Obiter Dicta AS IT SHOULD BE.-Fine v. Lawless, 139 Tenn. 160. STILL PENDING.-Fought v. Brewing Co., 193 Ill. App. 572. SCHOOL DAYS.-In Boyes v. Masters, 17 Okla. 460, the Masters won, as per usual. THE WOES OF WOES.-In Woes v. St. Louis Transit Co., 198 Mo. 664, a directed verdict for the defendant was affirmed. A HOUSE DIVIDED.-The names of counsel for appellant in Moore v. State, 125 Ark. 177, are given as "Bratton v. Bratton." Is it any wonder the judgment was affirmed? THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH.-"Grog' is a technical term applied to a granular mass of fired clay which is used for tempering clays." See In re Independent Sewer Pipe Co., 248 Fed. 547. A QUESTION OF TASTE.-"There are to us no ties at all in just being a father. A son is distinctly an acquired taste."-Per Heywood Broun in New York Tribune. Evidently written the morning after, which may account for the Broun taste. DIVERSITY.-In People v. McMillan, 187 N. Y. S. 471, it appeared that among those who rented a certain hall for their meetings were the Gospel Mission, the Jewish Society, the Old Maids' Convention, the Orangemen, the Odd Fellows, and the Masons. SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!-AND HELP US OUT.-In People's Gas, etc., Co. v. Oswego, 108 Misc. 247, Mr. Justice Ross speaks of "Esau of old, who sold his birthright for a 'meal of bread and pottage.' It is fair to assume that the words quoted by the learned judge are intended to be taken from the Bible. But where? Can any of our readers find them? We can't. AN ENGLISH "AD."-We see in an advertisement appearing in a recent issue of the London Law Times, that Spink & Son Ltd. "beg to intimate that they value jewels, plate, and effects of deceased estates." To us, "deceased estates" are about like purple cows. We never saw one and we never hope to see one, but we would rather see than be one. ANOTHER ENGLISH "AD."-In the same issue of the Law Times, we find another ad. reading as follows: Old Scotch Whisky; quality excellent; highly recommended; guaranteed produce of Scotland; 145 s. per dozen case, carriage paid. Write for list. Since it appears in a law magazine, this ad. must be designed to appeal to lawyers, i.e., English lawyers. "From envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness, Good Lord, deliver us." COULD LAWYERS AGREE?-There is considerable agitation in New York State at the present time in favor of a constitutional amendment permitting majority verdicts by juries, and it is also being seriously proposed that the exemption from jury duty extended to lawyers, among others, should be abolished. Our office boy says that if the latter proposition should be adopted, the majority verdict amendment would be an absolute necessity. THE RETORT SARDONIC.-"It is also claimed that it was error for the district attorney to say in the course of his argument: 'I ask you to find him guilty as charged in the indictment.' This statement could hardly be prejudicial. No doubt the jury by that time had discovered that the purpose of the prosecution was to secure conviction of the accused of the crime charged, and it would seem that the district attorney might just as well openly and frankly admit that fact, as to make any efforts at concealment of his purpose."-Per Donahue, J. in Nichamin v. United States, 263 Fed. 882. SUICIDAL RESERVATIONS.-In Olitsky v. Estersohn (N. J.) 108 Atl. 88, an action to cancel a deed for undue influence, Vice Chancellor Backes said of the grantor: "Shortly after the marriage, two notes of $5,000 each, upon which he was indorser for pay, were protested, and the makers, one of whom was Wineberg, were adjudged bankrupts. The prospect of a total loss made him 'sick,' indeed, but with an ailment that does not yield to medication. He was grief-stricken and heartsore, no doubt, and suicidal with reservations." Just what the reservations were does not appear, but, like some other reservations of which we have heard, they evidently cut the heart out of the suicidal intention, for the man died of pneumonia. PLENTY OF ROOM AT THE TOP.-"An attorney who measures up to the highest standards of his profession must not only be learned in jurisprudence, but must be ever alert to encourage and even to urge upon his clients the recognition of moral obligations as well as a compliance with statutes as interpreted by decisions. The lawyer, who knows only the law, and not the principles of righteousness and justice upon which law should be founded, fails to realize that with intellect, but without conscience, he cannot discharge his duty as a member of that profession which peculiarly requires a clear conception of the great fundamental distinction between right and wrong, whenever a moral question is involved." See Cochrane v. Garvan, 263 Fed. 940. "One definition of a word does not express its whole meaning or necessarily determine the intention of its use. If so, the interpretation would not be difficult, and the application of