Since the war had necessitated resort to technical experts in the economic services of the French government, it was natural that after the armistice there should have been talk in various quarters of some sort of functional representation to meet post-war problems. Some suggested the development of the regional economic councils brought into being in 1917, while the Action Francaise was for setting up what was dubbed a new estates general. It was, however, the General Confederation of Labor (the C. G. T.) under the leadership of M. Jouhaux, which not only came forward with a carefully thought out plan but was sufficiently interested to pursue the matter until seven years later the general features of its program were finally incorporated into the public law of France.

The decisions arising under the commerce clause of the Constitution during the 1924 term of the Supreme Court did not involve any striking extension of national authority in that field. There was no case approaching in significance the Recapture Clause Case decided in the previous term. However, the reinforcement of a familiar principle through a striking application of it, or the lucid and pungent expression of an old doctrine, lends some significance to several cases which otherwise have no far-reaching importance.

In the case of Brooks v. United States the court sustained the constitutionality of the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act of 1919. The act subjected to heavy penalties any one who transported or caused to be transported in interstate or foreign commerce any motor vehicle, knowing it to have been stolen, and any one who, with the same guilty knowledge, “shall receive, conceal, store, barter, sell, or dispose of any motor vehicle, moving as, or which is a part of, or which constitutes interstate or foreign commerce.” It is certainly no surprise to learn from the opinion of Chief Justice Taft that the power to regulate commerce which is broad enough to enable Congress to bar from interstate transportation lottery tickets, diseased cattle, adulterated food, prize-fight films, and the like, and to penalize the interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes, is a power which can likewise be used to punish those who abuse the privileges of interstate and foreign commerce by using them in the furtherance of larceny or the disposal of stolen goods.

The final results of a hotly contested by-election in Paris were given out on Sunday evening, March 28. Two communist deputies were elected to the Chamber to replace two conservatives by the narrow margin of 1,500 votes in a constituency which contained nearly 200,000 registered electors. This election is important not only because of the wide comment which it caused but also because it illustrates many of the working forces in present-day French politics.

For six years Canada has suffered from a peculiar interaction of economic and political fatalities; and the indeterminate outcome of the general election of October 29, 1925, did little, if anything, toward straightening out the confused situation. First of all may be noted the way in which this situation developed; then some attempt may be made at an analysis of the setback which Premier King's government sustained at the polls.

In the fall of 1925 a unique electoral experiment was carried out in the Irish Free State. Nineteen senators were elected according to a system which presents a peculiar combination of electoral features. The aim of the framers of the Free State constitution was to provide a second chamber composed of men of experience and recognized ability. To this end they devised the following system: (1) the entire nation was to serve as a single electoral constituency; (2) the nomination of the candidates was left to Parliament; (3) the franchise was limited to citizens over thirty years of age; (4) the Hare system (single transferable vote) of proportional representation was to be used for the marking and counting of the ballots; (5) the senators were to be elected for twelve-year terms; and (6) onefourth of the senators were to be elected at each triennial election.

The constitution adopted by the constituent assembly at Tirana on March 3, 1925, is the third organic law of the country to appear in the last twelve years. The first was the organic statute issued at Valona on April 10, 1914, by the International Commission of Control in Albania. By the terms of this instrument the new state was constituted a hereditary monarchy under the protection of Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The next act organizing the state was the provisional constitution adopted by Albanian leaders at Lushnia in January, 1920, and amended in 1922.