a case is to fall below the best standards of commercial and association ethics.

Canon No. 5.-The pledged word upon which another relies is sacred among business gentlemen. The order for a bill of goods upon which the seller relies is the pledged word of a business man. No gentleman in business, without a reason that should be satisfactory to the seller, may cancel an order. He would not ask to be relieved of his obligation upon a note or check, and his contracts of purchase and sale should be equally binding. The technical defense that he has not bound himself in writing may avail him in the courts of law, but not of business ethics.

Canon No. 6.-Terms of sale as a part of a contract touching both net and discount maturity, are for buyer and seller alike binding and mutual, unless modified by previous or concurrent mutual agreement.

No business gentleman may, in the performance of his contracts, seek small or petty advantage, or throw the burden of a mistake in judgment upon another, but must keep his word as good as his bond, and when entering into a contract of sale faithfully observe the terms, and thus redeem the assumed promise.

Canon No. 7.-It is always improper for one occupying a fiduciary position to make a secret personal profit therefrom. A member of a creditors' committee, for example, may not, without freely disclosing the fact, receive any compensation for his services, for such practices lead to secret preferences and tend to destroy the confidence of business men in each other. "No man can serve two masters."

Canon No. 8.-The stability of commerce and credits rests upon honorable methods and practices of business men in their relations with one another, and it is improper for one creditor to obtain or seek to obtain a preference over other creditors of equal standing from the estate of an insolvent debtor, for in so doing he takes, or endeavors to take, more than his just proportion of the estate and therefore what properly belongs to others.

Canon No. 9.-Coöperation is unity of action, though not necessarily unity of thought. When the administration of an

insolvent estate is undertaken by the creditors through friendly instrumentalities, or when, after critical investigation, creditors representing a large majority of the indebtedness advise the acceptance of a composition as representing a fair and just distribution of a debtor's assets, it is uncoöperative and commercially unethical for a creditor to refuse the friendly instrument or the composition arbitrarily and force thereby a form of administration that will be prejudicial and expensive to the interests of everyone concerned.

Canon No. 10.-Our credit system is founded on principles, the underlying elements of which are coöperation and reciprocity in interchange. When ledger and credit information is sought and given in a spirit inspiring mutual confidence, a potent factor for safety in credit granting has been set at work.

The interchange of ledger and credit. information cannot fulfill its best and most important purposes unless guarded with equal sense of fairness and honesty by both the credit department that asks for the information and the credit department that furnishes it.

Recognizing that the conferring of a benefit creates an obligation, reciprocity in the interchange of credit information is an indispensable foundation principle; and a credit department seeking information should reciprocate with a statement of its own experience in the expectation of getting the information sought; and a credit department of which information is sought should respond fairly and accurately because the fundamentals of credit interchange have been observed in the manner the request was made of it.

Failure to observe and defend this principle would tend to defeat the binding together of credit grantors for skilful work-a vital principle of the credit system and make the offending department guilty of an unfair and unethical act.

Canon No. 11.-The foundation principle of our credit structure-cooperation -should dominate and control whenever the financial affairs of a debtor become insolvent or involved, that equality thereby may be assured to the creditors themselves and justice to the debtor.

The control of any lesser principle produces waste, diffusion of effort and a sacrifice of interests, material and moral, with a separation of creditor and debtor that is offensive to the best laws of credit procedure.

Coöperation and unity save, construct and prevent; therefore, individual action pursued regardless of other interests in such situations, whether secretly or openly expressed by either creditor or debtor, is unwise and unethical.

Canon No. 12.-The healthy expansion of commerce and credits, with due regard to the preservation of their stability and healthfulness, demands an exact honesty in all of the methods and practices upon

which they are founded. Advertising is an important feature in business building; it should represent and never misrepresent; it should win reliance and never cover deceit; it should be the true expression of the commodity or the service offered. It must be deemed, therefore, highly improper and unethical for advertisements to be so phrased or expressed as not to present real facts, and either directly or by implication to mislead or deceive. In this department the finest sense of honesty and fairness must be preserved, and the right relations of men with one another in commerce and credits clearly preserved.

CAPES, WILLIAM PARR. The Modern City and Its Government. Pp. xv, 250. Price, $5.00. New York: Dutton, 1922.

The author of this book is the Secretary of the New York State Conference of Mayors and Other City Officials. He has brought to its writings the fruits of long experience with municipal problems and close contact with city officials, both in his own state and elsewhere. The Modern City and Its Government is perhaps the best practical discussion of municipal organization which has appeared in more than a decade.