the language of a law or contract would be as unerring as easy."Per McKenna, J., in Osborne v. San Diego Co., 178 U. S. 38. DELAWARE CORPORATIONS ORGANIZED REPRESENTED Assistance to Lawyers in Organization Maintenance of Statutory Local Office Full and Complete Service FORMS LAW DIGEST OF LAW T 84 99 HE term "internationalism" has come into ill repute of late, because it has been so frequently associated with projects to surrender American national rights to a kind of supergovernment, and with propaganda looking to the overthrow of American institutions and the establishment in their stead of some sort of a branch of an international Soviet. But the fact remains that it is foolish if not impossible for this nation to pursue a policy of Chinese isolation, and fatuously deem itself beyond the need of learning from others and removed from the duty of assisting others. An internationalism which seeks mutual good will through mutual understanding and helpfulness is so desirable as to be well nigh a necessity. For that reason the bar, whose members are everywhere leaders in the political life of the nation, will take more than a passing interest in the Institute of Politics to be conducted under the auspices of Williams College during the month of August, at which leaders of the political thought of several nations, the best known perhaps being James Bryce, will deliver a course of lectures on the political life and foreign relations of their several lands. A single Institute of this kind will of course produce but little effect outside of some addition to the culture of those who are able to attend. But the idea has great possibilities of future development, because it approaches international problems from the side of education. International negotiators each seeking the best possible bargain, and Hague Conferences wrangling over the formulation of rules are designed to bring out international selfishness. But an Institute of international instruction, making no law or treaty, but merely promoting the mutual understanding and good will on which future laws and treaties will be based, cannot but raise the standard of the relation of nations to each other. Education is the true cure of many of the ills which it has been sought in vain to remedy by law, and there is no reason why this should not hold good in international as well as in domestic affairs. The True Road to Progress. HIS is pre-eminently an era of agitation and change. It would be impossible to enumerate the organizations now engaged in separate efforts to bring about some more or less drastic change in our institutions and laws. Zealous, self confident, intolerant, impatient of delay, they heap obloquy` on any person who opposes their measures, and ascribe evil motives to every differing opinion. All too often the means is forgotten in the end. As a result, the councils of state are disturbed by incessant clamor, and ill advised measures are forced through under a pressure of intensified lobbying. Good cannot come of such any process. Reform is an evolution which should proceed by slow and orderly steps till in its final stage it represents the best thought of the nation. In the course of the memorial addresses on the occasion of the death of Chief Justice Start of Minnesota (see vol. 44 Minn. Rep.) there was read the following unpublished memorandum of the late Chief Justice: "A reform movement ought not to be sent straight to the mark, like a cannon ball, without regard to the wreck and ruin which may follow. It should be strenuous, but fair; persistent, but deliberate; it should be based upon justice and controlled by reason, for no permanent reform can or ought to be secured in any other way." The legal profession has been much maligned for its conservatism, but its members should not be induced thereby to forget that if the existing craze for legislation is not to lead to an insufferable tyranny and to the destruction of the institutions on which the economic future of the nation rests there must be a conservative force, and one which is actuated not by alarming self interest but by a broadminded ability to distinguish between institutions and their abuses. Such a force the bar has been in the past and it is to be hoped that it will not abrogate its function, but will on the other hand regard it as a duty whose adequate performance requires an elevation of the standards of the profession and an extension of its influ ence. Experimental Evidence as to Finger Prints. т IT is one of the defects of our rules of evidence that an expert testifying to a little understood matter of science cannot ordinarily be tested or corroborated by a demonstration or experiment in the presence of the jury. Thus in many jurisdictions a handwriting expert cannot be required to distinguish between the genuine and the spurious signatures in a number prepared for a test. There are many instances in which a competent expert could greatly strengthen his testimony by a brief