28
The Green Bag
suin by a lawyer, or not, in petty causes, invo ving not over three hundred marks, or a greater sum when arising from certain kinds of controversies, as between landlord and tenant, master and servant, travellers and inn
keepers, or seamen and ship.
Should he
elect not to have a lawyer to try his case, the
defendant cannot have one either." Property and Contract. See Labor Laws. Professional Ethics. "The Ethics Report to the Illinois State Bar Association." Editorial. By George P. Costigan, Jr. 4 Illinois Law Re view 272 (Nov.). “It would seem to be desirable that the various state codes of legal ethics should be uniform in arrangement as well as in sub stance. Those codes are meant to start the young lawyer in right paths when he enters the profession and to furnish a basis for com pelling ethical action on the part of all awyers. From both points of view it is desirable not only to have uniformity in sub stance among the states but also to make that uniformity apparent at a glance by a uniform arrangement and classification of the ethical rules adopted." Quasi-Contracts. "Money Paid Under Mis take of Law." Paper read before the Kansas State Bar Association. By R. 0. Douglas. 9 Brief of Phi Delta Phi 122 (Nov.). The writer disputes the proposition that a person cannot recover money which he had paid under a mistake of law "when it appears that the payee is not entitled to it and should not in good conscience retain it." Race Problem. “The Conflict of Color; IV, The World's Black Problem." By B. L. Put nam Weale. World's Work, v. 19, p. 12327 (Dec.). Mr. Weale looks for a federation of dark races of the earth—a union between blacks themselves and a closer bond with Arab and the Turk. “The Arab is the
the the the one
man who can really conquer and improve the negro in his African home." “The Social Position of the Maoris." By Mabel Holmes. Contemporary Review, v. 96, p. 614 (Nov.). "The Maoris are rhaps the only colored race in the world w o are allowed to stand,
legally and socially, upon an absolute equality with the white man." See Immigration. Sales of Goods. “Commercial Morality." By G. W. Wilton. 21 juridical Review 237 (Oct.). The writer discusses two recent cases of gross imposition in trade, one illustrating American business methods, “in their de graded form," in the sale of a cathartic pill in cotland by full representations, the other exemplifying the practice of certain coal dealers in England and Scotland, in substi
tuting coals from other collieries in violation
of the spirit and letter of mercantile engage ments; and discloses the power of the criminal law in dealing with such conditions. Scientific Progress. "Environment and Productive Scholarship." By Dr. W. J. Humphreys. Popular Science Monthly, v. 75, p. 597 (Dec.). "This t inequality . . . in productive scholarship between the northern and the southern parts of our country can have but one explanation-iii erence in environment; and it explains too t e inferior part we as a nation are taking in preparing the way for any real advance in civilization." Socialism. "Eyes and No Eyes." By W. S. Lilly. Fortnightly Review, v. 86, p. 833 (Nov.). Many of the author's views are fallacious,
but he writes with refreshing keenness. “In this same city of New York, men are crowded four thousand, and even more, to the
acre, and are living in conditions as filthy, as wretched, as inhuman as can be found in any
London slum. . . . "There can be no doubt that this state of things is the outcome of the economical doc trines unquestionin ly received and believed in the civilized wor d for well-nigh a century from Adam Smith's time. It was in 1776 that in his ‘Wealth of Nations’ he laid down the doctrine of laissez-faire. . . . "He forgot that parity of condition is a condition of freedom of contract; and the generation to which he a pealed did not happen to remember it. IS doctrine was soon everywhere received and believed as a new economic gospel—with the consequences which we all know. . . . “Freedom of contract between the man who owns land, mines, machinery, and the man who owns onl
his ten fingers, skilled or
unskilled-‘lord o
himself that heritage of
woe!’
It was under this system, described
as ‘free competition working by demand and sup 1y,’ that colossal fortunes were built up in ngland in the nineteenth century. This ‘free competition’ was really a most atrocious tyranny of ca ital. . . . "Professor enger has well observed that it is a function of overnment to ‘extract from the interminabe popular and philan thropic utterances constituting socialistic liter ature the underlying ideas, and to translate them into scientific concepts of right.’ . . . “First, as to capital and labor, . . . the
state should actively encourage, and by wise legislation aid, the systematic or anization of industrial society. . . . Secon y, the state should effectively interfere in industrial con tracts for the protection of those who are unable to protect themselves. . . . Thirdly, as to monopolies . . . the case for state ownership of public utilities is overwhelm— ing. . . .
Fourthly, as to taxation. . . . Two
imposts much debated just now are the in come tax and the death duties. Who can rationally doubt that these imposts should be progressive? The principle of equalit of sacrifice absolutely demands it. . . . Fift ly,
