HG 4485 J C45^ IXPRESS TROSTS. COR - "VOLUNTARY ASSOCIJITIONS." Yi(r ^muW Wmx%\ii | MXMl FROM THE INCOME OF THE FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND THE BEQUEST OF Librarian of the University 1868-1883 1905 /\.?'35'?9'f ^iirks.. The date shows when this volume was taken. To reuew this book copy the call No. and give to the librarian. \C ^\ V K HG Cornell University Library 4485.C45 Express trusts under the common law HOME USE RULEii All Books subject to Recall. Books not in use for instruction or research are returnable within \ 4 weeks. Volumes of periodi- cals and of pamphlets are held in the library as much as possible. For s]pecial purposes they are given out for a limited time. Borrowers should not use their library privileges for the bene- fit of other persons. ' Students must re- turn all books before leaving town. Officers should arrange for the return of books wantedi during their absence from town. Books needed by more than one person are held on the reserve list. Books of special value and gift books, when the giver wishes ' it, are not allowed to circulate; Readers are asked to report all cases of , books marked or muti- lated. Do not deface books by marks and writing. EXPRESS TRUSTS UNDER THE COMMON LAW A Superior and Distinct Mode of Administration Distinguished from Partnerships Contrasted with Corporations Two papers submitted to the Tax Commissioner of Massachusetts, under Chapter 55 of the Resolves of 1911, requiring a report from him on " VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS" By ALFRED D. CHANDLER, ESQ- OF THE BOSTON BAR BOSTON Little, Brown & Co. 1912 Copyright, 1912 By ALFRED D. CHANDLER The Riverdale Press, BrookUne, Mass., U. S. A. By chapter 55, Resolves of 1911, the Tax Commissioner of Massachusetts was directed to make an investigation of Voluntary Associations organized or doing business in that Commonwealth under a written instrument or declaration of trust, the beneficial interest under which is divided into transferable certificates of participation or shares, with a view to determining the present legal status of such Volun- tary Associations and whether or not their prohibition or further control and regulation by that Commonwealth is advisable and in the public interest. The resolve is as follows : — CHAPTER 55. RESOLVE TO PROVIDE FOR AN INVESTIGATION OF VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS ORGANIZED OR DOING BUSINESS IN THIS COMMONWEALTH UNDER WRITTEN INSTRU- MENTS OR DECLARATIONS OF TRUST. RESOLVED, That the tax commissioner is hereby authorized and directed to make an investigation of voluntary associations organized or doing business in this Commonwealth under a written instrument or declaration of trust, the beneficial interest under which is divided into transferable certificates of participation or shares, with a view to determining the pres- ent legal status of such Voluntary associations, and whether or not their prohibition or further control and regulation by the Commonwealth is advisable and in the public interest. The attorney- general is hereby directed to give the tax commissioner such assistance as the latter may desire in making this investigation, and said commissioner may if he deems it advisable hold public hearings, after due notice, and shall consult with the board of railroad commissioners and the board of gas and electric light commis- sioners with especial reference to the effect of such voluntary associations upon the supervision and regulation of gas, electric light and street railway companies in this Commonwealth. The tax commissioner shall report the result of his investigation to the general court on or before the second Satur- day of January, nineteen hundred and twelve, with such recommendations as he may deem advisable: and he shall submit, with his report, drafts of any bill or bills necessary to carry into effect any recommendation which he may make. In conducting the above investigation, the tax commis- sioner may employ such assistance and incur such reasonable expenses, not exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars, as may be approved by the governor and council; and said commissioner shall have power to require the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of all books and documents relating to any matter within the scope of the said investi- gation. Witnesses shall be summoned in the same manner and be paid the same fees as are witnesses in the municipal court of the city of Boston. (Approved April 15, 1911.) CITATIONS. Page Ames' Cases on Trusts 33 Bank of Topeka v. Eaton. 100 Fed. Rep. 8 32, 33 Black's Constitutional Law 10 Broadway Nat. Bank v. Wood, 165 Mass. 312 33 Brown v. Eastern Slate Co., 134 Mass. 590 33 Cooley's Constitutional Limitations 34 Cox V. Hickman, 9 C. B. N. S. 47; 8 H. of L. Cases 268 28, 29, 30 Eliotv. Freeman, 220 U. S. 178 13, 26 Everett v. Drew, 129 Mass. 150 28, 31 . Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. v. Chicago, etc., 27 Fed. Rep. 146 9 Federal Constitution, Art. FV, Sec. 2 9 Federal Statutes, Annotated, vol. 9, pp. 178-9 9 George on Partnership 30 Gilmore on Partnership 30 Gleason v. McKay, 134 Mass. 419 17, 18, 19, 23, 28, 29, 34 Governor Fernald of Maine 1 Hamilton's (Alexander) Works 6, 23 Hewitt V. Phelps, 105 U. S. 393 33 Hussey v. Arnold, 185 Mass. 202 32 Johnson v. Lewis, 6 Fed. Rep. 27 19, 28, 29 Lackett v. Rumbaugh, 45 Fed. Rep. 23 19, 27 Law Quarterly Review, Oct., 1905, p. 365 18 Mason v. Pomeroy, 151 Mass. 164; 7 L. R. A. 771 19, 28, 29, 33 Massachusetts Business Corporations, Hall 18 Mayo V. Moritz, 151 Mass. 481 19, 28, 29, 31, 33 Miller v. Simpson, 107 Va. 476; 18 L. R. A. (N.S.) 963, note 30 Minot V. Winthrop, 162 Mass. 113 34 Norton v. Phelps, 54 Miss. 467 33 Odd Fellows Hall Association v. McAllister, 153 Mass. 292 33 O'Keefie v. Somerville, 190 Mass. 110 17 Opinion of the Justices, 196 Mass. 603 17, 18, 23, 34 Page on Contracts 32 Parsons on Contracts 32 Parsons on Partnership 15, 27, 33 Paul V. Virginia, 8 Wall. 168 9 Perry on Trusts 9, 32 Phillips V. Blatchford, 137 Mass. 510 20, 28, 29 Ricker v. American Load and Trust Co., 140 Mass. 346 26 Roby V.Smith, 131 Ind. 342; 15L.R.A.792 9 Shirk v. City of La Fayette, 52 Fed. Rep. 857 9 Shumaker's Law of Partnership 30 Simmons, Mr. J. Edward (Banker) 20 Smith V. Anderson, L. R. 15, Ch. D. 247 19, 27, 28 Spotswood V. Morris, 12 Idaho, 360; 6 L. R. A. (N. S.) 665 16 Story's Equity 33 Taft V. Ward, 106 Mass. 518 20 Taylor v. Davis, 110 U. S. 330 19, 27, 31 Trustees' Hand Book, Loring 32 Underhill on Trusts 9, 33 Wald's Pollock on Contracts 22, 26 Warner v. Beers, 23 Wendell, 103 18, 22, 23, 32 Welles-Stone Mercantile Co. v. Grover, 7 N. D. 460; 41 L. R. A. 252 27, 28, 29, 32, 33 Woerner on Administration 31 Wilson, The Hon. Woodrow 5, 6, 20, 35 Express Trusts. Corporations. "Voluntary Associations." First Paper, November 20, 1911. The Hon. Woodrow Wilson, in his cogent address entitled "The Lawyer and the Community," before the American Bar Association, at Chattanooga, Tenn., August 31, 1910, transmitted later in pamphlet form, challenged the profes- sion in demanding that the impersonal feature of corpora- tions should be restricted as the one obstacle that has blocked progress toward effective corporation reform. This question, he says: — "Stands in the foreground of all modern economic questions so far as the United States is concerned." . . . "Liberty is always personal, never aggregate; always a thing inhering in individuals taken singly, never in groups or corporations or communities. The individual unit of society is the individual." . . . "That is why I plead so earnestly for the indi- vidualization of responsibility within the corporation, for the establishment of the principle of law that a man has no more right to do a wrong as a member of a corporation than as an individual." Mr. Wilson was promptly advised from Boston that his call upon the profession had been anticipated in Massachu- setts by numerous Express Trusts declared in that state, and which exercise the common-law natural right to employ all the mere incidents or accessaries used in the manage- ment or mobility of property, such as transferable shares, bond issues, promissory notes etc., but which do not and need not arrogate any essential of a corporation, such as merging natural persons into an impersonal, artificial entity, or suing or being sued under their designated name, and which (with proper provision for reimbursement) place upon Trustees a personal responsibility that corporate laws are especially designed to evade, and which evasion, legal- ized by State Legislatures, both confirms the popularity and causes the condemnation of corporations. Mr. Wilson was referred to, among others, the example furnished a century ago by Alexander Hamilton, who em- ployed this trust method — in use long before his day — in organizing the Merchants Bank of New York; and he was further reminded that some corporation promoters might discourage this effective personal bulwark; and that States like Maine and New Jersey, that have coined money by marketing corporation charters created on the imper- sonal basis, might frown upon this sound, independent, common-law trust method of administration. Mr. Wilson promptly expressed his sincere appreciation of the information that had called his attention "to a most interesting matter" which he wished "more carefully to look into after the distractions of the present campaign are over." In guarding the State and the business world from the pitfalls of impersonal corporate bodies, both the Bar and the Bench should encourage the application to affairs of the elastic, efifective, and well-grounded principles of common- law Express Trusts. Mr. Wilson, in his Chattanooga address, insisted that although "Corporations must continue to be used as a convenience in the trans- action of business, yet they must cease to be used as a covert to wrong- doers." And he added : — "It is the duty of lawyers, of all lawyers, to assist the makers of law and the reformers of abuses by pointing out the best and most effective way to make it." Express Trusts, which now meet with augmented ap- proval in Massachusetts, and the merits of which the country at large begins to appreciate, put the legal estate entirely in one or more, while others have a beneficial inter- est in and out of the same, but are neither partners nor agents. This simple, adequate, common-law right, any person or group of persons sui juris may exercise, the Trustees issuing certificates of beneficial interest divided into shares, as well as issuing bonds and other obligations, as freely as they open a bank account, have a pass book, and draw and circulate checks, or make whatever contractual relations are allowed to persons as a natural right. Express Trusts have been in successful operation in Great Britain and America for generations. They have been and are applied wisely in both hemispheres to property valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. To affirm at this date that considerations of public policy do not counte- nance Express Trusts that utilize conventional business accessaries is to challenge sound economics. Public policy is not always immutable. Neither lawyers nor laymen can ignore experience or the truth. It was Coleridge who wrote that "A man who squares his conscience by the law was a common paraphrase or synonyme of a wretch without any conscience at all." If public policy in this instance is to be measured — as it should be — by a standard of stability rather than of instability, the startling contrast presented later between Express Trusts and Massa- chusetts corporations ought to modify some notions of public policy. It is the substantiality of the trust principle, based upon personal responsibility and efficiency, that has so commended it over loose, evasive corporation laws found from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Well-drawn modern Express Trusts avoid no legal obliga- tion, much less do they evade any. If perverted they should of course be restrained. They avoid needless busi- ness obstacles; they require no arbitrary fixed capitaliza- tion; they can dispense with the deceptive fiction of a par value, a fiction that the New York State Bar Association is reported to have indorsed "as a tool of many rascals 8 and the honest servant of no