An elaborate and not thoroughly successful attempt to write a history of theories of money is found in the work of Dr. Friedrich Hoffmann, Kritische Dogmengeschichte der Geldwerttheorien (Leipzig, C. L. Hirschfeld, 1907; 294 pp.). Dr. Hoffman has read widely on the subject, but he quotes too many authorities, he fails to distinguish between those that are important and those that are unimportant and his analysis and classification of the various schools are not altogether happy. As a work of reference it will no doubt take its place among the histories of economic doctrine; but its value can not be regarded as commensurate with the industry which its author has exhibited.

Among the chief writers of the eighteenth century whose importance in modern times has been much neglected is the French financier Forbonnais. A young Italian, Dr. Carlo Torlonia, devotes a separate work to him under the title of Le Dottrine finanziarie di P. V. Duverger de Forbonnais (Rome, B. Lux, 1908; 114 pp.). Dr. Torlonia calls attention especially to Forbonnais' work on the finances of France and takes up in some detail the views of his author as interpreted in the light of the conditions of the day. It is a painstaking piece of work. Among the works dealing with medieval finance, none is quite so elaborate as Dr. Paul Sander's study of the financial system of Nuremberg in the fifteenth century, published under the title, Die Reichstädtische Haushaltung Nürnbergs (Leipzig, B. G. Teubner, 1902; 938 pp.). It is not only a detailed presentation of the system of revenue and expenditures, but also a study of the whole administrative system of the medieval city. While not differing fundamentally in its conclusions from the works of Bücher, Schönberg, Zeumer and other historians of medieval municipal finance, the work will be a welcome addition to the study of comparative fiscal systems. The investigation was subsidized by the city of Nuremberg itself and is in every way worthy of its

sponsors.

In The King's Revenue, being a hand-book to the Taxes and the Public Revenue (London, P. S. King and Son, 1908; 221 pp.), Mr. Wm. J. Williams presents a convenient reference book on the subject of British finance. No attempt is made to comment upon the laws or the system, but a full statement is given of the details of the legislation and of the statistics of revenue and expenditure for the past ten years. It will prove a serviceable manual.

The first annual meeting of the Minnesota Academy of Social Sciences was devoted to the subject of taxation, and the results appear under the title of Papers and Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Minnesota Academy of Social Sciences (published for the

Academy by the Northfield News, 1908; 197 pp.). Professor McVey has acted as editor. Among the contents are to be found not only papers referring to topics of special interest in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, but also some of a wider importance. The volume is a distinctly creditable one.

In the voluminous literature that has been evoked by the recent discussion of the income-tax project in France, perhaps the most noteworthy is the work of M. Gaston Gros, L'Impôt sur le Revenu (Paris, Larose and Tenin, 1907; 585 pp.). Mr. Gros is a French lawyer who has made an earnest study of the situation. The book is divided into three parts. The first deals with the theory of the subject. It discusses the general problems of incidence, rate and administration and contains, in particular, a comparison between the lump-sum ", the "schedule" and the "outward presumption "income tax. The second part takes up in detail the English system, the Prussian and Italian systems and the French system, closing with a survey of the earliest French projects during the past decade. The third part gives the author's own scheme in the form of a bill, with notes. Mr. Gaston Gros is on the whole an advocate of the lump-sum income tax project, but with considerable modifications designed to meet French conditions. The book is a serious and praiseworthy attempt to grapple with this important problem, and is on the whole the most complete study of the income tax to be found in any language.

The rapid development during the past few years of municipal taxes on the unearned increment of land has led Dr. Boldt, one of the municipal counsellors of Dortmund, to write what is now the fullest and most authoritative work on the subject, Die Wertzuwachsteuer (Dortmund, W. Trüwell, 1908; 140 pp.). In this monograph will be found the latest and fullest details of the extraordinary spread of this system of taxation to all parts of Germany.

The second instalment of Volume III of the Economics and Political Science Series of the Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, consists of A Congressional History of Railways in the United States, by Professor L. H. Haney of the University of Iowa (Madison, Wisconsin, 1908; 274 pp.). Professor Haney has limited his study of materials to the Federal documents. He takes up in an interesting way the rise and development of the railways, and especially the subject of land grants, which is treated more fully than in any previous work. The present volume closes with the year 1850, and is to be followed by another dealing with the later period.

The Cambridge Library University Press has published a second

edition of Professor Cunningham's The Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement (Cambridge, 1905; 212 pp.). It is a striking fact that not only Cunningham but also Ashley and Hewins and in fact, all the historical economists in England are on the side of protection in the present controversy. The historical perspective tends always to make one less intolerant of so-called heterodoxy.

