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CORRESPONDENCE.
To the Editor of THE GREEN BAG : Sir:—You would do a good service if you would induce some one of your contributors to trace the history of the overthrow of primogeniture in the United States. This subject has received slight attention; although there are few differences between English and American law which have more important bearing upon the state of society than have the differences as to descent. Yours very truly, EUGENE WAMBAUGH. Harvard Law School, Dec. 31, 1903. To the Editor of THE GREEN BAG : Sir:—In a week we are promised the re port of the Governor's Commission on the Law's Delays. Advance synopses furnished to the Bar indicate a report in favor of four judges and ten trial commissioners. The commissioners are to be in effect masters in •chancery and are also to sit as commission ers in condemnation. Recent experience has shown that very superior men could be induced to sit as ref erees in bankruptcy and at a compensation much less than that received by our Supreme Court judges. If trial commissioners of like quality can always be procured, then the Governor's Commission will not have to dis appoint the large expectations of the Bar. Such another commission for talent and in dustry has 'hardly been impanelled in recent years. Mr. Hayes, the counsel for the com mission, has the results of vast tabulations, not only of the arrears of our courts but also of the experiences of the English courts. Our judges are appearing in print to claim that the English courts furnish no proper com parisons. We will back our own all we can. If our Tammany clerks are left behind in any argumentative statistics or if Senator Platt's appointees are defective in metaphysical facts, then our pride in them will receive an unexpected shock. Perhaps the benefit, after all, will come from public discussion and private thought; for it will be hard to tabulate the difference between the born judge and the made judge. So far as known,
the world has never seen such a serious con dition of arrears in the court business, so many thousand's of cases going untried for years. Surely we will come soon to a con dition that will no longer suffer half-way measures. Two venerable lawyers died this last week, full of years and honors, Messrs. Taft and Coudert. In all their long lives they had never known anything so serious as our present arrearages of justice. Yours truly, W. G. PECKHAM. New York, Dec. 23, 1903. To the Editor of THE GREEN BAG : Sir:—The arguments upon the appeal in the United States v. Northern Securities Company et al have been made since I wrote the article upon "Schemes to Control the Market," which is now in your hands. In that article I discuss the decision in the case below of Mr. Justice Thayer with ap proval. Nothing that has been said by counsel for the defendants before the Su preme Court of the United States has been strong enough to shake my confidence in the opinion on the Circuit Court of Appeals. The greatest stress has been laid by these counsel upon the right of every man to do as he pleases with his own. That one man might have bought what stock he wished in both of the railroads, the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific cannot be denied. It does not follow that a body of men may com bine to take control of the two roads. Our law has always made a difference between the freedow allowed to individuals and the policy necessary for combinations. The at torney for the government properly insisted upon this distinction. The issue is thus be fore the Supreme Court in a square form with everything said that can be said. The time has come for a final adjudication upon full understanding. Within a few months we shall know the extent of our law against combinations in restraint of trade. The de vice of a holding company can hardly cover this issue. Yours truly, BRUCE WYMAN. Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 31, 1903.
