Current Trends in the Business of the Federal District Courts

Congestion in the dockets of many United States district courts in metropolitan centers has called attention to the effects on the judicial business of the great economic development of the past few years, a growth which far exceeds in extent that in any period of equal duration in our history. In the short space of thirteen years from 1940 to 1952 the market value of the output of goods and services produced by the nation\u27s economy increased from 101 billions to 346 billions. Part of this phenomenal rise was due to a 90 percent increase in the cost of living, but in terms of 1939 dollars the 1952 gross national product was still 71 percent larger than that of 1940. Automobile registrations are up over 55 percent, revenue passenger miles flown by air up 1100 percent, national income from 81 billion to 290 billion, personal income from 78 billion to 268 billions and population increased almost 20 percent. We are truly in a period of unprecedented industrial expansion and as will be seen, although the volume of litigation in the federal courts is keeping pace, the judge power of the courts is not