bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Permanent Delegations to the League of Nations
Authors: Potter Pitman B.
Published: May 2006

The student of international organization who visits the League of Nations in its home city of Geneva encounters one phenomenon associated with the organization and activity of the League which seldom receives much, if any, attention in the news of the day or in current discussions of League problems. That is the so-called Permanent Delegation to the League of Nations. As will appear, these institutions are sometimes located elsewhere than in Geneva; but most of them are located there, and it is there that their activities are most easily observable. It is proposed to describe this institution as regards its nature and its proper nomenclature, its history, its organization, its functions, and its actual and potential value for international government.

The title inscribed at the head of this paper was adopted, to speak frankly, because it had become somewhat familiar by usage, official and unofficial, and because, superficially at least, it seems to describe the institution under discussion. A little analysis, however, will reveal both its shortcomings and the difficulty of labelling, in familiar language, the phenomenon in question. Both the nature and the consequent nomenclature of the institution must be studied by reference to the formal legal status given to it by the official agencies creating and maintaining it, and also by reference to its own activities and essential character as observed in operation; the former test will be applied first and the second reverted to later.
The Treaty-Making Power in Fascist Italy
Authors: Steiner H. Arthur
Published: May 2006

Signor Mussolini's unequivocal refusal to cooperate in M. Briand's proposal of a United States of Europe and the intransigent policy adopted by Italy at the London Naval Conference of 1930 have again directed attention to the power which the Italian dictator possesses over the foreign policy of his country. The constitutional measures by which he has attained, and now holds, this power throw much light upon the Fascist régime.

In Italy, as elsewhere in Europe, the conduct of foreign policy has been vested in the executive, subject to but few constitutional limitations. However, whereas most European constitutions confer upon the legislature an ultimate control over the foreign policy of the government, this has never been the case in Italy. The Statuto of March 4, 1848, which today remains the nominal fundamental law, endowed the king with almost exclusive jurisdiction over foreign relations. It is the king who “commands all land and naval forces; declares war; makes treaties of peace, alliance, commerce, and other treaties, communicating them to the house as soon as the interest and security of the state permit,” subject only to the limitation that “treaties involving financial obligations or alterations of the territory of the state shall not have effect until after they have received the approval of the houses.” Under the system of ministerial responsibility originally established, these powers came to be exercised by the ministers, the king personally assuming the familiar position of the constitutional monarch.
Democratic Realities and Democratic Dogma
Authors: Dickinson John
Published: May 2006

Not long ago, a distinguished political scientist called attention to “the law of the pendulum” in politics. No sooner, he argued, does a broad political tendency establish itself than tendencies of opposite direction set in and gather force until the original tendency is reversed. As applied to relatively short periods of time and to movements which reflect temporary trends, a plausible case can be made out for the law of the pendulum. It seems doubtful, however, whether it can be proved with like plausibility for tendencies which are truly secular. Take as an example the steady trend toward enlarging the size of the independent political unit, or state. Since the feudal age, the tendency has run in the same direction, sometimes more slowly and sometimes more rapidly, but with seldom a check, and never a retreat, from the feudal state to the national state, from the national state to the colonial empire, and in recent years from the colonial empire toward some larger goal of world organization. Barring accidental destruction of modern machine civilization, a recurrence to a world of petty states seems unthinkable.

Whether or not the law of the pendulum applies in the world of political events, there can be no doubt of its sway over political thought. No sooner does a doctrine embody itself in an institution than it exposes its nakedness in a pillory and challenges competing dogmas to do their worst. In consequence, the history of political ideas has been a story of oscillations, of attack and repulse and counter-attack.
Pensions for Public Employees
Authors: Conover Milton
Published: May 2006

During 1918–20 twenty-four states enacted some form of pension legislation for public officials and employees. Congress established a retirement system for civil service employees. Various Canadian provinces, several British colonial governments, and a few European states legislated in favor of civil pensions.

In the United States this recent activity is the culmination of a half century of agitation, experimentation and controversy in the matter of civil pensions, whether national, state, county or municipal. Private pensions in various American industries have doubtless favorably influenced the development of government pensions.

