of the House of Lords during the last long supremacy of that party, and in his clear and succinct discription of the foreign relations of England.

B. C. STEINER.

The Special Law Governing Public Service Corporations. By: BRUCE WYMAN. (New York: Baker, Voorhis & Co., 1911. Two volumes: Pp. ccxvii, 1517.)

Perhaps no recent publication has been more timely and more needed than this valuable treatise upon the law of public service corporations. Though based upon the established principles of the common law, its application to modern conditions, the growing number of callings that are recognized as public in their nature, and the increasing complexity of the problems presented makes this one of the most important branches of our law. The author declares that "it is hardly too much to say that the efficient regulation of the public employments by sufficient laws is the most pressing problem confronting the nation," (p. vii) and urges the bar to see that the problems are intelligently and ably met in order to avert the alternative policy of public ownership. The fact that such complicated duties have so suddenly fallen upon the profession, whose training has not prepared them for it, affords the reason for the publication of the work. The courts are commended for approaching the question with a broad and enlightened policy.

The author opens his treatise with a historical introduction, beginning with the mediaeval policies of regulation. Attention is given to the influence of the laissez faire philosophy upon the development of the law in the last century. Especially noteworthy is the claim. for the unity of this branch of the law. "But at the present it is just being appreciated that rapid progress may be made by the general recognition of the unity of the public service law, whereby cases as to one calling may be used to show the law in all." (p. 33). That all the varied rules of this branch of the law are based upon the fundamental principles of the common law is clearly shown, which is especially important from the viewpoint of the constitutional validity of legislative control. The Introduction is a splendid preparation for the study of the treatise.

The treatise is divided into four books, the first being entitled Estab

lishment of Public Calling.

This deals with the facts and conditions which impress businesses or occupations with the character of a public calling. Legal, natural and virtual monopolies, carriers, and public professions are here discussed. In the second book, Obligations of Public Duty, the author discusses the nature, classification, conditions and limitations of the duty to the public and the justifications for refusing service. The next book on Conduct of Public Employments contains a discussion of the legal rules governing the commencement of service, the management of the business, the liability for default and termination of service. The last book is devoted to the Regulation of Public Service, and takes up the question of restriction of charges, the proper basis for the regulation of rates, and the prevention of discriminations. The Appendices contain the Interstate Commerce Act, the Commerce Court Act, the Elkins Act, the Expediting Act, Forms for Proceedings before Commissions, and Forms for Proceedings Involving Commissions.

The author's treatment is distinctly scientific, and the masterly, constructive organization of the subject matter, makes it a genuine contribution to legal thought. The plan of the work is logical and comprehensive and is constantly adhered to. The law is stated with commendable accuracy and the citations are unusually reliable. To fully appreciate the value of the work, one must remember, that it has only been within last few years, that such questions as discriminations, regulations of rates, etc., have received wide attention and that the law today on most points is still uncertain. Because of the rapidity of the development of this branch of the law, the volumes offer an excellent opportunity to the student of jurisprudence to study the process of judicial legislation and the conditions that affect it. The practical use of the book is greatly facilitated by an excellent index.

ARNOLD B. HALL.

Railway Rate Theories of the Interstate Commerce Commission. By M. B. HAMMOND. (Cambridge: Harvard University 1911. Pp. 200).

This book gives in small compass an intelligible exposition of the considerations which have influenced the Interstate Commerce Commission in its adjustment of freight rates. Mr. Hammond classifies

these factors as follows: "(1) The relative values of the commodities transported; (2) The relative costs of transporting the commodities; (3) The relative distances the articles are carried; (4) The relative natural advantages of location possessed by various places; (5) The special and peculiar interests of a given section or of a given class of producers; (6) The importance of maintaining competition; (7) The extent to which a given rate tends to yield a fair return on the actual capital invested." These classes are subdivided and examples are given of cases showing that sometimes one and sometimes another factor has been of essential importance in determining the decision of the Commission.

It is the deduction of the author, after a survey of the cases cited, that cost of service has really been the basic factor, that its underlying importance has been recognized by the Commission and by railway traffic men to a greater extent than is generally supposed. Thus in concluding the "review of the more important cases in which the Interstate Commerce Commission has based its decision in large part on considerations involving the value of the commodities," Mr. Hammond states "that while value of commodity has undoubtedly at times been accepted as a test of the reasonableness of a given rate, the use made of the principle has been much less than one would naturally suppose." At the close of the next section discussing decisions classified under "Cost of Service" is the statement "in applying the comparative method of determining costs and of fixing charges in accordance thereto, it would seem that the Commissioners and the railway officials have been merely pursuing the methods generally known and accepted by most careful business men, and the cost of service principle doubtless is capable of much the same application in the railway business as it is elsewhere." Furthermore, "the reader has doubtless observed in all these cases in which the Commission has emphasized distance as an influential factor in the determination of a rate, it has been because differences in distance seemed to express differences in the cost of service." Likewise "attention must once more be called to the fact that the natural advantages recognized in this series of cases are always due to differences in the cost of production or transportation." Then again in discussing the cases in the decision of which the maintenance of competition has been the controlling factor, Mr. Hammond says "the principle may be said even here to have found recognition that unless exceptional conditions prevail, the freight rate must be so

arranged as to cover the commodity's due proportion of operating expenses, fixed charges and reasonable dividends."

