ment. On account of the gravity of the question the court was held by three Circuit Judges. An injunction was ordered forbidding the enforcement of the statute by the state authorities.

SALE OF LIQUOR.

On October 21, 1914, the Czar of Russia issued a decree, in the interest of a better military service, prohibiting the sale of vodka (that is, distilled spirits), of which the government had long enjoyed a profitable monopoly.

In France, for the same reason, a decree has been made forbidding the licensing of any new wine shops, and prohibiting the sale of absinthe.

Since July 1, 1913, Norway has had in force a new method of taxation on beer. It is called the Progressive Class System. The principle upon which it rests is that the rate of taxation should increase in proportion to the amount of alcohol which the beer contains. It is a quarter of a cent a liter for very light beer, two cents for lager or Pilsner, and four cents for bock beer. No beer can be sold of which alcohol constitutes over five and a half per cent; none is taxed which does not contain at least two and a quarter per cent.

The working of the law is said to have been satisfactory.

Louisiana allows beer containing not more than 10% of alcohol to be sold in territory where the sale of intoxicating liquors is prohibited; but no other beverages can be sold under the same roof.

Alabama has passed a statute making it a criminal offense to sell newspapers or magazines containing an advertisement of intoxicating liquors kept for sale.

Iowa has prohibited, by a statute of 1913, to go into effect on July 1, 1916, the sale of intoxicating liquors within five miles of any state normal school, college or university.

SALE OF PATENT MEDICINES.

Central and South America have long been profitable fields for the sale of proprietary medicines. Guatemala has recently issued an order prohibiting, on and after September 25, 1915, the sale of patent medicines that have not received the approval

of the faculty of medicine and pharmacy of the City of Guatemala, as prescribed by a decree of February 20, 1902. This forbids the sale of any secret specifics or preservatives of unknown ingredients, regardless of name, except on such approval, to be given only after examination and recognition of its utility based on its composition and therapeutic effects.

INCOME TAXES IN CENTRAL AMERICA.

A law went into effect on April 30, 1915, in Salvador, imposing an income tax on every one having an annual income of over $73. The normal tax, to use our American phrase, is 2% and covers all persons receiving from $73 to $180. Those receiving from $180 to $365 pay 3%; those receiving from $365 to $550 4%, and all receiving over $550 5%.*

CHINA.

The new Chinese Criminal Code went into effect March 30, 1912. The old clan jurisdiction is largely altered and in the case of the more serious crimes the family is no longer punished for the offense of one of its members. The methods of punishment are modern. Exile has been largely superseded by imprisonment, which was formerly practically unknown. Corporal punishment also is discarded and money fines are now much in use. The principles of conditional liberation and suspension of sentence with a term of probation are recognized. The modern system of probation takes on a special Chinese character by making the family responsible for the released prisoner.

An association of American Lawyers, residing in the Far East, was formed in China in December, 1914. It takes the name of the Far Eastern Bar Association. Its objects, as stated in its constitution, are the better to maintain the dignity, honor and interest of the American legal profession in the Far East, to promote and improve the morale, efficiency and solidarity of its members, to enable them to keep in touch with the progress of judicial science and its promotors throughout the world and especially in America, to assist in the due administration of justice in the courts in which they practice, and to secure the general observ

Bulletin of the Pan American Union for June, 1915, 845.

ance of the American Bar Association's Canons of Legal Ethics. Its headquarters are to be at Shanghai.

The financial institutions of China have been made the subject of searching inquiry by one of our countrymen, President Frank J. Goodnow, of The Johns Hopkins University, who was called to that republic as Constitutional Adviser to the President. He finds "an almost complete absence in the minds of the Chinese people of the idea of individual rights." She is therefore unfitted at present to cultivate, what she greatly needs, "a greater spirit of industrial co-operation." The Western method, through the use of private corporations, rests on the existence of competent and impartial courts, coupled with a sense of responsibility on the part of the corporate officers to the shareholders. These conditions President Goodnow now finds absent.

LEGAL PROCEDURE.