This development has resulted in the use of many conflicting definitions of the term “pension.” Due to some aversion to that word, many confusing substitute terms have been used such as: retirement system, vocational insurance, deferred pay, indefinite leave of absence, retiring salary, graduated bonus, gratuity, annuity, superannuation allowance, service relief, old age assurance, provident fund, actuarial equivalent, and public officers' guarantee fund. As used in this article the term civil pension is intended to imply a regular allowance granted to a person for that person's maintenance or the maintenance of one or more persons dependent on the pensioner, that allowance being usually paid in consideration of the pensioner's meritorious services to the grantee; but it may be granted as a deferred wage or salary, as an annuity or as a form of regularly paid charity without reference to any consideration of gratuity, of wages, or of deferred dividends.
The British Empire and closer union
Authors: Boggs Theodore H.
Published: May 2006

Although British sentiment for several decades had been steadily growing more imperialistic, it was not until the outbreak of the war that the process was completed, and with dramatic suddenness. The “Little Englanders,” already dwindling in numbers, were confounded by the immediate and practical manifestations of colonial loyalty of which England was glad to avail herself. The murmurings of the anti-imperialist ceased in the face of such expressions of empire good-will as that contained in the message of the Canadian ministry to the British government on August 2, 1914. “If unhappily war should ensue,” ran the message, “the Canadian people will be united in a common resolve to put forth every effort and to make every sacrifice necessary to insure the integrity and to maintain the honor of our Empire.”

However, notwithstanding the impetus given by the war to the doctrines of imperialism and militarism, the believer in the principles of internationalism cannot be denied a crumb of comfort from the same event. He clings to the hope that the worldwide war, through its very enormity, will actually serve to preach peace more effectively than any pacifist can possibly do, and that international arbitration and simultaneous suppression of armaments among civilized peoples may therefore be hastened.
Nationalism and the League of Nations Today
Authors: Rappard William E.
Published: May 2006

The world today is appallingly interesting. It is interesting, because it is changing so fast. It is appalling, because almost every change we have witnessed in the course of the last years has been a change for the worse. As mankind is ever proceeding from the past, through the present, toward the future, all change may, in the purely dynamic sense of the term, be called progress. If, however, we seek to estimate the value of change in terms of human welfare, as also if we consider it in the light of the goals pursued, the most significant recent changes in the political and economic spheres are clearly reactionary.

For generations, and in some cases for centuries, ail nations within the orbit of our Western civilization have, through wars and revolutions, been striving to secure for all their members greater physical and moral security, greater political equality, greater individual freedom. Greater security—that is, more assured protection against the violence of their fellow-citizens and against the arbitrary oppression of their governments. Greater equality—that is, less discrimination on grounds of race, of sex, of religious and philosophical creed and of social position. Greater freedom—that is, more latitude for the self-expression and self-assertion of the individual in the face of the authority of tradition and of the state. Guarantees for the protection of the fundamental rights of man, the abolition of arrest without trial and of imprisonment for debt, the suppression of slavery, the extension of the suffrage to all and thereby the subordination of the government to the will of the people (that is, of the majority of all the people), parliamentary control of the budget (that is, no taxation without representation), the recognition of freedom of thought, of speech, of assembly, of the press, the independence of the judiciary and the autonomy of the university—such are some of the ideals for which our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers fought, bled, and died. Such are some of the conquests of human dignity over barbarism, of knowledge over ignorance, of right over might, which they triumphantly achieved and which they proudly bequeathed to us.
The Teaching Personnel in American Political Science Departments: A Report of the Sub-Committee on Personnel of the Committee on Policy to the American Political Science Association, 1934
Authors: Gaus John M.
Published: May 2006

The Sub-committee on Personnel of the Committee on Policy of the American Political Science Association has the function of considering and reporting on problems relating to the selection, training, and employment of men and women whose training is primarily in the field of political science, and the study of political science in the education of those to whom it should be an essential part of a training program. The fields of possible employment would seem to be the following:

1. Teaching political science in (a) universities, (b) four-year colleges, (c) junior colleges, (d) normal schools and teachers colleges separate from universities, (e) secondary schools, and (f) other institutions.

2. Research work in connection with (a) universities and other institutions of learning, (b) government departments, (c) institutes and bureaus of government research outside universities, (d) political parties, farmers organizations, trade unions, chambers of commerce, taxpayers' associations, and similar interest groups.

3. Public service such as (a) general public administration, (b) technical staff services (personnel, finance, etc.), (c) professional line services (foreign service, engineering, etc.), (d) legislative drafting and reference service.
Public Administration in the United States in 1933
Authors: Gaus John M. , White Leonard D.
Published: May 2006

The extent and variety of governmental action in the United States in 1933 invite the observer to search out those developments which are a continuation of the old, those which are novel, and those which may be termed transitional. Hence he becomes the central figure in Mr. Chesterton's game of “Bury the Prophet.”

