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 The Green Bag

308

It must progress and must reﬂect social

the publishers did not appreciate that

changes, but still it is based on the past, and on the average man, and on

the governing powers, and so cannot

the book would have been twice as valuable if reduced in bulk so that it could be carried into court, although

be lightly done away with or altered by

it is not printed as wastefully and

the reformers.

cumbrously as many of the recent text

The standards of the

average man must be changed, or the

books.

governing power must be convinced before the law can properly be made to give up the past and recognize the new order. Legal doctrine and social

SHORT BALLOT CHARTERS Loose Leaf Digest of Short Ballot Charters: A Documentary History of the Commission Form of Municipal

progress will always go hand in hand, but the legal doctrine will always lag a little, and in doing this will perform the valuable function of holding back the

Government.

Edited

by

Charles

A.

Beard. Ph.D., Associate Professor of Politia in Columbia University. Short Ballot Organization. 383 Fourth Avenue. New York. (85 net.)

ROFESSOR

BEARD

originally

hoped that the work of preparing

social progress from radical or too rapid

a digest of short ballot charters would be

advance.

undertaken by a new bureau of re

MASSACHUSETTS TRIAL EVI DENCE Massachusetts Trial Evidence. By Edwin Gates Norman and Arthur Stillman Houghton, of the Worcester bar. Baker. Voorhis & Company, New York. Pp. nearly 1200. ($7.50 delivered.)

HERE are two types of legal mind.

One is analytic and sees prin ciples ﬁrst and thence reaches conclu sions as to speciﬁc cases. The other sees facts ﬁrst and reasons by analogy.

The latter is more common.

search to be established by the Depart ment of Politics in Columbia University. The foundation of this bureau, however, was deferred, and the Short Ballot

Organization having plaoed its facilities and funds at the editor's command, the

work appears under the auspices of this body. A short ballot charter is deﬁned as one

conforming to the following general prin ciples: —

It is not

First: That only those oﬂices should

for reviewers to say which is better.

be elective which are important enough

We need books for both.

This book is

to attract (and deserve) public examina

a revival of a type that has been neglected of late, the trial lawyer's handy book

tion.

covering the whole ﬁeld of law looked at from the point of view of admissible

ﬁlled by election at any one time, so as

evidence and arranged so that you can ﬁnd things. It apparently contains all

to permit adequate and unconfused pub lic examination of the candidates.

the Massachusetts cases on admissibil ity of evidence to and including volume 205. As there is no attempt at analysis the arrangement is alphabetical. The reviewer has tested the book in practice, and has found its citations complete and accurate. It will be gratefully wel corned by every busy trial lawyer in Massachusetts. It is unfortunate that

From the diffusion of power and re sponsibility among a small number of conspicuous oﬁices, it follows that the

Second: That very few ofﬁces should be

hard and fast division between legisla tive and executive functions is obliter ated.

The short ballot system is thus

practically synonymous with “govern ment by commission," as the phrase is popularly understood. No attempt