Reviews of Books qualified scholars. Much pregnant matter has been judiciously compressed within a volume of moderate size. The treatment by no means covers the entire subject of public constitutional law, but does cover the chief general principles. Professor Reinsch has adopted a somewhat different plan of treatment. To begin with, he seems less concerned with the legal aspects of the American polity. As above intimated, the lawyer can consider underlying political and social conditions of secondary importance when he is simply studying the form of the Constitution under which we live. The government of the American state is primarily a matter of legality rather than of actuality. It is a concept which is to be realized, rather than the realization of a concept. The analytical study of the American govern ment naturally relies largely on a legal treat ment. Not so, however, in the case of Pro fessor Reinsch. He deems it necessary in his preface to apologize for his extracts from Senate debates, on the ground that "in
that body the legal and juristic side of public action is given perhaps too great a predomi nance." In accordance with this tendency, he pursues a radically different method from that of Professor Beard, in choosing his selections to a more restricted extent from documentary and law sources, and in giving greater prominence to public speeches of intrinsic interest and value, but without much historical significance. He thus shows himself to be more interested in the real political and social constitution than in the legal Constitution. One will look in vain in the collection for a presentation of those leading principles which must be set forth to disclose the rationale of the American state. One will rather find there a vast amount of illustrative as opposed to exposi tory material, material of a lesser degree of authority and significance, but more copious in its information regarding every possible detail of applied politics. Another respect in which the selection difiers from that of the previous writer is in the narrower field covered. From the title it will be perceived that state governments are not treated at all. Moreover, there is no historical prelude, nor any attempt to portray the development of the federal government. The whole book, in fact, is devoted to present cOnditions, which it covers with a fullness bordering on diffuseness.
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There is a chapter on the treaty-making power which contains no selection from a great decision, but is made up of speeches by four Senators. Much information is presented regarding engrossing public prob lems, and the procedure of Congress is set forth at length. Concerning the latter, Professor Reinsch says in his preface, "It is most desirable that the nation should thoroughly inform itself upon this matter," as it is "very questionable" whether the methods prevailing sufliciently approximate to “such as would facilitate the discussion of really important national problems, and would encourage and bring forward those men who are truly representative of the people and of their common interests." The explanation in the preface, however, that the collection “has been confined to material illustrating the actual workings of the American government in our day," should meet any criticism of the exclusion of legal and historical matter. “But some discussions of a legal nature have been ad mitted, because they serve directly to illus trate the actual workings of the government." So able a scholar as Professor Reinsch of course could hardly have been indifferent to the importance of legal phases of the subject, and his chapter on centralization and changes in the Constitution has some excellent selec tions. The title of his book is not misleading if it is interpretated in the sense which he himself adopts. Professor Beard and Professor Reinsch have both devoted considerable space to the Chief Executive of the United States, but could of course present this subject only in general outline. The American executive power, as constituted not only in the na tion but in the states, receives in the mono
graph of President John H. Finley and Mr. John F. Sanderson comprehensive and scho larly treatment.
We feared, before we exam
ined this book,that it might show the influence of the current tendency to subject the powers of the executive to sharp controversy. Fortu nately, however, it consists not of arguments or theorizing, but of a statement of historical
facts and of present conditions. It is a work of admirable temper, reflecting the highest credit upon its two authors. The estimate of the powers of the executive is conservative. “There is certainly," we read, “no menace in the power of the chief executive of the commonwealth; he has
