The best development which is at all likely to occur is the growth of an agricultural system on Danish lines, and this would certainly simplify the land laws.
VII
COSTS AND FUSION
A friend of mine once remarked to me that the rich never legislate for the poor but always for the rich, to which I retorted that the poor never legislate for the poor but always for the rich. The Labour Party is ready enough to attack any wealth which no longer exists, such as the so-called wealth of rural land-owners, but will never attack a really bloated Trust such as an international industrial company; nor are they ever likely to make such an attack. (I took care to satisfy myself on this point before buying shares in one such company.) It is therefore improbable that even should the Labour Party obtain permanent power it will ever try to make law cheap for the poor; and the only men and women who have ever taken any steps in this direction are the few who realize that the pillars of society repose upon a belief in equal justice for all.
I fear that I can see no prospect for at least fifty years of law costs being reduced either for the rich or for the poor. So far as the rich are concerned, one might suppose that they would insist upon the law being codified into some degree of simplicity so that two citizens might be able to arrive at their legal rights by successive postcards referring to different sections of the code. That is the Utopian ideal once expounded to me by Mr. H. G. Wells; but as years go on it becomes more and more remote. Popular government leads to the endless complication of statutes; and even if these statutes were intelligible, the increasing power of bureaucrats to make rules for themselves becomes more and more profitable for the lawyers.
I presume that one day the poor man will be allowed to obtain justice within reasonable distance of his home. It is remarkable that a large number of muddle-headed persons who wish to subsidize not only the poor man but also his childless widow and any number of children whom he may wish to procreate, have never understood that he might like also to obtain justice, especially in the matter of domestic relations. Poor persons ought certainly to have as good a chance of obtaining a divorce as they have of being married, and also to have a chance of defending vexatious proceedings on the part of either spouse. It is monstrous that husbands should be treated as they are now in the police courts, and arrested for arrears of maintenance as soon as they have finished a term of imprisonment which in most cases they would never have incurred but for a deep conviction of injustice.
If the community ever becomes sufficiently enlightened to provide justice for the poor, I think that they will probably adopt the American example of what are called Courts of Domestic Relations. The Secretary of the Divorce Law Reform Union has received some interesting communications on these courts from Judge Lindsey in Denver and Judge Hoffman in Cincinnati. Judge Lindsey’s testimony is as follows:
“I am confident, after twenty-three years as a Judge of a Domestic Relations Court in America—where I granted thousands of divorces and heard other thousands of separation and non-support cases and controversies between parents over their children—that a liberal divorce law contributes to morality, decency, and, in the end, the strength of the home; but I shall probably have to write a book, based on my experiences, to prove it. A short article or interview is capable of so many misunderstandings and misinterpretations, even though it be not wilfully done.
“The fact that in some western cities we have a great many divorces does not mean an increase in immorality, or even an increase in the breaking up of homes. It is often the very best thing that could happen. Of course, it is our policy in this Court to get discordant couples together where we can; but there are some cases where we would consider it nothing short of a crime to try to get them together, and on the contrary try to get them apart, but all in the interest of morality and decency.
“I am judge at this time of what is known as a separate, special Court, in a city of nearly 300,000 people in one of our western cities (Denver, Colorado). The State has a population of about a million people; but my jurisdiction is limited to its capital city, which has nearly one-third of the population of the entire State. The western part of the State is very mountainous and sparsely settled; the eastern part is mostly arid country and at present without irrigation, being also sparsely settled; but there are certain sections of the State which are very good for agriculture and others rich in mineral resources; and as a commercial centre, Denver is a delightful and beautiful city, made up of the best people in the world.