144
The Green Bag
Congress is the American Bar Association's bill which was introduced Dec. 14 by Chair man Parker of the House Judiciary Committee. The amendments provide that no new trial of a cause shall be granted and no judgment be set aside because of the admission of im proper evidence or the misdirection of the jury, unless the court is clearly of the opinion that there has been a miscarriage of justice. The practice is changed so that a judge may submit an issue of fact to the jury, reserving his charge on the law and asking for a verdict on the facts involved. No writ of error in a criminal case is to be issued unless a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States certifies that he has cause for belief that the defendant was unjustly convicted. No writ of habeas corpus shall go to the Supreme Court unless a Justice certifies that he has probable cause to believe that the petitioner is being unjustly deprived of his liberty. President Taft early reached the conclu sion that the present orm of overnment in Porto Rico is not suitable to t at island and he was impressed also with the idea that the means by which Alaska is governed do not give the best results and tend to retard the development of the territory. He has formulated a plan to be introduced in Con gress by Senator Beveridge, under which the overnment of Alaska will be placed in a Covernor and council, to consist of an Attor
ne -General, a Commissioner of the Interior, a ommissioner of Mines and a Commissioner of Education and Health. A limited degree of popular representation will be provided in the election of four representatives, one from each judicial district of the territory, to sit with the executive council for sixty days every car for the purpose of making terri torial ws. Each member of the executive council and each legislator will have a vote. The plan is somewhat along the lines of the government administration in the Philip pines under the Taft commission. Vigorous recommendations for changes in the interstate commerce law are contained in the twenty-third annual report of the Inter state Commerce Commission, transmitted to
Congress Dec. 21. It is proposed that a physical valuation be made of the interstate railroads of the country The Commission again suggests that it be given power to pre vent advances in rates or changes to the dis advantage of the shipper, pending an investi gation into the reasonableness of the proposed change. It also recommends that it be empowered to establish a through route wherever, upon investigation, it is found that the public necessity and convenience require it. A further recommendation is to the effect that in certain instances the shipper be per mitted to direct the intermediate routing of his trafiic. It is also requested that the law be so amended as to give the Commission undoubted authority to enter a corrective order as the result of an investigation insti tuted by the Commission upon its own
motion. The Commission again calls atten tion to the increasin importance of some form of federal contro over railway capitali zation.
"Present-‘Day Legislation In his second and final lecture or "Present Day Legislation," delivered at Princeton University Dec. 16, Hon. George B. Mc Clellan of New York discussed interstate com merce regulation, paternalism, the initiative and referendum and other subjects. “The referendum is still in its trial stage," he said. " It may prove utterly impracticable and fail. It may rove itself to be the instru ment of radical col ectivism. Or, on the other hand, the hard-headed common sense of the
American people may assert itself, and the referendum, by checking extravagance, op 5 ing centralization, and discouraging violgnt innovation, may prove itself to be the best friend conservatism has ever had. “The American people are slowly, very slowly, awakening to a realization of the truth that they cannot eat their cake and keep it at the same time. If they wish pater nalism in government they can only have it by paying the price, and the price is a very long one. The people themselves are far more conservative than are their representa tives, far more apt to think twice before deciding, far less apt to be deceived. “One of the marked characteristics of our period has been the enormous increase in the number of statutes enacted. The popular belief in the efficacy of legislation has resulted in an industry on the part of legislators that would be admirable were it not usually futile and often mischievous. In these days no party ever goes before the people with a purely administrative program. Platforms are nothing more than elaborate schemes of legislation, which if the proponents obtain power they may or may not be able to carry out. Parties usually spend a good part of their time in office in undoing and repealing the acts of their predecessors." The Interstate Commerce act and the Sherman anti-trust law ex-Mayor McClellan characterized as merely re-enactments of the common law, probably necessary because there is not in existence any federal common law affecting civil matters. But the enact ment of similar statutes by the states he con demned as unnecessary, adding that one-half of all the state laws enacted for the regu lation of trusts have been declared unconsti tutional by the United States Supreme Court. The Hepburn Pure Food act was branded as the extreme of paternalism. In leading up to the part of his lecture dealin with present-day legislation, Mayor McClefian spoke of the era during which the early political ideals in this country were being shaped. French thought of the eighteenth century, he said, dominated our early states men. Jefferson after leaving Washington's Cabinet became an "almost fanatical Jacobin,"
