Reviews of Books The results of, and suggestions to be drawn from, the Geneva Convention of 1906, the conference at The Hague in 1907, and the
conference in London in 1908, have been considered by the editor,
as well as the
questions raised by the Russo-Japanese War and the more recent events in the Balkans. By reason of skillful editing and typo graphical arrangement, the bulk of the book has not been increased by reason of the additions.
STEPHENSON'S RACE DISTINCTIONS Race Distinctions in American Law. By Gilbert Thomas Stephenson, A.M., LL.B. D. Appleton & Co., New York. Pp. xiv, 362+ table of cases and index 26. ($1.50 net.)
THE value of this important contribution to the study of race problems is derived from the industry with which a vast amount of information has been gathered and the im partiality with which it is presented. The book is for the most part concerned with facts rather than with reflections. Only in the final chapter does the author undertake to present his own views on the negro problem. Written for a wide public, avoiding a tech nical
method,
and
keeping
citations
of
authority in the background at the end of each chapter, the book is essentially an epi tome of the history of legal distinctions against the negro race since 1865, with reference to constitutional and statutory provisions and the decisions of courts of law. Throughout the author is careful to differentiate race distinctions from race discrirninations. So long as equality of opportunity for the two races in recognized by law, and the distinction need not involve any inferiority on the part of the negro race, Mr. Stephenson maintains that there is no discrimination. Thus at the outset defining terms in a. way to avoid any confusion, he proceeds to set forth, in separate
chapters, such subjects as the “Black Laws” of 1865-8, marital relations, intermarriage and miscegenation, civil rights of negroes, separation of the races in schools, “Jim Crow" legislation, the negro in the court room, and negro sufirage. The inquiry is not confined to the South but embraces all the states. Interesting facts are brought out. Thus the term "Jim Crow” car, as applied to a public conveyance exclusively for negroes, was first used in Massachusetts. The first leading case involving the legality of separating white and colored passengers arose in Pennsylvania. The effect of the Civil Rights Bills of 1866 and
697
1875 on the legislation of the states is traced, and the whole subject of federal and state law is exhaustively treated. In the concluding chapter Mr. Stephenson offers his own solution of the negro problem. He is evidently disposed to discount the value of idealistic theorizing about the duty of the white man to the negro. Race dis tinctions he deems to be necessary, to mini mize friction between the two races, at least for many decades to come. He therefore pleads for a spirit of liberality in the discus sion of the negro problem. Race distinctions have not been confined to the South, he
points out, but exist to a greater or less degree in every state, nor are they confined to the negro race. Instead of denouncing them, therefore,
we should seek the best
way to get along under them, and a platform should be devised, if possible, on whose principles all may unite. He thinks that such a platform is to be found in the idea that it is best to tolerate race distinctions where the negro makes up a substantial part of the population and they are necessary to enable the two races to get along comfortably side by side. Under such conditions he considers them to imply no race inferiority, being purely a matter of racial consciousness, and they may be administered in a manner which need not deprive negroes of their equal rights as citizens. So long as race distinctions, rather than race discriminations, are dealt with by the law, and the law is enforced without the discrimination to which it has too
often
been
subject,
such
distinctions
offer a practical solution of the problem of the negro. This solution, if not profound, probably embodies a great deal of good sense. Mr. Stephenson will be conceded to have pro vided, through his assiduously gathered mass of data, a useful tool for future inquiry_
SECRET LIENS AND REPUTED OWNERSHIP A Treatise on Secret Liens and Reputed Owner ship. By Abram I. Ellcus and Garrard Glenn, of the New York bar. Baker, Voorhis & Co., New York. Pp. xxx, 183 + index 11. ($3.50.)
HIS book treats of a phase of the law of bankruptcy which is of growing im portance, the more so because the subject of secret liens has received comparatively scant attention, and the doctrine of reputed
ownership, though necessary for the full
