A colored man was brought before a police judge charged with stealing chickens. He pleaded guilty and received sentence, when the judge asked how it was he managed to lift those chickens right under the window of the owner's house when there was a dog in the yard.

"Hit wouldn't be no use, jedge." said the man, "to try to 'splain dis thing to yo'. Ef you was to try it you like as not would get yer hide full of shot an get no chickens, nuther. Ef yo, want to engage in any rascality, judge, yo 'better stick to de bench, whar, yo, am familiar."

Cupid's Remedies.-"My girl's parents wont let me see her'. Can I get injunction or some sort of law paper?" "I should think a writ of attachment would be in order between you and the girl." Courier-Journal.

A Disgusted Pig.—“Patrick, you were on a bad spree yesterday." "Yis, sor, I wuz. Bless me, if I weren't alayin' in the gutter wid a pig. Father Dunn came along, looked at me, an' says, says he, 'One is known by the company he kapes.'

"And did you get up, Patrick?"

"No, but the pig did."

Nat. Corpor. Reporter,-Virg. L. Register

There was a merchant named Berry. He sent a bill to a lawyer before it was due. Upon receiving it, the lawyer replied: Berry, you have sent your bill Berry, before it was due-Berry. Upon my feelings you are a raspBerry, your father the elder-Berry, would not have been such a goose-Berry. But you need not look so blue-Berry, for. I dont care a straw-Berry and if you write again before June-Berry, I'il maul you until you are a black-Berry.

"Gentlemen of the jury," said the prosecuting attorney, "this prisoner is an unmitigated scoundrel; he acknowledges it. And yet, thanks to the wisdom of the common law, he has been given a fair trial by a jury of his peers. Law Student's Helper

THE

OKLAHOMA

LAW JOURNAL

EDITED AND PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY

D. H. FERNANDES, GUTHRIE, Oklahoma.

VOL. 12.

September, 1913.

No. 3

A REVIEW of the YEAR'S ADVANCE in LAW and GOVERNMENT. The Annual Address of the Director of the Bureau of Comparative Law of the American Bar Association, Delivered at Montreal, Canada, on September 2, 1913, by Simeon E. Baldwin, Governor of Connecticut.

A new international foundation was established in England in 1912 by Sir Richard Galton-the "Galton Foundation for Promoting the Study of International Polity.” Its field seems to cover not only both public and private international law, but those principles of national convictions which govern the local development of each country, and vitally affect the public relations of all. Militarism. - The Inter-Parliamentary Union, which meets this month at the Hague, will have before it a report from its commission on permanent neutrality. It favors the establishment, by consent of all nations, manifested by a proper treaty, of a right to any power to assume that position, after due notice to other powers, and of a duty on their part to respect such neutrality. The neutral state may thereafter wage only a defensive war.

France in August, 1913, increased the term of compulsory military service from two years to three. This must tend to check the growth of her population, and reduce her industrial output.

Pan-American Codification.-The Pan-American Commission for the Codification of International Law, both public and private, was organized at Rio de Janeiro in June, 1912. Six committees were appointed, to meet respectively at Washington, Rio de Janerio, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Lima. The whole commission convenes to consider their reports in 1914.

While this body was created by the Congress of Rio de Janeiro, in 1906, the United States did not give its adhesion to the convention under which it was established until May 1912.

International Postage.-The conference at Madrid of the Universal Postal Union, appointed for next year, is to consider the advisability of reducing the standard rate of international postage on a letter of ordinary size from five cents to two cents

Rights of Aliens.—Japan has not yet put into effect her statute of 1910 regulating the acquisition of real estate by foreigners. It was to be in force on and after such a day as the Emperor might appoint, and no such order has yet been promulgated. The existing law of Japan only allows such acquisitions through a Japanese trustee. The new statute will permit a direct conveyance to the foreigner, but only if he resides in the empire, or is a corporation with an establishment there. If a grantee should leave the country, he would be forced to sell within five years, under pain of confiscation.

Illegitimate Children.-Berlin in 1912, adopted the Lipsic plan of providing public guardianship for all illegitimate children. Each illegitimate birth is reported to a municipal bureau, which nominates a proper guardian to the court of guardianship. There are now three professional guardians employed by the city, who have the charge of about 3,100 children. It is part of their office to secure a proper contribution from the father. In the city of Dresden, when this plan was introduced in 1907, there were then only 137 fathers making any such contribution; in 1910 the number had been increased to over 1200.

Changes in State Constitutions.-(Ohio) Of the fortytwo amendments submitted last fall to the people by the Constitutional Convention, only eight were rejected. Among the eight was one abolishing capital punishment; another granting woman suffrage; another making women eligible for appointive office; another granting elec tive franchise to negroes on the same terms as to whites. The rejection of the last was remarkable, because the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States had already accomplished the same result in Ohio and every other state.

Among the Amendments adopted was one greatly limiting the power of the judiciary to declare statutes unconstitutional.

The Supreme court hereafter cannot hold a law unconstitutional which had been sustained by the court below (styled in Ohio the Court of Appeals) if more than one of its members dissents. If the court below holds a statute unconstitutional, the judgment may be affirmed by a majority of the Supreme Court.

Income taxes may be laid by the State, but no exemtion can be made of more than $3,000.

Colorado. It not only has followed Oregon, California, Arizona and Navada, in altering, her constitution so as to allow the judicial recall, but has adopted another amendment by which any decision of her Supreme Court declaring a statute of the state to be unconstitutional can be set aside by a majority of the votes cast on referendum ordered for the purpose of passing on the question. If the decision pertains to laws affecting particular municipalities, the action of a majority of their electors voting in a similar proceeding has the same effect.

Aviation.-In August, 1913, the prefect of police in the city of Paris signed an ordinance, pursuant to Article 11 of the ministerial decree of November 18, 1911, respecting aerial navigation. This forbids any landing in Paris and any in any commune in the Department of the Seine within five hundred meters of its center of population,

unless in a regularly authorized aviation field. Air ships cannot fly over either a city or a commune except at a hight permitting, in case of accident, a volplane descent in a sparsely populated quarter.

In May 1913, the first arrest was made of a foreigner entering Great Britain by airship, without previous notice to the government, and traversing prohibited areas of territory, in violation of the regulations made by the Home Secretary. The landing was made near London, after a flight of 450 miles from Bremen.

The penalty in such cases may extend to six months in jail and a fine of $1,000.

Compensation for Imprisonment of the Innocent.

Wisconsin had adopted a law (Chap. 189, Laws of 1913) for compensating persons wrongfully convicted, who have been imprisoned under the judgment. Any prisoner released on that ground can apply to a board created for the purpose of an award of damages against the State. Not over $1500 for each year of imprisonment, or $5,000 in all, can be recovered, but if justice demands more the board may recommend a special legislative appropriation for the balance so left unsatisfied.

The rapid glance which has thus been taken at the work of the year in the field of law may serve to show that it not unfairly reflects the general movement of the age towards the establishment, on broader foundations, of what, for want of a better name, we call social justice. Some of our legislation may have gone too far in this respect. If so, time will correct it as surely as it will approve the rest.