Review of Periodicals "There would seem to be little advantage in suing on a quantum meruit where a special contract has been fully performed, except in case of a contract void, but not illegal, as, for example, an oral contract within the Statute of Frauds. ... In cases where it is doubtful whether plaintiff can prove full or substantial performance of a special contract, but the circumstances are such that recovery may be had on a quantum meruit for a partial performance, the complaint should contain two counts, one on the contract and the other on quantum meruit." Police Administration. "Chief Kohler of Cleveland and His Golden Rule Policy." By William J. Norton. Outlook, v. 93, p. 537 (Nov. 6). "In substance this Biblical policy applied by a patrolman to an offender is simply to refrain from taking the offender into custody unless absolutely necessary. . . . "Comes now a wife pleading for work that she may support her children. 'No,' she says, 'I don't want to arrest him. He's a good man except when the drink is in him. It's the drink that does it.' Yes, that's true. And it is the Golden Rule wife and the Golden Rule officer that assist the drink in doing it. . . . "Mr. Kohler's policy of police repression, which partakes of the theory of full armament, is thoughtful and wise; his policy of Golden Rule, which partakes of disarmament, is inconsistent and unwise." "The English Conception of Police." Quarterly Review, no. 421, p. 503 (Oct.). "The absence of any inquisitorial examina tion of defendants by the magistrate, the purely 'accusatory' character of our criminal procedure, and the universal reliance on verbal evidence, relieve the police of an im mense amount of labour in preparing reports and documents, besides educating them to appreciate what constitutes proof by subjection to rigorous cross-examination at all stages of the proceedings. Dr. Budding and Dr. Weidlich alike attach much importance to these points; and the latter gives some remarkable figures to demonstrate the su periority of our system to the German, which retains the magisterial inquisition and largely depends upon written police evidence (Protokolle). ... It is due to Sir Robert Peel's reforms that a man may once more 'travel with his bosom full of gold without scath or harm' in any part of the kingdom, while no single liberty worthy of the name has beenv destroyed or circumscribed." "The Organized Criminals of New York." By General Theodore A. Bingham. McClure's, v. 34, p. 62 (Nov.). Procedure. "Treadmill Justice." By George W. Alger. Atlantic Monthly, v. 104, p. 696 (Nov.). "One fundamental difference between Eng lish and American methods, which should be of interest to us, is the relatively greater importance attached there to what may be
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called the stopping-point in litigation. By this is meant something more than speed in getting to trial and being heard. It is speed not only in getting into court, but also in getting out of court, which the English have admirably provided for in their judicial system. . . . "A system of law which has not adequate terminal facilities must be judged by its results, and one of them is the creation of unnecessary temptations to perjury. . . . "The disregard of the litigants' right to stop is not confined to one state or section, but it is, with few exceptions, a general and characteristic defect in American justice. It exists through the courts, even when the legislatures have provided adequate means for the termination of litigation. In Pennsyl vania, for example, there was adopted some fifteen years ago a statute giving its appeal courts power to enter such judgment as would do substantial justice without sending the case back to the original court. One of the leaders of the Philadelphia bar testified, before the Law's Delay Committee in New York, that during twelve years in which the statute had been in effect the Supreme Court had exercised the power given by statute only once. . . . "The weak spot in the American judicial system is in the so-called lower courts. This is true because the public has an exaggerated opinion of the importance of those tribunals where the judges sit in robes and austere dignity. . . . The undue subordination of the trial judge lies at the basis of the interminableness of litigation. "The complaint is made often that commer cial litigation has largely disappeared from our courts. . . . Commercial litigation will not return to the courts solely by shortening the delay in getting to trial. The business man wants to know when he is likely to get out of court, and lacking any reasonable assurances on that score will settle his griev ances or charge them up to profit and Toss." "The Law's Delay." By John F. MacLane, Assistant Attorney-General of Idaho. 2 Lawyer and Banker 156 (Oct.). "The periods of delay to which we western lawyers are peculiarly subject may be classi fied in the order in which they occur as follows: delay in the office before starting the case, delay in getting to trial, delay during trial and delay on appeal. "Delay in office, it would seem, is an in dividual rather than class failing. But I believe that all lawyers are more or less subject to it, and it is most discouraging to the client. . . . "Delays prior to trial are legion in number, are most difficult for the layman to under stand, and are most grievously born and bitterly complained of. . . . The principal causes of delay during this period are the settlement of law issues on motion or de murrer; the taking of depositions; the time which elapses until the next term of court, and the granting of continuances when that