National Governmental Functions. The shrinkage of state and local incomes from the yield of the general property taxes and the limited yields from other forms of taxation as the depression deepened left the national government as the most available instrument through which collective action could be taken.
State Legislation on Public Utilities in 1934–35
Authors: Hormell Orren C.
Published: May 2006

The trends in state public utilities legislation which were clearly discernible in 1933 continued in somewhat modified form in state legislation during the biennium 1934–35. Only a comparatively few out of the vast number of proposed utilities measures became law. The laws enacted, however, contain features which if adopted generally may have far-reaching effect upon the future of state regulation of public utilities. The intended effects of such features are: (1) to further the creation of public corporations empowered to furnish public utility services; (2) to establish a new method of utilities regulation in the form of contractual relations between the federal government or federal agencies on the one hand and public utilities corporations on the other; (3) to stimulate municipal ownership and operation of selected public utilities.
What is the Podestà?
Authors: Born Lester K.
Published: May 2006

Early in 1926, Premier Mussolini revived the long dormant office of podestà for the municipalities of Italy. Thenceforth the term has been frequently before the public. What is this office? And what is the significance of reviving a long forgotten term as its title?

Divorced from the specialized significance that it had in Italy, the term was used in many places and times, ranging from the fringe of Roman antiquity down to the present day. The word itself, of course, is nothing but the Italian form of the good classical Latin potestas, with its simple meaning of “power.” We may be inclined to believe that the use of such an abstract term to signify the officer who held the “power” in city administration is a late development; yet there is an isolated example in Juvenal (lst-2nd cent, A.D.) where such a usage occurs. Juvenal is discoursing on the vanities of human desires, and is pointing specifically to the downfall of Sejanus, when he asks, “Would you rather choose to wear the bordered robe of the man now being dragged through the streets, or to be a magistrate at (the little towns of) Fidenae or Gabii, rendering judgment on weights and measures?” Some three centuries later, Possidius, in his life of St. Augustine, uses the term in connection with the Donatist controversy.
The Measurement of Public Opinion
Authors: Lasswell Harold D.
Published: May 2006

Since the last decade has witnessed an unparalleled outlay of energy in discussing public opinion, and in inventing devices intended to add precision to the discussion, it is not untimely to take stock of our present position in the matter. If this paper can be said to support a single thesis, it is that the problem of measurement can be considered most profitably in relation to a set of nuclear concepts about public opinion. To measure is to render more precise; measuring efforts which undertake to render faulty concepts more precise are foreordained to be more precisely faulty. I shall begin by passing certain general conceptions in review, and we shall see whether the upshot warrants us in believing that we shall thereby achieve a sounder view of the measurement problem.

Political changes come to pass by unreflecting innovation, by private planning and adjustment, and by acts which involve the attention of many people at some stage of their elaboration. Much of the etiquette of public administration has come into being without anyone taking thought of it. Much has been devised by a single person, who quietly transmitted his innovation to a limited circle, and ensured its permanence. But some of the features of political life have a more extended history. Men have argued, and even bled, for national independence, for the extension of the franchise, for the devolution of authority, for the qualified independence of the judiciary.
A Theory of Conservatism
Authors: Wilson Francis D.
Published: May 2006

The conservative of today hardly knows what to conserve. His bargain with destiny seems broken, and instead of consciousness of achievement and contentment with what is, he is more likely to be filled with a sense of frustration. This frustration is an uncertain quantity with which to deal, since it is characteristically explosive and negative. Under its guidance, conservatism may become a driving force to suppress the inconsequential; it may be a force that is forgetful at the same time of fundamental changes that will undermine a way of political existence. The conservative is happiest when he is unconscious of politics, when the essential propositions of social organisation do not have to be defended. But the weakness of conservatism appears in not knowing always what are the fundamental propositions supporting its manner of living, and in inability to judge the consequences of political and economic mutation. Conservatism, however, is at least that body of social thought which does not have to be defended.

