Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/380

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
360
HARVARD LAW REVIEW.
360

36o HARVARD LAW REVIEW. Nor is federal legislation about commerce neglected. The ancient

  • ' Preference Clause," the modern Interstate Commerce Commission, and

the Anti-Trust Act of 1890 are considered. The last act, and its inter- pretation in the Trans-Missouri case, are discussed and condemned. The case of the Kansas City Live Stock Exchange is supported as decided in the lower court, — a little unlucky now that the decision has been reversed. See 12 Harvard Law Review, 278. Finally the control of commerce with the territories and with Indian tribes is well reviewed. It is satisfactory to note that unlimited power over the territories is advo- cated, although the case cited does not wholly bear out the proposition, p. 305. Endleman v. United States, 86 Fed. Rep, 456. The chapter on Indians ends a work which, in view of the difficulty of the subject, de- serves commendation. Not the least valuable result is in showing that all the cases cannot be reconciled. j. g. p. The General Principles of Constitutional Law in the United States of America. By Thomas M. Cooley. Third edition, by Andrew C. McLaughlin. Boston : Little, Brown, & Co. i8g8. pp. W, 423. The good taste of remodelling the text of a book written by another is somewhat open to question but the editor of the third edition of Judge Cooley's admirable little book has sinned no more than was necessary from the nature of the course that he adopted. A sentence occasionally inserted, a new turn of phrase, have generally sufficed to bring the state- ments of the law into line with modern decisions. Constitutional law grows, as grow it must, and changes in wording were necessary in order to keep the book an authentic text book. Since the last edition appeared, the Supreme Court of the United States has passed for the first time on the citizenship of a Chinaman born of alien parents in this country, when he returns from a visit to China, and on the constitutionaHty of State legislation prescribing an eight hour limit to the laborers' day. Old rules, too, have put on new faces ; as where the theory that only land and capitation taxes can be direct gave way to a decision that a tax on incomes might also be direct. All this, and more, the compiler of the new edition notes. Two parts of the book are substantially rewritten. One of them is a new chapter on state constitutions, virtually a condensation of two chap- ters in Judge Cooley's Constitutional Limitations. The other is the chapter on the control of interstate commerce. The first edition dealt with the subject by merely discussing the successive decisions. As cases grew more numerous this method became impossible, and the editor takes the only other course possible, generalizing and referring to the cases. For this method the subject of interstate commerce is a mare's nest; and the shortcoming of the present treatment lies in the attempt to see in each case a part of a consistent whole. The reconciling of the recent refinements upon Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 100, is a thankless task, p. 77, note 2. This natural desire to look upon the law as a present fixed code is the one flaw that mars the fairness of the editor's work. The important decisions above referred to, and more, are faithfully recorded. In a work of this size many cases must of necessity be discarded; lack of