demonstration of the science of which he is an exponent. In a recent case (Moon v. State (Arizona) 198 Pac. 288) finger prints found at the scene of a burglary were the principal evidence relied on to connect the accused with the crime. After an expert had testified that the prints were identical with those of the accused, he withdrew from the room and in his absence two finger prints of each member of the jury were made. The expert was then recalled, and he developed no visible trace, thereby leaves a signature upon will never be uniform until Congress puts the air on the same basis as the high seas with respect to navigation and establishes a code of rules as simple and direct as that which governs maritime navigation. The states will, as in the case of the automobile, vary from undue laxity to unreasoning hostility. Incidentally state lines are not as definitely fixed in the air as on the ground, and some perplexing questions of jurisdiction may arise if the matter is left to state regulation. Shall We Abolish the Jury? T HERE seems to be a considerable renewal of late of the the twenty-four prints by means of finger print powder and correctly separated them into pairs. Holding that this demonstration was proper, the court said: "In the present instance the evidentiary value of the abstract explanation of the methods of the system of developing finger print impressions given by the expert witnesses was probably difficult for the jury to grasp. To most of us it is very hard to conceive that there cannot be two fingers that are exactly alike. But as the methods of the system were susceptible of actual demonstration by means of a test, we can see no reason why such test should not be made. Upon the point we reproduce the reasoning of counsel for the state: To a layman, unsophisticated and incredulous, perennial discussion as to the wisdom of abolishing the idea that a finger laid on a clean sheet of paper, leaving jury trial in civil cases and submitting litigated issues of fact to a bench of three judges. The arguments in favor of the proposition are obvious enough. The jury system is expensive, and it works considerable inconvenience to those drawn on the panel and compelled to abandon their business for a nominal compensation. Theoretically a trained than twelve laymen of average or sometimes of subaverage and educated judge is far better able to weigh evidence intelligence. But it is open to serious question whether it is not in theory only that this is so. Years spent in the reading of the discussion of questions of fact by appellate courts leave an impression that, with the exception of a few judges seeming to have an aptitude for that work, the merits of the case are not arrived at any more frequently than by juries. Theoretically, reason is the highest of human attributes and reasoned consideration the surest road to the truth. In practice, in dealing with the ordinary affairs of men, common sense, which can make no argument for its belief, often hits more closely to the mark. And, unorthodox as it may sound, there is much to be said for the view that the power of juries to decide cases contrary to law is an asset of the greatest value. Law is devised by man which will at all times work justly and a system of general rules, and no general rule can be equitably. The books are full of cases in which the courts have lamented the fact that the law compelled them to pronounce a decision which worked hardship in the particular case. Judges must think of precedent, of future cases, of the uniformity of the law. Jurors are concerned only with what is right in the particular case. Their verdict makes no precedent and affects no future decision. They can do justice to the parties before them, indifferent to what was done in the past or may be done in the future. And because justice is a flying goal and not a fixed standard, juries are often in advance of the law. Long before it was recognized in the workman's compensation acts that an injured, workman is entitled to have his compensation made a charge on the industry juries saw the justice of the proposition and found for the plaintiff in personal injury cases in the teeth of the instructions. With all its faults it is believed that the jury system is in practice the best means of administering justice. Accidents from Use of Air Craft. IN N the issue of LAW NOTES for August, 1900, what was practically a pioneer discussion of the subject indulged in some speculative consideration of the legal phases of the accidental injuries which might be inflicted by the fall of air craft or the dropping of articles therefrom. While the subsequent years have produced no adjudications on the subject, they have witnessed enough injuries to show that the speculation was not visionary and that a considerable body of law will eventually develop on the subject. There is one class of injury which has been sufficiently frequent to show the need of legislation, i.e., that arising from the