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The Green Bag

which will presently appear. The petitioner was supposedly drowned by falling into a ferry-boat plying between the shores of New York and New Jersey and therefore engaged in interstate commerce. We are dealing, there fore, with an interstate ghost. Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1. The body of the ghost not having been produced in court, we feel that there is only a verbal diﬂerence between the principles involved in a writ of habeas corpus and a petition for federal incorporation of an interstate ghost, and as purely a federal question is presented, the petition must be dismissed. DIXIE, (dissenting). I think this is a question which involves state rights. I have been endeavoring, though without avail, to convince my learned colleagues that the peti tioner, in drowning himself, was carrying out the contract of insurance rather than that of interstate transportation, and that conse quently Gibbons v. Ogden does not apply. It seems to me that there are already too many ghosts in the twilight zone between state and federal power, rather than not enough. Petition Dismissed.

CORPORATIONS A LA MODE

your text?" asked the professor. “How shall ye escape if ye neglect so great a salvation?" answered the young man. “A good text," said the professor. “And how did you treat it?"

"First," said the student.

"I showed

‘em how great this salvation is, and, second, I showed 'em how to escape if they neglected it." The function of the corporation lawyer is not, I assure you, without arguing the point, to show the corporations how to escape the laws when they violate them, but it is a

constructive function, a co-ordination of law and righteous business practice that is as valuable to the commercial life of America today as was the judicial practice of Lord Mansﬁeld of England to the Law Merchant of his time and since. So I feel quite respect able when I stand before you and acknowl edge that, in an humble way, I am a lawyer of the corporation kind. Moreover, I may state that I do not need either your assistance or your sympathy in my professional condi tion, as it is a matter of judicial record, in the case of Latta v. Lonsdale, 107 Federal

Reporter, that "corporation lawyers have the opportunity and are quite able and capable of taking care of themselves." John Kendrick Bangs has deﬁned the “Copperation" as "a Creature devised by Selﬁsh Interests to secure the Free Coinage

AMONG the young lawyers of Indianapolis, of the Atlantic Ocean," and adds, Indiana, is one of literary inclinations,

William Allen Wood, who has contributed to leading magazines, and lately was called upon to give a toast at a dinner of his college fratemity, the Phi Gamma Delta, the subject assigned, being “Corporations a la Mode." The toast follows :— Brother Toastmaster and Brothers, I sup pose there are those among you who think corporations served d la mode are corpora tions roasted. This is indeed a popular way to serve them, but it is neither a very pala table nor a fair way, and the corporations and myself are too good friends for me to treat them in

that manner,

at

least

"Little drops of water Plenty of hot air, Make a copperation A pretty fat affair." I myself have defined the corporation. but in so serious a way that I am afraid it would make you weep after Mr. Bang's juicy deﬁni tion, so I shall not impose my own on you. If there are some of you who like the corpora tions roasted, the foregoing will sufﬁce, I hope, with the following additional stanzas which I will recite, following the elocutionary precedent set by some of our brothers.

seriously.

Being a lawyer of the corporation variety, I fall within a class that has met some share of undiscriminating public condemnation. The public seems to think the corporation lawyer is like a certain divinity student of whom I once heard. He went from the divinity school to preach a trial sermon, and, on his return, was greeted by one of the professors in the institution. “How did you get on with your sermon?" inquired the professor. "First rate, ﬁrst rate," said the student. “What was

"A copperation is a beast With forty-leven paws That doesn't ever pay the least Attention to the laws. “It grabs whatever comes in sight. From hansom cabs to socks. And with a grin of mad delight It turns ‘em into stocks. "And then it takes a rubber hose Connected with the sea And pumps them full of H2O's Of various degree.