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The Green Bag
growing substitution of a system of parole after 15 or 20 years in prison, or in some instances even less, with a close scrutiny upon the actions of the paroled convict, add a humanitarian zest in the expansion of the parole system. In Ger many, in England, in Austria, in Norway, in Switzerland, in Finland and in other European nations has this system of parole been established and expanded." The discussion is supplemented by an extended appendix epitomizing the existing laws, both national and state, including brief comment on the general merits of the system of each state. The report is a valuable document. "Proceedings Following Conviction." By Frank L. Randall. 3 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 517 (Nov.). "To be properly equipped for service the state should provide a receiving station, to which would be taken all convicted felons, who are not placed on probation (and many misde meanants also), in the care of officers appointed by the commission. Many persons thus received could be assigned, without much doubt or delay, to the prison, the reformatory, the school for feeble-minded, the industrial or training school, the state farm for inebriates, the colony for epileptics, the hospital for the acute insane, or to the state custodial asylum; an institution which every state should have, and which should, in time, have a larger population than both the prison and the reformatory. "Recidivists in misdemeanors should be de creed to be felons, and should be saved, as far as possible, from the consequences which follow their weaknesses. No more would we then read, in the report of a county workhouse, that over three hundred persons had each served more than fifty terms therein. As no sane or com petent person will serve repeated terms in a workhouse or jail, repeated convictions should be accepted as strong evidence of helplessness, and conclusive evidence that the person needs attention and aid." "The Report of the Commissioners of Prisons." By "Lex." 38 Law Magazine and Review 68 (Nov.). "The Commissioners lay great stress on the classification of prisoners, and urge that all courts, in passing sentence, should specify in what class the prisoner was to be placed. But the person who passes sentence often knows little about prison-classes and not much about the antecedents of the prisoner. Might it not be better to give a free hand to the Prisons Commissioners and the prison authorities in this matter? The Act of 1898 has not proved a success, as this report suffices to show." See Criminal Laws. Perpetuities. "General Powers and the Rule Against Perpetuities." By Albert M. Kales. 26 Harvard Law Review 64 (Nov.). "In short, the fact that a power is a general power to appoint by deed or will or a general power to appoint by will only has an entirely different significance, depending upon whether
you are considering the validity of the power in its inception or the validity of the exercise of a power admittedly valid in its inception." Public Service Corporations. "Rights and Duties of Public Service Corporations." By Hon. J. B. Whitfield, Chief Justice of Florida. 22 Yale Law Journal 39 (Nov.). "The guiding star and controlling purpose should ever be to secure to the public the primary right to a reasonably adequate service for a fair compensation and without unjust discrimination as to patrons or service, and to preserve to the corporations their absolute right to reasonable compensation for service rendered and to security against being deprived of their property or of .its use in violation of law." Race Distinctions. "The Latest Phase of Negro Disfranchisement." By Julien C. Monnet. 26 Harvard Law Review 42 (Nov.). The "latest phase" is supplied by an article of the Oklahoma constitution containing the grandfather clause in a new form. The writer believes that if the case reaches the United States Supreme Court, which is doubtful, it will be held invalid. There is an illuminating discussion of possible remedies. "The Constitutionality of Segregation Ordi nances." By James F. Minor. 18 Virginia Law Register 561 (Dec.). "It is the conclusion of the writer that such legislation will not be overthrown on the ground that it denies equal protection of the laws, where it does not arbitrarily set apart certain portions of a city for the residence of each race, but merely requires the residential districts to be allotted to each to be automatically determined by principles which apply without discrimination to each race. But if such an ordinance undertakes to arbitrarily set apart residential districts for each race, it would seem that, however good its intention to be fair to each, such an assignment could not even theoretically be considered a law operating equally upon each race. Practically, of course, it would assign an inferior section to the colored race, although this would be the only possible assignment which would not require wholesale removals and a complete upheaval and dis turbance of actual conditions as they now exist, and would be the practical result of any assign ment, however determined. Such an ordinance, requiring the removal of all Chinese residents in a city to a delimited district, has been held clearly invalid as an unconstitutional discrimina tion and deprivation of property. Re Lee Sing, 43 Fed. Rep. 359." Spitzbergen. "Spitzbergen. "By "Theta." 38 Law Magazine and Review 78 (Nov.). "The deliberations of a joint conference of Swedish, Norse, and Russian diplomatists have led this year to the signature of a Protocol, estab lishing — so far as these nations can accomplish it — a regime under which the island is entrusted to the administration of a special commission calculated to safeguard the interests of the other powers. It is tolerably certain that the Protocol