Conflict, struggle, and protest must be conscious and filled with a sense of purpose. In conflict, there is always the conscious defense of what is presumed to be an interest, and there is an attack on what others deem to be their interest. Likewise, radicalism can never be unconscious or merely habitual, for it is a protest against something that is. But it must not be forgotten that in no state of society have all interests reached an equilibrium which permits of complete coöperation and no struggle. In this sense, conservatism represents a functional value in existence, since the stability of a conservative society is a situation in which the conflict of interests and wills is muted and restricted.
The Responsibility of the Press in a Democracy
Authors: Milton George Fort
Published: May 2006

It gave me real pleasure to accept your committee's invitation to address you. As a lay member of your Association, for years I have longed for opportunity to witness the rites of your priesthood. I have taken part in some of your round-table conferences of professors and politicians. The effort made in this series to crossfertilize the knowledge of the world of research and the experience of the world of action is admirable in conception and stimulating in results. The members of this Association, by their life devotion, give indorsement to the statement of Alexander Pope that the proper study of mankind is man. And surely it is a necessary study, one all the more essential in such a fast-moving world as that we know today.

Man is a timid, staring creature. He moves through life in a mist of ignorance and fear. In thinking about his problems and his perils, I am reminded of something that Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke, wrote in his Letters on the Study of History: “We are not only passengers or sojourners in this world, but we are absolute strangers at the first steps we make in it. Our guides are often ignorant, often unfaithful … In our journey through it, we are beset on every side. We are besieged sometimes even in our strongest holds.
The Recent Movement for Better Government Personnel
Authors: Gulick Luther
Published: May 2006

Calling for the final abolition of the spoils system through the substitution of career service, Franklin D. Roosevelt has come forward with the boldest, the most courageous, and the most constructive step in his career. This program is part of his plan for the reorganization of the administrative structure and the fiscal controls of the government. There may be minor debatable issues. However, the comprehensive program is a weaving together of the best constructive thought of the past generation with regard to American government.
Campaign Funds in the Presidential Election of 1936
Authors: Overacker Louise
Published: May 2006

A study of the financing of the 1936 campaign is particularly interesting since it may show what, if any, effect the “New Deal” program has had upon political alignments. Eventually, any radical shift in the support of a political party must be reflected in the sources from which it draws its campaign funds.

In 1928, both major parties depended largely upon bankers and manufacturers for their contributions, although the Republicans received a larger proportion of their fund from manufacturers than did their rivals. In 1932, although the proportion of the Democratic fund coming from manufacturers dropped appreciably, Roosevelt's promises of a New Deal had no apparent effect upon the support of the bankers, who contributed as heavily as in 1928.
Constitutional Law in 1939–1940: The Constitutional Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in the October Term, 1939
Authors: Cushman Robert E.
Published: May 2006

During the 1939 term, President Roosevelt made his fifth appointment to the Supreme Court. Mr. Justice Butler died on November 16, 1939. Attorney-General Frank Murphy was appointed to this vacancy and took his seat on February 5, 1940. Presidents Lincoln and Taft also appointed five members of the Court; only President Washington and President Jackson appointed more than five. By his policy of choosing younger men, President Roosevelt reduced the average age of the members of the Court from seventy-two to sixty-one in less than three years. This change is important because it brings to the work of the Court younger and more vigorous men; it is also important because it extends the President's influence, through his appointment of justices, over a much longer period of time. It seems probable that we shall have a “Roosevelt Court” for many years to come.
Teaching Political Science in a World at War
Authors: Wilcox Francis O.
Published: May 2006

Writing in the October Atlantic Monthly, Paul P. Cram insists that “the task of our teachers at the present moment is one of the most terrible responsibilities in modern times.” In less troubled eras, some of us would probably reply that teachers have little influence over college students, who are more interested in sex, football, and liquor than in democracy and war and peace. But Bismarck declared that the German history professor had more to do with winning the Franco-Prussian war than any other group in the Fatherland with the exception of the German High Command. And the fate of France demonstrates with terrible clarity the misfortune that may befall a nation if its people are mentally unprepared to meet existing emergencies.
Some Problems of Military Government
Authors: Davidonis A. C.
Published: May 2006

The United States Army officially defines military government as “that form of government which is established and maintained by a belligerent by force of arms over occupied territory of the enemy and over the inhabitants thereof.” “It is a government imposed by force and the legality of its acts is determined by the laws of war.” An application of this definition in the formulation of an adequate and enlightened civil affairs policy brings many difficult problems in its train, and particularly is this true in the modern, complex organization of society and warfare.

