Review of Periodicals library bureaus, are making it their business, before passing important new legislation, to find out the experience of their neighbors with similar questions. This means, even in the most superficial aspect, that state legis lation is likely to become progressively less deserving of the ridicule and contempt it has so often received in the past. No farreaching national policy, but only the simplest mechanism of friendly co-operation, is needed to eliminate many of the needless and annoy ing differences in state policy. That we are getting this co-operation in larger measure is one of the answers which the states have made to their critics. Of all possible ways of securing uniform legislation surely the best is the voluntary copying of those statutory details which have worked well in the states of their origin and the dropping of those which have worked badly." Wills and Administration. "Executors as Trustees." By William P. Borland. 11 Kansas City Bar Monthly 102 (Oct.). "A trustee, as such, has by law very few rights, very limited powers, and practically no discretion. He must point to the trust instrument, the will, for such powers as he may exercise, and especially is this so if the power involves a discretion. . . . The office of an executor, originally that of a pure trus tee, accountable only to a court of equity, is by process of time and change of conditions reduced to a mere statutory office controlled by a statutory court; and then enlarged again, by a division of powers, into two distinct offices, each hedged about by its own legal right." Miscellaneous Articles of Interest to the Legal Profession Armaments. "The Ominous Hush in Europe : An Outline of the Situation between England and Germany." By H. R. Chamber lain. McClure's, v. 33, p. 598 (Oct.). "The wild and innocuous peace agitation, with its leagues and conventions in various countries, is scarcely worth serious considera tion as a practical factor in dealing with the present crisis. . . . The moment may not have arrived, but it is close at hand, when a drastic remedy must be found for the gigantic evil that is beginning to undermine civilization itself. The initiative unquestionably belongs to America. She alone among the Great Powers is above suspicion in motive. Her share of the general burden, which is piling up so rapidly, has not yet become crushing. Disinterested common sense is her sufficient incentive and justification." Asiatic Problems. "The Clark University Conference on the Far East." By James L. Tryon. Advocate of Peace, v. 71, p. 212 (Oct.). An editorial report of the Conference, the object of which is stated to have been "not to criticize any particular country's policy
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in the Orient, or to subject the attitude of Oriental countries to unfriendly scrutiny, but to help the United States to enter into more sympathetic relations with them. It sought to get at the truth as a basis for in telligent action. It was inspired by a love of modern scholarship and international justice." Hayes. "A Review of President Hayes's Administration." By James Ford Rhodes. Century, v. 78, p. 883 (Oct.). "The organization of civil service reform associations began under Hayes. . . . The brightest page in the history of the Republican party since the Civil War tells of its work in the cause of sound finance, and no administration is more noteworthy than that of Hayes. . . . Hayes had decided opinions of his own and did not hesitate to differ from his Secretary of the Treasury." Labor Unions. "Trade Unions and the Individual Worker." By Jonathan Thayer Lincoln. Atlantic Monthly, v. 104, p. 469 (Oct.). "If the cause of unionism is made identical with the cause of labor, and thus ministers to the social progress of every workingman, we may believe that trade-unionism still has a work to accomplish; but if the movement is to minister to a class of workingmen only, its usefulness is already at an end. Legal Burlesque. "Notes from London." Scottish Law Review, v. 25, p. 228. "It may be, as has been said, that Sir Theo dore Martin's knowledge of affairs, even more than his literary ability, qualified him for writing the 'Life of the Prince Consort.' Certainly training in law is a fine preparation for many kinds of writing. Could it have been this which enabled Martin, a young man of twenty-eight, to write the preface to Sir Thomas Urquhart's translation of Rabelais which won the praise of Dr. John Brown? It may, at any rate, have been the legal element in Rabelais' work, for one thing that attracted him. Even after 'Pickwick,' the greatest burlesque and parody of law and lawyers ever written is still to be found in Rabelais. ' Bardell v. Pickwick,' in fact, is infantile by the side of it." North Pole Discovery. "Legal Proof of the Discovery of the Pole." Editorial. 18 Bench and Bar 87 (Sept.). "As to the negro who accompanied Peary, if he is only an ordinary darkey of moderate intelligence, then what was said by Hughes, D. J., in The Emily A. Foote, 73 Fed. Rep. 508, 512 (cited in 2 Moore on Facts, p. 1161), might apply. 'The testimony of ignorant colored witnesses in behalf of their employers,' it is written, is 'generally more compliant with the wishes of the latter than truthful for the truth's sake.'" Personalities. Gaynor. "The Psychology
