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mately be determined the bounds we may set to this change. The law has always avoided the determination of questions of public policy which the courts deemed in their nature polit ical, but it has often had to base decisions upon its conception of accepted public opinion upon moral issues. Some may regret that it is destined in new fields to lay down the law up on its conception of such a variable as public opinion upon economic policy. Professor Wyman of the Har vard Law School con tinues in this number the series of studies of this question which have appeared in these pages. In the Jan uary number he ex BRUCE WVMAN plained the legal rights of the labor unions to end competition. In this issue he discusses the rights of the com binations of capital in their process of elimi nating the small trader. MODERN journalism is one of the giants of our time of which the public is wont to stand much in awe. One of its characteristics is an esprit dc corps which causes united opposition to criti cism of its methods by the uninitiated. Journalism seems to be afflicted with a malady from which the Law cannot claim exemption, and what we are accus tomed to call the commercial spirit has shrivelled its ideals CLARENCE BISHOP SMITH with consequences to our moral develop ment as much more far-reaching as its in fluence is wider than that of the Bar. When the press comes in conflict with the courts, however, it finds a master to which it yields, though often with a bad grace. The most familiar instances of this have been contempt
proceedings arising out of reports of pending trials, usually impelled by the court's desire to shield the jury from even the possibility of improper influence. Mr. Smith's contribution to this number makes some novel suggestions as to the effect of the sensational press upon the trial of criminal cases. Mr. Smith graduated from Columbia College in 1894 and from the Harvard Law School in 1897, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Reinew. He is a member of the firm of Wheeler, Cortis & Haight of New York, and has taken an active part in the legal and legislative work of many reform movements in that city. WITH the recent public discussion of the San Domingo treaty in mind, we are glad to present in this issue Mr. Hyde's careful explanation of the practice of our gov ernment in interna tional agreements'like that under which Dr. Abbott has been ad ministering customs in San Domingo for nearly a year. With the evidence of the power of the Senate over treaties vividly
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impressed upon us, as it has been duringthe last session, the idea that there still remain some rights of interna tional agreement inherent in sovereignty, seems to have come as a surprise to those who had only a superficial knowledge of international law and practice, and to have awakened a new terror for those who deplore the activity of our President in foreign affairs. It is hoped that the contribution which we publish will serve to clarify ideas upon this ill-defined field of executive activity. Mr. Hyde is a native of Chicago, who grad uated from Yale College in 1895 and from Harvard Law School in 1898, since which time he has been in practice in Chicago. He is Associate Professor at Law at Northwestern University, and has been acontributor on topics concerning international law and diplomacy to our most important legal and other magazines.
