Book Reviews: Equality by Statute: Legal Controls over Group Discrimination. By MORROE BERGER. (New York: Columbia University Press. 1952. Pp. xii, 238. $3.25.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591295200500453
• Date: 01 December 1952
• Published date: 01 December 1952
• Author: Ross Yates
• Subject Matter: Articles

720

Daniels

had

no

considerable

part

in

the

New

Deal

as

such;

that

is

to

say

he

had

no

place

in

Washington.

But

he

was

a

better

New

Dealer -

as

is

known

now - than

Jesse

Jones,

James

Byrnes,

Cordell

Hull

or

any

of

the

Southern

group

(except

Hugo

Black)

who

fared

so

well

and

who

requited

so

badly

the

President’s

favor.

Daniels

was

perhaps

made

an

ambassador

instead

of

a

cabinet

member

because

of

his

age

of

seventy-

one

in

1932.

Yet

he

outlived

the

President

by

several

years

and

was

active

until

the

last.

How

much

better

an

harrassed

President

would

have

been

served

by

the

sturdy

loyalty

and

the

tough

devotion

to

principle

of

Josephus

Daniels

than

by

any

of

the

southerners

who

returned

so

much

evil

for

so

much

good!

Roosevelt,

and

Daniel

is

a

book

which

the

many

collectors

of

Rooseveltiana

must

have.

University

of

Chicago.

R.

G.

TUGWELL.

Equality

by

Statute:

Legal

Controls

over

Group

Discrimination.

By

MORROE

BERGER.

(New

York:

Columbia

University

Press.

1952.

Pp.

xii,

238.

$3.25.)

The

chief

value

of

Morroe

Berger’s

book

on

discriminatory

and

anti-

discriminatory

legislation

in

the

United

States

is

to

demonstrate,

by

a

comprehensive

analysis

of

the

New

York

State

law

against

discrimination

(also

known

as

the

Ives-Quinn

law),

that

anti-discrimination

laws

dealing

with

certain

relatively

impersonal

relationships,

such

as

between

employers

and

employees,

are

enforceable

under

certain

commonly-found

conditions.

However,

Mr.

Berger

has

not

chosen

this

as

the

main

thesis

for

his

book,

but

has

fitted

it

into

a

demonstration

of

the

double

conclusion

that

&dquo;law

can

affect

our

acts

and,

through

them,

our

beliefs.&dquo;

In

two

chapters

on

national

and

state

legislation

and

judicial

decisions

he

demonstrates

that

whereas

the

courts

from

1868

to

1937

tended

by

their

doctrines

to

buttress

the

caste

order

between

Whites

and

Negroes,

and

between

Whites

and

other

minority

groups,

from

1937

to

1950

the

courts

have

joined

with

some

of

the

state

legislatures

in

developing

legal

doctrines

to

break

down

this

same

caste

order.

Having

thus

demonstrated

the

fact

of

the

law

maintaining

discrimina-

tion

as

well

as

aiming

to

prevent

it,

Mr.

Berger

discusses

in

a

lengthy

chapter

the

Ives-Quinn

law,

whose

object

is

to

prevent

discrimination

against

minority

groups,

chiefly

on

the

part

of

employers

of

more

than

six

persons,

labor

unions,

and

employment

agencies.

With

a

keen

eye

to

the

limitations

of

available

data,

Mr.

Berger

paints

a

convincing

picture

of

the

law’s

success

in

accomplishing

these

aims.