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![handle is hein.journals/nlgq1 and id is 429 raw text is: - CURRENT BOOKS
THE RISE OF A NEW FEDERALISM:
FEDERAL-STATE COOPERATION IN
THE UNITED STATES. By 7ane Perry
Clark. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1938. pp. xviii, 347. $3.50.
With the advent of the New Deal, much of
the controversial literature in the fields of
constitutional and administrative law has
emphasized the clash between states' rights
and federal centralization to such an extent
that the discussion has seemed to be predi-
cated on the assumption that the nation and
the states are alien governments. The
theme of this book is to illustrate the tremend-
ous strides that have been made in the direc-
tion of cooperative activity between the
nation and the states by way of law and
administration with the result that there has
emerged, in fact, a New Federalism under
the aegis of the Constitution and the Court
of Ultimate Conjecture.
The cooperative activities discussed run the
gamut from informal and verbal understand-
ings to legally binding contracts or compacts
between the federal and state governments.
The informal cooperation may take the form
of conferences, as in the fields of public
utility regulation, labor standards, public
health and taxation. Sometimes the coopera-
tive technique consists in the exchange of
advisory and educational facilities, as is
evidenced in the fields of law enforcement and
social planning. The Civil Works Adminis-
tration, the Works Progress Administration
and the Civilian Conservation Corps illustrate
the cooperative use of government personnel
and the exchange of general services between
the federal government and the states to aid
the latter in coping with their relief problems.
One half of the book is devoted to the in-
teresting problems of federal grants-in-aid to
the states and federal credits for state taxa-
tion. Another chapter deals with intergovern-
mental agreements and compacts. To the
reviewer the most significant chapter is en-
titled Interdependent Law and Administration.
It shows what has been done by the federal
government in enacting legislation which
depends on state action for its effectiveness
and also the converse, wherein state laws have
made their operation and effectiveness depend
to a large extent on federal action. Thus far
these techniques have been utilized chiefly in
the regulation of liquor, aviation, wild life,
food and drugs, oil and convict-made goods.
The divesting theory-to mention only one
particular device-contains within itself great
possibilities for future usefulness.
More than one hundred years ago, De
Tocqueville was struck by the good sense
and practical judgment of the Americans ...
in the ingenious devices by which they elude
the numberless difficulties resulting from their
federal constitution. If De Tocqueville
could return as a present-day observer of the
American political scene, he would be amazed
by the intricate developments of cooperative
inter-relationships between the two govern-
ments by means of which our constitutional
system is being accommodated to meet the
changing actualities of life in the United
States. The cumulative effect of the record
outlined in this book should go far to dissipate
the lingering belief that our Constitution is a
strait-jacket and an inflexible obstacle to
social progress. In describing and cataloging
the growing movement of federal-state cooper-
ation in the United States, Professor Clark
has furnished a convincing picture of constitu-
tional flexibility, and the net result of the
presentation constitutes an effective tribute
to the creative ingenuity and political acumen
of American officialdom in what might be
termed the field of constitutional engineering.
FORREST REVERE BLACK.
0
THE POWER TO GOVERN. By Walton
H. Hamilton and Douglass Adair. New
York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1937.
pp. 254. $2.50.
The Constitution-Then and Now is the sub-
title of this treatise. It is the Federal Con-
stitution then that chiefly engrosses the
authors-the Constitution not only in the
language but in the understanding of those
who framed it in 1787.
Contemporary construction is not new, but
earlier interpreters have admitted it only
grudgingly to explain a doubtful phrase, or to
expound an obscure clause. I Even when the
1. 1 STORY, COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITU-
TION OF THE UNITED STATES (3rd ed., 1858) 288.
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