man"; they promote sound administration; they stimulate mercantile intercourse; and they secure a higher standard of efficiency through active Trustees than is generally attained through the usual per- functory, often irresponsible, dummy, corporate directors who fail to direct, and who when called to account in Court are admonished that the high criterion of a trusteeship should be their canon of conduct rather than that of a shifty directorate. Trustees under Express Trusts pay taxes on their real and personal property. Trustees have to report fully to their beneficiaries, or be called to account in Court by them. Publicity, as with partnerships, is secured to all who are entitled to it. Public curiosity — mere prying, or prurient curiosity — - is not gratified, and ought not to be. The Trustees are protected, as they should be, from personal loss, by a provision for exoneration or reimbursement from the estate, except in case of wilfull default or of fraud. The customary provision in the declaration of trust requiring all parties who deal with the Trustees to look to the estate for ultimate security, rather than to the Trustees or to the beneficiaries conforms with a common-law principle long sanctioned. Such a provision is a strong assurance of the merits of the Trust; because if its foundation does not permit of a substantial superstructure, as the basis of credit, the Trust is not likely to be declared or to induce desirable Trustees to accept it. Corporations on the other hand offer a premium, as it were, for a weak foundation based upon an irresponsible artificiality, and hence go to the wall by the thousands. Express Trusts, under the common law, regulated by equitable principles and practice, furnish some of the highest models for administration. Corporations under State laws invite and are responsible for the greatest busi- ness scandals in our history. One who prefers to drink from a pure spring on a common cannot justly be charged 9 with evading a nearby licensed barroom. The latter may often be wisely avoided. As for the equitable laws that regulate trusts and Trus- tees, they are a well-formed system which Mr. Justice Story pronounced as even more symmetrical in the United States than the original system in England. Mr. Perry, one of America's leading authorities upon trusts, afifirms that: — "Every kind of valuable property, both real and personal, that can be assigned at law may be the subject-matter of a trust.'''' And further: — "The person who creates the trust may mould it into whatever form he pleases." (Perry on Trusts, I, §§67, 287; Underbill on Trusts, p. 57, Amer.Ed.) The Federal Constitution protects Trustees as "citizens" throughout continental United States; but corporations, not being "citizens" as that word is used in the Constitu- tion, do not have the privileges and immunities of citizens. Corporations cannot enter another State except on the terms which that State prescribes. But Trustees under a will, or under an express declaration of trust, are natural persons and are "citizens" in the fullest sense under the Constitu- tion, and, as natural persons possessed of both state and national citizenship, are "entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizens in the several States." Fed. Con., Art. IV. Sec. 2. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. v. Chicago, etc., 27 Fed. Rep. 146, 149. Shirk V. City of La Fayette, 52 Fed. Rep. 857. Roby V. Smith, 131 Ind. 342, 345-6; 15 L. R. A. 792, 794-5. 9 Federal Statutes Annot., pp. 178-9. Mr. Justice Field of the Supreme Court of the U. S., in his opinion in the famous case of Paul v. Virginia, 8 Wal- lace, 168, 180, wrote: — "It has been justly said that no provision in the Constitution has tended so strongly to constitute the citizens of the United States one people as this." 10 The purpose for which this clause was inserted in the Constitution "was to prevent the States from making invidious discrimination against non-residents, and to promote ttie unification of the American people, by breaking down State lines, in respect to the enjoyment of social and busi- ness privileges and the favor and protection of the laws." (Black's Const. Law, p. 292.) In most cases business men do not need a corporate charter, except for railroads, for the right of eminent do- main, for banks, for insurance, and for certain public ser- vice functions. In most cases the State gives no adequate equivalent for its charter. It is often a useless incum- brance; and it often stimulates mercantile iniquity. Our corporation laws throughout this country have be- come such a legalized means of evasion because of the impersonality, the artificial entity which they sanction, that they have elicited caustic criticism from executives, economists, educators, and business men. In conservative Massachusetts over four thousand (4,154) of its State corporate charters, representing many millions of dollars of authorized capital stock, were dissolved by its Legislature in the last five years, an average of over two a day, omitting those otherwise dissolved. This shows that even Massachusetts' conservative corporation laws are a delusive will-o'-the-wisp to thousands of impressionable, misdirected people. This State incorporates about 1,200 or 1,300 companies a year, making for the past five years from about 6,000 to 6,500, and over 4,000 — ^or about 64 per cent — were dissolved in that time. A very large num- ber of Massachusetts corporations appear to be mere fugitive organizations, based upon credulity, and to be plucked in transit. This State cannot in justice demand the applica- tion of such an administrative system to every enterprise. It cannot properly insist upon a uniform, undiscriminating, and often inferior business method, whether for industrial or 11 taxation purposes, and then as an excuse say that it is not its function "to join in the futile attempt to save the foolish from the consequences of their folly." The State's corpora- tion record in a large part on this score is self-incriminating. Here it is condensed, the list covering about ninety-four pages of the State laws : — MASSACHUSETTS CORPORATIONS DISSOLVED IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS. Number Acts of dissolved 1907, ch. 290, pp. 226-250 1,164 1909, ch. 347, pp. 296-324 1,185 1910, ch. 609, pp. 662-684 932 1911, ch. 363, pp. 331-351 873 4,154 Contrast the above excessive corporate mortality with the remarkable vitality of Express Trusts as furnished by the lists of real estate trusts in Boston, published by Bur- roughs & DeBlois,* the first of which appeared in 1899, and contained seventeen such trusts, every one of which are found today, with many more, on the monthly list which that firm publishes, and which list now represents invest- ments of about one hundred and ten million dollars. We do not know the whole number of real estate and of industrial common-law trusts, as well as partnerships, that make use of transferable shares, and are now operating in Massachusetts and elsewhere. But Express Trusts under testamentary and other written instruments affecting inter- ests large and small, as well as partnerships, number many thousands. Some States openly depend upon the liberality of their corporate charters to pay their expenses and to cancel their debts. Such a course is condemnatory. Sound finance repudiates it. ♦Real Estate Trust Stocks, 30 Kilby Street, Boston. 12 Governor Fernald of Maine, in his address to the Legis- lature of that State in 1909, while suggesting reform in its corporate laws, stigmatized his State thus: — "While it is true that the State is receiving large revenue from this source, it is also true that, in a considerable measure, it is the price of prostitution. I hope you will take steps to remodel them, along evident lines of reform, thus restoring to Maine her self-respect." Severer strictures than this can be produced from recog- nized authorities in this country, as to the dishonor of cor- porate legislation, and as to the iniquities of impersonal and non-moral corporate-body acts that would expose indi- vidual trustees under Express Trusts to personal liability. While relatively the good wrought by corporations has been very great, yet absolutely the volume of mischief they are responsible for, and continue to invite, has been and is enormous. Nowadays the right to organize a corporation is almost as free as the right to execute a deed of real estate; it has been carried to the utmost irresponsibility; and one may order and may receive, through the medium of charter purveyors, a number of corporate charters representing millions of capital, from any chosen State, almost with the celerity that one may order and receive as many boxes of cigars. Ordinary conveyancing, or constructive legal drafting, are utterly outmatched in such a performance. The proper initial deliberation and after responsibility and attention that are respectively a condition precedent to the formation and conditions subsequent to the accep- tance and performance of a meritorious Express Trust, proffer a wholesome corrective to the rash multiplication of the many anemic, moribund corporations that Massa- chusetts im providently creates, feels bound to nurse for a while, and is then compelled to bury by the thousands. Our next State Commission might well be one on Corpo- ration Eugenics. 13 Long before it was given, the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States last winter in Eliot v. Freeman, 220 U. S. Rep., p. 178, holding that Express Trusts in vogue in Massachusetts and elsewhere are as free as part- nerships from the application of the Federal tax on doing business under a corporate charter, had been anticipated and acted upon accordingly in Massachusetts. That deci- sion has a wider significance than may be realized in the transcontinental scope of its salutary application. A few strong, permanent Express Trusts are worth more to this State and to the United States than the entire 4,000 chartered Massachusetts corporations cast by the whole- sale into oblivion in the last five years by their own pro- genitor. The Massachusetts Legislature passed a resolve (Resolves of 1911, Chap. 55) to provide that the Tax Commissioner shall make an "investigation of Voluntary Associations organized or doing business in this Commonwealth under a written instrument or declaration of trust, the beneficial interest under which is divided into transferable certificates of participation or shares, with a view to determining the present legal status of such Voluntary Associations, and whether or not their prohibition or further control and regu- lation by the Commonwealth is advisable and in the public interests." The Tax Commissioner was to report on this on or before January 13, 1912.* If such an inquiry is aimed at one or two exceptional organizations affecting certain public service utilities, the public should be frankly informed thereof. But if its object is to put every personal Express Trust, and every partner- ship, that makes use of transferable shares, on a level with impersonal corporations, and to prohibit, or even to sub- * His report is dated January 17, 1912, and found in House Document No. 1646. 