w or jury trial, but by the arbitrary ruling of some
board, or even single commissioner, and often, so far as the statute
is concerned, without a jury or even an appeal from the commissioner's
ruling to any court of law.

I believe this to be the most dangerous tendency that now confronts
the American people--government by commission, tenfold more dangerous
than "government by injunction." Not only is there no liberty, no
appeal to common right and the courts, but all permanent "boards" tend
to become narrow and pedantic or, worse, to be controlled by the works
they are created to control.[1] The constitutionality of such boards
is, of course, always questionable, but the tendency to create them is
perhaps the most striking thing in modern American legislation. Not
only do we find them in enormously increased numbers in all the
States, but even a late President of the United States seriously
recommended that the contracts and affairs of all corporations at
least (and the bulk of modern business is done in corporate form)
should be so submitted to the control or dictation, or even the
nullification, of such an administrative board or commission, and this
again with no appeal to the courts. So audacious an upsetting of
all Anglo-Saxon ideas of the right to law, it may be said without
exaggeration, has never been attempted in the history of the English
people, not even by the Stuart kings, who were most of all disposed
to interfere in such particulars. Wiser counsels deterred the
administration from insisting on this measure, but the fact that it
could be brought up, and that with the approval of a large portion of
the public, indicates how radical our legislation is getting to be in
this particular.

[Footnote 1: Two singular instances happened only the past year: at
common law any one may build railroads, and they are certainly for the
general advantage whether profitable to the owners or not. Yet the
railroad commissions of New York and Massachusetts have recently
in each State prevented the building of most important lines, by
responsible applicants--under the opposition of other railroads.]

It is a commonplace in the law that no court has defined, or ever will
consent to define, the exact limits of this police power; suffice
it to say that in the classic words of Chief Justice Shaw of
Massachusetts, "it is all that makes for the health, safety, or
comfort of the people." As to the health and safety, there can be