EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT THE majority decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States continue to appear to settle for us questions of the gravest con sequence, by placing limits to the progress of social and economic forces. The decision in People v. Lochner, in the estimate of one of the dissenting judges, is portentous of dan ger, and the discussion by Professor Freund, which we present, seems to bear out this estimate. The author is peculiarly qualified to pass upon this ques tion, since h's work at the Law School of HON. EMLIN McCt.AiN. Chicago University has included the teaching of this branch of constitutional law, and he has recently published a treatise on the Police Power. In connection with his article, the reader whose interest in the subject may lead him further, will find it valuable to com pare the author's views in this book, written before the announcement of the decision which is the subject of his article. To the lawyer of the Middle West, the Roman law is still a subject of great interest, and at times even of practical importance. We re cently published a letter from Hon. Eugene F. Ware of Topeka, which was inspired by study of the Pandects of Justinian in prepara tion for a trial, and other recent instances are referred to in Judge McClain's contribution to this number. The author has been identified with the development of the law of Iowa for many years, formerly as a professor of law in the state university, and now as a judge of the State Supreme Court. He is the author of
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several well-known legal text-books, the most recent of which is "Constitutional Law," a work for non-technical study. The article we publish is in substance an address which he delivered before the Nebraska Bar Association last year, and again before the Missouri Bar Association in May. THERE is a ring of the voice of the lawyer of the old school in the comments on some of the conspicuous and sometimes unpleasant features of modern practice, which we print from the pen of Judge Philips. In the sting of his criticisms should live a cleans ing influence which many of us daily need. The article is in substance his ad dress before the Min nesota State Bar As sociation in May. The author is a native of Missouri, where he was born in 1834. He graduated from Center College, HON. JOHN F. PHILIPS. Kentucky, in 1855, and began the prac tice of the law at Georgetown, Missouri, in 1857. In 1861, he was a member of the Constitutional Convention to determine the relation of the state to the Union, and he organized and led a cavalry regiment in the Union Army. After the war, in partnership with the late Senator Vest, he resumed his practice until his election to Congress in 1875. From 1883-1885 he was a member of the State Supreme Court Commission, and for the next three years presided over the Kansas City Court of Appeals. Since 1888, he has been United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri.
