The following seems almost an impossible propaganda to come even from Germany at this time, but especially from one of the sources named. The “Pathfinders League,” of Stuttgart, we assume to be a Social (practically Soviet) organization, but the “Christian Young People’s Societies,” must be at least a quasi-religious body. A circular sent out and published by these organizations on July 22 last says:

“War is the most exalted and holiest expression of human activity. Some day the hour of battle will strike for us, too, when we, as officers, go forth against the enemy. The people, which is a minor politically, will then fall into line of itself. In the days of secret, happy expectation there then goes from heart to heart the cry: ‘With God for King and Fatherland!’ Still and deep in German hearts there must live the joy of battle and a longing for it. So, let’s laugh to scorn those old women in men’s breeches who fear war and wail that it is horrible and criminal. No and again, No! War is beautiful, and it is glorious to die for the Fatherland and the hereditary ruling house. Our great ally above will lead us splendidly.”

In New York City there is a municipal ordinance requiring landlords, who are to give tenants under a lease hot water, to furnish it or be arrested, fined and, if thought wise by the magistrate, imprisoned. Recently a landlord in the Bronx was found guilty of failure to supply hot water, and it appeared that the landlord and tenant had somehow become on unfriendly terms; that there was a special valve in the house which permitted hot water to go to one apartment and to be shut off from another; and that the landlord closed down the valve to shut off the hot water of the complaining tenant. Thirty days in prison and a fine of $250 was the penalty imposed by the Justices in Special Sessions.

Among the important decisions in the Court of Errors and Appeals in this State on Nov. 14th last was one unanimously confirming the conviction of the negro, George Washington Knight, for the murder of Mrs. Edith Marshall Wilson, the church organist at Perth Amboy, in March last, which murder the prisoner had confessed. (See N. J. L. J., April, 1921, p. 102). Although the Court was unanimous in upholding the conviction of Knight, three of the Judges, Chancellor Walker, Justice Kalisch and Judge Black, differed with the view of the majority as to the constitutionality of the Mackay Act of 1921 (Laws, Ch. 349), empowering the Court of Errors and Appeals to review the sufficiency of the evidence in criminal cases, where the defendant elects to take up the entire record. Mr. Justice Kalisch wrote a minority opinion, concurring in the affirming of the conviction but differing with the majority as to the constitutional question involved. Chief Justice Gummere, in the main opinion, said that the statute of 1921 was not novel, but is similar to an Act passed more than twenty years ago, but subsequently repealed, under which the Court of Errors set aside a conviction for murder in the first degree. The first ground of attack was that the Mackay Act violates the provisions of the Constitution relative to trial by jury, which provides that the guilt or innocence of a defendant shall be determined by an impartial jury. The Court said, however, that the question of the verdict being in accordance with the weight of the evidence cannot be raised by the State, but only by the defendant. Therefore, the Court held, the constitutional protection afforded by a jury trial is not lessened by the law under which the accused may elect to have the evidence reviewed. The Court also held that the right given the Court of Errors to order a new trial where the evidence seemed insufficient was not a novel proposition, but was rather extending to the reviewing tribunal a power now existing in the trial Court; that such an extension of power, provided it does not trespass upon the inherent powers of any other Court, is not unconstitutional. Having decided the legal questions involved, the Court reviewed the testimony upon which Knight was convicted and concluded it was sufficient to justify the jury’s verdict of murder in the first degree. Later, Mr. Justice Bergen, before whom the Knight trial was held, resentenced the prisoner to be electrocuted.

At the Convention of the Real Estate League of New Jersey in Newark recently, Mr. Frank B. Jess, of Haddon Heights, whose experience on the State Board of Taxes and Assessment has made him an authority on the subject of taxation, its inequalities and shortcomings, stated with positiveness that the personal property tax is a failure and always will be a failure. “It is obvious,” he added, “that if all the taxable property in the State should be assessed at its true value, or at a uniform percentage of true value, the burden of taxation would be apportioned with exact equality. The chief objective of the assessing system of the State, therefore, is uniformity of valuation. It would be foolish to suppose that this ideal can ever be wholly attained. But it is more foolish not to aim at its attainment. The scheme of assessment should be devised with that end in view and so framed as to facilitate its achievement. The prevailing scheme provides as many assessors as there are taxing units. Even if each assessor were an expert the grand result inevitably would be a great variety of valuations. As so many assessors are not experts the absence of uniformity is all the more conspicuous.” Mr. Jess said that each assessor or assessing body is now a separate machine, functioning independently in a particular territory. He declared that an assessor should be a part of a system having a central power plant functioning for the entire State.

After three days of argument by lawyers in the Federal case in New York City concerning the intent of and Court decisions on the Sherman law against trusts, Judge Hand imposed fines of $3,000 each on the seven corporations and ten individuals who had pleaded guilty to violating the Sherman Act. The defendants were those of the Terra Cotta Trust, and included companies in New Jersey, at Perth Amboy and Rocky Hill. Nearly at the same time Judge Van Fleet, so well known as a jurist of California, but descended from an old New York and New Jersey family, did better as to real justice with four members of the Tile and Mantel Trust, who also had pleaded guilty to violations of the Sherman law, by sentencing three of them to pay a fine of $4,000 each and to spend four months in prison, and the fourth to pay a fine of $2,000 and to spend two months in prison. There were also fines on others. The fines on all members of the combine aggregated nearly $170,000. It is clear that only by heavy fines with imprisonment added can the Sherman law against widely-extended and injurious trusts be made to act as a deterrent of such trusts in the future.