Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1908-09-05

regulate criminal prosecutions and
proceedings or provide that acts done
by certain classes of persons shall be
crimes are valid as applied to all of a
class where the classification is based
on a reasonable distinction; and 1t is
for the legislature and not for the
courts to decide what is a reasonable
d stinction, the courts being able to
hold a law unconstitutional only
when the classification is based on
purely arbitrary grounds. (S Cyc
10F5.)
In discussing this character of leg
islation, Judge Cooley in his work on
Constitutional Limitations, says, at
page 1872: 'The legislature may also
: deem it desirable to prescribe pc
: culiar rules for the several occupa-
3 lions and to establish distinctions in
s the rights, obligations, duties and ca
D p~acities of citizens. The business of
: common carriers, for instance, and of
bankers may require special statu-
4 lOtJ lCbuialAOho bAN 6CA~
fit and it may be a matter of public
policy to give laborers in n BUSH
" ness a specific lien for their wages
when it would be impractical or inn
nolitic to do the same for persons
engaged in some other employment.
If If the laws be otherwise unobjec-
\. tionable all that can be required in
a these cases or locality to which they
c. apply; and they are then public in
m character and of their propriety and
a poiice the legislature must Judge"
H. In Dent VS.. West Virginia, 1923
u. s. 124, the supreme court of the
y, United States says: Legislation is
V. not open to the charge of depriving
one of his rights without due process
of law if it be general in its opera
ton upon the subjects to which 1t re-
lates."
ne And in the State VS.. Loomis, lis
al Mo. 3O7, 22 S.. w. $50, Mr.. Justice
nu Black, speaking for the court says:
''e There is no doubt but many of our
VI legislative enactments operate upon
classes of individuals only and they
. are not invalid because reasonable
Gu and not arbitrary. Thus, it is perfect
ly competent to legislate concerning
u married women, minors, insane per-
sons, bankers, common carriers and
the like"
the
-, A statute that made 1t a misde-
meanor for a banker to discount any
note, bill of exchange or draft at a
higher rate of interest than s per
cent per annum was upheld as a con
stitutional enactment in Youngblood
VS.. Birmingham T. & s. CO., So Ala
521, 35 Am. st. Rep. 245. In that
case it will be observed the law made
it a misdeamonr for a banker to dis
count a note at a higher rate Of In
terest than 8 per cent, while an!
~ other person might do the same thinl
without mourning the penalty of thu
law. And in considering the ques
ton of whether or not the statut,
: violated the constitutional provision
which is here involved the court il
that case says: 1T is quite erroneou
DON to say it is class legislation, in a vi
Ease tiating sense. 1t does apply to
the class, of course, as do many othe
any, statutes in our jurisprudence, who's
yer- validity has never been and can nc
be successfully questioned; as, 10
instance, statutes regulating raj
rges roads, physicians lawyers, commo
the carriers, warehousemen, etc, but lk
ing. all these, its application is to all of
rom number of persons, natural and art
as a fetal, whose occupation and bushes
tank mark the lines of the class to whiC
k he they belong, and as members
said which they are each and all, withor
q of ~invidious distinction whatever, anne
able to it's terms solely because TIL
d pursue an avocation which the la
mon making power conceives should
d by specially regulated"
legal 1t is perfectly obvious that the lie
the i~slature intended by the banking a
~ of OF lSOI 10 suppress fraudulent ban
allie ing and to prohibit the business
ed as banking being conducted by an
stion solvent person, company, or corpol
al ton, 1t therefore inficts punishme
nte a upon persons who engage in I
fend- banking business with knowled
VS. OF that the bank is insolvent. A ba
implies capital. and capital invi
tends confidence. A man holding hims
y the out as a banker thereby gives pull
!. and proclamation that he has money Q
on is property readily convertible i
lation money in his possession and subj
| be- to his control and for that reason
v and may be safely trusted. It requires
1t the augmentation or citation OF auth