Three chapters, or about one-third of the book, are taken up with a discussion of the prevailing types of American city government-the federal, the commission and the commission-manager forms. The last two supply the most comprehensive appraisal of the results of the newer forms of city government which is available in compact form. It is the author's opinion that the newer types of organization have made three valuable contributions to the movement for good city government: the establishment of the short ballot principle, election at large for city councils, and simplification of governmental machinery. While these contributions were made by the commission and commission-manager cities they are capable of application in the traditional federal type of organization.

The author is also strongly of the opinion that citizen interest and efficient personnel are essential to good government and that these are attainable without recourse to radical changes in organization. These views are no longer original, but Mr. Capes sees signs of a strong revival of citizen interest and a tendency of officials to substitute ideals of service for "spoils" as motives in the public service. Citizen interest is making itself effective in the growing number of privately-supported bureaus of municipal research, municipal reference libraries, taxpayers' associations, and similar citizen bodies. That public officials are beginning to take their duties seriously is evidenced by the number of active organ

izations seriously engaged in a scientific study of municipal problems. Three national organizations with these purposes now exist and leagues of municipalities are at present organized in twenty-five states. The work of such leagues in supplying city officials with the data needed to guide them in their work and to judge of the effectiveness of new and proposed methods is of primary importance, promising, as it does, to put an end to "hit or miss" methods in the administration of city problems.

The volume closes with three chapters dealing with school and financial administration. Fifteen charts illustrating typical forms of municipal organization and a classified bibliography of seven pages add considerably to its value.

LANE W. LANCASTER.

VINOGRADOFF, SIR PAUL. Outlines of Historical Jurisprudence. Volume One; Introduction, Tribal Law. Pp. ix, 428. Oxford University Press, 1920.

The study of law is often regarded as a highly specialized study, only remotely related to other intellectual pursuits, and therefore best pursued in cloistered Inns of Court, unconnected with the university atmosphere of an Oxford or Cambridge so unconcerned with the legal thought of the Roman world. Or, to give American color to our representation of the study of law, it is often assumed to be the mastery of an honorable trade which finds its tools in the precedents of judicial decisions, admirable in their time, but not in harmony with the actual life of today. No better corrective of this view, if it really obtains in any law school, could be found than the initial volume of Professor Vinogradoff's Outlines of Historical Jurisprudence.

Nearly half the volume is given to an introduction which treats of the relation of jurisprudence to other sciences. Logic is naturally first considered, and it is shown that an excess of abstract dialectics may easily pervert legal rules, an error into which French and continental jurists run more frequently than the more practica

English lawyers. The current findings of psychology cannot but influence law and this is no less true when the field is extended to society. Social psychology blends into sociology. The same is true of political science and political economy, particularly of the former. The science of law cannot be isolated from these social sciences, for it is itself a social science and subject to every movement of opinion and to every change in social conditions.

That jurisprudence is not static but subject to periodic changes is shown by the professor's successive chapters upon the rationalists, like Bentham, the nationalists, like Savigny, and the evolutionists, like von Ihering. Each school was the embodiment of the dominant spirit of the period, and each made contribution to a progressive jurisprudence.

After evaluating the legalistic tendencies of the present age the author delves into the remote past for the roots of historical jurisprudence. This he does by the aid of anthropological inquiries collected from all parts of the world. His scheme for the series involves the systematic treatment of the following subjects: 1. Origin in totemistic society, 2. Tribal law, 3. Civic law, 4. Medieval law in its combination as canon and feudal law, 5. Individualistic jurisprudence, and 6. Beginnings of socialistic jurisprudence. The sub-title of the present volume is "Tribal Law though several chapters belong to the first division of his scheme.

It is strange enough to begin historical jurisprudence with the selection of mates in a period long antedating history. Yet the patria potestas of the Roman law is a development from still earlier custom and is the better understood when seen as a stage in the progress of civilization. Out of the patriarchal household grew the joint family, with its expansion into the clan and the tribe. The tribe was a confederation of related clans. Between these clans there was arbitration, just as now international law is a body of rules created by agreement. Criminal and civil procedure began to develop at a time when the element of public compulsion was absent. As in international law today so in tribal law there were incomplete sanctions. Self

help was recognized but regulated. When private execution failed the public sanction or outlawry was resorted to. Closely connected with the patriarchal household and the joint family were succession and inheritance. Of chattels in pre-Christian time the dead man's share was buried or burned with the body, but later the Church was intrusted with this share to spend for the good of his soul. The remaining chattels were capable of equitable division, but a farm was regarded as an organic entity to which personal sharing was not appropriate. Indeed land tenure had its origin in tribal ownership rather than in strictly personal ownership. This tribal ownership developed into communal, out of which grew the open-field system, once universal in Europe, just as this in time was displaced by a more scientific agriculture and more individualistic legal theory. The Roman civil law, German private law, and the English common law all find the key to their understanding in the tribal law so different from the ideal creations of Bentham and Austin.