circling of airplanes over places where a large number of people are congregated. A recent accident attended with a number of fatalities is fresh in the public memory. The fact that the promoters of the plan were persuaded to abandon the project of hovering in airplanes over the Dempsey-Carpentier fight probably averted another disaster. A plane, flying low over the national championship tennis match last year, fell, no one being injured except the aviator. Such a fall is almost always due to some breakage or engine trouble which may well be considered legally as inevitable accident. There would therefore be no liability unless the act of flying over an assemblage is held to be of itself negligent. It should be Regulating Prescription of Intoxicants. made illegal, not only to prevent accident but to fix the A liability in case of a disobedience of the prohibition. Such legislation is practically universal in Europe and has been adopted in a few American states. This, and similar regulations which the increase of aerial navigation will require FEW prominent lawyers in Congress have summoned up the courage to protest against the act limiting to an amount so small as to be useless the prescription of beer as a medicine. That the bill is an outrageous and impertinent intrusion on the province of a physician to use his judgment as to the treatment of disease is apparent to everyone whose mind is not warped by bigotry. In addition thereto it would seem that, as has been pointed out by Senator Knox and others, the act is invalid. The power of Congress to deal with this subject is not inherent or derived from any broad grant. It is drawn wholly from the 18th Amendment which authorizes "appropriate legislation" to prohibit the sale of intoxicants as a "beverage." It is hard to see how there can be spelled out of that grant a power to enact any statute whatever as to the use of intoxicants as a medicine on the prescription of a physician. The power rests, if it exists, wholly on the right to prevent evasions of the prohibition against sale for beverage purposes, on the same theory which sustains the power to prescribe a standard of alcoholic content which includes beverages which are not intoxicating. But the cases are not at all parallel. A prohibition of the sale of "intoxicating" liquor necessitates a legislative definition whose correctness it may be the courts are not at liberty to review. But that is a very different matter from making a power to prohibit sale for one specific purpose cover legislation relating to a sale for a different and equally specific purpose. The Latest Absurdity. THE HE latest exhibition of the humorless zeal of the average "reformer" is a bill to prohibit the smoking of cigarettes by women in the District of Columbia under penalty of a fine of $100 per cigarette. Perhaps in these days when the police power seems to have gone mad a prohibition of the smoking of cigarettes might be sustained. Possibly even the ludicrously excessive penalty might not lead to judicial condemnation of the act. But it would seem that the day is past when such a statute can validly be made applicable to women alone. The mid-Victorian woman who owed her right to exist to the benevolent protection of the male sex is no more. Women to-day stand on a footing of political equality with men. In business and professional life they compete on equal terms. In view of that fact a distinction in the regulation of personal habits would not seem to be justifiable. It has often been said that the police power grows with changing conditions. It certainly should be equally true that it shrinks with changing conditions, and that a sex which has won economic and political equality may not be subjected to a benevolent protectorate. It is quite possible that many of the special privileges now accorded to a woman by the law should be abrogated, leaving her on terms of strict equality with the other sex. But certainly it is not right that she should be subjected to discriminatory restrictions and it should not be constitutional thus to discriminate. Smelling Out Crime. "OLD LD SLEUTH," dear to our boyhood days, derived his name from a mere figure of speech and not from any peculiar susceptibility of the olfactory nerves. But the exigencies of the 18th Amendment have brought into existence the genuine and literal sleuth hound of the law. In U. S. v. Borkowski, 268 Fed. 408, it appeared that certain prohibition officers, smelling raisins cooking, followed the scent to a nearby residence, broke in and arrested the occupant for operating an illicit still. In sustaining their act the court said: "If an officer may arrest when he actually sees the commission of a misdemeanor or a felony, why may he not do the same if the sense of smell informs him that a crime is being committed? Sight is but one of the senses, and an officer may be so trained that the sense of smell is as unerring as the sense of sight. These officers have said that there is