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The Green Bag

Modern Theories of Criminality. By C. Bernaldo de Quirés, of Madrid. Translated from the second Spanish edition by Alfonso de Salvio, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in Romance Languages in Northwestern University. With an American Preface by the Author, and an Introduction by W. W. Smithers, Esq., of Philadelphia. Secretary of the Comparative Law Bureau of the American Bar Asso sication. Modern Criminal Science Series, v. 1. Little, Brown & Co.. Boston. Pp. xxvii, 249 (index). ($4 net.) Criminal Psychology: A Manual for J udges, Practitioners and Students. By Hans Gross.

J. U. D., Professor of Criminal Law at the Univer sity of Graz, Austria, formerly Magistrate of the Criminal Court at Czernovitz. Austria. Editor of the "Archives of Criminal Anthropology and Criminalis tics." Translated from the fourth German edition by Horace M. Kallen, Ph.D.. Assistant and Lee turer in Philosophy in Harvard University. With an American preface by the author, and an introduc tion by Joseph Jastrow, Ph.D.. Professor of Psy chology in the University of Wisconsin. Modern Criminal Science Series, v. 2. Little, Brown 8: Co.. Boston. Pp. xx, 492 + 22 (appendices and index). (85 net.)

Latest Important Cases Banking. Guaranty of Bank Deposits — Statutes of Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas Con stitutional — Police Power. U. S. The constitutionality of the Oklahoma bank deposit guaranty law was upheld by the United States Supreme Court Jan. 3, in Noble State Bank v. Haskell, 219 U. S. —, 31 Sup. Ct. 186.

The court decided that contract obligations arising from a state bank's charter subject to alteration or repeal are not impaired by the state's levying assessments to create a guaranty fund, unless the bank is deprived of liberty or property without due process of law, that such assessments, on the contrary, are a valid exer cise of the police power, and such power extends to the regulation of the banking business. Mr. Justice Holmes said in the opinion of the Court, which was unanimous: “It may be said in a general way that the police power extends to all the great public needs. Camfield v. U. 5., 167 U. S. 518, 42 L. ed. 260, 17 Sup. Ct. 864. . . . It is asked whether the state could require all corporations or all grocers to help to guarantee each other‘s solvency, and where we are going to draw the line. But the last is a futile question, and we will answer the

others when they arise.

With regard to the

police power, as elsewhere in the law, lines are

pricked out by the gradual approach and con tact of decisions on the opposing sides. Hud son County Water Co. v. MeCarter, 209 U. S. 349,

355, 52 L. ed. 828, 831, 28 Sup. Ct. 529, 14 A. & E. Ann. Cas. 560. It will serve as a datum on this side, that, in our opinion, the statute before us is well within the state's constitutional power, while the use of the public credit on a large scale to help individuals in business has been held to be beyond the line. Citizens’ L. Asso. v.

Topeka, 20 Wall. 655, 22 L. ed. 455; Lowell v. Boston, 111 Mass. 454, 15 Am. Rep. 39." In Shallenberger v. First State Bank, tried at the same time, the Supreme Court held valid the Nebraska guaranty law, on the same grounds as those stated in the Oklahoma case. In Assaria State Bank v. Dolley, involving the Kansas bank deposit guaranty law, the difference in the circumstances of the case lay in the fact that under the Kansas statute, unlike that of Oklahoma, contribution to the fund and partici pation in its advantages is optional rather than compulsory. Mr. Justice Holmes held that the law could not for this reason be viewed as not justified under the police power. Neither was there any unconstitutional discrimination in favor of depositors, or in favor of a certain class of banks.

Customs Duties. Foreign Restdence—In coming Passengers Presumably Truthful. U. S. In deciding the case of Bradley Martin, Jr., of New York, who resisted payment of duty on

his personal belongings on the ground that he was a citizen of England, the United States

Court of Customs Appeals on Jan. 5 defined the status of one class of American citizens who live abroad at number of years. Mr. Martin arrived in New York on the Kaiserln Auguste Victoria on Oct. 9, 1909.

His household effects and other

foreign purchases were held dutiable on the ground that he was not a foreign resident. Two months after he landed Mr. Martin determined to remain in the United States and went into the banking business in New York City. Judge Hunt wrote the decision, saying in part: —

"We are of the opinion that he has sustained the burden of proving that when he arrived in