Thrown into prominence by the war, such problems of military government at present occupy the attention not only of American political and military authorities, but also of numerous scholars and publicists. That the latter should display so keen an interest in what is apparently a strictly military matter is a sign of the growing realization that solution of the problems of military government is vital for the successful prosecution of the war and for establishing the conditions which will make possible an equitable peace settlement. American public opinion, to some extent led and moulded by scholars and publicists, is unmistakably concerned with civil affairs administration of allied occupied territories across the sea and with plans for those yet to be occupied.
From Philadelphia to Philadelphia
Authors: Powell Thomas Reed
Published: May 2006

From Philadelphia in 1787 to Philadelphia in 1937 our minds turn back and forth tonight, to pay tribute to the constitutional contributions of the Fathers and to inquire into the constitutional conduct of some of their sons. If we praise the Fathers as hard-headed realists, we may invoke their example to justify a propensity for realism among ourselves. They were creators. We seek to be scholars. Their aim was to build; ours is to understand and to evaluate. Toward them and their building we may bow in deep piety, but without obligation to let awe or reverence obscure our glance at the work of their successors.

Happily, too, our piety need not dim our eyes in looking at the work of the Fathers. Without falsity of fact or of sentiment, we may appraise their achievement. We need not think of them as demigods or as men who met to lay their fortunes on the altar of their country. We can accept to the full the view that their design was to create a government that would serve the interests they had most at heart. If they assumed that what would be best for themselves would be best also for the general good, in this they were not unique. Even today, men sometimes fuse the special and the general, as perhaps some papers on our program may prove.

Man need not be noble to be wise, unwise as it may be in the long run not to be noble. The advancement of special interests may at a given time conduce greatly to a wide general interest. The wisdom of the achievement of 1787 may be assessed by an evaluation of results without inquiring whether it was the fruit of sacrifice. The results, of course, may be overestimated.
The Nature of Political Representation, I
Authors: Fairlie John A.
Published: May 2006

Much has been written on the origin, development, and characteristics of representative government; and in recent years there has been a revival of interest in this subject, and a further analysis of the evidence and criticism of views formerly accepted. In this extensive literature, considerable attention has been given to the nature of political representation and representative government, and to the relation between the representative and his constituents, with important differences in the definitions and meanings ascribed to these terms. Many writers have assumed that their views on these matters are the only correct statements; but some of the more recent writers have recognized, to some extent, the need for a closer analysis of the different senses in which these terms may be employed. An examination of different views may be of service in leading to a clearer understanding of the problems involved.

Etymologically, the literal meaning of represent is to “present again,” and from this it has come to mean to appear in place of another. In this secondary sense, a representative has been defined as “an agent, deputy, or substitute, who supplies the place of another or others.”
The Report of New Jersey's Constitutional Commission
Authors: Miller William
Published: May 2006

The Report of the Commission on Revision of the New Jersey Constitution (Trenton: May, 1942, 59 pp.), as conditioned by the peculiarities of the state's governmental environment, is conventional in philosophy but unique in many particulars. It recommends a new state constitution, which is set forth in full—a proposed constitution relatively short, and showing some rigidity in legislative organization and procedure, but ample flexibility in its executive and judicial provisions.

The two outstanding characteristics of the proposed new constitution are its pronounced emphasis, first, upon positive restriction of the legislature to policy-making functions, and second, upon the identification of administrative responsibility through appropriate structural organization. Judicial reform has been the motivation for constitutional revision in New Jersey for over fifty years, and in recognition, the new document supplies
a complete reorganization of the judicial system.
Institutionalizing Administrative Controls
Authors: Pinney Harvey
Published: May 2006

An institution is an action pattern, a social complex of interrelated habits. Members of an institution occupy habitual positions in relation to other members. The conduct of each individual moves in repetitious patterns governed, by that individual's positional relationships in the institution and by the total action pattern of the institution. These positions are defined in the organizational structure of the institution; they evolve, grow, reach an established routine as the institution becomes a stabilized pattern of social action.

An institution may have a formally integrated structure and may be in continuous activity—like a given church; or it may be a contingent pattern of action invoked only on the occurrence of specific events—as marriage or portions of the law. Administration involves both types of institution, but the most frequently observed and commonly studied is the formal structural organization.

