Eastern Mercantile & Collection Association, 1112 Superior Ave., N. E., Cleveland, Ohio.-Ohio Pottery & Glass Company. A division of fees is asked. The Federal Collection Association, Iowa City, Iowa.-Puritan Manufacturing Company, Iowa City. Ask attorneys to collect claims on a 6 2/3 per cent commission. Federal Collection & Reporting Agency, 1740 St. Albin Ave., Detroit, Mich.Acme White Lead & Color Works. Fidelity Adjustment Association, Atlanta, Gn.-D. Appleton Company's Atlanta Office (Atlanta Press). A division of fees is asked. C. W. Fitch, 117 Washington Ave., St. Louis, Mo.-Norvell-Shapleigh Hardware Co. A division of fees is asked. J. P. Fox, Marquette Building, Chicago, Ill.-Western Newspaper Association. A division of fees is asked. A George Collection Agency of Cleveland, Ohio.-Monitor Oil Company. division of fees is asked. The D. H. Gould Company, Mercantile Credit & Protective Bureau, Lock Box 218, Chicago, Ill.-United States Coffee Importing Company. A division of fees is asked. Guarantee Collection Company, Denver, Colo.-Morse Brothers Machinery & Supply Company, Denver. Hoffman Mercantile Agency, Chicago. -J. L. Taylor & Company, Tailors to the Trade, 319 W. Van Buren St. A division of fees is asked. International Credit Bureau, Grand Rapids, Mich.-Wolverine Brass Works. International Law & Collection Agency, 128 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa-Pratt Food Company. A division of fees is asked. Interstate Reporting Company, L. K. Cornell & Co., Chicago, Ill.-Hartman Furniture & Carpet Company. Interstate & Dominion Collection Agency, Louisville, Ky. Collier's Weekly. Jobbers' Collection Agency, Minucapolis, Minn. Western Manufacturing Company. A division of fees is asked. Keystone Mercantile Agency, Joseph Meyer, Gen. Counsel, Chicago and New York. Great Western Tailoring Company. Manufacturers' Protective Association of Cleveland, Ohio.-Hascall Paint Company. A division of fees is asked. Mayfield Adjustment & Collection Agency, Mayfield, Ky.-May Pants Company. A division of fees is asked. Andrew A. Martin, Republic Building, Chicago, Ill.-American Slicing Machine Company. A division of fees is asked. Merchants' Protective & Collection Agency of Akron, Ohio.-The Werner Company. A division of fees is asked. Mercantile Law & Collection Agency of Omaha, Neb.-Omaha Hotel Supply Company. Minnesota Collection Association, St. Paul, Minn.-L. L. May & Company, Wholesale Seedsmen. National Collection Association of Cleveland.-Eclipse Paint Manufacturing Company. National Collection Company, 185 Second St., Milwaukee, Wis.-Wilbur Stock Food Company; Wilbur Seed Meal Company. A division of fees is asked. National Collection Agency, Stock Yards Station, Chicago, Ill.-Pioneer Fertilizer Company. National Security & Credit Company of Baltimore, Md.-Schloss Brothers & Company. A division of fees is asked. National Commercial Agency of East Liverpool, Ohio.-Globe Pottery Company. A division of fees is asked. National Merchants' & Manufacturers' Co-Operative Credit Association, Savannah, Ga.-Savannah Woodenware Company. Newell Mercantile Agency, Buffalo, N. Y.-Oxygenator Company. M. R. Osburn, 350 Franklin St., Chicago.-J. B. Clow & Sons. A division of fees is asked. Phoenix Collection Agency of New York City.-Theo. Audel & Company. Warren B. Place, 240 W. 37th St., New York City.-McCall Company. division of fees is asked. A J. E. Price, Anderson, Ind.—Anderson Tool Company. Provisioners' Collection Agency, So. Omaha, Neb. (formerly the Packers' Collection Agency).-Cudahy Packing Company. A division of fees is asked. Queen City Collection Agency of Cincinnati, Ohio.-Cincinnati Glass & China Company. A division of fees is asked. Herbert W. Reeder, 234 Rush St., AlHance, Ohio.-McCaskey Register Ćompany. A division of fees is asked. Reynolds Collection Agency, Detroit, Mich.-R. L. Polk & Company. George H. Schneider, 11 E. 24th St., New York City.-George E. Powell Advertising Agency. Standard Law & Collection Agency, Iowa City, Iowa.-W. F. Main & Company. Trade Mercautile Agency, 303 Quincy St., Chiengo, III.—International Tailoring Company. United Manufacturers & Jobbers' Collection Agency, Detroit, Mich.-Detroit Tobacco Company, 126 Lyman Place, Detroit. United Mercantile Agency, Ft. Wayne, Ind.-S. F. Bowser & Company. United Merchants' Collection Agency, P. 0. Box 789, Chicago, Ill.-Chicago Daily News, Victor F. Lawson, Publisher. A division of fees is asked. United States Collection Agency, Harvard, Ill.-Hunt, Helm & Ferris. division of fees is asked. A Universal Mercantile Credit Reporting Company, Chicago, Ill. and the National Legal Service Company, Chicago, III.