474 LAW, CONSTITUTIONAL. 



LIBRARY ECONOMY. 



another, and may reduce the price of an Article of food 

 for the human race ? 



Measures of this kind are dangerous, even to their 

 promoters. If the argument of the respondents in 

 support of the absolute power of the Legislature to 

 prohibit one branch of industry for the purpose of 

 protecting another with which it competes can be sus- 

 tained, wny could not the oleomargarine manufactur- 

 ers, should they obtain sufficient power to influence 

 or control the legislative councils, prohibit the manu- 

 facture or sale of dairy products? Would arguments 

 then be found wanting to demonstrate the invalidity 

 under the Constitution of such an act ? The principle 

 is the same in both cases. The numbers engaged upon 

 each side of the controversy can not influence the ques- 

 tion here. Equal rights to all are what are intended 

 to be secured by the establishment of constitutional 

 limits to legislative power, and impartial tribunals to 

 enforce them. 



Illustrations might be indefinitely multiplied of the 

 evils which would result from legislation which should 

 exclude one class of citizens from industries, lawful 

 in other respects, in order to protect another class 

 against competition. We can not doubt that such legis- 

 lation is violatiye of the letter as well as of the spirit 

 of the constitutional provisions before referred to, nor 

 that such is the character of the enactment under 

 which the appellant was convicted. 



The opinion of the Court was written by 

 Judge Rapallo; all the other judges concurred 

 in it. The Jacobs case, cited above, was that 

 in which this same court declared the tene- 

 ment-house cigar law unconstitutional. (For 

 the opinion in that case, see the "Annual Cy- 

 clopedia " for 1884, page 431.) 



Constitutionality of State Civil-Service Law. In 

 February, 1885. the Massachusetts House of 

 Representatives asked the Supreme Court of 

 that State for its opinion on the question 

 whether the civil-service law passed by the 

 Legislature in 1384 was constitutional. The 

 act provided for the appointment of com- 

 missioners to make rules for the selection of 

 persons to fill appointive State and municipal 

 offices. The rules were subject to the approval 

 of the Governor and Council. They were re- 

 quired to be "not inconsistent with existing 

 laws or with the provisions of this act." The 

 commissioners were authorized to make sepa- 

 rate rules for the city of Boston, and to super- 

 vise the administration of these and all other 

 rules made by them. 



The Court gave an opinion sustaining the 

 act. It pointed out that the State Constitu- 

 tion, in the fourth article of the first chapter 

 of ''The Frame of Government," confers 

 upon the Legislature full power and authority 

 to make all manner of wholesome and reason- 

 able laws not repugnant to its provisions, to 

 provide for the naming and settling of all civil 

 officers not provided for in the Constitution, 

 and to set forth the duties, powers, and limits 

 of such officers. In the exercise of this power 

 the Legislature has the right to prescribe the 

 qualifications of all officers and servants of 

 the public not provided for in the Constitu- 

 tion. " From the nature of the case, the duty 

 of determining and ascertaining the qualifica- 

 tions of such officers and servants can not be 

 performed directly by the Legislature, but 



must be delegated to some officers or agents, 

 It has been the constant and necessary prac- 

 tice of the Legislature to confer the power 

 of appointing such subordinate officers and 

 servants upon some superior officers of the 

 State, or upon the authorities of the cities or 

 towns, leaving the question of the qualifica- 

 tions of the persons to be appointed entirely 

 to the discretion of the appointing power. 

 The Legislature has the right to provide for 

 the appointment of civil-service commission- 

 ers, and to delegate to them the power to 

 make rules, not inconsistent with existing 

 laws, to guide and control their discretion and 

 the discretion of the officers of the State or 

 of the cities in whom the appointing power is 

 vested. This is not a delegation of the power 

 to enact laws ; it is merely a delegation of ad- 

 ministrative powers and duties, and there is 

 no provision of the Constitution which pre- 

 vents the Legislature from enacting that such 

 rules, when duly made, shall be binding upon 

 the officers and citizens to whom they apply, 

 and that they may be enforced by suitable 

 penalties. 



" The provision of the fourteenth section of 

 the statute that the rules ' may be given a gen- 

 eral or a limited application,' is not open lo any 

 constitutional objection. The power of the 

 Legislature to make or to authorize local laws 

 for the administration of local affairs is be- 

 yond question. It has the right to make local 

 laws to meet the peculiar exigencies of any 

 part of the community. The qualifications 

 required to fill an office in one place may be 

 different from those required for a similar 

 office in other places, and different rules of 

 examination may be required. We have no 

 doubt that the Legislature, or the commission- 

 ers acting under its authority, can make valid 

 rules for the city of Boston different from 

 those which are found to be reasonable and 

 wise in other localities." 



LIBRARY ECONOB1I AND STATISTICS. Previ- 

 ous to the publication by the Bureau of Edu- 

 cation at Washington, in 1876, of the special 

 report on "Public Libraries in the United 

 States, their History, Condition, and Manage- 

 ment," comparatively little information about 

 these institutions was accessible. Beginning 

 with 1870 the annual reports of the bureau 

 contained such statistics as could be gathered 

 from the libraries of the educational institu- 

 tions coming within the scope of its regular 

 work, and also from a few public libraries; as 

 the returns from the latter increased in num- 

 ber, and the statistics became more complete, 

 a widely extended interest in the subject be- 

 came manifest from the numerous requests re- 

 ceived by the bureau for " advice and informa- 

 tion on the subject of library economy and 

 administration." The report for 1871 con- 

 tained a list of 180 public libraries; that for 

 1872 a list of 1,080 libraries of 1,000 volumes 

 or over, each. The unexampled increase in 

 the number of new libraries established, and 