The much mooted question of "dumping" and, in particular, the advantages of the business practice of making export prices lower than domestic prices are discussed by Dr. Willi Morgenroth, in Die Exportpolitik der Kartelle (Leipzig, Duncker and Humblot, 1907; 119 pp.). Dr. Morgenroth, who is the librarian of the Commercial High School in Cologne, is of the opinion that most of the arguments in favor of the practice are not really valid, and that the objections are to be seen chiefly in the cases where the high-priced domestic products are themselves the raw material for more finished products. He recognizes the fact that the practice is not confined to countries which have both trusts and high protective duties, and he believes that the real American peril will begin for Germany when our iron duties are lowered.

To offer solutions for the trust, railroad, municipal utilities, labor and negro problems would seem to be an almost recklessly ambitious undertaking for a single individual; and yet that is what Mr. H. E. Montgomery has recently done in his book on Vital American Problems (New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908; v, 384 pp.) To Mr. Montgomery's credit it must be said that he has handled this difficult task very well. His book bears evidence of wide reading and painstaking study; and his conclusions in favor of federal control of trusts and railroads, adequate public control (as opposed to municipal ownership) of municipal monopolies, a system of mediation in trade disputes with ultimate adjustment by a special industrial court, and industrial education of the negro-these conclusions have the weight of much other authority behind them. Many a busy man, anxious to inform himself concerning these problems of modern American life but not able to select the best books from the mass of literature on each topic, will find in Mr. Montgomery's book a very satisfactory introduction.

Mr. Norbert Lafayette-Savay believes that he has discovered" the long-sought method, leading to the solution of the social, political and economic problems of our day, and the substratum upon which a great future can be safely and speedily built." Whoever is looking for a universal solvent for our modern ills will read with interest his Emancipation: An Introduction to the System of Progressive Government (New York, The Knickerbocker Press, 1908; 161 pp.).

A

POLITICAL SCIENCE

QUARTERLY

THE GROWTH OF JUDICIAL POWER

LTHOUGH our written state constitutions have reached such enormous proportions, it should be remembered that there is also a large body of unwritten constitutional law controlling both state and federal governments. It is my purpose here to discuss briefly an important development in the field of the unwritten constitution, namely, the change which has come about in the attitude of the courts toward legislation, especially with reference to the exercise of the judicial power of declaring laws unconstitutional.

Until a few years ago the attitude of the courts on this subject conformed rather closely to the view expressed by Chief Justice Waite in the Sinking Fund Cases: "Every possible presumption is in favor of the validity of a statute, and this continues until the contrary is shown beyond a rational doubt." The courts still repeat expressions of this character, but it is undoubtedly true that they have departed widely from the doctrines which such expressions embody. The principle that a statute must not be declared invalid unless its inconsistency with the constitution is clear and beyond reasonable doubt has, as Judge Baldwin suggests, become untenable, because such decisions are frequently rendered by a divided court, whose dissenting members must be presumed to have a reasonable doubt regarding the question of unconstitutionality." In fact, it may

be said to be true that practically all important decisions declaring statutes unconstitutional are now rendered by divided

courts.

199 U. S. 700, 718 (1878).

2

Baldwin, American Judiciary, p. 103.

?

In the case of Atkin v. Kansas,' involving a Kansas statute establishing an eight-hour day for state and municipal public works, Mr. Justice Harlan, who delivered the opinion of the court, said:

No evils arising from such legislation could be more far-reaching than those that might come to our system of government if the judiciary, abandoning the sphere assigned to it by the fundamental law, should enter the domain of legislation, and upon grounds merely of justice or reason or wisdom annul statutes that had received the sanction of the people's representatives.

In Lochner v. New York, we find Justice Harlan now in a dissenting opinion, using similar language with reference to the New York law limiting labor in bakeries to ten hours a day. Justice Harlan's expressions are cited not to imply any great change of mind on the part of the Supreme Court of the United States within the period of less than two years intervening between these decisions, but simply as indicative of a change which has been going on for a number of years in the attitude of the courts toward legislation.

The courts have now definitely invaded the field of public policy and are quick to declare unconstitutional almost any laws of which they disapprove, particularly in the fields of social and industrial legislation. The statement still repeated by the courts, that laws will not be declared unconstitutional unless their repugnance to the constitution is clear beyond a reasonable doubt, seems now to have become "a mere courteous and smoothly transmitted platitude.”

As an indication of the present attitude of the courts may be mentioned some recent decisions declaring unconstitutional laws affecting the payment of wages by employers. Such acts, when held invalid, have usually been declared unconstitutional as a violation of the right of liberty and property, or as a discrimination between different employments. Thus in Kellyville Coal Company v. Harrier,3 an act forbidding employers engaged in