The Washington herald., 1916-01-14
Justice.
By JOHN d. BARRY.

BY JOHN ID. BARRY.
reader with grievance has just written me
letter. He is the victim of injustice. He has
made out an impressive case. He is broad enough
to recognize that his experience is by no means
unusual He asks me If won't write an article
on the subject of justice. He seems to think that
most people know little about it and that it ought
to be explained. Unfortunately he has appealed
to the wrong man.
At the start. must confess that don't know
what justice is. There are people that think they
know. Perhaps they do. But when, as OCCASION
ally happens. they come down to concrete cases.
their idea of justice is not altogether convincing
to at any rate. In fact of all qualities that
human beings claim they prize it seems to me
justice is among \the most elusive. On the other
hand there those who say that it is not
human quality They call it divine They may
be right. But, somehow, ] can't follow their
reasoning perhaps because of some defect in my
self, perhaps because of their rather unattractive
presentation of justice as an idea. | can't think
of divinity measuring out justice, impartially
inexorably. The picture is not appealing.
Our symbolic figure of justice is usually rep
resented as feminine as blind and as carrying
scales. 1t is mistake, l think, that the figure
should be feminine Women, as SEX are not
just They too strongly influenced by their
tlCcHHBs. anu "OinSH, ds d Iulc, Dc1cre making
Judgment, do not carefully weigh considerations
They rely mainly those swift processes of reas-
oning which they like to call intuition, a mslead-
ing term. All things considered, however, the
symbolic figure happily suggests how little we
know about justice and how woefully we go astray
when express ourselves on the subject.
In school, whenever / read about great men
who were called "just," | used to picture them as
stern and forbiddng, like of the admirable
people personally knew and didn't admire at all
the kind often held up examples to the young
with an effect damaging to virtue. But |
have changed my mind. The people called "just'
were not merely just. If they were they would
not be remembered with reverence and affection.
They were more than just. They generous
in their attitude toward the world Instead of
always seeking advantage for themselves, they
were willing to give others good chance. In
stead OF always insisting their point of
view, they able to get away from themselves
and to see things, SO to speak, from outside. They
did not impose on their neighbors standards of
perfection. as SO many of us do when out
hunting for justice. They weren't like those noble
judges on the bench given to speaking as if they
were themselves more than human, absolutely
related to the offenders cringing before en-, be-
ings from another planet.
Those who alawys trying to exact justice
or what they believe to be justice are likely to
be the most unhappy people in the world. They
can't get what they ask for. They might as we'll
ask for the The d chief reason is that justice
from our own, the kind of world that can never
be achieved and that if it were achieved might
not be very attractive. Furthermore, those seek
ers for justice will invariably be found to be
grossly unjust themselves. In their search there
is insistence on their claims curiously like
exaggerated form OF egotism. Indeed, merely to
expect of human beings the kind OF behavior that
satishes human notions of justice is to take up
ones abode in the region of disappointment and
vexation inevitably leading to those conflicts that
create discord and heartburning.
Just there is a great movement in the
world toward what is called social justice. 1t rep
resents most significant and promising change
of ideas that result from change in feeling. 1t
promises the development of a larger and nobler
humanity. But it is giving excuse to many
people for the indulgence in bitterness which can
not fail to create wholly gratutous misery and at
the same time to retard the movement itself. If
the new ideal is ever achieved it will be because
the world reaches an understanding that it is es-
sentiay good and loves it for its goodness. Mean
while those who care about it have very import
ant problem to meet, the problem Of striving for
what is right and at the time keeping their
minds clean. free from those antagonsms that
press narrowness, i'll feeling and the kind of ego
tism that adroitly masquerades altruism.
My correspondents who complains of the injus-
tice he has to endure may take comfort in the
thought that his of grievance is shared by
all mankind. In some ways we all suffer from in
justice. 1HOSe seemingly HlOSt cnQOWcd may De
cursed by some hidden weakness which expresses
itself in many burden. There is nothing in the
world easier to find than personal grievance
There is nothing more important for the Individual
than to learn how to meet it, how to become its
master, how to make it source, not of weakness,
but OF strength.
A G. o. P. Problem.
IF President Wilson is so unpopular as Repub-
licans claim, why do faithful organs like the Bos-
ton Transcript confess that, with the exception
of favorte sons mentioned for the Presidency "few