14 ject every such Express Trust, and every such partnership, to an inquisitorial State control, though they are not created by the State, and are not all clothed with a public interest, then its purpose assumes a scope that requires extreme caution on the part of the Legislature. Put in syllogistic form the prohibition aim of this inquiry involves the following fallacy: — Some "voluntary associations" have been holding com- panies. Some holding companies are said to have done harm. Therefore public policy demands that hereafter all "voluntary associations" shall be prohibited. The irrationality of the above will be more apparent if the syllogism is paraphrased thus : — - Some lawyers have been Presidents of the United States. Some Presidents are said to have done harm. Therefore public policy demands that hereafter all lawyers shall be prohibited. This inquiry is directed to so-called "Voluntary Asso- ciations." Can anyone satisfactorily define, or explain the origin of, or justify the retention of that indefinite expres- sion, "Voluntary Association"? Is its antithesis, an "In- voluntary Association," ever used, either colloquially or technically? The difference between creation by sovereign power and creation by private contract is not a sufficient basis for the term. The creation in both cases rests upon volition. The sovereign does not force citizens to create; organization is optional under the general corporation laws. The term, however old, has no fixed application. It is not analogous to a voluntary settlement or convey- ance which depends upon a meritorious or natural rather than a valuable consideration, upon blood or affection or 15 liberality than upon a compensatory or material advantage. The definition of a "Voluntary Association" as given in the Century Dictionary is : — "A society which is unincorporated, but is not a partnership, in that the members are not agents for one another." The word "Voluntary" adds nothing definite to the word "Association." The word "Association" is understood to mean a body of persons united without a charter. "Asso- ciations" are sometimes partnerships, and oftentimes not partnerships. "The true test of partnership is the inten- tion of the parties." (Parsons on Part. § 54.) Associa- tions to produce something and divide the product are not partnerships. {Id. § 61) : As to work a gold mine and divide the gold; to make and divide bricks; to fish and divide the fish caught; to manufacture and divide lumber. {Id. § 61 note, and §§ 445, 446.) Clubs and associations for social or charitable purposes are not partnerships. {Id. § 60.) Colloquially a "Voluntary Association" may be any group of persons, whether incorporated or not, from the United States Steel Company to a boys' baseball club, or a women's sewing circle, united of their own volition; and one and all will have a right to issue "transferable certifi- cates of participation or shares," without thereby affecting their legal status. The "Ladies' Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Association" (161 N. Y. 353), or a farmers' association to construct and operate a telephone line (122 N. Y. S. 610), or the "Washington Tent No. 1, Independent Order of Rechabites," associated for temperance, sympathy, and decent funeral obsequies (81 N. Y. 507), none of which were held to be partnerships, might any or all have been organized to use transferable shares, as well as the New England Gas and Coke Co. and the New England Invest- ment and Security Co. (198 Mass. 413, 425, 430), the 16 latter two representing many millions of dollars of capital, and all of the above may be, as they are, referred to as "Voluntary Associations."* We have corporations, joint-stock companies (common law and statutory!), partnerships, "trusts" (meaning com- binations of corporations, a modern perversion or restric- tion of the term trust) ; and now that inapposite, sweep- ing, indefinite designation "Voluntary Association" has become the subject of a legislative inquiry in Massachu- setts, which if it results only in helping to drive that ex- pression into disuse, will be beneficial. To attempt through legislation to synonymize or to put on a parity "Voluntary Associations," Partnerships, and Express Trusts created by private contract, and maintain that all three are like corporations created by the State, and to be regulated like corporations, merely because the common-law right of issuing shares is exercised by any one or all of them, is to invite contention. And to maintain that because some questionable "Voluntary Asso- ciations" have overstepped the mark, that, therefore, all Express Trusts, and Partnerships, and "good" "Voluntary Associations," shall, without distinguishing between pub- lic utilities and private enterprises, be "prohibited" or "controlled and regulated" by the State, is fallacious and prejudicial. The confusion and the constitutional conflict such a course might incite recalls the swift disposition the writer made with the State authorities thirty years ago, in 1881, *The definition given of "Voluntary Association" by the Tax Commissioner in his Report — House Document No. 1646, p. 2 — is as follows: — **The term voluntary association as generally used signifies an association of persons with a combined capital, represented by transferable shares, for the purpose of carrying on a common project for gain." But this attempt to narrow the term by so restricting its scope is arbitrary. It seeks to accentuate the features of transferable shares and of gain. But there are innumerable so-called "Voluntary Associations" without transferable shares, and very many with such shares carried on without trading with third persons for gain. tSee the leading case of Spotswood v. Morris, 12 Idaho, 360; 6 L. R. A. (N. S.) 665 (1906). 17 of the Act of 1878, Chap. 275, to tax "companies, co- partnerships and other associations, in which the beneficial interest is held in shares which are assignable," etc., which Act, not long after, received its judicial quietus as un- constitutional by the decision in Gleason v. McKay, 134 Mass., 419 (1883), reaffirmed and given a new application in O'Keeffe v. Somerville, 190 Mass., 110 (1906), and dis- cussed in the Opinion of the Justices in 196 Mass., 603 (1908). The supposition that transferable shares are a peculiar prerogative or special privilege or attribute of corporations, and that whoever uses them is to be disciplined as copying an essential of a corporate State charter, or as availing of an important characteristic of corporations, is a mis- take. Transferable shares are not an essential, not even an attribute, not an inseparable or distinguishing mark of any corporation, but a mere incident or accessary of some corporations. The corporations that represent the largest aggregate of capital, and whose total business now exceeds that of the Nation itself, issue no shares; these are municipal corporations. So, too, transferability of shares is not essential to chartered colleges, academies, hospitals, and other corporate institutions, founded by public endow- ment or private beneficence. Nor are such shares neces- sary in many scientific and literary societies for mutual benefit or charity, in the funds of which the members have a beneficial interest. On the other hand such a right of transfer may be incorporated into partnership articles or into testamentary or other express trusts, and become a fundamental condition of them, without altering their legal character, or trespassing upon any corporate attribute. Legislatures and even Courts have occasionally fostered the above misconception; and Courts have had to correct themselves thereon. Mistaken ideas as to transferable 18 shares, as well as to other mere incidents of corporations, were analyzed and exposed over seventy years ago in New York in the leading case of Warner v. Beers, 23 Wendell Reports, pp. 103, 116, 130, 145 to 151, 174 to 176 (1840). Transferability of shares is recognized in Massachusetts as a natural right at common law. Gleason v. McKay, 134 Mass., 419, 425 (1883). Opinion of the Justices, 196 Mass. 603, 627 (1908). It is to be hoped that here in Massachusetts no revival of the above-mentioned mistake will mislead either its Executive, Legislative, or Judicial Departments to believe that such an error can be justified either upon economic or upon legal grounds. Our free common-law rights in that respect rest on too broad and sound a footing to be cur- tailed by an assumption so narrow and mistaken. The acquisition of a formal charter of incorporation only recognizes, but does not bestow, these rights. (See "The Personality of the Corporation and the State," in 21 Law Quarterly Review, p. 365 ; at p. 370, Oct., 1905.) As for listing shares on Stock Exchanges, those Exchanges have their own rigid rules of acceptance or rejection which form a public safeguard. The returns to the State required of corporations are not because a corporation issues transferable shares, but because the State is to keep information at hand of its own corporate creations, or, as Mr. Hall expresses it: — "The present law, passed in 1903, adopts the modern yiew that the State owes no duty to investors to look after the solvency of corporations, and that its sole obligation is to see that creditors and stockholders shall be at all times informed as to the organization and management of the corpora- tions to which it gives franchises." (Mass. Business Corp. Hall, p. 3, 2d Ed.) The present Legislative inquiry under Resolve 55, Acts of 1911, at the hands of the Tax Commissioner of the State, appears to be based on the mistaken ideas (1) that there is a corporate usurpation in all so-called "Volun- tary Associations" whose beneficial interests are "divided 19 into transferable certificates of participation or shares"; and (2) that because the State feels bound to furnish in- formation as to its impersonal — generally transitory — corporations to which it gives franchises, and to regulate those that are clothed with a public interest, therefore it must furnish similar information as to private persons to whom it gives no franchises and which they do not need, and must regulate private interests even when not clothed with a public character. If such regulative or inquisitorial laws are to be valid they should be uniform {Gleason v. McKay, 134 Mass., 419, 425-6), applying to all without discrimination, and should include also all partnerships, for such may issue transferable shares representing millions of dollars. But Constitutional provisions that prohibit unreasonable inter- ference with private rights cannot be ignored. The proper appellation for Declarations of Trust that recognize common-law rights in matters of administration, and that restore the personal equation which State cor- porations evade, is "Express Trusts," the laws in regard to which are well established. No such Declaration of Trust should employ that all-inclusive, unfit term "Volun- tary Association." Trustees under Express Trusts are not agents, but prin- cipals, having the full title and control ; and the beneficiaries thereunder are neither partners nor agents. This is elementary. If some authorities are wanted thereon the following are to the point : — Mayo V. Moritx, 151 Mass. 481, 484. Mason V. Pomeroy, 151 Mass. 164; 7 L. R. A. 771. Johnson v. Lewis, 6 Fed. Rep. 27, 28. Taylor \. Davis, 110 U. S. 330, 334-5; 28 L. Ed. 163, 165. Lackett V. Rumbaugh, 45 Fed. Rep. 23, 29. Smith V. Anderson, L. R. 15, Ch. D., 247, 275-6, 284-5. The above ruling cases are readily distinguished from the familiar class that ascribe a partnership character to cer- 20 tain "joint-stock companies," "associations," and admitted to be "co-partnerships," of which Taft v. Ward, 106 Mass. 518, and Phillips v.Blatchford, 137 Mass., p. 510, are types. The late Mr. J. Edward Simmons, President of the New York Chamber of Commerce, and for twenty-two years President of the Fourth National Bank in New York, in his address on Oct. 5, 1905, before the Maryland Bankers' Association, on "Honesty is the Best Policy," forcibly emphasized the basic principle involved herein. According to the New York Daily Tribune of Oct. 7, 1905, he "laid his finger on the real trouble when he declared that the most demoral- izing force in business today is the divestiture of personal honor and personal responsibility allowed by modern methods. The extension of the principle of incorporation has enabled leaders in business to set up two standards of morality, to maintain a Jekyll and Hyde duality, and to do as members of an impersonal and non-moral corporate body acts which they would shrink from as individuals." . . . "What is wanted, if we are to preserve rigid standards of honesty in business dealings, is adherence to the old notion of personal responsibility and personal integrity." "Men (said Mr. Simmons), who pose as the salt of the earth and who condemn, without reserve, those who steal $50, or forge a check for $100, or accept a bribe, will themselves make millions by lying, by fraud and by bribery. In private life they are stainless, but in the interests of corpora- tions, of the 'trusts,' of the gas company, of the railroad company, of the insurance company,- they will have recourse to every villainy damned in the decalogue." The Hon. Woodrow Wilson, in his address at Chatta- nooga, echoed the distinguished New York banker, Mr. Simmons; and it behooves Massachusetts, now advancing to restore that personality in administration which is the basis of liberty and of sound finance, not to embarrass that movement — which finds an efficient bulwark in Express Trusts — but to consider legislation that will im- plant more vitality at the inception of its impersonal corporate creations, and thus protect these artificial entities from premature oblivion. Express Trusts. Corporations. "Voluntary Associations." Second Paper, December 6, 1911. The public hearings given under Resolve, Ch. 55, Acts of 1911, have emphasized some common errors: — FIRST: That Corporations are supposed to bestow numerous privi- leges. Whereas for the most part they merely recognize and adopt certain natural common-law rights that are not corporate prerogatives or privileges. SECOND: That Corporations present the highest model for organized capital. Whereas of the three standards of administration offered by (1) Cori>orations, (2) Partnerships, and (3) Express Trusts, that of Corporations is the lowest, while that of Express Trusts is the highest. THIRD: That Express Trusts are Partnerships. Whereas the law of Partnerships is a branch of the law of Principal and Agent, while Trustees under an Express Trust are the absolute Principals, but accounting to the beneficiaries, who have no powers either as Principals or Agents in actual administration. This distinction is clear and indisputable. FOURTH: That prohibitive, or repressive, or regulative legislation as to common-law modes of administration can be partial or unequal. Whereas inequality in that respect creates a Constitutional conflict. 