avowed reason
for maintaining them. The political fabric has been clearly built up,
in great part, by purely selfish ambition. Nations have been formed by
energetic rulers, who had no eye for anything beyond the gratification
of their own ambition, although they were clear-headed enough to see
that their own ambition could best secure its objects by taking the
side of the stronger social forces, and by giving substantial benefit
to others. The same holds good pre-eminently of industrial relations.
We all know how Adam Smith, sharing the philosophical optimism of his
time, showed how the pursuit of his own welfare by each man tended, by
a kind of pre-ordained harmony, to contribute to the welfare of all.
Since his time we have ceased to be so optimistic, and have recognised
the fact that the building up of modern industrial systems has involved
much injury to large classes. And yet we may, I think, in great measure
adopt his view. The fact that each man was rogue enough to think first
of himself and of his own wife and family is not a proof or a
presumption that he did not flourish because, in point of fact, he was
contributing (quite unintentionally perhaps) to the comforts of mankind
in general. What we have to reflect is that, while the bare existence
of certain institutions gives a strong presumption of their utility,
there is also a probability that when the utility becomes a conscious
aim or a consciously adopted criterion of their advantage, they will
require a corresponding modification intended to secure the advantages
at a minimum cost of evil.

Premising these remarks as to the meaning of organic justice, we can
now come to the question of equality. Justice in its ordinary sense may
be regarded from one point of view as the first condition of the
efficiency of the social organ. In saying that a judge is just, we
imply that he is so far efficiently discharging his part in
society--the due application of the law--without reference to
irrelevant considerations. He is a machine which rightly parts the
sheep and goats--taking the legal definition of goats and
sheep--instead of putting some goats into the sheepfold, and _vice
versa_. That is, he secures the accurate application of the purely
legal rule. Organic justice involves an application of the same
principle because it equally depends upon the exclusion of irrelevant
considerations. It implies such a distribution of functions and of
maintenance as may secure