The administration as a whole (of the Federal Government, for example), or of any well defined unit of it (as a department or independent agency), may be looked upon as an institution. In general, the form is hierarchical, necessitated by the division of labor involved, the requirements of supervision and coördination, the necessity for authority and direction. As a going concern, the administrative unit has daily, monthly, yearly patterns of action. The effectiveness with which the unit achieves its objectives depends upon the appropriateness of its organization to the functions required of it, the perfection with which its various elements are integrated into a smooth-running going concern.
Citizenship Education and the Colleges
Authors: Walker Robert A.
Published: May 2006

One of the happier educational products of the war was the widespread self-examination it encouraged among American colleges. With the wartime slump in enrollments, those members of the faculty who remained on the campus were commonly given the task of planning the postwar educational programs of their respective institutions. We are now in that postwar period, and much of this admirable effort has been dropped to grapple with the heavy enrollments the schools were presumably planning to meet. But in many schools, whether the curricula underwent any major operations or not, there remains a ferment of doubt and argument over the adequacy of what they are doing.

This ferment is not likely to die out soon. Colleges which brushed aside the polemics of Mr. Hutchins at Chicago a decade ago are still agitated by the Harvard Report on General Education. Harvard, like the College of the University of Chicago, is proceeding to make major departures from the prevailing practices of American colleges. Columbia College has paced the adoption of integrated courses in Western Civilization. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, guiding light of American technical schools, has discovered that engineers should also be liberally educated men and has made curricular changes designed to do something about it. The University of Florida and Michigan State College have moved sharply in the same direction, more or less independently, by creating basic colleges through which all would-be technicians and specialists must percolate before burying themselves in their chosen profession. Other schools are instituting comprehensive courses, tightening up the elective system, and otherwise taking steps to insure that general education is not lost in the scramble to prepare for a job.
VI. Private Enterprise and Full Employment
Authors: Flanders Ralph E.
Published: May 2006

In this country, we are in general agreement that high-level production and employment should be sought for in the framework of a private-enterprise economy. This is specifically acknowledged in the “Full Employment Act” now before Congress, which said in its earliest version under Sec. 2(a): “It is the policy of the United States to foster free competitive enterprise and the investment of private capital in trade and commerce and in the development of the natural resources of the United States.” Declarations to a similar effect are to be found in other parts of the bill.

At the present writing, the bill is not yet law, and in what form it may emerge for final vote, if it does emerge, is not clear. There will doubtless be a considerable number of changes, some of them important, but it is not probable that major dependence will be asserted on anything except private enterprise. This position is not merely that reflected in the pending legislation. It accords also with the belief and practice of an overwhelming majority of the people of the country, as is evidenced by political action and by popular polls. Thus we face no practical necessity for defending private enterprise as compared with other forms of economic and political organization.
Law and Obedience
Authors: Shepard Max A.
Published: May 2006

He who hungers for an easy formula, resolving all doubts as to “What is law?,” is advised to lay aside this article. I deal in no such magic. For law, even though it is the great principle of order in life, must inevitably share in the uncertainties and paradoxes of the fluid reality it partially canalizes. Indeed—and perhaps better stated—law is merely a specially differentiated phase of life, a type of group activity. The problem of law's nature is tremendously complex, and if a few categories and definitions are here hesitatingly advanced, that is because no analysis is possible otherwise. They are not improvised to avoid examination of the tangled tissue of relationships they attempt to describe. Law I define as those rules of conduct which are generally obeyed. General obedience is a consensus within a given community in support of its rules. In Bentley's terms, the phrase “general obedience” looks at the phenomena as group activity, the phrase “consensus” as opinion activity. Despite the obvious ambiguity of these terms, the reader is requested to quiet his impatience. I may succeed in partially elucidating their meaning.
The United States Supreme Court, 1936–1946
Authors: Dodd Walter F.
Published: May 2006

In order to analyze the trend of the United States Supreme Court from the beginning of its 1936 term in October, 1936, to the end of the 1945 term in June, 1946, it is first necessary to state the situation at the beginning of this period.

Before the pressure of our last great depression, the United States Supreme Court had found restrictions to exist upon the powers of the national government, and had found barriers against governmental power, both national and state. These barriers were found primarily in a small number of cases: Ribnik v. McBride, 277 U. S. 350 (1928), which restricted price regulation; Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U. S. 251 (1923), in which federal power was held not to extend to the shipment of child-made goods in interstate commerce; Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 261 U. S. 525 (1923), in which it was held that a statutory regulation of minimum wages for women was violative of due process of law; Adair v. United States, 208 U. S. 161 (1908) and Coppage v. Kansas, 236 U. S. 1 (1915), which sustained the so-called “yellow-dog” contract, and held that it was unconstitutional for either state or nation to forbid the employer's contracting that his employees should not belong to unions.