This work of a cosmopolitan scholar marks a distinct stage of progress from the pioneer work of Professor Main, Ancient Law, but it lacks the charm of that classic. C. H. MAXSON.

FINER, HERMAN. Foreign Governments at
Work.
Pp. 84. Oxford University
Press, 1921.

This brief booklet of eighty-four pages aims to give for study classes a summary of the outstanding features of the government of France, Germany and the United States. The author holds that institutions are alike the world over, mainly through imitation. The Declaration of Independence and the movement for political rights which followed, swept the world; everywhere parliaments were formed. So also the great drive for economic democracy has already spread over wide sections in Whitley Councils, Works' Councils and Soviets. With these two standards of political and economic democracy in mind, the author examines briefly the government of each of the countries named. Although it seems well nigh impossible to do so in eighty

pages, he gives us a fairly intelligible and useful impression of both the mechanics and the spirit of each government. His tone is impartial, his judgment fair and his style interesting. The booklet is by far the best and most useful survey of the subject thus far offered in such brief compass.

HASKINS AND LORD. Some Problems of the Peace Conference. Pp. 307. Price, $3.00. Harvard University Press, 1920.

Of all the books relating to the Paris Conference, the volume published by Professors Haskins and Lord gives the clearest insight into the problems confronting the Conference and the difficulties encountered in their solution. Whether dealing with Alsace-Lorraine, the Rhine and the Saar, Poland, Austria, or Hungary, there is evident in every chapter the broad grasp of the thorough historical student, as well as a keen insight into the larger political elements of the situation. No other book gives so clear a view of the difficulties confronting the American Delegation to the Peace Conference in endeavoring to secure an equitable settlement.

JONES, CHESTER LLOYD. Mexico and Its Reconstruction. Pp. x, 319. Price, $3.50. New York: D. Appleton & Co.,

1921.

The past few years have witnessed a flood of books on Mexico. Of those in English, the discerning reader might count upon the fingers of one hand all that he thought worth while. If he did so, he could hardly omit the present volume. Yet it owes its inception and its subject matter to sources that are often charged with insidious propaganda against the wellbeing of our southern neighbors.

Some four years ago a prominent oil producer financed a project for a careful study of the "Mexican problem." A foundation thus supported would naturally be termed capitalistic in its leanings, and its work was also hampered by the not unnatural illfavor shown by the Mexican executives of that day. Yet the men and women who worked under its auspices succeeded in bringing together a mass of valuable material as a result of their researches in libra

ries and government repositories, from personal interviews, and by means of brief visits to Mexico itself. Some of this would serve as an excellent antidote to betterknown partisan investigations, but, unfortunately, much of it has not yet been utilized. The few volumes that have appeared, like the present, show that the promise of the sponsor to give the individual writers perfect freedom to express the truth as they see it has been carried out. It is well to note this fact because in other instances ill considered charges to the contrary have too readily been made.

The content of the present volume is predominantly economic. It is essentially "practical," closely resembling the author's companion book dealing with Carribean lands. Its table of contents shows that he has made excellent use of the resources of the foundation. None of the chapters are general in character, but the first two serve to introduce the others. Three are devoted to the government of the country and as many to its finances. The Mexican laborer is given four, in all of which his economic status is emphasized, and an equal number treat of commerce, transportation and industry. Of those remaining, one deals with colonization, two with the foreigners, one with border problems, past and present (but not those involving to any extent the deeper human elements), and one with the general relations between Mexico and the United States.

The author tells a straightforward story and he is not unduly didactic or distressingly pessimistic. He has no sovereign remedy for Mexico's ills, but he makes clear what many of them are. He presents few conclusions and those largely by indirection. His data will not permit much else. His footnotes and bibliography show a definite purpose to master the details of his subject, and he packs these details into his chapters in surprising abundance. book will prove a valuable storehouse of information for the phases that he emphasizes, and, within the economic limits that he has set for himself, a welcome guide. A good index and a small map showing the political divisions and productiveness of Mexico add to its usefulness.

His

ISAAC J. Cox.