22 FIRST. That Corporations are supposed to bestow numerous privileges. Whereas for the most part they merely recognize and adopt certain natural common- law rights that are not corporate prerogatives or privileges. Corporations, as a rule, bestow nothing save the artificial entity that merges natural persons into an artificial being, with the right to sue and to be sued in a corporate name; and as the State creates these fictitious beings, it feels bound to regulate them in some degree. Whatever else most corporations possess beyond their artificial entity and right of suit in their respective names, are mere "consequences or incidents of incorporation rather than primary constituents" (Wald's Pollock on Con., p. 126), such as issuing transferable shares, or limiting lia- bility, or using a seal, or making by-laws, or purchasing lands and chattels, these being merely a recognition and adoption of natural common-law rights that any person or persons sui juris may exercise without a charter. (See Warner v. Beers, 23 Wendell, pp. 103, 116, 130, 145 to 151, 174 to 176. Wald's Pollock on Con., p. 296.) "There are several very useful and beneficial accessary powers or attri- butes, very often accompanying corporate privileges, especially in moneyed corporations, which, in the existing state of our law, as modified by statutes, are more prominent in the public eye, and perhaps sometimes in the view of our courts and legislatures, than those which are essential to the being of a corporation. Such added powers, however valuable, are merely accessary. They do not in themselves alone confirm a corporate character, and may be enjoyed by unincorporated individuals. Such a power is the transferability of shares. . . . Such, too, is the limited responsibility. . . . So, too, the convenience of holding real estate for the common purposes, exempt from the legal inconvenience of joint tenancy or tenancy in common. Again: There is the continuance of the joint property for the benefit and preservation of the common fund, indissoluble by the death or legal disability of any partner. Every one of these attributes or powers, though commonly falling within our notions of a moneyed corporation, <^ guite unessential to the legality of a corporation, may be found where there is no pretense of a body corporate; nor will they make one if all were combined, without the presence of the essential quality of legal individuality," etc., per Senator Verplanck, in Warner v. Beers, 23 Wend. 103, 145-6, et. seg. 23 The court in that case (pp. 149-155) refers to several trusts, and unincorporated associations, having the right to employ such accessaries, one of the more prominent being that of the Merchants' Bank, in the city of New York, with limited liability, as well as transferable shares, the articles of association for which were drawn by Alex- ander Hamilton. (Hamilton's Works, Congressional Ed., VII. 838.) "The most peculiar and the strictly essential characteristic of a corpo- rate body, which makes it to be such, and not some other thing in legal con- templation, is the merging of the individuals composing the aggregate body into one distinct, artificial individual existence. Now this is not found in the associations under the act." {Id. 23 Wend. p. 155.) "By our common law as it would exist now, independently of statu- tory restrictions, associations might be formed and trusts created, having every one of the above enumerated characteristics, which have been insisted on as essential to a corporation, except that personality forming its strict and necessary essential legal definition." {Id. 23 Wend. pp. 152-3. See also 174-6.) In the opinion of the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts given to the State Legislature, in 1908, on the taxation of transfers of stock, is the fol- lowing : — "None of these statutes implies that an excise tax may be laid upon a company, association, or partnership engaged in a simple business, like husbandry, merely because the members agree among themselves that their ownership shall be represented by transferable certificates of shares. Such an arrangement between two or more associates is a simple contract which they have a right to mate, and which gives them no franchise or privilege from the government. Such an arrangement does not distinguish them in any way that the State can recognize and make the foundation of an excise tax. This was expressly decided in G/easo» v. McATaji, 134 Mass. 419." Opin- ion of the Justices in 196 Mass. 603, 627. The above applies to the great generality of corporations. The right of eminent domain given to some public service companies and to municipal corporations, and certain rights as to transportation, banking, insurance, etc., are special privileges for which multitudes of corporations, partnerships, and express trusts have no need, and give as little cause, therefore, either for prohibition or for special legislative control. 24 SECOND. That Corporations present the highest model for organized capital. Whereas of the three standards of administration offered by (1) Corpora- tions, (2) Partnerships, and (3) Express Trusts, that of Corporations is the lowest, while that of Express Trusts is the highest. The frauds for which abuse of State legislation creating artificial beings, called corporations, is responsible surpass all means of ascertaining. They have become a national scandal. It is the restoration of personal responsibility that statesmen, economists, and the wisest legislators are now demanding. One of the oldest, and unquestionably the highest and most efficient administrative method known is that through Trustees. No higher standards of administrative conduct are evoked by Courts than those which trusts require. To attempt now to prohibit Express Trusts, or to bring them to the level of corporations or impair their established common-law freedom and utility by unnecessary visitorial exactions, is such a blunder, that its manifestation must be attributed to an oversight. Not only are the principals of law and equity well estab- lished in their application to Express Trusts, but they have been successfully adopted for generations quite inde- pendently of modern corporations, and in Massachusetts they are applied to property valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, with increasing approval among as able and conservative business and professional men as are to be found in New England. If there have been efforts by any State Department to discourage the application of these sound principles, and the maintenance of that personality in affairs which corpora- tions are designedly organized to suppress, they are to be regretted. 25 The doctrine of reimbursement to trustees, and that of a Hmited UabiUty between trustees and contracting parties, are as much in harmony with pubHc poHcy, and are as fundamental and well established as any doctrines under which fiduciaries perform their duties, and in point of senior- ity outrank later day limited liability partnership statutes and limited liability corporation statutes, which public policy accepts, such statutes being a recognition of the common law. It may be safe to affirm that for a single instance of disappointment in the application of these doctrines there could be found thousands of instances where the wisdom of their recognition and employment is manifest. To attempt now by general repressive legislation to inter- fere with what has been acquiesced in so long, is so well understood, is so useful, and so accordant with public policy, would be an economic error. Our laws in regard to testamentary trusts under wills, and to conveyancing, are in daily force for the welfare of individuals and of the State; but who would subvert their confirmed principles because an occasional defective will or deed appears? Such casual slips can be rectified by themselves. The great current of legitimate procedure in the execution of Express Trusts should not be embar- rassed because of some suspected transgression or mis- apprehended legal right. 26 THIRD. That Express Trusts are Partnerships. Whereas the law of Partnerships is a branch of the law of Principal and Agent, while Trustees under an Ex- press Trust are the absolute Principals, but accounting to the benefici- aries, who have no powers either as Principals or Agents in actual administration. This distinction is clear and indisputable. Joint-stock companies, as known in England and in some of the United States,* are unknown to the laws of Massachusetts. Richer v. American Loan & Trust Co., 140 Mass. 346, 347-8. Eliot V. Freeman, 220 U. S. 178, 187. Express Trusts, whether created under wills, deeds of settlement, assignments for the benefit of creditors, re- ceiverships, or by special declarations of trust, to manage property or carry on business, are neither corporations nor joint-stock companies nor partnerships, but they em- ploy a distinct and the highest known method of adminis- tration. "A lthough every trust may be said to include a contract, it includes so much more, and the purposes for which the machinery of trusts is employed are of so different a kind, that trusts are distinct in a marked way, not merely from every other species of contract, but from all other con- tracts as a genus." Wald's Pollock on Contracts, p. 231. Debts incurred under Express Trusts are not the debts of the beneficiaries under the trust, but are the personal debts of the Trustees, who are not agents, but are the absolute owners and principals. The Trustees have to account, of course, to the beneficiaries; but the benefi- ciaries have no partnership powers; and a strict Express Trust cannot be held as to its beneficiaries to be a partner- ship, with partnership powers and liabilities, without creat- ing confusion and a mischievous subversion of established principles. *New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Oliio, and Michigan. 