conditions arise suddenly. Old methods of doing things fail to get results. Government plans break down or evil practices develop and changes must be made to remedy conditions. Reformers usually have some political remedy for all the ills of government. Some of these have been tried in former times, others are entirely new, but all are political experiments and few would have any chance for a trial if new problems, incapable of solution by old methods, did not arise. Our government has safely made many political experiments. If one of the forty-eight states tries a new plan and it proves a failure, no other state need try it. If it appears to be a success, other states will adopt it.

Among the political experiments that have been made recently in the United States are civil service, commission form of city government, city manager, the initiative, the referen