The Green Bag
340
Election. “Hide-and-Seek Politics." By President Woodrow Wilson. North American
right ends, or any rational ends whatever, we must learn to understand that system." “The natural sciences," he writes, “whether
Review, v. 191, p. 585 (May).
we like it or not, are establishing certain
“The nominating machinery has become the backbone of party organization. By it local leaders are rewarded with influence or office, are kept loyal, watchful and energetic. By it national majorities are pieced together.
standards of normality for their own pur poses; especially are biology, psycholo . and sociology doing this; but these imp ' norms do not themselves constitute a science of ethics. They must rather be taken and worked over, criticised, and harmonized by a distinct discipline, an independent science, ethics. But one can see at once that the norms and ideals which ethics finally works out cannot be something entirely different from those which the natural sciences have furnished it as its raw material to work over. . . . "This view of ethics makes the connection between the social and moral life simple and explicit. The moral, indeed, becomes simply the normative aspect of the social; and the moral virtues become, not abstract personal qualities, but concrete social values. The virtues, according to this view, are intimately associated with social and even with institu tional life." Evidence. See Medical Jurisprudence. Pro cedure. Expert Testimony. See Medical Jurispru dence. Fair Comment. “Freedom of Public Dis cussion." By Van Vechten Veeder. 23 Har
If one goes back to the source of this matter,
therefore, it is easy to see that the nominating machine was no barnacle,but a. natural growth, the natural fruit of a system which made it necessary to elect every officer of govern ment. he voter has not the leisure and, therefore, has not the knowledge for the diffi
cult and intricate business.
He cannot organ
ize a government every year or two, make
up its whole personnel, apply its punishments and rewards, effect its dismissals and promo trons. . . .
“The short ballot is the short and open way by which we can return to representa tive government. . . . Such a charter as that of the city of New York, for example, is a mere system of obscurity and of ineffi ciency. It disperses res nsibility, multiplies elective oflices beyond a reason or necessity, and makes both of the government itself and of its control b the voters a game of hide and-seek in a la yrinth. Nothing could have been devised better suited to the uses of the
gerofessional politician, nothin susceptible of mg more perfectly artic ted with the nominating machine. As a means of popular
vard Law Review 413 (Apr.).
government, it is not Worth the bother and
expense of an election." "The Multifarious Australian Ballot." By Philip Loring Allen. North American Re view, v. 191, p. 602 (May).
The many forms of the so-called "Austra lian" ballot, as it exists in forty-two states, are here described and exhibited by means ofldiagrams, and the readiness with which some of these forms lend themselves to manipulation is indicated. Employer's Liability.
See Uniformity of
Laws.
Ethics. “A Study of the Popular Attitude Towards Retributive Punishment." By F. C.
Sharp and M. C. Otto.
International journal
of Ethics, v. 20, p. 341 (Apr.).
Questions propounded to upwards of a hundred students in the University of Wis consin, with the object of ascertaini what pro rtion of them were under the in uence of t e idea of retribution in the treatment of crime, showed a very large number to hold the retaliatory theory of punishment. "The Sociological Basis of Ethics." By Prof. Charles A. Ellwood of the University of Missouri. International journal of Ethics, v. 20, p. 314 (Apr.).
The writer discusses the implications of the thesis of Cooley (“Social Organization," p. 21) that “we live in a system, and to achieve
“It is now established by recent English
cases that ‘a personal attac may form part of a fair comment upon given facts truly stated if it be warranted by those facts’; in other words, if it be a reasonable inference from those facts. Whether the personal attack in any 'ven case can reasonably be inferred from t e stated facts upon which it urports to be a comment is a matter of law or the determination of the judge before whom the case is tried; but if he should rule that this inference is ca ble of being reason ably drawn, it is for t e jury to determine whether in that particular case it ought to be drawn. "In this country the weight of 'udicial dicta is undeniable contrary to the nglish view. In the majority of the cases commonly cited in this connection no distinction between comment and statement of fact is made or involved in the actual determination. They are, almost without exception, cases involv ing direct statement as distinguished from comment; or, if involving any comment at all, no basis for the comment was proved, and privilege was claimed simply by virtue of the occasion being a matter of public interest. These cases are not, therefore, in opposition to the English rule, for the were not uses of comment properly so ca ed, and privilege would have been equally denied under that rule. They are simply authority for the rule that a direct statement of fact is not privi leged b reason of the publicity of the occa sion. he difficulty is that these decisions