27 "The issue or transfer of a share in a joint-slock company makes the new shareholder a partner, and a party therefore to all contracts made by the company. In the case of a trust, the certificate holder is not a partner or a party to any contract of the trustees." Parsons on Partnership, §449 (4th Ed.) "To my mind the distinction between a director and a trustee is an ssential distinction founded on the very nature of things. A trustee is a man who 'is the owner of the property, and deals with it as principal, as owner, and as master, subject only to an equitable obligation to account to some persons to Whom he stands in the relation of trustee, and who are his cestui qui trust. . . . The office of director is that of a paid servant of the company. A director never enters into a contract for himself, but he enters into contracts for his principal, that is, for the company of whom he is a director and for whom he is acting. He cannot sue on such con- tracts nor be sued on them unless he exceeds his authority. That seems to me to be the broad distinction between trustees and directors." Per James, L.J., in Smith V. Anderson, L. R. 15, Ch. D. 247, 275-6. "A trustee is not an agent. An agent represents and acts for his principal, who may be either a natural or artificial person. A trustee may be defined generally as a person in whom some estate, interest, or power in or afiecting property is vested for the benefit of another. When an agent contracts in the name of his principal, the principal contracts and is bound, but the agent is not. When u trustee contracts as such unless he is bound no one is bound; for he has no principal. The trust estate cannot prom- ise; the contract is, therefore, the personal undertaking of the trustee. . . . If a trustee, contracting for the benefit of a trust, wants to protect himself from individual liability on the contract, he must stipulate that he is not to be personally responsible, but that the other party is to look solely to the trust estate." Per Mr. Justice Woods in Taylor v. Davis, 110 U. S. 330, 334, 335; 28 L. Ed. 163, 165. Lackett v. Rum- baugh, 45 Fed. Rep. 23, 29. "There is no analogy between an instrument which establishes an agency and one which creates a trust. Where an agency exists, the principal may at any moment interfere; and at all times he is, in legal contemplation, in control of the business. Not so when a party has parted with the title to his property, and has created a trust which vests in such trustee the right to manage the business as the proprietor thereof, he being accountable to the beneficiary, not as his principal, but as a mere cestui que trust, under the terms of the trust instrument." Per Corliss, Ch.J., in Welles-Stone Mercantile Co. v. Grover, 7 N. D. 460, 474; 41 L. R. A. 252, 257. The literature upon this subject reveals that inattention, in this important matter, to the distinction in corporate powers between bestowing certain special r ghts and merely recognizing and employing certain natural common-law rights, has at times tended to a misapprehension, intensified by the 28 added mistake of regarding the relation between Trustee and beneficiary as identical with that between principal and agent. But keeping the proper distinctions in view, the class of Massachusetts cases that have recognized as partnerships certain joint-stock companies, certain admitted to be asso- ciations and admitted to be copartnerships (such as Phillips V. Blatchford, 137 Mass. 510), are readily distinguished from strict Express Trusts. That Express Trusts are not necessarily partnerships was unanimously decided by our Supreme Judicial Court, through Mr. Justice Charles Allen, in Mayo v. Moritz, 151 Mass. 481, 484, when he wrote that: — "The deed of trust does not have the effect to make the scrip-holders partners. It does not contemplate the carrying on of a partnership business upon the joint account of the grantor and the scrip-holders, and in this respect the case is unlike Gleason v. McKay, 134 Mass. 419, and Phillips v. Blatchford, 137 Mass. 510. The scrip-holders are cestui gui trust, and are entitled to their share of the avails of the property when the same is sold." See also: — ■ Mason v. Pomeroy, 151 Mass. 164. (Mills in [Berkshire County, Massachusetts, managed by trustees.) Everett v. Drew, 129 Mass. 150, 151. Johnson v. Lewis, 6 Fed. Rep. 27, 28. Smith V. Anderson, L. R. 15 Ch. D. 247, 275-6, 284-5. Cox V.Hickman, 9 C. B. N. S. 47, 98-9; 8 H. of L. Cases, 268, 312. H Wells-Stone Mercantile Co. v. Grover, 7 N. D. 460; 41 L. R. A. 252. In the case of the "Municipal Trust" of London, with a capital of ^350,000, for the purpose of purchasing bonds of municipalities within the United States, and which came before the U. S. Circuit Court, it was held that: — / "The trust was not a corporation or joint-stock company or partnership, but u trust formed by deed of settlement for the purpose of securing investments. The Trustees were the legal owners of the trust property, and the business of the trust was managed by them and "the Committee" cre- ated by the deed for the benefit of the certificate holders, who were 29 strangers to each other, and who entered into no contract between themselves, nor with any trustee on behalf of each other, and were not, there- fore, partners." Per Caldwell, D.J., in Johnson v. Lewis et al., 6 Fed. Rep. 27, 28. So when assignments for the benefit of creditors are made, or a receiver is appointed, or the National Bank- rupt Act is applied, putting the debtor's property into the exclusive control of assignees or trustees, who may con- duct the business (Bankr. Act, 1898, 2 (5); Mass. Rev. Laws, Ch. 163, Sec. 64; Acts of 1910, Ch. 141), the bene- ficiaries or creditors do not become partners. Nor does a trustee's exercise of the common-law right to issue certi- ficates of beneficial interest alter the legal status of the parties, or borrow any corporate privilege. A leading case on this is found in Welles-Stone Mercantile Co. V. Grover, 7 North Dakota, 460; 41 L. R. A. 252, wherein two Massachusetts cases {Gleasonv. McKay, 134 Mass. 419, and Phillips v. Blatchford, 137 Mass. 510) were cited by the losing party to maintain that beneficiaries under a trust were partners, but the Court through Chief Justice Corliss, in a strong, comprehensive opinion, determined that the relation created by the instrument of assignment which authorized the operation and management of the business, was that of trustee and beneficiary and not that of principal and agent, and hence that the beneficiaries were not partners. The Chief Justice relied, among many others, upon the Massachusetts cases of Mayo v. Moritz, 151 Mass. 481, and Mason v. Pomeroy, 151 Mass. 164. Strong reliance was also placed by the Court on the leading English case of Cox V. Hickman, 9 C. B. N. S. 47; 8 H. of L. Cases, 268; where after various appeals the law lords (Lord Chancellor Campbell and Lords Brougham, Cranworth, Wensleydale, and Chelmsford) were unanimous that no partnership arose in the case of property placed in the hands of Trustees to manage for beneficiaries. . 30 While the law as to Trustees and beneficiaries is not a branch of the law of principal and agent, yet just the reverse is the case as to partnerships, for "The law as to Partnerships is undoubtedly a branch of the law of principal and agent; and it would tend to simplify and make more easy of solution the questions which arise on this subject, if this true prin- ciple were more constantly kept in view. Mr. Justice Story lays It down in the 1st section of his work on Partnership. He says, 'every partner is an agent of the partnership; and his rights, powers, duties, and obligations are in many respects governed by the same rules and principles as those of an agent. A partner, indeed, virtually embraces the character both of principal and agent,' per Lord Wensleydale, in Coxv. Hickman, 9 C. B. N. S. 47, 98-9; 8 H. of L. Cases, 268, 312. This case in now generally adopted in the United States. George on Partnership, 37, 43. "True partnership results from the intention of the parties." Gilmore on Partn., p. 10 (1911). "The rule which made the sharing of profits a test of partnerships rather than a test of intention to form a partnership was overthrown in England, and was never generally accepted in the United States." Gilmore on Partn., p. 19. "A true partnership is always formed by virtue of a contract between all the parties, and never by operation of law." Shumaker's Law of Partn., p. 4. "Under the modern doctrine of partnership, persons are not liable to third persons as partners, although they share profits, unless (a) They are really partners inter se or (b) Have held themselves out as partners under such circumstances as to estop them from denying it." Shumaker's Law of Partn., p. 16. "The intention of the parties, as gathered from a construction of the con- tract they have made, is the real test of the existence of a partnership." Shumaker's Law of Partn., p. 21. See also the elaborate foot note to Miller v. Simpson, 107 Va. 476, in 18 L. R. A. (N. S.) 963 to 1106, and espe- cially article XIII therein, on "The passing of the old and advent of the new test of partnership," p. 1066 et seq.; also article XIV therein on "The agency test," p. 1072; and article XXVI, the "Conclusion," p. 1105. Partners, therefore, are both principals and agents, as man- ifested by the intention of the parties under their con- tract. Beneficiaries under strict Express Trusts cannot be 31 partners, because they can be neither principals nor agents, the Trustees being the absolute principals, but bound to account to the beneficiaries as cestui que trustent. Everett v. Drew, 129 Mass. 150, 151. Mayo V. Moritz, 151 Mass. 481, 484. That individuals, or executors and administrators, or assignees and receivers, or partners under articles of co- partnership or under statutes as to limited partnerships, and a fortiori trustees under a will or under a deed of settlement or under an express trust, may lawfully limit their liability, accords with established doctrines of restric- tion by agreement or of stipulations limiting liability. Taylor v. Davis. 110 U. S. 330, 334-5, 28 L. Ed. 163, 165. Am. & Eng. Eneyc. Laws 22, pp. 142, 173. Executors and administrators "are regarded in almost every respect, in courts of equity, as trustees'' (Woerner on Administration, pp. 10, 798, 1117); their title, however, in the estate of the deceased is in autre droit merely {id. p. 386; 207 Mass. 6, 10); but the title held by Trustees under an Express Trust is absolute in the Trustees. It is incorrect to say that because stockholders in cor- porations are accorded certain exemptions from liability, that therefore trustees, partners, and others who employ the common-law right of limiting liability, are imitating corporations, or arrogating some of their privileges, for it is the corporations that are allowed to imitate or to rec- ognize and employ just what individuals and trustees and partners have a natural common-law right to do, and have been doing for an indefinite period, without bor- rowing any later day corporate incident. In substantiation of the right of Trustees to limit their liability by contract under the common law, the following authorities are conclusive : — 32 / "A trustee can be held personally for material ordered by him for the trust estate, and on contracts made by him in its behalf, unless there be a special agreement to look only to the trust." I. Perry on Trusts, § 437a and cases. "By using appropriate expressions the trustee can exempt himself alto- gether from personal liability or limit his liability to the extent of the trust." Trustees' Handbook, Loring, pp. 28, 77, 78, and cases. (3d Ed. 1907.) "The legal estate is in the trustee, and the equitable estate is in the cestui gue trust; but as the trustee holds the estate, although only with the power and for the purpose of managing it, he is bound personally by the contracts he makes as trustee, although designating himself as such; and nothing will discharge him hut an express provision, showing clearly that both parties agreed to act upon the responsibility of the funds alone, or of some other responsi- bility, exclusive of that of the trustee." I. Parsons on Contracts, p. 122. (8th Ed.) II. Page on Contracts, § 990, and many cases. "The right of making a contract, whereby those who tender it stipulate not to be bound beyond the amount of some specific pledged fund, must be a natural right growing out of the very nature of contracts." Per Verplanck, Sena- tor, in Warner v. Beers, 23 Wendell, 103, 151. "In dealing with the business world, a trustee cannot escape personal lia- bility unless he lawfully restricts his liability in the contract itself." . . . Of course, the parties may agree that the trustee shall not be held personally on the contract, but that only the trust estate itself shall be chargeable with the debt. In such a case . . . the trustee is not bound, but the fund is." Per Corliss, Ch. J., in Wells-Stone Mercantile Co. V. Grover, 7 N. D. 460, 463, 464; 41 L. R. A. 252, 253, 254. Bank of Topeka v. Eaton, 100 Fed. Rep. 8 (C. C.-Mass.