Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/143

 94

THE GREEN BAG

encroaching upon State sovereignty, a false and mistaken allegiance to it has led us to the adoption of a dangerous ' construction; has closed our eyes to the real significance, and to the tremendous simplifying force of a con stitutional provision, the meaning and necessity of which were so obvious that it was adopted without objection in a convention in which scarcely another provision escaped the ordeal of fire." CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. " Concerning Uncertainty and Due Process of Law," by Theodore Schroeder, Central Lav.' Journal (V. Ixvi, p. 2). CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. " Corporations and the Commerce Clause," by Smith W. Bennett, Albany Law Journal (V. Ixix, p. 323). CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. Harold Harper presents in the December Political Science Review the results of an examination of decisions 'on the " Constitutionality of Civil Service Laws," which he summarizes as follows: "This brief review of the situation tends to show, upon the whole, that the path of the civil service reformer is clearer than a recapitulation of the different grounds upon which objections have been raised would lead one to assume. Non-partisanship of the com mission; tests; infringement of the doctrine of the separation of powers, either as to the execu tive or the judicial department; deprivation of property without due process of law; the imposition of qualifications where constitu tional qualifications already exist — all these considerations create difficulties, if at all, only in finding the proper manner of introducing the merit system and the proper form of a civil-service law: they do not ultimately pre vent the skilled draughtsman from securing the effects he desires. The merit system is not discountenanced by American constitu tional law. It is only where .the effect of civil-service regulations is so to delimit the power of appointment or removal as to appro priate to a civil-service board the function of the constitutional depositary of' that power, that the national and state constitutions very properly stand in the way." CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. "Statutory Regulation of Wages," by O. H. Myrick, Central Lav Journal (V. Ixv, p. 468).

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. " The Consti tutionality of Larceny from the Person of an Unknown Person," by Joseph M. Sullivan, Albany Law Journal (V. Ixix, p. 332). CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. " The Consti tution and Obscenity Postal Laws," by Theo dore Schroeder, Albany Law Journal (V. Ixix, P- 334)CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. " The Treaty Power and Police Regulation," by Hollen M. Barstow in the January American Lawyer (V. xvi, p. 18), renews familiar arguments arising out of the Japanese school incident. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. " The U. S. Supreme Court and Rate Legislation," by Leslie J. Tompkins, January American Lawyer (V. xvi, p. 43). CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (Canada). "The Canadian Constitution," by John S. Ewart, Columbia Laiv Review (V. viii, p. 27). An interesting exposition of the real independence ot Canada, while nominally a colony of Great Britain. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. " The Develop ment of the Federal Power to Regulate Com merce," by Hon. Philander C. Knox, Yale Law Journal (V. xvii, p. 139). Text of Senator Knox's address to the Yale Law School graduating class in June, 1907. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (Rate Regulation). "Reasonableness of Maximum Rates as a Constitutional Limitation upon Rate Regula tion," ' by Frank M. Cobb, Harvard Law Review (V. xxi, p. 175). " Rate regulation," says Mr. Cobb, " must be limited to the estab lishment of maximum rates, 'beyond which the company cannot go, but within which it is at liberty to conduct its work in such manner as may seem to it best suited for its prosperity and success.' . . . Legislation restricting the management of its business by fixing absolute, minimum, commutation, or other arbitrary rates, is unconstitutional and void." What is the standard of reasonableness of a maximum rate? The fundamental principle is that no one can constitutionally demand a service to be rendered at less than cost or the fair value of the service. Where the regula tion establishes " a schedule of rates based upon the classification of rates charged by the railroad itself, and affecting either the entire business . . or such a well-defined class of