EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT accepted, and all state regulations fell; that it is admitted that Congress has exclusive power over foreign commerce, and that since the same words grant power over interstate commerce Congress must have exclusive power over it also; that the grant is a general one and not a divided one; that it would be arbitrary amendment of the Constitution for the court to divide it; that it would be as much so to divide it according to the local concurrent powers' theory as according to any. other pos sible division; that if the court should divide the grant and establish two classes of subjects of commerce, it would be necessary that the subjects be classified according to established general principles, and that as such principles are not contained in the Constitution it would be still further amendment of the Constitu tion for it to formulate them, and that without so doing the court would be without Constitu tional restraint in this respect." Reviewing what the court has actually done, he finds: "That it has twice overruled the general concurrent powers theory and has so far discarded it that it would be safe to ignore it, were it not for one recent important de cision. "That the local concurrent powers theory has always been hotly disputed, and is stated tentatively and in effect waived aside even in many cases which do not expressly controvert it. That in those cases where this and the exclusive theory lead to the same results the decisions are equally supportable upon the latter theory as upon this. That in those cases where these two theories lead to opposite results, which are numerous and most im portant, the actual decisions of the court have been uniformly inconsistent with the former and consistent with the latter theory. That the exclusive theory, notwithstanding reasoning inconsistent therewith in many of the opinions, is consistent with all of the de cisions of the court except comparatively few, and is the only theory with which the de cisions of the court in fact harmonize. "The conclusion seems justified that on gen eral principles the court should, and that, in fact, in its decisions it has, generally speaking, followed the exclusive theory." CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (England). An address by Sir Frederick Pollock on "Impe
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rial Organization" is published in the Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation (Xo. xiv, p. 37). This concerns the possibility of some closer relations between England and her colonies to be represented by a new im perial body. The author recognizes the im possibility of anything like a written consti tution and hopes merely for an advisory board . the importance of which will depend upon its intrinsic merits. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (Interpretation). In the Atlantic Monthly for October (V. 96, p. 525) appears an article entitled "Our Changing Constitution," by Alfred Pierce Dennis, which elaborates the conception of the development of that instrument suggested by Dr. Taylor in our October issue. It is the contention of Mr. Dennis that the constitution is in a state of constant develop ment of which no record is made in the docu ment itself. The growth of the nation, the inevitable influences of the spirit of new times and the exactions of new needs compel new interpretations and extra-constitutional prac tices that come to have the power of control ling law and are accepted as existing facts which it is useless to dispute. In this way our Constitution is assuming the character of a growth like the English Constitution, some thing undefined in express terms, a spirit and a life, not a rigid, unchangeable form. "The measure of the interpretation of our Constitution," he says, "is found in the logic of personality rather than in the logic of legalism. The unfolding of our national life according to this logic has involved three processes: First, new meanings have been written into the fundamental law by judicial interpretation; second, the unrebuked exercise of doubtful powers by the executive and legislative branches has extra-legally enlarged the sphere of government action; finally, through the spontaneous outworkings of our political genius, new rules, understandings and convictions have been introduced into our con stitutional system without the intervention of direct governmental agency." He finds illustrations of the first method in decisions relating to our Philippine policy and in the interpretation of the Interstate Com merce Act. "The great corporation is the most potent
