GENERAL PRINCIPLES 15 



city is very likely to be arbitrary rather than rea- 

 sonable. Unfortunately, health executives are fre- 

 quent violators of this safeguard, and they are 

 impatient of any opposition. To order that all 

 the garbage for collection be placed in tightly 

 covered cans of a certain general size and char- 

 acter may be reasonable, but to specify a particu- 

 lar make of can, thus giving to that manufacturer 

 a monopoly, would be considered unreasonable. 

 In a populous city where the manure is carted 

 away for miles, and has practically no commercial 

 value, under certain circumstances the courts 

 would uphold a contract made with some man or 

 corporation by which the said man or corpora- 

 tion agrees to haul away all garbage, manure and 

 dead animals, and by which the city gives these 

 substances to the contractor. On the other hand, 

 in a small place where the garbage and manure 

 question is not important, and where the owners 

 make use of the materials upon their own places, 

 such a contract would be considered arbitrary, un- 

 reasonable and illegal. Cities in the borderland 

 between these two are the ones where the ques- 

 tion is most likely to arise, and it is here that those 

 working honestly for the common good are most 

 likely to misintei^pret the meaning of the court.- ^ 

 9. Duties and Powers Cannot Be Delegated. 

 The law makes a difference between what it calls 

 ministerial and discretionary duties and powers. 

 This distinction nins through private and public 

 life. A ministerial office or employment is one in 

 which the work is essentially largely mechanical. 

 A discretionaiy position is one which demands 



23 Public Health, 195, 259. 



