Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 24.pdf/570

 Review of Books in detail. According to the proportion which the intuition of observation bears to deduction, the mental acts of wit nesses are considered as intuitive infer ences, where this element of observa tion is greatest, through reasoned in ferences, and conclusions of law or fact, where it is increasingly less, to judge ments of experts, where it disappears entirely, leaving pure reasoning or de duction from assumed facts in absolute supremacy. For administrative pur poses, witnesses are regarded as ordinary or skilled. A striking feature of the present vol ume is the arrangement, in proper order, under each class or species of mental process, of the various forms of human activity, engineering, mechanic arts, medicine, railroads, street railways, etc., which furnish practical litigation with illustrations of the particular rule in question. In this way, the busy law yer may find, with any desired degree of minuteness, the case most nearly "on all fours" with his own. MUNICIPAL FRANCHISES Municipal Franchises: A Description of the Terms and Conditions upon which Private Cor porations enjoy Special Privileges in the Streets of American Cities. V. 2, Transportation Fran chises, Taxation and Control of Public Utilities. By Delos F. Wilcox, Ph.D. Engineering News Publishing Co., New York. Pp. xxi, 885 (index). ($3 net.)

THE first volume of this work (re viewed in 22 Green Bag, p. 410) contained an introductory exposition of general principles and a discussion of pipe and wire franchises. The second volume, now before us, treats of trans portation franchises and of the taxation and control of public utilities. There is an important chapter on the elements of a model street railway franchise. The views of the author on public regulation are clearly developed, and he is never reluctant to take up an aggressive posi

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tion when he feels that a consistent application of principles of sound pub lic policy demand it. He represents a progressive yet sound attitude on the subject of public regulation. Yet the volume also presents a mass of detailed information regarding franchises, and the index renders the practices of any city readily ascertainable. We are inclined to approve the writer's views to the effect that original cost offers a better test of capital value than cost of reduplication, that increments of land value should be annually added to the capital value, that actual capital should approximate as nearly as pos sible to capital value and should be fully paid in, that the market value of stock should be kept near par by publ'c regula tion if necessary, that franchises need not be taxed except in unusually prosperous years, and that a rigid public control should be exercised, ensuring the ful fillment of the obligation to provide satisfactory service and at the same time guaranteeing a fair dividend to the stockholders. The suggestion that no franchise should be granted for a longer term than thirty years is good advice. BOOKS RECEIVED The Courts, the Constitution and Parties: Studies in Constitutional History and Politics. By Andrew C. McLaughlin, Professor of History in the Univer sity of Chicago. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Pp. 299 (index). ($1.50 net.) Handbook of the Law of Banks and Banking. By Francis B. Tiffany, author of "Death by Wrong ful Act," and handbooks on "Sales" and "Principal and Agent." Hornbook Series. West Publishing Co., St, Paul, Minn. Pp. 579 + 51 (table of cases) + 37 (index). ($3.75 delivered.) A Short History of English Law from the Earliest Times to the End of the Year 1911. By Edward Jenks, M.A., B.C.L., of the Middle Temple. Barrister-at-Law, Principal and Director of Legal Studies of the Law Society. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. Pp. xxxviii, 379 + 11 (index). (13 net.) Majority Rule and the Judiciary: an examina tion of current proposals for constitutional change affecting the relation of courts to legislation. By William L. Ransom, of the New York bar. With an introduction by Theodore Roosevelt. Charles