Kroeger, Harry W.

English

Washington University St. Louis: Open Scholarship

Washington University Law Review Volume 22 Issue 1 December 1936 Review of “Handbook on the Law of Corporations,” By Robert Stevens Harry W. Kroeger Washington University School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview  Part of the Business Organizations Law Commons Recommended Citation Harry W. Kroeger, Review of “Handbook on the Law of Corporations,” By Robert Stevens, 22 WASH. U. L. Q. 145 (1936). Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol22/iss1/6 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Law Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact digital@wumail.wustl.edu. 144 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW QUARTERLY [Vol. 22BOOK REVIEWSNEITHER PURSE NOR SWORD. By James M. Beck and Merle Thorpe. NewYork: The Macmillan Company, 1936. pp. xiii, 210.Appearing, as it did, during an election year marked by the revival ofpolitical pamphleteering, this melancholy treatise on the decline of Amer-ican constitutional morality has been dismissed as a Republican specialpleading. But Neither Purse Nor Sword is not, in the full sense, a cam-paign document. The political doctrines expressed in its pages are far dif-ferent from those on which Candidate Landon staked his chances of elec-tion. For the late James M. Beck was no mere guardian of the status quo.Rather, his constitutional writings expressed a deep nostalgia for the statusquo ante.In his best seller, The Constitution of the United States, Mr. Beck re-served his praise for the members of the Constitutional Convention. He hadonly condemnation for the political pragmatism of contemporary politicians.Those who have seen in the New Deal the first steps in constitutional immor-ality should be aware that Mr. Beck, in 1922, was able to see heresy on themarch. In terms which would have been suited for the campaign just com-pleted, Mr. Beck at that time denounced the tendency towards submergenceof the states, the impairment of property rights by "socialistic" measures,the utilization of the commerce power for the attainment of unconstitutionalends, and, above all, the perversion of the taxing power, since the SixteenthAmendment, to redistribute wealth. But, whereas Mr. Beck's The Constitu-tion of the United States was able to command a preface written by Presi-dent Calvin Coolidge, Neither Purse Nor Sword must go without the markof executive sanction. Although Mr. Roosevelt is named only once in itspages, the implication is clear that the Chief Executive is the field marshalof the Philistines.Neither Purse Nor Sword is not, as its title might indicate, concerned al-together with the role of the Supreme Court in American constitutionalgovernment. In fact, perhaps its clearest message is that the citizen mustnot regard the Supreme Court as the omnipotent guardian of constitutionalrights but must recognize that "its moral authority still remains the bul-wark of the Union only if it is sustained by the political conscience of theindividual citizen." The chapter on the Supreme Court is a good popularstatement, done with a realism which might well have been used elsewherein the book. The authors point out, for example, that the effect of theCourt's refusal to give advisory opinions has made many of its decisionson constitutional points seem to have the effect of locking the barn afterthe theft of the horse. It is recognized, however, that the granting of advis-ory opinions by the Supreme Court might draw the Court into partycontroversies even more dramatically than at present, with the possible re-sult of undermining its moral influence.The chief items of constitutional distintegration which are singled outfor special indictment are the usual ones. Subjected to adverse criticismWashington University Open ScholarshipBOOK REVIEWSare the "centripetal tendency" towards centralization of power in Washing-ton at the expense of the States, the diminishing respect of the governmentfor property rights, the expansion of governmental functions, the incurringof vast public indebtedness, and the utilization of income taxation as ashare the wealth device. That these are not mutually exclusive items per-haps explains the undue repetition of identical material which mars theorganization of the volume.To many, however, the chief defect of Neither Purse Nor Sword will bewhat can be described as a want of realism, particularly with reference tothe super-heroic light in which the Constitutional founders are presentedand with reference to the amount of data for prophecy within their control.The most conservative economist would find a considerable understatementin such remarks as the following:"The economic problems now made the pretext for political innovationare not altogether new, although they may be somewhat different* fromthose which the builders of the Republic faced..."Neither Purse Nor Sword is frankly a popularization of the constitu-tional issue, and it makes no pretense to exhaustive scholarship. It shouldbe judged, primarily, as to its popular effectiveness. If it had little influ-ence upon the outcome of the campaign, that is not because the authorshad not done acceptably the job which they set out to do. Rather it is be-cause the political views which Mr. Beck espoused, and to which Mr. Thorperemains constant, are no longer widely entertained, even by the more con-servative elements of the American citizenry. Constantly recurring throughthe pages of this book is the widely-quoted Jeffersonian quotation: "Eternalvigilance is the price of liberty." However apt that quotation might be, itwould have been more revealing had the authors, in their preface, said withthe bard:"Come one, come all! This rock shall flyFrom its firm base as soon as I."St. Louis, Mo. HARRY WILLMER JONES.tHANDBOOK ON THE LAW OF CORPORATIONS (Hornbook Series). By RobertS. Stevens. St. Paul: West Publishing Company, 1936. pp. xvi, 946.Some subjects in the law, such as real property and contracts, changetheir pattern only slightly as the old landmarks recede through time. Othersubjects, and among them belong many phases of the law of corporations,change their aspects rapidly as new objects spring up in their landscape,partly building into and partly obscuring the landmarks of two or threedecades before. We think of the Hornbook method of treating the law asparticularly adaptable to the former class of subjects, and we approachwith a great deal of curiosity a Hornbook which would neatly categorizethe dynamic and changing principles of the law of corporations. Yet Mr.Stevens has accomplished the doubted end. A comparison of his chapters* Italics are the reviewer's.t Washington University School of Law.19361https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol22/iss1/6

Review of “Handbook on the Law of Corporations,” By Robert Stevens

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Review of “Handbook on the Law of Corporations,” By Robert Stevens

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