These opinions have now been overruled or explicitly disregarded and the Court has expressed the further opinions that state powers in no way restrict the powers granted to the nation; and that the national power to spend for the “general welfare of the United States” is not limited by the direct grants of legislative power found in the Constitution.
Recent Japanese Political and Historical Materials
Authors: Brown Delmer M.
Published: May 2006

Historians and political scientists are frequently handicapped in analyzing the contemporary scene, or a recent period, by lack of documentary evidence. The Pacific war, however, has created a unique situation regarding Japanese political and economic documents giving authoritative evidence of Japanese affairs during the two decades prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result of military defeat, the Japanese government and people have been forced to submit to the occupation authorities thousands of documents which otherwise might never have been made available for research purposes. The total sum of this material is so great that significant research work is now possible in many fields of recent Japanese government, politics, and diplomacy.

Soon after the beginning of the occupation, military teams were assigned the task of collecting documents. Their instructions were broad, and their haul was unbelievable. A large part of what they, and other agencies, have accumulated is still in the hands of the occupation forces, but two categories of materials are already available for private research: the documents assembled for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) and the Japanese Army and Navy department files which have been deposited in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. In this paper, an attempt will be made to survey the nature and scope of the first category: the IMTFE materials.
The British Cabinet and the Ministry of Defense
Authors: Jordan Henry Donaldson
Published: May 2006

The announcement in October, 1946, that in future a single Minister of Defense will sit in the British cabinet, and that the ministers of the three armed services will no longer be of cabinet rank, marks the culmination of a long and important trend in Britain's governmental organization. It is also of interest as the present British answer to advocates of a merger of the Navy, Army, and Air Force. To see the full meaning of this step, it is necessary to refer to two closely related problems of long standing: the question of the size of the cabinet and that of what is broadly known as imperial defense.

From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the British cabinet, originally ten or eleven in number, increased to about fourteen or fifteen in the 1870's and 1880's. By the end of the century, however, increase of governmental services and multiplication of departments raised the normal size of cabinets to nineteen or twenty, and after the first World War to twenty or even twenty-two. Since the cabinet as such functions as a committee, it has been frequently pointed out that the present size is too large for prompt and decisive deliberation; and the experience of two great wars has shown without question that large-scale planning and the coördination of the innumerable interlocking aspects of a national war effort require a much smaller and more cohesive group. The existence around the premier of an inner circle of three or four ministers, among whom many of the most important decisions are made, is as old as cabinet government, but cannot be satisfactory for modern needs.
Running for the City Council: a Case Study
Authors: Bromage Arthur W.
Published: May 2006

“So you want to be a politician,” my friend said, with a slight lift to the eyebrows. Others wanted to know what the goal was. Running for alderman in ward politics and a partisan campaign must be a training ground for some coveted objective in the state legislature or Congress. You don't just want to be an alderman, some queried. “Starting pretty low down,” was another leading remark. All these and many more comments intrigued me, for they spelled out something or other about the prestige of local government in a day of Big Government at the federal level, or any level other than a municipality of 40,000 population. My answer to all this was that, after twenty years of residence in one community, a professor of municipal government could hardly avoid grubbing around in politics at the level of local self-government. I hoped to become an alderman—period.

I soon learned to parry the pleasant “hazing” remarks made to all prospective ward “politicians.” “Kissed any babies today, Alderman?” “Where are the cigars?” “How's ward-heeling today?” “I'll vote for you, if—.” “How is door-bell ringing?” Most of these remarks prompted the unspoken remark: “When you say those words, sir, smile.” You will notice that I said unspoken.
County and Township Government in 1940
Authors: Snider Clyde F.
Published: May 2006

In times of national or international stress, public attention tends to become focused upon spectacular events transpiring in the nation's capital or chief cities, with little interest displayed in the more prosaic affairs of rural local government. As a consequence, normal progress in rural institutions and activities is likely to be retarded. During 1940, with but few state legislatures in session and popular interest diverted to other fields, little that was distinctly novel occurred in the field of American county and township government. The rural units seemed, in a sense, to be marking time while the national government, and, to a lesser degree, states and cities, concentrated upon various phases of the national defense program. Yet certain developments took place during the year which, if not extraordinary, were nevertheless significant. As in former years, events will be summarized under the following headings: (1) areas; (2) organization and personnel; (3) functions; (4) finance; (5) optional charters; and (6) intergovernmental relations.
The American Tradition of Empirical Collectivism
Authors: Shields Currin V.
Published: May 2006