A recent report to the New York State Bar Association shows strongly the growing tendency to leave matters of legal procedure to be regulated by the courts, from time to time, unfettered by any detailed codes. It was made by a committee headed by Ex-Chief Judge Cullen, and contains this recommendation:

"The Legislature should be directed to enact a short practice act approved by a majority of the judges of the Court of Appeals and of the justices of the Appellate Divisions, such act not to be thereafter amended except upon approval by a majority of the said judges and justices; the said judges and justices to have power to make or alter necessary procedural rules of court not inconsistent with the provisions of said practice act.”

It has been held in North Carolina that under a statute requiring a summons to be read by the sheriff to the party summoned, his reading one over the telephone was not sufficient, even when coupled with proof that he recognized the voice of the party to whom it was thus read."

EUGENICS.

In October, 1913, a Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases for the United Kingdom was appointed by the British Government. Its functions were limited so as to exclude any inquiry into the policy of governmental inspection of prostitutes. This

4

Lowman vs. Ballard,

N. C. ; 84 Southeastern Rep., 21.

had been tried in the "Contagious Diseases Act," which was repealed in 1886. The first report of the Commission, issued in 1914, shows that the witnesses coming before it were agreed that treatment for such diseases should be offered at all general hospitals.

The Education Committee of the London County Council reported in 1914 against making sex hygiene a class subject in elementary schools, but in favor of requiring instruction in it in normal schools for the training of teachers.

In Vermont a statute was passed in 1915, which took effect June 1, requiring physicians to report to a public official all cases treated by them of venereal disease. The name, sex, age and address of the patient must be given. Failure to report any case

is punishable by a fine of not to exceed $200.

The statute also provides for a fine or imprisonment as a penalty against any person who marries knowing that he is infected with venereal disease.

An Iowa statute for the sterilization of habitual criminals, passed in 1913, has been held unconstitutional by the United States District Court.

This law provided that the State Board of Parole should direct, after an ex parte and private hearing, the operation of vasectomy upon a prisoner who had been twice convicted of a felony. It applied to persons convicted before the passage of the act. The district judge did not regard it as an ex post facto law, but was of opinion that it presented a case of cruel and unusual punishment, was an Act of Attainder, and for want of any notice and hearing was a denial of due process of law. The circuit judge who also sat in the case, concurred on the last point, waiving the consideration of the others."

DIVORCE.

The Act of Parliament, induced by the report of the English Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce, to give the poor a better chance to get judicial relief, by cheapening legal procedure, went into effect in June, 1914. Out of the first 900 cases brought under its provisions, almost one-half were petitions for divorce."

Davis vs. Barry, 216 Fed. Rep., 413.

Report for 1914 of the National League for the Protection of the Family, 10.

CHANGES IN STATE AND CITY GOVERNMENTS BY POPUlar Vote.

The death penalty was abolished in Oregon last fall by a constitutional amendment. The total vote was over 200,000 and the majority for the amendment was only 157.

Under the system of the referendum, 29 measures were submitted to the people at the same time, all of which were rejected.

Ten propositions for amendments to the Wisconsin Constitution were defeated at the polls by large majorities, in November, 1914. These included the establishment of the initiative and referendum, the recall of officials and the extension of insurance by the state.

Missouri, in November, 1914, on a referendum to the people, abrogated a "full crew" law which had been passed by the legislature, at the instance of the railway brotherhoods.

St. Louis, on June 30, 1914, under the Home Rule statute of Missouri, adopted a new charter providing for the short ballot, the initiative, the referendum, the recall, civil service under the merit system, and public ownership of public utilities.

In August, 1914, Cleveland, Ohio, by a referendum vote, refused to repeal a provision of its charter for a non-partisan, preferential ballot. The measure was brought to a popular vote, on the initiative of the Socialist party.'

The courts have decided that a contract to organize and operate a campaign to secure a recall, under which the connection with the movement of the party making such an engagement was to be concealed, is against public policy and void.

THE DIRECT PRIMARY.

During 1915, four more states have adopted the principle of the direct primary. In two states, the dominant party has done the same. In only four is the principle now totally rejected.'

INTERNATIONAL LAW.

It is a sign of the movement towards the unification of international law for all the American nations that the American Society of International Law postponed its annual meeting this 'Am. Political Science Review, VIII, 642.

Stirtan vs. Blethen,

Wash., -; 139 Pac. Rep., 618. "Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Mexico and Utah.