-Spiegel-May Stern Company of Chicago. LOUSE AGENCY COMMITTEE. ALBERT J. WALKER, Chairman (Morris, Walker & Allen), Pittsburg, Pa.; JOHN B. EDWARDS (Abbott, Edwards & Wilson), St. Louis, Mo.; CURTIS N. ANDERSON, Atlanta, Ga.; HARRY KATZ, New York, N. Y.; WILLARD P. SMITH, San Francisco, Cal. MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE. JOHN W. CAMPBELL, Chairman (Credit Clearing House), New York, N. Y. COMMITTEE TO CONFER WITH THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCIAL LAW OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION. W. O. HART, Chairman (Dinkelspiel, Hart & Davey), New Orleans, La.; W. M. CROOK (Crook, Lord, Lawhon & Ney), Beaumont, Texas; F. M. SIMONTON, Tampa, Fla.; T. M. MORDECAI (Mordecai & Gadsden, Rutledge & Hagood), Charleston, S. C.; JOSEPH MADDEN, Keen, N. H. LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE. A. V. CANNON, Chairman (White, Johnson & Cannon), Cleveland, O. FINANCE COMMITTEE. ALBERT N. EASTMAN, Chairman, (Eastman & White), Chicago, Ill.; A. C. FORDHAM (Howe & Fordham), Chicago, Ill.; FREDERICK A. BROWN (Brown & Ewen), Chicago, Ill. UNIFORM RATE COMMITTEE. THADDEUS O. BUNCH, Chairman (Hiner, Bunch & Latimer), Chicago, Ill.; E. J. THILBARGER (Thilbarger & Duffey), New Orleans, La.; ISIDORE FEIBLEMAN (Bamberger & Feibleman), Indianapolis, Ind.; LOUIS B. HALL, Toledo, O.; ISAAC ADLER (Adler & Adler), Rochester, N. Y. . MEMORIAL COMMITTEE. HENRY G. W. DINKELSPIEL, Chairman, San Francisco, Cal.; HARRY L. KECK, Green-. ville, Pa.; EDGAR B. STEWART, Morgantown, W. Va. PRESS COMMITTEE. E. C. FERGUSON, Chairman (Ferguson & Goodnow), Chicago, Ill.; GEORGE WENTWORTH CARR (Carr, Boggs & Steinmetz), Philadelphia, Pa.; CHARLES R. MILLER (Weed, Miller & Rothenberg), Cleveland, O. UNFAIR FORWARDERS COMMITTEE. WILLIAM G. BRYANT, Chairman (Cl Lockwood, Bryant & Klein), Detroit, Mich. HOWARD MILLIKEN (Johnson & Milliken), Baltimore, Md.; A. R. MEMHARD (James Schell & Elkus), New York City; W. B. PADDOCK, Fort Worth, Tex.; HARRY S. KNIGHT, Sunbury, Pa. ERNEST L. KREAMER, SECRETARY, 108 So. LA SALLE STREET, CHICAGO, ILL. ANTLERS HOTEL, COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO., HEADQUARTERS EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION, JULY 23, 24, 25, 1912. THE BULLETIN OF THE COMMERCIAL LAW LEAGUE OF AMERICA Published Monthly by COMMERCIAL LAW LEAGUE OF AMERICA, 108 So. La Salle St., Chicago, III. Entered as second-class matter, September 12, 1910, at the post-office at Chicago, Illinois, Volume XVII. MAY, 1912. THE NEW DESPOTISM. Number 5 [An address before the New York County Lawyers' Association, at its annual banquet, February 17, 1912. By Wendell Phillips Stafford, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.] We have built our institutions on the proposition that the people have the right to rule. Their will is made known through the suffrage. And when opinions differ, as they usually do, the majority must govern. But that is not the whole of the proposition. If it were, there would be no safeguard whatever for the rights of the minority. The majority might appropriate their property. It might reduce them to slavery. It might even take away their lives. The proposition takes for granted, then, certain guaranties for the protection of the minority. And what are these? They are those elementary rights which no majority, however large, may ever violate. They have been recognized in constitutions and bills of rights, but they were not created by them. They inhere in free government itself, for human freedom is impossible without them. Among these rights there is none more important than this, that no citizen shall be deprived of his liberty or property except by the judgment of the law, and after a trial before an independent and impartial tribunal. We have now come to the keystone of the arch. It is this: The majority of the legal voters can not constitute itself this tribunal. If it can, it still holds the property and lives of the minority in its hands, subject to its mere will and pleasure, for there is no one who can call it to account. The cases that may come before the tribunal are of two classes. First, those between individuals merely. Second, those in which one of the parties is, in fact, if not in name, the people themselves, or the popular majority. By far the most important and most trying cases will be those of the second class, in which it is contended that some fundamental right of the individual or the minority is being violated. The violation will be attempted under the form of law, and thus the real party upon one side is the people, or the popular majority, whose will has here found expression in the form of law. In such cases how is the inde |