About the American tradition of individualism much has been said and written—so much, indeed, that this country has come to be regarded as the stronghold of individualism. That the ideal of the free individual has long pervaded American thought cannot, of course, be denied. Yet while it is true that this tradition is clearly discernible throughout American political development, its role has been grossly exaggerated. Along with individualism there has existed in America, from the earliest days of colonization, an equally strong and an equally significant collectivist tradition. The New Deal and its presumptive successor, the Fair Deal, regarded by so many as new and dangerous departures, actually are like their predecessors, the Square Deal and the New Freedom, the Granger and the Populist movements, merely episodes in the development of a venerable American tradition of collectivism.
The Group Basis of Politics: Notes for a Theory
Authors: Latham Earl
Published: May 2006

The chief social values cherished by individuals in modern society are realized through groups. These groupings may be simple in structure, unicellular, so to speak, like a juvenile gang. Or they may be intricate meshes of associated, federated, combined, consolidated, merged, or amalgamated units and subunits of organization, fitted together to perform the divided and assigned parts of a common purpose to which the components are dedicated. They may operate out of the direct public gaze like religious organizations, which tend to have a low degree of visibility. Or they may, like Congress and many other official groups, occupy the front pages for weeks at a time. National organizations are usually conspicuous; indeed, so much is this so at times that they tend to divert the eye from the great number of groups which stand at the elbow of the citizen of every small town. Everywhere groups abound, and they may be examined at close range and from afar.

The literature of many disciplines agrees, as it does sometimes in little else, on the central importance of groups to an understanding of men in their relations with each other.
Political Activity of American Citizens
Authors: Woodward Julian L. , Roper Elmo
Published: May 2006

The aim of this paper is to make a modest contribution toward improved understanding of how the political process actually operates in America. It reports the results of some research on individual citizen participation in political activity and describes a tool that may be used for classifying individuals in terms of the amount of political activity in which they engage. Finally it outlines some differences that are observed when attitudes with respect to some public personalities and issues held by the politically active portion of the citizenry are compared with attitudes of the politically inert.

The research study from which the data reported here are derived is one of a long series carried out over the past five years for the Public Relations Department of the Standard Oil Company (N. J.). The primary purpose of these studies has been to find out how the company stands with the American public —to learn what virtues people credit to it and what sins they think it is committing. Research on such topics inevitably involves the question of who among the vast body of American citizens are most articulate in their feelings about big corporations and most concerned to defend or attack them. Since similar questions arise whenever the citizen's role with respect to any public issue comes up, the tools developed for corporation public relations may have much wider applicability and usefulness.
Political Issues and the Vote: November, 1952
Authors: Campbell Angus , Gurin Gerald , Miller Warren E.
Published: May 2006

In March, 1952 the Carnegie Corporation made available to the Social Science Research Council a research grant to support a major study of factors influencing the popular vote in the 1952 presidential election. Under the sponsorship of the Council's Committee on Political Behavior this project is currently being carried out by the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan.

The study was developed around six major objectives:

1. To identify the voters and non-voters, Republicans and Democrats, within four major geographical areas, in regard to

a. socio-economic characteristics;

b. attitudes and opinions on political issues;

c. perceptions of the parties and the candidates.

2. To compare these groups to the corresponding groups in the 1948 presidential election.

3. To trace the resolution of the vote with particular attention to the undecided and changing voters.

4. To study the impact of the activities of the major parties on the population.

5. To analyze the nature and correlates of political party identification.

6. To analyze the nature and correlates of political participation.
The Independent Vote: Measurement, Characteristics, and Implications for Party Strategy
Authors: Eldersveld Samuel J.
Published: May 2006

The problem of inconstancy in party affiliation has generated occasional research interest for a half-century now. We still know very little about the political behavior of that segment of the electorate which presumably is highly irregular in party allegiance. We have a penchant, however, for generalizing about the extent of independent voting, the characteristics of the independents, and, particularly, the significance of the independent vote for campaign strategy and the political system. Today, with another national election approaching, a summary of the status of our research and the presentation of new findings may be in order.