The Legal World sand representative men throughout the United States. Judge Elbert H. Gary, appearing before the committee, advo cated federal incorporation, with provi sions forbidding overcapitalization and with a system of rigid regulation similar to that of interstate railroads, as a cure for trust evils, and he outlined a thor oughly reasonable and conservative pro gram which was not hostile to great combinations of benefit to trade. Sam uel Untermyer, while denouncing the Steel Corporation in unmeasured terms, favored supervision by a federal com mission similar to that advocated by Judge Gary. The Illinois Manufacturers' Associa tion has appointed a committee of twelve eminent men representing all sections of the country, to draft a bill for pre sentation to Congress, which will clearly lay down a rule for the conduct of inter state business, the provisions of which will be equally fair to the men who fur nish the capital, the consumer and the wage earner. The movement led by the National Civic Federation is thus likely to make a mass of valuable testimony available which cannot fail to have some influence on the situation. The uncertainty of the business situa tion in its legal phases continues. De crees have been entered in the federal Circuit Court at Toledo, O., against the electrical trust, and at Baltimore against the bathtub trust. The most disturbing development of the month, however, is perhaps the movement to abolish the new Commerce Court. A radical senti ment in the West appears to prefer an administrative tribunal somewhat hostile to the railroads to an impartial court of experts in business law whose judgments on distinctly commercial questions shall be accredited with the highest authority, leaving to the Supreme Court the pri mary function of interpreting the Con
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stitution. The Commerce Court's order entered Nov. 10, enjoining rate reduc tions in the Missouri River rate cases, greatly aroused the West, and its deci sion shortly afterward denying to the Interstate Commerce Commission the power to make general orders has not helped the situation. The abolition of the Commerce Court, of which there is danger, would be a retrogressive step and would add to the perplexities of business men. Some assurance regarding not only the outlook for the railways, but the general business situation as well, may be derived from the fact that there has been a drop of fifty-eight per cent in the number of railway laws passed in 1911, as compared with 1909, as shown in reports to the Railway Business Associa tion from forty states whose legislatures met this year. The president of the association sees in this iecord not only a period of comparative legislative rest succeeding much regulation, but also a marked tendency toward a constructive policy as affecting railways, and in many instances affecting general in dustry as well. The number of laws passed directly dealing with the rail ways was cut down in the two years from 664 to 276. "It is evident," says the report of the Railway Business Association, "that at the present moment political leaders who advocate a farsighted policy toward railroads do receive the support of the voters. We point out further that the railways and cognate industries have assiduously conciliated the public, and that toward the railways the growth of public friendliness is now shown." In the field of criminal law, the country has been treated to the spec tacle of monstrosities of criminal procedure in California, where the prolonged trial of the Los Angeies dynamiters has