that in the odor of boiling raisins which through their experience told them that a crime in violation of the revenue law was in progress. That they were so skilled that they could thus detect through the sense of smell is not controverted. I see no reason why the power to arrest may not exist, if the act of commission appeals to the sense of smell as well as to that of sight." Of course it is not particularly difficult to detect the odor of raisins cooking. But that the experience of a prohibition agent endows him with the ability to detect that subtle difference of aroma which differentiates raisins designed for use in the making of intoxicating liquor from those destined to find their way into raisin pie or rice pudding rather staggers the credulity of the profane. Evidently the age of miracles is not past, and it is a wonder that this one is not cited more frequently to prove the divine origin of the Volstead Act. But it is no wonder the prohibition fanatics are seeking the abolition of jury trial. Imagine what a jury of twelve sensible men would have thought of that testimony. Of course the testimony of the officers as to their ability was not controverted. An attorney who would think it necessary to adduce testimony on the issue whether a person standing outside a house can tell from the odor of raisins cooking therein the purpose for which they are intended would expect prompt commitment for trifling with the court. Practice of Law by Trust Companies. HERE has been considerable discussion of late of the Τ' propriety of trust companies being permitted to draw wills, title papers, and the like. Certainly the public interest would be better served if these acts were performed by lawyers. There is a deceptive simplicity about the filling up of a printed blank; how deceptive every lawyer knows and the law reports plainly reveal. The neglect of matters trivial to a layman may unsettle a title or at least cause litigation. Of course a trust company may employ a lawyer to do these things, but it is in a sense degrading to the bar that its members should practice their profession for the profit of a layman. Moreover, the practice works a distinct hardship to the young lawyer. Precluded by his youth from obtaining important business at the outset of his career, collections and the drawing of papers are his principal means of livelihood. Forbidden to advertise or to solicit business, he is thrown into direct competition with trust companies and collection agencies who do both. Under those conditions it is not to be wondered at if professional ethics sometimes suffer. There is a legitimate and lucrative field for trust company activities entirely outside the practice of the law, and to it they should be confined by strict and well enforced statutes. The bar does not do itself justice by being lax in the protection of the zone of its professional activities from encroachment. The lawyer practices his profession under a license, is bound by an oath of office and is subject to a stringent code of ethics enforced by appointed agencies. It is not to the public interest that any activity within the domain of the lawyer's duty should be taken out of the hands of a pro fession thus safeguarded and given over to men governed been ungrateful and has not failed to recognize this service only by the standards of commercial business. Room for Co-operation IN and show its appreciation in a substantial manner is evidenced by the numerous pension laws of the federal government and the individual states as well as laws exempting veterans from various duties and obligations and granting them preferences in many instances. The pension laws enacted by the federal government are the most munificent known in the history of the world, and the states are not far behind the national government in expressing their gratitude in a material way. But it appears that it is not only from the motive of gratitude that the government rewards its soldiers and sailors; there are other considerations of a more material nature that have been recognized in granting these preferences. Thus, aside from the gratitude felt toward those who have faithfully served their country in war, and the desire to reward them, it has been said that the experience and training derived from military service alone constitute a reasonable and substantial consideration for making a preference in favor of veterans. Thus in Goodrich v. Mitchell, 68 Kan. 765, 75 Pac. 1034, 104 A. S. R. 429, 1 Ann. Cas. 288, 64 L. R. A. 945, it was said: "The love of country that induced them to fight for its existence. and defend its institutions is some assurance, at least, of loyalty and fidelity in the civil service. In the nature of things, the discipline of the army and navy tended to promote promptness, respect for authority and obedience to N the May, 1921, number of the Michigan Law Review the president of the Detroit Trust Company presents in an able manner the idea of the trust company