last two years makes him more in the right than when he spoke. The change has come from smaller units in production to larger units in production, from distribution upon a lesser scale to distribution upon a greater scale. And yet so slow is the appreciation of the accomplished fact, that the result is as yet beyond our imagination. And indeed, when Professor Wilgus describes to us the United States Steel Corporation, there are times when the enterprise is almost unthinkable; for the ordinary standards fail us. We may nod at schedules, at enumerations of pay rolls, at lists of products, at inventories of plants, at accounts of disbursement and of income,— but do we comprehend? Very probably we do not; for these things are unwonted. Just as we had set tled our industrial system upon a basis of com petition, we found in the next decade that the industrial system had undergone this change; we had to deal with concentration. This book of Professor Wilgus is of great value; for we need to know what the new conditions are first of all. For these are new conditions. The business carried on by these great manufacturers differs more than in degree from the business of small manufacturers; it differs in kind. Regulation of competition is enough for the small business,— little law is needed; but in the large business the regulation of competition is not enough,— much law is needed; otherwise, we shall find ourselves in times of coercion, oppression, depredation — industrial bondage. But note that our law has been used to deal with businesses that have practical monopoly, and to curb them. The law is used to deal with the ferry and the bridge, with the railroad and the tram, with water and light, with the telephone and the telegraph, with the grain elevator and the stockyard, and like businesses. Such public callings must by our law sell to all that apply, sell at a reasonable rate to all that apply, and sell to all without discrimination. Now the businesses of selling petroleum, of selling steel and the others, can no longer claim the liberties of private calling, for they have attained enough of monopoly to become affected with the public interest. That, expressed from a lawyer's standpoint, is in subtance what Professor Clarke contends for, with a foresight rare in current discussion.
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History of the Bench and Bar of California. Edited by Oscar T. Shuck. Los Angeles, Cal.: The Commercial Printing House. 1901. With portraits. Cloth, (xxiv + 1152 PP-) A history of any State bench and bar is apt to be dull reading to the lawyer outside of that particular jurisdiction; but if that is the general rule, exception must be made in favor of the re cently published History of the Bench and Bar of California. Without detracting from the clever ness of the contributors and the ability of the edi tor, it is fair to say that the elements which make the legal history of California interesting to the outside reader, are the romance and adventure which form so essential a part of all the early life of that State. What other State can furnish such exciting tales as some of those in the present volume — the history of lynch law, par ticularly that form of it practised by the Com mittee of Vigilance of San Francisco; an account of celebrated meetings on the field of honor, — for the duel seems to have been an important factor in the early annals of California law and politics; and the tragic tale of the Sharon cases? But if articles such as these will find readers both in and out of the profession, there are other articles, of a more serious character, which are of professional interest in that they show the growth and development of California law. Some of these treat of special branches of the law, such as the law of Irrigation and of Mining, subjects which are of especial interest to the student of law, because they show well the strength and the weakness of our system of law in adapting itself to new facts; while others, of a historic nature, starting from the old Spanish and Mexican systems of jurisprudence, trace the progress of California law down through the military-civil government, the. birth of the Com monwealth and the adoption of the Common Law to the present Code. Roughly speaking, one third of this large volume is devoted to special articles on the above-mentioned and kindred subjects; the rest of the volume is given over to reminiscences and biographical sketches, of past and present members of the California Bench and Bar, where, sandwiched in between the more or less prosy dates and facts, are many good stories.