-1900.) Chief Justice Knowlton in his opinion in Hussey v. Arnold, 185 Mass. 202, 204, says: — "Whether the trustees in this case, in dealing with the petitioner, provided against personal liability in accordance with the direction in the agreement, as they might do (see Shoe & Leather Nat. Bk. v. Dix, 123 Mass. 148), does not appear." . . . "If the trustees contracted in the usual way without referring to anything which would limit the liability resulting from an ordinary contract, they are personally liable," etc. Later in this opinion the Chief Justice, however, inter- jects a dictum as to "considerations of public policy in an attempt of this kind to do business without a legal liability of anybody for debts incurred by the trustees." But the Chief Justice appears to disparage (1) his previous recognition of the common-law right to Hmit liability to the fund or property; (2) the declaratory incorporation 33 of that common-law principle in limited partnership and in corporation acts; and (3) the everyday successful administration entirely in accord with public policy, under this trustee system, and under common-law rights, of prop- erty valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. Also (4) the Chief Justice's reference to the trustees, "As agents and trustees" (p. 204), appears to overlook the doctrine that trustees are not agents, but principals; and (5) he appears to slight the equitable relief attainable against the estate held by the trustees, and the settled doctrine of equitable ex- ecution upon the trustees' right of exoneration, as deter- mined in the case of Mason v. Ppmeroy, 151 Mass. 164, 167, recognized also in Mayo v. Moritz, 151 Mass. 481, 484-5, in Odd Fellows Hall Association v. McAllister, 153 Mass. 292, 297, and in Broadway Nat. Bk. v. Wood, 165 Mass. 312, 316 See also: — Hewitt V. Phelps, 105 U. S. 393, 400; 26 L. Ed. 1072. Story's Eq. II. § 978 n. (c) and cases. Wells-Stone Mercantile Co. v. Graver, 7 N. D. 460; 41 L. R. A. 252, and cases cited. Brown v. Eastern Slate Co., 134 Mass. 590. Norton v. Phelps, 54 Miss. 467, S. C. Ames' Cases on Trusts, 420 (2d Ed.), and cases cited. "Liability of Trust Estates for Contracts Made for Their Benefit." 15 Am. Law Rev. 449-462. "Undisclosed Principal." By James Barr Ames, in Yale Law Journal, May, 1909, pp. 450, 451. Bank of Topeka y. Eaton, 100 Fed. Rep. 8 (C.C.-Mass.-1900). Parsons on Partnership, § 447, and cases (4th Ed.). Underbill on Trusts & Trustees, §§ 347, 348 (6th Eng. Ed.). 34 FOURTH. That prohibitive or repressive or regulative legislation as to common- law modes of administration can be partial or unequal. Whereas inequality in that respect creates a Constitutional conflict. Prohibitive, repressive, or regulating laws should be uni- form; and if any attempt is made to select Trustees who issue transferable certificates under Express Trusts and to omit Trustees who do not issue such certificates, or to select partners who issue transferable shares and to omit part- ners who do not issue such shares, or to select Trustees and to omit partners, the Constitutional point of inequality is likely to arise, as in Gleason v. McKay, 134 Mass. 419, 425-6, which case set aside as unconstitutional the Act of 1878, Chap. 275, to tax "companies, copartnerships, and other associations, in which the beneficial interest is held in shares, which are assignable," etc.; for as Chief Justice Field said, in Minot v. Winthrop, 162 Mass. 113, 122, and quoted with approval by Chief Justice Knowlton and others in the opinion of the Justices in 196 Mass. 603, 628: — "As the tax considered in Gleason v. McKay was not upon a business or employment, and as there was no franchise or privilege conferred by the Legislature, the distinction between partnerships with transferable shares and those without rendered the tax unequal and unreasonable, because it was a discrimination founded upon an immaterial fact." "Every one has a right to demand that he be governed by general rules, and a special statute which, without his consent, singles his case out as one to be regulated by a diflerent law from that which is applied in all similar cases, would not be legitimate legislation, and would be such an arbitrary mandate as is not within the province of free governments." . . . "Equality of rights, privileges, and capacities unquestionably should be the aim of the law." . . . "The State, it is to be presumed, has no favors to bestow, and designs to inflict no arbitrary deprivation of rights." (Cooley's Const. Limitations, pp. 559, 562, 563, 7th Ed.) 35 The stampede to organize under corporation laws, and thus try in many cases to obtain something for nothing, by evading personal responsibility, has been perverted into a national disgrace, as the Hon. Woodrow Wilson so force- ably presented to the legal profession in his address at Chattanooga in 1910. It is the duty of that profession and of the Legislature, if any legislation is really necessary upon this score, rather to confirm the common-law natural right of all persons sui juris to manage affairs, whether as individuals, or as partners, or as assignees, or trustees under Express Trusts, as they now do, than to encourage the use of evasive cor- porate charters. In the great majority of cases adminis- tration through Express Trusts is superior to that of any other method. Mortality in Massachusetts for human beings has aver- aged during the past five years about sixteen (16) per cent for every 1,000 persons. Mortality for corporate beings with Massachusetts' imprimatur has averaged for the same period about sixty-four (64) per cent. Express Trusts are constitutionally far more healthy. Corporate impersonality in admnistration invites both fraud and disaster. Trust personality is the strongest safeguard against them. ( ( EXPRESS TRUSTS UNDER THE COMMON LAW." By Alfred D. Chandler, Esq., SUPPLEMENT. June 15, 1912. * The Legislature of Massachusetts during its session of 1912 has acted upon the Report of the State Tax Com- missioner, made under Chapter 55, of the Resolves of 1911, requiring him to investigate and report upon "Voluntary Associations," with a view to their prohibition or further control and regulation, and two new laws have resulted, neither of which prohibit Express Trusts or "Voluntary- Associations." One law (Chap. 595, Acts of 1912) authorizes corpora- tions to be formed in Massachusetts to acquire, manage and sell real estate, for a term not to exceed fifty years. The other law (Chap. 113, of the Resolves of 1912) pro- vides for a Commission to investigate the Holdings of "Voluntary Associations" and Certain Corporations and the Consolidation of Companies controlled by them, such Investigation being specifically directed to certain public utility Companies. The Commission is to be composed of the Attorney General, the Board of Railroad Commissioners, the Board of Gas and Electric Light Commission, two members of the Senate, and four members of the House of Represen- tatives, and it is to report to the next General Court not later than January 5th, 1913. Otherwise Express Trusts whether for the administra- tion of real estate or for industrial or commercial uses are not affected. CONTINUED DISSOLUTION OF MASSACHUSETTS CORPORATIONS. On pages 10 and 11 of *' Express Trusts under the Common Law'* the excessive mortality in conservative Massachusetts of its State cor- porate charters is presented, showing that in five years prior to 1912 Massachusetts corporations to the number of 4,154 were dissolved, or about 64 per cent, of the whole number created in that period. The Massachusetts Legislature of 1912 has continued this elimina- tion by dissolving 929 more of that State's corporate creations, a copy of the Act being here printed in full as impressive proof of the illusion ana instability of impersonal corporate bodies even in a conservative State. What the death rate of corporations is in other States is not known, but the Boston News Bureau for Dec. 4, 1911, affirmed that: — "In California about 4000 corporations will dissolve on Nov. 30, because of their failure to pay the required license tax; and in Missouri about 4000 more are liable to dissolution because of their failure to file the annual anti-trust statement required by the State law. The corporate form of ownership is much less prevalent there (West and South) ; and in consequence, dependence upon corporations is less general, and toleration of their methods is less in evidence." LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS, CHAPTER 313, ACTS OF 1912, "AN ACT to Dissolve Certain Corporations. Be it enacted, etc., as follows: Section 1. Such of tlie following-named cor- £ orations as are not already legally dissolved are ereby dissolved, subject to the provisions of sec- tions fifty-two and fifty-three of chapter four hundred and thirty-seven of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and three: — A. A. A. A, A, A, A. A, E. Ellis Building Co. H. Rice Lumber Company J. Leg^-Bakei: Company, The L. Whittemore Company Lowenstein and Sons (Incorporated) M. Abels, Inc. M. Thomas Company S. Alley Company Abbott-Detroit-Boston Company Abram French Company Ackotist Player Piano Company Acme Wet Wash Company Adams Trust Company Adamson Publishing Company Adco, Inc., The Aeroplane Company of America Agawam Telephone Company Alberta Cereal Company Alden and Tarbox, Incorporated Alhambra Mining Company Allen-Guild Amusement Company Inc. AUen-RandaU Company Along The Coast Publishing Co. Alstead Mica Company Alton Chemical Company Amalgam Mining and Milling Company, The American Automobile Company American Biscuit Company American Builders Finish Co. American Canadian Publishing Company American Canvas Goods Company American Citizen Co. American Co-operative Association of New Eng- land, The American Fibre Machine Company American Fruit and Products Co. American Good-Will Co. American Handle Company American Heel Company American Industrial Corporation American Iron Company American Kaolin Putty Corporation American National Film Company American Rapid Transit Company American Shoe and Leather Fair Company American Trading Company Inc. Anchor Paper Box Company Anderson's, Inc. Andrew M. Cusack Company Angler Company, The Annex Cigar Store Co. Anti-Germ Drinking Fountain Company Apparel Retailer Company Arcade Drug Company of New Bedford, The Armstrong Lumber Company, The Ashbumham Mills Ashburnham Reservoir Company Ashland Portable Company Associated Retail Dealers' Conlpany Atlantic Coast Forest Preserve and Improvement Company Atlantic Confectionery Co. Atlantic Investing Company Atlets Concrete Construction Company Atlas Construction Company Atlas Manufacturing Company Atwood Mitchell Company, The Auerbach and Co., Inc. Austin Company, The Austin Engineering and Construction Company Auto Goods Company Auto Supply Credit Company Automatic Rapid-Unloading Company Automatic Supplies Company Automatic Time Table Company Avon Lumber Company Avon Woolen Mills Company Azorean Company B. G. Underwood Co., Inc. B. M. Lovell Company B. Spinoza & Company, Inc. Bache-Hamlin Motor Company Back Bay Theatre Company Bacon Bros., Inc. Badger Manufacturing Company, The Bagley Construction Co. Ball and Goodrich Company Banker and Tradesman Press, Inc., The Bankers' Investment Company Bankers' Loan Company Barber Machinery Company Barberville Spring Water Company Barlow Manufacturing Company Barnes Company, The Barrell Pneumatic Tire Protector Company Barton Georges Creek Coal Company Basile Automobile Company Bates & Tyndall Incorporated Bay State Cornice & Skylight Works Bay State Dental Laboratory Company Bay State Dredging Company Bay State Fishing Company (Organized June 5 1905.) Bay State Hame Company Bay State Leather Company Bay State Supply Company Bay State Vineyard Company Bay State Whip Company Beacon Drug Company, The Beacon Foundry Co. Beacon Investment and Supply Company, The Bedford Manxofacturing Company, The Benjamin Hobart Company, The Benoit Transmitting Power Co., The Berkshire Creamery Co-operative Association Berkshire Hosiery Company Best Baking Company Bestosking Packing and Supply Company Black-on-White Reproduction Company Blackmer Express Company Blackstone Valley Lumber Company Blake Motor Company Blood-Reece Leather Company, The Bon Ton Cloak and Suit Manufacturing Co. Boston Amusement Company, Inc. Boston and Haverhill Despatch Company, Thp Boston & New York Hotel & Restaurant Co. Boston Bargain House, Inc. Boston Brokerage Company Boston Carpet Company