In the final chapter is this: "If the conclusion be accepted, which these articles seem to support, that the tendency of the Interstate Commerce Commission's decisions is, on the whole, towards a cost of service theory of rate making, there still remains the task of so stating a theory of rates as to bring in the various considerations which we have seen the Commission has emphasized as factors in rate making, and show how they can be related to the fundamental principal." This Mr. Hammond attempts to do in a series of eight rules for which he claims that "their consistent application would mean that the railroads would neither tax the industries of the country nor have their own investments sacrificed; they would not build up one place or industry at the expense of some other place or industry; they would not take from some persons or commodities their proportionate share of the cost of transportation and impose them upon other persons and commodities, and finally they would not by their system of rate making retard industrial progress or have their own development hindered by failing credit or lack of revenue."

Mr. Hammond's analysis and classification of the cases which he cites is interesting and of value not alone to the student. It is not a discovery, that cost of service is an underlying factor in freight rate adjustment. In the fixing of a specific freight rate, however, other factors enter in such varying degree and with such ramifying effect that the rules laid down by Mr. Hammond can have only a broad and general application that will be of little avail in determining exactly what a particular rate ought to be. It may be very well to lay down certain general rules for the sartorial art, but the supreme test of the tailor's ability is to make the clothes fit the man, whose contour sometimes may be such as to defy rule and precedent.

L. G. MCPHERSON.

RECENT GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS OF POLITICAL

INTEREST

BY CARL HOOKSTADT

Library of Congress

UNITED STATES

Alaskan Problems. Reprint from proceedings at the 14th annual session of the American Mining Congress, held at Chicago, Oct. 24-28, 1911. 1912. 43p. 8°. Congress. Senate. (S. doc. 573.)

Arbitration Treaties (General) with Great Britain and France; ratified by the Senate on Mar. 5, 1912, Calendar day Mar. 7, 1912, together with resolutions of ratification thereon. 1912. 17p. 8°. Congress. Senate. (S. doc. 476.)

Arbitration Treaties, Senate amendments to. Copy of an article published in the North American Review, by Senator A. O. Bacon. 1912. 10p. 8°. Congress. Senate.

(S. doc. 654.)

Bills of Lading. Hearings before the Committee on Interstate Commerce of the United States Senate, 62 Congress, on S. 4713, a bill relating to bills of lading in commerce with foreign nations and among the several states, and S. 957, a bill relating to bills of lading, Feb. 16-Apr. 26, 1912. 1912. 1346p. 8°. Senate. Committee on Interstate Commerce. (S. doc. 650.)

Bureau of Labor, Bulletin. No. 97-100. Nov. 1911-May, 1912. 4 nos. 8°. Dept. of Commerce and Labor. Bureau of Labor.

Cases brought in the Commerce Court, Letter from the Attorney General transmitting, in response to S. Res., of June 10, 1912, information relative to. 1912. 538p. 8°. Dept. of Justice. (S. doc. 789.)

Commerce Court, To abolish the. Report from House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce (to accompany H. R. 19078). 1912. 27p. 8°. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. (H. rpt. 472.)

Congressional Directory (Official). 62d Cong., 2d session. 3d ed., April, 1912. xv, 478p. 8°. Congress. Joint Committee on Printing. Conservation of Human Life, Memorial relating to

as contemplated by

bill (S. 1) providing for a U. S. public health service; prepared by Irving Fisher, as assisted by Emily F. Robbins. 1912. 82p. 8°. Congress. Senate. (S. doc. 493.) Contempt Cases, Procedure in. Report from the Senate Committee on the Judi1912. 11p. 8°. House Committee on the Judi

ciary [to accompany H. R. 22591].

ciary. (H. rpt. 613.)

Department of Labor. Report from House Committee on Labor [to accompany H. R. 22913] to create a Department of Labor. 1912. 5p. 8°. House. Committee on Labor. (H. rpt. 575.)

1 All numbered documents and reports refer to the 62d Congress unless otherwise specified.