ADMINISTRATION OF IMPORTANT REGULATORY LAWS 69 



is most clearly seen. Generally, they are what may be 

 termed conditional statutes. Such statutes, says Goodnow, 

 " lay down the conditions and circumstances in which it will 

 be lawful for the administration to act, and the act of the 

 administration in enforcing them does not consist merely in 

 seeing that the laws as passed by the legislature are ex- 

 ecuted; but rather in elaborating the details as to points 

 which the legislature is unable to see, or which, if it can 

 foresee, it is unable to regulate. While the absolute uncon- 

 ditional statutes are, as a general thing,^addressed to the 

 persons subject to the obedience of the state, these condi- 

 tional stautes are rather addressed to the administrative 

 authorities and are in the nature of instructions to them 

 how to act in the general classes of cases for which provision 

 has been made. The action of the administration in the 

 case of the unconditional statute is confined simply to the 

 execution of the state will. In the case of the conditional 

 statute, the administration has not merely to execute the 

 state will ; but has as well to participate in its expression as 

 to the details which have not been regulated by the legis- 

 lature."^ 



The legislative ideal of the United States, contrary to that 

 which prevails in most European countries, has been to 

 furnish minute and detailed instructions and directions to 

 the executive. The laws have been so drawn as to leave 

 the administrative officials little or no discretion. Jealously 

 guarding their powers and prerogatives, legislators have at- 

 tempted to foresee and to provide in the wording of the 

 bills for all possible contingencies. 



So far as the national legislature is concerned, there seems 

 to be a different tendency in recent years. This tendency 

 is particularly noticeable in the exercise of what has been 

 termed the 'police power.' Either because of the tremen- 

 dous expansion of the activities of the central government in 

 this field, which has made it impossible for the legislative 



2 Goodnow, Principles of tlie Administrative Law of tlie United 

 States, p. 325. 



