Reviews of Books of such public importance as to be in cluded in the category of public callings, and to what extent the control of the
courts will be carried in the effort to solve by law the modern economic prob lems, it would be rash to predict. Enor mous business combinations, virtual
307
is held to the standards of the times as typified in the average man; and deal ing with it also as an expression of the interests of the governing authority,
whether that authority be monarch, masses or some limited classes. In either of these aspects the law must
monopolization of the necessaries of life, the strife of labor and capital, now the concern of the economist and the states
change
man, may prove susceptible of legal control through the doctrines of the law
We are next given about twenty-five pages upon some of the great problems
of public callings.
These doctrines are
of the time such as trustsI industrial
not yet clearly defined. General rules, to be sure, have been established, but
changes of today and co-operation. With
details have not been worked out by
from
age
to
age
either by
statutory changes or by the decisions of the courts.
some vagueness and brevity the author suggests that co-operation must sup
the courts; and upon the successful working out of these details depends to a large extent the future economic
plant competition, and with this change
organization of the country.
tive system in industry —such as laws forbidding combinations, and all legal
Only if
the courts can adequately control the
public service companies in all con tingencies may the business of these companies be left in private hands.” The conservative method of control is now on trial and upon the intelligent development of this by the lawyers depends the chance of escaping ultimate
public ownership. In guiding us in the solution of this problem Professor Wy man's book is itself in public service. PARSONS’ LEGAL DOCTRINE AN D SOCIAL PROGRESS Legal Doctrine and Social Progress. By Frank Parsons, Ph.D., member of the Massachusetts bar. author of "Parsons' Morse on Banks and Banking," and other legal works, lecturer for many years in the Boston University Law School. author of "The Railways, the Trusts and the People." the "Heart of the Railroad Problem," "The Story of New Zealand." "The World's Best Books." etc. B. V. Huebsch, New York. Pp. 219. ($1.50 net.)
IN "Legal Doctrine and Social Prog ress," the author allows himself to roam over a very considerable area. He first considers the theory of law,
dealing with it as a form of control by which the minority element of society
must go all our legal doctrines that
support or are based upon the competi
doctrines tending to treat the laboring man as a chattel whose price is to be fixed by the law of supply and demand. Then the author refers to many re
form movements which he seems to favor, among which we might mention the referendum, direct popular nomina tions, home rule for cities, right to be born well, the Gothenburg system of
dealing with liquor traflic and so forth. These are only a few of the many and widely differing reform movements that we are told are demanding and making changes in the law. Just what these changes are, and how they are to be accomplished, does not appear, and in
treating of law or legal doctrine the book does not sufliciently distinguish between statute law and that laid down by courts. When we finish a book we like to say, "Hcec fabula docet,” etc., but in the present instance we confess to some un certainty. But the thesis of the writer would seem to be that law is a steadier or a conservative element in society.
