STATUTE-Continued.

2. The constitutional right of the legislature to pass a law fixing a test by
which population is to be determined carries with it the right to change
the test, and this right is not taken away or suspended by the fact that
its exercise may result in shifting some city from one class into another.
-State ex rel. v. County Board of St. Louis County, 126.

3. The legislature has no power to adopt a means of determining population
which is arbitrary and designed merely as an evasion of the Constitu-
tion; but we cannot say that the statute adopted in this case, making
the state census alone the test of population, whereas under the previous
law resort was had to the latest census, state or Federal, was wholly
arbitrary, evasive or without reason.

-State ex rel. v. County Board of St. Louis County, 126.

TITLE AND SUBJECT OF ACT.

4. A section of a statute providing for compensation of clerks of district
courts for duties placed upon them by the act, is not unconstitutional
because the title of the act is merely "an act regulating the collection,
indexing, preservation and use as evidence, of vital statistics."

-Gard v. County of Otter Tail, 137.

5. The purpose of Constitution, art. 4, § 27, is to prevent combining in one
act, for log rolling or other improper purposes, matters pertaining to
diverse and unconnected subjects, to provide for apprising the legisla-
ture and the public through the title of the act, of the general subject-
matter with which it deals; and to secure a separate consideration of
each distinct legislative measure. This constitutional provision is to be
construed liberally and all doubts solved in favor of a sufficiency of the
title of an act adopted by the legislature.

-State v. People's Ice Co. 308.

6. The title to chapter 250, p. 347, Laws 1911, held to sufficiently comply
with the constitutional requirement that no law shall embrace more
than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title.

-Gard v. County of Otter Tail, 136.

7. Section 4 of the act providing for compensation of clerks of the district
court of certain counties for the duties thereby imposed held not to
extend or amend chapter 423, Sp. Laws 1891, fixing the compensation
of the clerk of the district court of Otter Tail county.
-Gard v. County of Otter Tail, 136.

8. Section 5 of the act excludes from the operation of section 4 all counties
having a population of 100,000. It is held that the classification is not
arbitrary or unreasonable, but, on the contrary, has reasonable basis

STATUTE-Continued.

for its support, and therefore is not a violation of the provisions of
the Constitution prohibiting special legislation.

-Gard v. County of Otter Tail, 136.

9. Chapter 156, p. 197, Laws of 1911 (G. S. 1913, §§ 4611-4623), establish-
ing a department of weights and measures, does not violate the consti-
tutional provision that "no law shall embrace more than one subject,
which shall be expressed in its title."

-State v. People's Ice Co. 307.

REVISED LAWS 1905-SUBDIVISION OF SUBJECT MATTER.
See ACTION, 3.

10. Unlike the revision of 1850, in which the several chapters were enacted
separately, the revision of 1905 was presented for adoption as a single
act and was enacted as an entirety. The titles into which the various
chapters had previously been subdivided were eliminated and the sec-
tions were numbered consecutively throughout the entire act. The laws
as revised were divided into 5 parts and were subdivided into 108
chapters.

-Bond v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co. 202.

11. The act did not subdivide the chapters except into sections, but provision
was made for inserting appropriate headlines. The commissioner charged
with the duty of editing the act for the printer was authorized "to
change headlines; to insert, alter or omit subheads." Laws 1905, c. 218.
§ 3. The headlines were not a part of the act and were inserted merely
as a matter of convenience.

-Bond v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co. 202.

CONSTRUCTION OF LANGUAGE.

12. The language of a statute is to be construed in harmony with the ordinary
rules of grammar, except only when such construction will lead to a
result obviously contrary to the intention of the legislature.

-State v. Minneapolis Milk Co. 35.

13. Where a statute is perfectly clear and unambiguous, a doubt or ambiguity
in its meaning cannot be raised by reference to the original statute of
which the new is a revision.

-State v. Minneapolis Milk Co. 39.

14. Sections 7036, 7037, G. S. 1913, giving a lien to anyone who at the request
of the owner or legal possessor of any personal property transports it
from one place to another or stores it as a warehouseman or bailee, refers
to animate and inanimate property in the same terms and cannot be
held to mean one and not the other.

-Monthly Instalment Loan Co. v. Skellet Co. 145, 146.

STATUTE-Continued.

15. Section 9010, G. S. 1913, being a penal statute must be strictly construed.
-Street v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co. 521, 522.

32 St. 797, 799, c. 487, § 13. Bankrupt act of 1898

256

324

324, 325
324

272, 275
275

48

§ 1510. Taxes-personal property defined

§ 1602. Same redemption from sale within three years

§ 1616. Same-tenant or occupant

§ 1617. Sale of forfeited property

§ 2606. Corporations-private property for public use

§ 3653. School house sites

§§ 6955, 6956. Trusts and pools-prevention

REVISED LAWS, 1905.

§ 66. Executive officers-payment of fees into state treasury

§ 698. Villages and boroughs

§ 699. Same-surrender of charter

§ 746. Same classification ..

§ 768. Notice of claims for personal injury against city or village 257

§ 2295. Board of medical examiners

§ 2296. Physician and surgeon-examination-license

§ 2298. Same-record of license

§ 2299. Same-exemptions

....

259, 260
398, 403, 404

399, 404, 405, 406

404, 405

326

167

139

152

152, 153

152

152

§ 2524.

Eminent domain-petition and notice to state

§ 2878. Corporations-capital stock

c. 58, §§ 2838-3190. Corporations

§ 3068. Manufacturing corporations

199, 202, 203

200, 201, 202, 203

203

199

202

199

208

112

256

256

478

195

46

313

47

35, 38, 39, 40, 46, 47, 48

128
107, 110

§ 5168. Trusts and combinations 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 45, 46,

§ 5169.

Same-forfeiture of franchise

........

457

§§ 1651-1663. Same-annexation of territory

§§ 1786-1789. Notice of claims for personal injury against city or

499

128

128

303

127

village

257, 260