as an agency co-operating helpfully with the legal profession. He summarizes his conclusions as follows: "Through its trust department, the trust company is of valuable assistance to lawyers: by furnishing them with data and information as to the results of operation under typical trust clauses in wills and deeds of trust; with reference to safeguarding and placing limitations upon investments of trust funds; in the framing of provisions for directing disbursements of proper character for the protection of trust property; in preparing the directions for the handling of amortization of premiums paid for securities and discounts, with reference to the rights of life-tenant and remainderman; in stating the limitations upon the powers of trustee that may be advisable, and such as are practically enforceable; in the determination of difficult questions of accounting, particularly where the interests of life-tenant and remainderman are involved; in giving the lawyer the benefit of its experience, through its officers and specially trained employees, in the handling of real estate belonging to its trusts, and problems relating to fire, marine and other kinds of insurance, in taxation, in business questions aris-law, courage to meet difficulties and overcome selfish and sinister influences, steadiness of purpose, perseverance, and ing in the operation and liquidation of industrial and other concerns, and in many other trust and fiduciary devotion to duty. These considerations may very well have relations, as trustee under mortgage, registrar and transfer appealed to the discretion and judgment of the legislature in determining who could render the best service to the agent, et cetera." It is to be noted that nowhere in his article does he refer to the drawing of wills, deeds or the public, and we see no reason why they are not reasonable and sufficient. In the civil-service laws of the country, like by a trust company employee or claim that this is conceded to be beneficial and valid, a preference is given within the province of such a company. As thus limited because of the former experience in the public service, and in their functions there certainly is no necessary conflict of interest between trust companies and lawyers, but much why should not the public service of those who imperiled their lives in the defense of their country receive like field for mutual helpfulness. There are many executorrecognition and preference?" A similar theory was exships, trusteeships and the like which lawyers would prefer pressed in Brown v. Russell, 166 Mass. 14, 43 N. E. 1005, to turn over to trust companies if assured of recognition 55 A. S. R. 357, 32 L. R. A. 253, wherein the court said: in the legal matters pertaining thereto. Such a discussion "It may be said that, other qualifications being equal, there as was recently held before the New York City Bar Assoare reasons to believe that a veteran soldier or sailor often ciation in which lawyers and trust company officers parwill make a better civil officer than a person who never ticipated will go far toward eliminating the abuses, and similar discussions should be held in every large city. has been subjected to the discipline of service in war, and it is distinctly a public purpose to promote patriotism and to make conspicuous and honorable any exhibition of courage, constancy, and devotion to the welfare of the state shown in the public service. These things we assume the legislature may take into account in providing for appointments to office where the qualifications are not prescribed by the constitution." That the means adopted in many instances, particularly with respect to the relief of those incapacitated by physical wounds, seem inadequate, slow, and inefficient, is due to the cumbersome methods of doing business and the restraints by which a big democratic government finds itself bound rather than to any lack of appreciation of and desire and willingness on the part of its citizens to show their gratitude. VETERANS' PREFERENCE LAWS FAITHFUL service and devotion to duty have always been regarded as a good consideration for preference or promotion in every department of life, public and private. Particularly is this true with reference to those who have sacrificed and suffered in defense of the nation. As was said by Mr. Justice Brewer in Keim v. U. S., 177 U. S. 290, 20 S. Ct. 574, 44 U. S. (L. ed.) 774, "no thoughtful person questions the obligations which the nation is under to those who have done faithful service in its army or navy." From the earliest times most nations have conferred honors on those who have rendered distinguished service to the state in war. And that our country has not But, however anxious they may be to express their love and gratitude in a material way, like all other governmental activities the form and manner of so doing is subject to certain well-defined governmental limitations, and in their zeal to aid those who were willing to give their |