land tenure; the
control of public instruction. Between lies a broad and shifting area,
which each may enter, but within which the Imperial authority, in so
far as is warranted by the constitution, must be accorded precedence
over the authority of a state. "The matters over which the states
preserve control," says a great German jurist, "cannot be separated
completely from those to which extends the competence of the Empire.
The various powers of government are intimately related the one to
another. They run together and at the same time impose mutual checks
in so many ways, and are so interlaced, that one cannot hope to set
them off by a line of demarcation, or to set up among them a Chinese
wall of division. In every sphere of their activity the states (p. 206)
encounter a superior power to which they are obliged to submit. They
are free to move only in the circle which Imperial law-making leaves
open to them. That circle does exist. It is delimited, but not wholly
occupied, by the Empire.... In a certain sense it may be said that it
is only by sufferance of the Empire that the states maintain their
political rights at all, and that, at best, their tenure is
precarious."[289]

[Footnote 287: Howard, German Empire, 21.]

[Footnote 288: Matters placed under the supervision
of the Empire and made subject to Imperial
legislation are enumerated in the sixteen sections
of Article 4 of the constitution. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, I., 327-328.]

[Footnote 289: Laband, Das Staatsrecht des
deutschen Reiches (2d ed.), I., 102-103.]

In passing, it may be observed that there is, in fact, a distinct
tendency toward the reduction of the spheres of authority which
formerly were left to the states. One of the means by which this has
been brought about is the establishment of uniform codes of law
throughout the Empire, containing regulations respecting a multitude
of things which otherwise would have been regulated by the states
alone. Most important among these is the great Civil Code, which went
into effect January 1, 1900. Another means to the same end is the
increase in recent years of Imperial legislation relating to
workingmen's insurance, factory regulations, industrial conditions,
and other matters of a social and economic nature. Not infrequently in
recent times have