Boston Coal Transfer Co. Boston Coin Machine Company Boston Cqld Storage Company Boston Collapsible Couch Company Boston Dental Mfg. Co. Boston Fish Terminal Inc. Boston Gas Engine Company Boston Licensed Automobile Dealers Association, Incorporated Boston Motor Truck Association, Incorporated Boston Net and Muslin Curtain Company Boston Notion House, Inc. Boston Parlor Frame Company , Boston School Company Boston Silk Petticoat Company Boston Specialty Co. Boston Telegraph Institute, Inc. Boston Toggle Company Boston Tool Company Boyce and Hatfield Hotel Company Boynton Auto Express Co. Bridge Company, The Bridge Street Drug Company Bridges Specialty Company' Brldgewater Electric Company, The Bristol County Furniture Company Broadway Investment Company Brockton Amusement Company Brockton Ideal Shoe Company Brockton Rubber Heel Company Brockton Trap-Rock, Company Bromograph Sales Company Brosnihan Wrench Company. The Brown Folding Umbrella Company Brown Stocking Company Burton Electric Cloth Treating Co. Bushway Ice Cream Company (Organized Nov. 30, 1908) Butler Motor Truck Company of New England Buzzards Bay Oyster Company, The Byron B. Moulton, Inc. C. &. L. Manufacturing Company C. D. R. Skirt Manufacturing Company C. G. Flynn Leather Company C. H. Brown Engine Company, The C. H. Loveland Company C. W. Alger Company, Incorporated C. W. Wilcox & Son Company Cambridge Amusement Company Cambridge Department Store Company Cape Ann News Company Cape Cod Oyster Company, The Carey Shoe Company Caribbean Fruit Company CsltI Seaberg Company Carlton Hotel Company Carson-Reidy Company Castle Square Drug Company Castle Square Garage, Inc. (I^axton Printers, Limited, The Central Chemical Company Central Drug Company. Century Monumental Works Charles A. Masters Company Charles Anderson Company (iharles F. Going Company Charles H. DivoU Company, The Chas. S. Champney, Irjcorporated (iharles W. Smith Company • Chase & Baker Company Chelsea Amusement Company Chelsea Cordage Company Chelsea Gas Light Company Chelsea Spring Manufacturing Conapany Chester Quarry Company, The (ihoate Drug and Chemical Company, The Church Press, Inc., The Clapp Tea Company, The ClsLTk Bros. Company Clark Chemical Company Clinton Fruit Company CUnton Times Publishing Company Cobb Stove and Machine Company Cobum Auto Sales Company, The Cohasset Electric Company Collins Pharmacy, Inc. Collver Tours Company, The Colonial Garage, Inc. Colonial Leather Goods Company Colonial Printing and PublisMng Company Colonial Silver Stores Company Colrain Electric Light & Power Company, The Columbia Inter -State Express Company Columbia Machine and Wood Screw Company Combination Envelope Company Commercial Motor Vehicle Association of Boston Commercial Oxygen Company, The Commercial Pioneer Institution (Incorp.) Conmionwealth Construction and Supply Company Commonwealth Mining Company Complete Combustion Utilities (Corp.) Compressed Air House Cleaning Company Conant, Whiting and Company (Incorporated) Concord Publishing Company, The Concord School Company Confectioners' Machinery and Manufacturing Company Conlon Cab and Taxi-Cab Co. Connery Transportation Company Consolidated Rubber Tire Co. of Boston Consolidated Secxirities Company Consumers Co-operative Purchasing Company Consum.ers Electric Company Consumers Glue Company Converse Laundry Company Conway Chair Company, The ' Co-operative Merchants' Cash Stamp Company Copley Motor Car Company Copley Trust Company Corinthian Artificial Stone Company Couch & Seeley Co. Crawford Machine Company Crippen Player Company Criterion Amusement Company, The Criterion Company Criterion Knitting Company Crowell-Clark Company Crowley and Gold Company Crown Motor Vehicle Company Cumberland Development Company Cumings Theatre, Inc. Cummings, Manufacturing Company Cycloidal Engineering Company D. C. Clark Shoe Company D. F. O'Connell Company Daley and Wanzer AUerton Express Company Daley's Nantasket Express Company Dalzell Axle Company Davis & Company, Incorporated Davis Automobile Sales Company, The Dawson's Business College, Inc. Deehan Drug Company Deerfield River Corporation Denison Sales Company Derrin Ice Cream Company Devonshire Confectionery Company Dillon Stable Company Dr. Burleigh Corporation, The Dr. George W. Swett Company Dodge Lubricator Company Dodge Plating Works Domestic Utilities Company Dorchester Plastic Roofing Company Drayton's Auto Express Company Drew Munson Fruit Company Duckworth Chain and M anuf acturing Company Dunbar Boot Shop, Incorporated Dunbar Manufacturing Company Dunning Manufacturing Company. The Dunstable Granite Company Duplex Spring Protector Company, The Durable Rug Company E. & L. Comb Company E. B. Wadsworth Co. E. C. Campbell Co. E. C. Fisher Corporation E. D. Thayer Company E. E. Brewster Company E. F. Reece Company, The E. H. Smith Company E. Houston Company E. P. Worth Manufacturing Company E. P. Worth Shoe Co., The E. S. Hulbert & Co., (Incorporated) E. S. Hunter Plating Co. E. S. Lincoln Inc. Eagle Cotton Gin Company East Watertown Drug Company, Inc. Eastern Chemical and Supply Co. Eastern Concrete Construction Company Eastern Counter Company Eastern Electric Company Eastern Excelsior Company Eastern Hardware Company Eastern Sanitary Products Co. Eastern Stone Ware Company Eastern Trading Company Eastern Wharf and Storage Company Easthampton Co-operative Association Eaton Building Co. Economy Adjustable Reflector Company Economy Pure Food Co. Edwards and Finkelstein Company Eldridge Ice Cream Company Electric Diamond Grinder Company, The Electric Textile Machinery Company Electrical Exposition, Incorporated Elk Horn Fibre Company Elliott Specialty Company, The Empire Sand & Gravel Company Enterprise Comb Company Enterprise Company of Pittsfield Ernest C. Marshall Company Eucalyptus Hardwood Timber Company Eucathol Company, The F. A. Hermann Company F. D. C. Manufacturing Company, Inc. F. D. Davis Company, The F. E. Butterfield Manufacturing Company, The F. H. Allis Company F. H. Coyne Company, The Fairbanks and Boynton Company, The Fall River Brick and Concrete Company, The Fall River Hotel Company Farm Products Company of New England, The Farr Remedy Company Faulkner Pharmacy, Inc. Fay Welding and Manufacturing Company Federal Automobile & Manufacturing Company Federal Securities Company Federal Vending Company Federation Bulletin Publishing Company Feiner Charcoal and Coal Company Ferguson- Blakeley Company Femcroft Cabin Company Field & Company, (Incorporated) Fitchburg Trust Company Flax Pond Fishing Company in Dennis Fobes Hayward & Co., (Incorporated) Forbush Penmanship System Foster-Williams Shoe Co., The Francis Dike, Inc. Francis Jewelry Company Francis Spring Co., Inc. Franco-American Economic Association Frank J. McPeake Company Frank L. Rouse Co., Inc. Franklin Amusement Company Franklin Power Company Fred A. Day Corporation Freeman Clothing Company Friedman Confectionery Company, The Fuller & Lewis, Incorporated Furniture Alliance, Inc., Ihe G. L. Freeman Company Gain Robinson Limriber Company Gallagher and Munro Company Gardner Finnish Co-operative Company Gazetteer Publishing Company, The Geer's Chemical Company, The Gem Leather Cora,pany Gem Refreshment Co. General Trap and "Weir Company George and Barry Leather Company Geo. B. Doane & Son Company George E. Feast Co. George E. Martin Produce Company Geo. G. Snow Company George G. Veness Manufacturing Co., Incorporated George J. Dunham Company Gilmanton Lumber Company Gilmore & Weniger Company Globe Credit Company Gloucester Dairy Company Gloucester Manufacturing Company Goodnow-Edmonds Company Grafton Press, Incorporated, The Graham, Moore Company Greater Boston Cigar Company Greylock Co-operative Creamery Association Grit Shoe Company, The Grocers Co-operative Cranberry Company Grodberg-Hirsch Pants Manufacturing Company Grossman Leather Company Guaranty Investment Company Guiana Rubber Company of America Gussman and Company (Inc.) Guy Hobbs Amusement Company, The H. E. Allen Co. H. E. Fiske Seed Company H. F. Curtis Company H. F. Hall Company H. H. Newcomb Company H. L. Tannenholz Company H. L. Tuttle Clothing Company Hale's Express Company Hall & Company, Inc. Hammond Clothing Company Hampden Distributing Company Hanson Grain and Coal Company Happy Moments Co. Harlow Lunch Company Harper Fish Company Harriman New Method Laundering and Cleansing Company, The Harrington and Company, Limited Harrison Drug Co. Harvard Baking Powder Company Harvey Hospital (Incorporated) Haviland Company, The Hawthorne Pharmacy, The Health Shoe Tree Company Heath Engineering Company Henry P. Wilson Company Herbert L. Stearns Company Herbert Manufacttuing Company Herman Motor Car Co. Higyene Company Hillcrest "Water Company Hillside Corporation Hingham Seam Face Granite Company Hirshe and Richenbiu-g Co. Holland Company Holyoke City Market and Grocery Company Holyoke Warp Company Hotel & Restaurant Holding Company Howe and Fletcher, Inc. Hub Automobile & Renting Company , Hub Curtain Company Hudson Lithuanian Corporation, The Human Life Publishing Company Hyde Park General Hospital, Inc. Hygienic Supply Company LB. Case Drug Company I. L. Corthell Company Ideal Silk Store, Incorporated Imperial Laundry Machinery Company Imperial Theatre Company Impervoline Gil Products Company Independent Auto Supply Co. Industrail Comb Company International Bedding Company International Electric Company International Oil Company International Pneumatic Service Company International Remedy Company International Securities Company Interstate Amusement Company Interstate Shoe Cleaning Machine Company Italian Co-operative Association of Beverly, Inc. Italian Importing Company , Incorporated Italo-American Construction Company J. C. Parsons Company J. D. Putnam Son Company J. F. Elkins Co. J. H. Young Company J. J. Reagan Company J. L. Bradley Company J. L. Temple Co. J. Lerner Company, Incorporated J. M. Chandler Co. J. Rush Green Company J. W. Jordan Company J. W. Luther Company J. W. Spence Company, The J. W. Tuttle & Sons Co. Jackson Wire Company Jamaica Amusement Company, The James F. Buckley of Woonsocket, Rhode Island (Incorporated) Jamesville Construction Company Jeremiah Clark Machinery Company Jersey Fabric Company John C. Frohn Company John F. Gill Company John J. Walsh Company, The John L. Whiting and Son Company John P. Keefe Leather Company of Salem, Mass. John T. Lodge & Co., Inc. John W. Watters Company Jordon Drug Company, The Joseph G. Fadden Company Josiah Grossman Company Keck Manufacturing Company Kenerson Stamping and Tool Mfg. Company Kenneth Motor Company Kent Manufacturing Company Kenubestos Valve Company Kepp Manufacturing Company Kidder C. Ames Blacking Company, Inc. King of All Stropper Co. Kinsley Iron and Machine Company Knowlton Packing Company (1905) Kosmos Oil Company Kress Brothers Carriage Company L. B. Gardner Company L. D. Wass Company L. L. P. Confectionery Company L. M. Bowes Company, The L. T. Barney & Co., (Inc.) Lakeside Mantifacturing Company Laminated Manufacturing Company Langham Pharmacy, The Larsson Whip Company Laundry Specialty Company, The Lawlor Sporting Goods Manufacturing Company Lawrence Automatic Telephone Company Lawrence Base Ball Association (1884) Lawrence Independent Telephone Company Leominster Fine Tool and Machine Works, Inc., The Lester R. Moulton Company Lever Cream Separator Company Lexington Peat Company Lithuanian and Polish Grocery and Provision Company Lithuanian Co-operative Association of Brighton, Massachusetts London Cloak Company London Studios Incorporated, The Lord- Travis Company, Incorporated Louisburg Company Louver Ventilator Company Lowell and Fitchburg Electric Company Lowell Hat Company Lowell Storage Warehouse Company Lucky Spud Company Lynn Paste Manufacturing Company Lynn RublDer Company M. A. Power Co., The M. E. Shattuck Cigar and Tobacco Company, The MacLean Bros. Company Mack Amusement Company Mack and O'Connell Co. Madame Cairns, Inc. Manning and Armstrong Company Manufacturers' Sales Company Marble Quality Manufacturing Company Marlborough Shoe Company Marshall Worsted Co. MarysVilie Wool Scoiu^ng Company Massachusetts Aktzia Incorporated Massachusetts and Rhode Island Despatch Ex- press Company, The Massachusetts Apple Orchards Company Massachusetts Associates, Inc. Massachusetts Automobile Company Massachusetts Bond Guarantee Corporation, The Massachusetts Caloric