EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT existing conditions. Unfortunately our legis latures still fail to inspire confidence. The hostility to injunctions has found new support however, for state officials who are seeking to regulate transportation charges, and the example of hasty and inefficient legis lation presented by the recent special session of the Alabama legislature, furnishes a powerful argument in support of those who prefer to trust our law making to the courts. Under pressure from the Governor the legislature passed laws which it supposed were " injunc tion proof," since they provided that in case a railroad applied to a court to test their legality, penalties should be enforced which might well bankrupt the road. The United States Circuit Court promptly enjoined the enforcement of these laws before the state had a chance to collect the penalties under decis ions of the Supreme Court which make it clear that such attempts to coerce citizens into an abandonment of their right to appeal to the federal courts are unconstitutional. THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. The Attorney-General of the United States recommends that in proceedings under the anti-trust and interstate commerce laws the process of courts trying civil cases be given the same scope in obtaining attendance of witnesses as is already permitted in the criminal cases. The present defects have resulted in formal denial of obvious and notorious facts which can be proved by the government only at great expense and after much delay. He also recom mends that courts of equity be empowered to take testimony before several examiners simultaneously, and in as many different districts as the courts may deem appropriate. He asks for additional assistants and for a detective bureau. The latter request makes
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of especial interest a recent address of John Lord O'Brien before the National Civil Ser vice Reform Association, printed in Good Government for December (V. XXIV, p. 113), entitled " Competitive Examination for Legal Positions." He calls attention to the fact that the positions in our departments of justice are among the few still exempt from the application of the civil service laws. The extraordinary development of the functions of these departments and the specialized advisory work they require make them peculiarly appropriate for the application of competitive examination. Probably the fact that few abuses of appointing power have so far occurred is the reason that this has hitherto not been brought to public attention. UNWRITTEN LAW. It is reported that Senator Davis of the new state of Oklahoma is drafting a bill to codify the so-called unwritten law and afford a legal justification for murder in cases in which local sentiment makes conviction impossible. It will be interesting to observe whether such a bill can become law even in a part of our country where sentiment in favor of such justification has been supposed to be most pre valent and persistent. It will be equally inter esting to observe the effect upon the develop ment of the community of such an enactment since this is one of the remedies which has been proposed as a cure for lynching. Will the new state be more or less attractive to settlers if they know that private vengeance has been authorized by law in a class of cases where fabrication of testimony is easy by those whose honor is supposed to have been insulted by the deceased and where the means of disproving testimony of revengeful or neurasthenic women may well be impossible?
