Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 22.pdf/134

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The Green Bag

122

lack of proper judicial machinery to satis factorily dispose of the various questions which are daily increasing before the execu tive branches of the government, is manifest. Such a court would no doubt relieve much embarrassment as well as the work of the Court of Claims and of the United States Supreme Court, which courts are becoming overtaxed by increasing business and would clearly define remedies which are now ob scure and perplexing, even if they exist." See Procedure. Debt. “Imprisonment for Debt." By Libertas. Westminster 639 (Dec.).

Review, v.

172, p.

"That the state of things has been becoming progressively worse since the Debtors' Act of 1869 is the general opinion, and I think there are strong grounds for it. The number of judgment-summonses and the number of imprisonments under these have been goin up gradually, until they had attained starting proportions." Ethics. “Darwin's Probable Place in Future Biology." By Professor William E. Ritter. Popular Science Monthly, v. 76, p. 32 (_Ian.). The writer, by conceiving natural selection

as o ratin to further the growth of egoistic to t e exc usion of altruistic qualities, lays himself open to the charge of attaching a false ethical interpretation to the Darwinian theory. He is careful, however, to distinguish between Darwinism and Nee-Darwinism, and to emphasize the consideration that— "The scope and balance of Darwin's mind are seen nowhere to better advantage than in his efiorts to prevent his own causal llilypothesis from going beyond bounds. . . . e did not see that it must foster a sort of egoism that would make the golden rule as dead on the statute books of human relation~ ship as a mastodon in a Siberian ice-bed." Eugenics. "The Evolution of Man and Its Control." By Roswell H. Johnson. Popular Science Monthly, v. 76, p. 49 (_Ian.).

This illustrates a current tendency to seek the im rovement of the race directly and externa ly by artificial measures, rather indirectly and inwardly, through the ordinary agencies of morality and legislation. The writer says'.— "There is need for a direct appeal to make child production a matter of religion and ethics rather than of mere whim, thou h too much must not be expected from it. plea such

as

Roosevelt's,

however,

for

indis

criminate large families is certainly uncalled for, and

‘race progress’

rather than

‘race

suicide’ should be the cry If the decline in the rate were evenly distributed, it might not even be regrettable, for the old rate could not have been maintained indefinitely with out undue pressure on the roductivit of the earth. The only logica excuse or the Roosevelt attitude is the military one, but the favorable geographical position and

commercial supremacy of the United States may save us from anxiety on this score, and the disadvantage of a rapidly growing popu lation in greater poverty, poorer education and a slower rate of social progress is a far more important consideration for us at present. "The appeal for large families is of use only when directed especially to persons of superior ability, as from the innately inferior the fewer children the better. The average rents should replace themselves by bring ing at least two children to maturity and marriage, four births in general being required for this result." l'air Oompotition. "Patents, Trade Secrets and Trade Names as Factors in Industrial Development." By W. Hastings Swenarton. 19 Yale Law journal 115 (Dec.).

“The ethics of the trade secret differ only in de from that of the patented invention or the trade mark. Each has its own use, and consequently American indust, by the development and perfection ac 'eved by virtue of these incentives, is expanded

beyond the fondest dreams of avarice, the laborer benefits because of the hi her wages which the manufacturer can welf afford to pay him under these conditions, and the consumer receives his commodities and manufactured articles at greatly reduced prices." Federal and State Powers. See Common Carriers. Federal Corporation Tax Act. See Taxa tion. Fifteenth Amendment. See Status. Ioreign Relations. "Fortification at Pan ama." By George W. Davis. 3 American journal of International Law 885 (Oct.). "1. It is the declared licy of the United States to control and de end the canal as a part of the coast-line of the United States. "2. Neither public law nor moral obligations are in conflict with this policy. “3. Fortifications at Panama are as essen tial to the protection of our national interests as they are on our coasts which by the canal aria1 brought 8,400 miles nearer the one to the ot er." Government. "The Failure of American Democracy." By Sydney Brooks. Fort nightly Review, v. 86, p. 1066 (Dec.). “The whole history of munici al adminis tration, not merely in New York,

ut through

out the United States, shows that while Americans can destroy they cannot construct. They can overthrow a bad government; they have yet to prove they can sustain a good one. Some too flagrant scandal may rouse them for a moment to wreck a ‘machine’ and to fill the air with good resolutions. But good resolutions are fleeting things, and the machine’ in the long run and under present conditions is indestructible. I do not say those are wholly wrong who see in the recent election a sign that New Yorkers, like the