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 misinterpret the meaning of the court.?* 
§. Duties and Powers Cannot Be Delegated. 
The law makes a difference between what it calls 
ministerial and discretionary duties and powers. 
This distinction runs through private and public 
life. A ministerial office or employment is one in 
which the work is essentially largely mechanical. 
A discretionary position is one which demands 
23 Purtic Heauru, 195, 259, 