Bath Co. Massachusetts Concrete Company Massachusetts Construction Company Massachusetts Correspondence Schools Massachusetts General Business Company Massachusetts Junk Collectors Corporation Massachusetts Loan & Security Company Massachusetts-Ohio Oil and Gas Company Massachusetts Sales Company Massachusetts Textile Manufacturing Company Massachusetts Theatre Company Massachusetts Trading Company Massachusetts Vending Co. Massasoit Whip Company Matanzas Bay Company Matheson Company of Boston Maurice J. Borofsky Company McPherson Bros. Co. Mechanics Loan and Trust, (Inc.) Mechanics Loan Co. Mediterranean Yachting Club, The Melcher Company Men of Mark in Massachusetts Company Mercantile Discount Company Merchants Dye Works Merchants League, Incorporated Merchants Protective Association Merrimac Amusement Company Merrimac Valley Steamboat Company Merritt Black Granite Company Metropolitan Collections Company Middle Creek Canon Coal Leasing Company Middlesex Leather Company ' Middlesex North Pomona Grange Co-operative Association Middlesex Real Estate Association of Cambridge Middlesex Traders Ice Company, The Milliken and Robie, Incorporated Mitchell & Harding Lumber Co. Mitchell Coke Company Modern Dress and Waist Company Monarch Hammock Company Momingside Company, (Inc.), The Motor Car Renting Company Motorcycle Specialty Company Mount Washington Spring Company Mulliken Oil Co. Murch & Loomis Company Music Hall Amusement Company Mutual Shoe Company, The Nahant Amusement Company Nashua River Paper Company (1894) Natick Citizen Printing Company, The National Art Academy, Inc. National Aviation and Construction Company National Butchers' Tool Supply Company National Cash Trading System Co. National Chemical & Supply Co. National Electric Equipment Company National Envelope Sealing and Stamping Manu- facturing Company National Feather Dyeing and Cleaning Company National Motion^ Picture Maunfacturing Company The National Motor Car Company of Boston National Self -Warning Fire Alarm Co., The National Textile Exposition, Inc. National Theatre Corporation National Ventilating Company, The Naiunkeag Warehouse Company Neponset River Coal Company New Bedford Polo Association New Bedford Waste Company, Inc. New England Amusement Company, The New England Automatic Shoe-Shining Company, The New England Barrel Machine Mfg. Co. New England Collateral Loan Company New England Delivery Co. New England Furnace Company, The New England Motor Truck Co. New England Patent Stage Company New England Shoe Manufacturing Company New England Society, Inc., The New England Trade Development Company, The New England Trading Company, The New England Underwriters, Incorporated New Hampshire Rawhide Pulp Board Box Co. New System Motor Company New York Leather Company Newton Kindergarten Nichols-Hill Co., Inc. Nickerson Manufacturing Company, The Nicolet Optical Company Norfolk and Bristol Gas and Electric Company North Shore Automobile Company North Shore Leather Company North Shore Transit Company Northampton Tobacco Co. Northern Massachusetts Street Railway, Company Noyes & Dewar Company Oak Grove Farm Creamery Company O'Brien Company Old Colony Construction Company Olds-Oakland Company of New England Olympic Art Society O'Neil Auto Garage Company Onesimus Medical Company Orient Distributing Co., Ltd. Osgood Novelty Company Overland Express Company, The P. J. Ferguson Company, (Inc.) Pacific Metal and Rubber Company Paddon Motor Company Pan-American Exporting and Importing Company, The Parisian Jewelry Company Parker & Jacobs, Incorporated Parker- Durant Co. Parker J. Webber Company Parker-Turco Company, The Pastime Theatre Co. of Lawrence Inc. Patent Stopple Manufacturing Company Pawtucket Granolithic Construction Co. Payson and Company, Incorporated Peacock Company, The Peck and "Whipple Company Pelley Toilet Tissue Company Pen and Pencil Magazine Company, The People's Coal and "Wood Co. People's Co-operative Society People's Co-operative Store, The Pepsinade Company, The Perfect Hat Frame Machine Company Perkins Manufacturing Company Pernin School of Business Inc., The Peteisburg Leather Company of Boston Philbrick and Webster, Inc. Pine Grove Mineral Spring Company, The Pittsfield Aero Company Pittsfield Soap Company Plymouth Cement Stone Co. Plymouth County Publishing Company Pnetunatic Life Saving Jacket Company Polar Brand Waist Company Polish Co-operative Market, Inc. Polish Co-operative Store, (Inc.), The Polonia Baking Co. Porter-Hildreth Company, The Porter Manufacturing & Cement Company Porter Whidded Company, The Powers Lunch Company Pratt-Reid Shoe Company Premier Comb Company Premier Leather Company Priscilla Woolen Company Prospect Farm, Incorporated Providence Parcel Post Corporation Prudential Supply Company Puddington Manufacturing Company Puritan Dental Co., The Puritan Farm Products Company Puritan Stain and Blacking Company Queen Theatre Company Quincy Adams Quarry Company Quincy Hack and Stable Company Quinsigamond Electric Power and Light Company R. E. Willard & Son, Incorporated R. Farland & Sons Company - Ralph F. Russett Company Randolph Baseball Association, Inc. Ravenel Company, The (Organized April 27, 1911) Redding Automatic Time Switch Company Regal Motor Company Reliable Auto Company Reliance Motor Bus Company Reliance Motor Truck Company of Massachusetts Relindo Cushion Shoe Company Remington Company, The Rice Kendall Company, The Richard Bros, and Company, Inc. Richardson Provision Company Richmond Iron Company, The Richmond Lake Ice Company Riverdale Woolen Company, The Riverside Japannery, (Inc.), The Robart-Carleton Co. Robert H. Herriman Company, Inc. Robert S. Jones Company Rochester Hotel Company, The Rock Ridge Farm Co. Rocky Hill Crystal Spring Water Company Roxbury Storage Salesrooms, Incorporated Royal Manufacturing Company Ruggles Motor Company Russell M ines. Inc. Ryder-Roberts Company, The S. C. Talbot Corporation S, D. Viets Company S. G. Hall Manufacturing Company S. Stayman Company Safety Door Check Company Salem, Beverly and Danvers Tow Boat Company, The Salem Shoe Manufacturing Company Salem Stone Tool Company Salisbury Beach Corporation Samano American Company, The Samson Draught Spring Company Samuel M. Green, Incorporated Sando Engineering Company Sanford Whip Company Sanitary Plumbing Co., The Savin Drug Company, The Sawyer, Regan Company Schmalz Publication Company Scott Manufacturing Company Sears and Chapin Mining Company Seeton Studio, Inc., The Seldon Motor Car (Company of Massachusetts Shaffer Sales Company, The Sheepskin Company Shelbume Falls Electric Light & Power Company Shoe Buyers' Information Bureau Shofit Mirror Company, The Shredded Fibre Company Sidney Drew Company, Incorporated Sippewissett Hotel Company Sisters Rosemary, Inc. Sixth Oakland Syndicate, Incorporated Sixth Oakland Syndicate, Incorporated Smith and McNault Company Smith Paper Company South Shore Steamship Company Southern Holding Company, The Southern Illinois Coal Company Southern Massachusetts Merchants Secret Service Agency, The Southgate Woolen Company Sovereign Incandescent Light Company, The Sparks Stain and Blacking Company, The Specialty Distributing Company, The Sprague and Breed Coal Company Sprague Manufacturing Company Springer Sanitarium Company, The Springfield Brazing Company Springfield Building Company Springfield City Market Company Springfield Hat and Cap Co., The Springfield Hotel Corporation Springfield Mica Company Springfield Portable House Company Springfield Storage Warehouse Company Springfield Theatre Company Springfield Theatrical Stage Hardware Company Sproule Amusement Company, The Standard Traction Tread Company Star Laundry Co. Sterling Fruit Products Company, The Stevens-Sowers Motor Car Company Stilson Motor Car Company Stirk Manufacturing Company Stockwell Brothers' Company Stoughton Auto Express Company Stoughton Lithuanian Co-operative Association, The Stoughton Record Company Suburban Auto Supply Company Suburban Club House Corporation Suffolk Silk Company Suomi Granite Company Swanson, Toombs & Sximner Company Sylvia Steamboat Co., The Synthetic Company, The T. Berman Co. T. M. Smith & Co., Incorporated Taconic Manufacturing Company Talbot-Humphrey Company, The Tappey-Kraus Calfskin Company Taunton Taxicab Company Tavella Shuttleless Loom Company Taxa Cab Company of Cambridge Taylor Motor Sales Company Thomas J. Gavin Company Thomas J. Young Company Thos. W. Spencer Company Thompson Lug Strap Company, The Tower Engineering Company, The Trade & Home Protection Company Traders Wharf and Warehouse Company Tribune Publishing Company Tropical Shipping and Trading Company Truscott Boat Manufacturing Company of Massa- chusetts. Tucker and Cook Manufacturing Com,pany Tudor Farm Motor Car Club Turner Last Manufacturing Company, The Twin Polish Com.pany Tyer-Collett Company, Inc., The U. S. Automatic Lighting Company Ungvasky Fur Company Union Auto Transportation Company Union Biscuit Company Union Brick and Machine Company Union Portsmouth Express Company Union Shoe Company Union Skewer Company Unique Shoe Manufacturing Company United Food Products Company United Outfitters Company- United Slipper Manufacturing Company United States Airomotor Company United States Optical Company Universal Blade Stropper Co. University Schools of Correspondence V. H. Moody Shoe Company Valley Falls Iron Foundry, Inc. Verescar Paint Company Vermont Lime Company, The Vigosan Medicine Company, The Vinemont Company, The Vineyard Haven Electric Light and Power Com- pany, The Virginia Timber Co. Vortex Vacuum Company, The W. D. Brackett Company W. E. Chipman Company W. G. Hall Fur Company W. H. Hayes Company W. J. Paine Co. W. J. Riley Company W. R. Cox Co. Waite-Robbins Motor Company Waldorf Company, The Wales Manufacturing Company, The Walker Drug Company Walker -Rintels Company, The Waltham Artificial Stone Company, The Waltham Gas Light Company Warren Automobile Company Warren P. Tobey Co. Washington Lunch Incorporated Washington Transportation Company- Washington Trust Company of Boston Water Power Development Company Waterhouse Company, The Waterproof Fibre Company Waterproof Linen Co. Waverley Drug Company Weather- Leather Company, The Weldon Leather Company Wellesley Auto Transit Company Wentworth, Good and Alger Company, The West Lynn Lumber Company- West Lynn Shoe Manufacturing Company West Newbury Co-operative Creamery Company, The Westfield River Lumber Company Wheeler and Shaw, Incorporated Wheelock Fence Co. Wheelock Rust-Proof Fence Co. Whiben Sales and Advertising Company White Eagle Bottling Company White Star Laundry Company, The Whitman Board of Trade Corporation Whitman Pharmacal Company Whitney Jewelry Company, The Wilder P. Clark Company William B. Hale Cigar Company, The William H. Franklin Brass Foundry Company William Morris, Incorporated Winnisimmet Amusement Company, The Winthrop Building Association, (Incorporated) Witherell Fish Company, The Wold Machine Company Woods-Allis Company Worcester Blacking Company Worcester Hebrew Co-operative Market Co. Worcester Leather and Heel Manufacturing Com- pany, The Worcester Railway Supply Co. Worcester Stonebrick and Tile Company, The World Glass Company Worthington Transportation Company Worthy Paper Company Wright Company 25 Cent Stores, Inc., The Wyoming Land & Live Stock Company Sect. 2. Nothing in this act shall be construed to affect any suit now pending by or against any corporation mentioned in the first section hereof, nor any suit now pending or hereafter brought for any liability now existing against the stockholders or officers of any such corporation, nor to re-vive any charter previously annulled or corporation previously dissolved, nor to make valid any de- fective organization of any of the supposed cor- porations mentioned in said first section. Sect. 3. Suits upon choses in actions arising out of contracts sold or assigned by any corpora- tion dissolved by this act may be brought or prose- cuted in the name of the purchaser or assignee. The fact of sale or assignment and of purchase by the plaintifE shall be set forth in the writ or other process; and the defendant may avail himself of any matter of defense of which he might have availed himself in a suit upon the claim by such corporation, had it not been dissolved by this act. Sect. 4. This act shall take efEect upon its peissage. Approved March 25,1912." I