.530
The Green Bag
in New England." By Frank G. Bates. American Political Science Review, v. 6, p. 367 (Aug.). Village government has been most highly developed in Vermont, Maine ranking second, and Connecticut (under the name of "borough" government) third. Massachusetts, however, affords types of minor forms of municipal in corporation, in its legislation constituting fire, water supply, and similar districts. Marriage and Divorce. "The ' Ne Temere' and the Marriage Law in Canada." By J. G. Snead-Cox. Nineteenth Century, v. 72, p. 570 (Sept.). Treating from a Roman Catholic standpoint of the larger questions of the relations between state and religion involved in the case (see 24 Green Bag 445). See Domestic Relations. Panama Canal. "The Panama Canal Tolls: A British View." By Archibald R. Colquhoun. North American Review, v. 196, p. 513 (Oct.). "The essential feature for the success of the canal is that it should compete on favorable terms with existing trade routes, and especially with the transcontinental railroads. Any dis criminating regulation will increase the possi bilities for competition and decrease the margin of profit; it will also increase the necessity for close calculation in estimating possible profits; and all these things will, particularly at the out set, militate against the free use of the canal. Moreover, the possibility of directing trade into particular channels is better met by direct dubsidies than by a general immunity from tolls." "Was Panama 'A Chapter of National Dis honor'?" By Rear-Admiral A. T. Mahan, U.S.N. North American Review, v. 196, p. 549 (Oct.). "The treaty of 1846 not being applicable, the United States possessed an unimpaired inter national right to act as her interests demanded. A measure which should wholly bar all access by sea to the Isthmus was entirely within her legal competence. She had a legal right even to take a side, if she chose. She did not take a side, because neither Colombian nor Panama forces were to be permitted to land within fifty miles of Panama. . . . The order to the United States naval officers not to permit a landing within fifty miles of Panama was . . . wholly within the legal competence of the United States. It insured the neutrality of the Isthmus; an expression which means simply that the terri tory shall not be permitted to be a scene of war. The result was that the insurrection was suc cessful." Penology. "The Treatment of Crime — Past, Present and Future." By Warren F. Spalding. 3 Journal of Criminal Law and Crim inology 376 (Sept.). "Reformatories deal with only a small per centage of the criminals. The penitentiaries deal with another small percentage. Great progress has been made in their administration.
Their most serious evils grow out of the ancient theories respecting criminals. Legislatures, with no special qualification for such work, say that certain offenses shall be punishable by imprison ment in the state prison. These offenses are all 'felonies'; the men who commit them are 'felons.' Felons and felonies are not all alike, yet only one place is provided for their punish ment. . . . One of the worst results of the unclassified penitentiary is that its administra tion and discipline must be adapted to the worst men. "But penitentiaries and reformatories, to gether, deal with only a few of the criminals. The problem of the felon is a simple one com pared with the problem of misdemeanant. Misdemeanants outnumber the felons many times, but receive little attention, except from the police. The county prisons are filled with an ever-shifting population, for whose reclamation and restoration nothing is done. What can be done? First, classify the misdemeanants. The drunkards should be put by themselves. They should not be treated as criminals, or with crim inals. They need light, air, sunshine, hard work in the open, and much longer sentences than they would receive on the penal basis. Other misde meanants should be classified on the basis of character, and then their needs supplied. Prom inent among these is education. This should not be confined to illiterates. It has been proved that intellectual improvement isattended by moral im provement. The warden of the Massachusetts state prison says that no man who has learned to read and write in his prison has returned." "Some Fundamental Problems of Criminal Politics. By Giulio Q. Battaglini. 3 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 347 (Sept.). Apropos of the draft penal codes of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. "In the German Drafts the transition from punishments to measures of security is very remarkable. Thus §42 of the Draft German Code of 1909 provides for the placing of the criminal in a workhouse (Arbeitskause), but then goes on to give power to the judge to apply punishment, if the delinquent shows himself incapable of work. Ferri has remarked that 'this legislative admission is of itself sufficient to destroy the pretty castle of cards, ingeniously built up to maintain a distinction between punishments and measures of social security, which is the shadowy survival of discarded theories, not light of positive reality." To me, on the contrary, it seems clear as midday light that, if for one remedy another may be substi tuted, then it is connoted that the two remedies are not identical. And further their difference arises from the fact that punishment is resorted to, when measures of security have been tried in vain. This demonstrates that there is some thing in punishment, which has a peculiar and distinct efficacy in dealing with crime." "Behind the Bars: The Recollections of a Prisoner in a New York State Prison." Outlook, v. 102, p. 132 (Sept. 21). An excellent description of the routine of
