The Green Bag
600
Political Corruption. "The Lorimer Scan dal." By C. S. Raymond. American, v. 70, p. 571 (Sept). Giving full details uncovered regarding the litical corruption recently in Illlinois, with portraits of the men most conspicuous in the bribery case. “What Are You Going to do About It?
III, The ‘Jack Pot‘ in Illinois Legislation." By Charles Edward Russell. Cosmopolitan,
v. 49, p. 466 (Sept.). Sugar. "The Men Higher Up." By Harold J. Howland. Outlook, v. 95, p. 771 (Aug. 6). Further li ht on the sugar-Wei hing customs frauds, by t e author of "The of Seven teen Holes."
Latest Important Cases Citizenship. Parsees Come Within "Free White Persons" Clause. U. S. In U. S. v. Balsam, decided by the United States Circuit Court for the second circuit July 1, it 'was held that Parsees belong to the white race and are eligible to citizenship. Judge Ward said in his opinion :— 1“We think that the words refer to race and include all persons of the white race as distin guished from the black, red, yellow or brown races, which differ in so many respects from it. Whether there is any pure white race and what peoples belong to it may involve nice discriminations, but for practical purposes there is no difficulty in saying that the Chinese, Japanese and Malays and the Ameri can Indians do not belong to the white race. Difiicult questions may arise and Congress may have to settle them by more specific legislation, but in our opinion the Parsees do belong to the white race, and the Circuit Court properly admitted Balsara to citizen
ship."
(Reported in New York Law journal,
Sept. 12, 1910.) Defamation. Publication of Fiction Pur porling to be " News"-A Libel without justifi cation. N. Y. The circumstances of the case of Snyder v. New York Press Co., 121 N. Y. Suppl. 944, were somewhat extraordinary. A short news paper article was published to the effect that, upon the assurance of a process server that Mrs. Snyder was anxious to see him, the naive
Irish maid admitted him to the bathroom while she was in the bath tub; that the mistress screamed, but was nevertheless served with a
subpoena; and that motion was made to have subpoena vacated on the ground that it was impossible for the process server to identify
her under the circumstances. Defendant con tended that the article was innocent, and be longed to the class generally recognized as having a "news value." The Appellate Divi sion of the Supreme Court of New York held that it was difficult to perceive what news value it could have, and impossible to discover its literary value, and that if newspapers saw
fit to give their readers fiction instead of news they did so at their peril. In the opinion of the court it was libelous, as holding plaintifi up to ridicule and lowering her character in the estimation of the community. Contracts. Benedictine's Vow of Poverty and Obedience 0 Valid Contracl—/ldmim'stra tion of Estate of Deceased Monk. U. S. An unusual case was decided by the United States Circuit Court in Minnesota in June,
involving the legal effect of the vows of a monk of the Order of St. Benedict. Augustine Wirth, a member of the Order, died in 1901 leaving assets which included royalties on a large number of religious books. The Order brought suit against the administrator, claim ing an equity in all the moneys at issue, in view of the fact that the rules of the Bene dictine Order require members to surrender all individual ownership and possession of prop erty. The
court
(Willard,
J.)
held
that
the
monastic vow of poverty, chastity and obedi ence in this case constituted a contract which the court would enforce, and ordered that a decree issue in favor of the petitioner. Order of St. Benedict v. Steinhauser, Administrator. Labor Unions. Peaceful Picketing Illegal Acls Done in Pursuance of Closed Shop Policy Unlawful. N. Y. A far-reaching decision has been handed
