HUMOR. INSANITY.-"Can an insane person make a valid contract?" The question, so simple, could hardly be supposed to warrant a commentative reply; yet a student in a Southern law school answered it thus: "He can get married." A union butcher workman was suing a packing firm to recover damages for injuries sustained in a Kansas City establishment. A colored laborer in the plant was called as a witness. "Did you work with Jones, the plaintiff?" "Yassah. "Do you know the foreman and the other officers of the plant?" "Yassah." "What are your relations with them?" continued the attorney. "Now, yo' look-a-here boss," said the witness. "I'se skeared. That's a why I looks so white. Them folks aint no relations o' mine." Students Helper Not There.-Lawyer.-"You say you left home on the loth ?" Witness.-"Yes, sir." Lawyer. "And came back on the 25th?" Lawyer (severely).-"What were you doing in the interim ?" Witness."Never was in such a place." NOT THERE.-"Judge," said Mrs. Starven to themagistrate who had recently come to board with her, 'I'm particularly anxious to have you try this chicken soup." "I have tried it," replied the magistrate, "and my decision is that the chicken has proved an alibi.". Philadelphia Press. Poor Fellow! "How long," asked the judge of a vagrant negro, "have you been without any means of support?" "Since mah wife quit washin' and died, Jedge." THE OKLAHOMA LAW JOURNAL EDITED AND PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY VOL. 11. April, 1913. No. 10 NEW LAWS. LEGISLATURE OF 1913. SENATE BILL No. 439. An ACT Authorizing Administrators, Executors and Guardians to Mortgage Real Estate, Amending Article 11 of Chapter 86, Snyder's Statutes 1909,, and Declaring an Emergency. Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Oklahoma: Section 1. That section 5369 of article 11 of Chap. 86 Sny. Comp. Statutes of the State of Oklahoma, be and it is hereby amended to read as follows: Sec, 5369. The county judge may, upon petition sup ported by competent testimoney showing that the best interests of the estate demand it, by order, grant authority to administrators, executors and guardians of the estates of minors, incompetents or insane persons to mortgage any real estate, where it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the court that it would be to the best interests of the estates and those interested in the estates to so mortgage the same; provided, that in no instance shall authority be granted by such judge to such administrator, executor or guardian to mortgage such realestate for a greater sum than necessary to pay the then existing debts and liabilities for which said estate, or any part thereof, is then legally liable to be ordered sold by the probate court. Section 2. That section 5370 of article 11. of chap 86, Snyders Comp Statutes of the State of Oklahoma, be and it is hereby amended to read as follws: Section 5370. Upon the filing of the petition mentioned in the preceding section, the county judge shall set a time for the hearing of the same, and the administrator, executor or guardian shall cause notice there to be made by publication in a newspaper published, as of general circulation, in the county wherein such hearing is to be had. Said notice shall contain description of the real estate sought to be mortgaged, and shall be published two weeks in a weekly paper, or ten days in a daily paper prior to such hearing." Section 3. For the preservation of the public peace, health and safety, an emergency is hereby declared to exist, by reason whereof this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval. Approved March 20th, 1913. HOUSE BILL No. 608. Venue of Actions Against Domestic Corporations. An ACT Amending section four of Article one, Chapter. 68, Sess. Laws 1907-08, Providing for the Bringing of Actions Against Domestic Corporations in any Coun ty Where the cause of Action, or some part thereof Arose. Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Oklahoma: Section 1. That section four of article 1. chapter 68 of the Session Laws, 1907-08, be amended so as to read as follows: "An action, other than one of those mentioned in the first three sections of this article, against a corporation created by the laws of this state, may be brought in the county in which it is situated, or has its principal office or place of business, or in which any of the principal offieers thereof may reside, or be summoned, or in the county where the cause of action or some part thereof arose." Approved Mar. 22, 1913. SENATE BILL No. 286. An ACT Prohibiting the Granting of New Trials by Justices of the Peace after Verdict by Jury. Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Oklahoma: Section 1. Justices of the Peace shall not grant new trials for any cause after verdict by a jury. Approved March 17th, 1913 SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. The POINTS Decided. The act of Congress regulating Commerce, includes ferries used in connection with interstate railroads, and states have no power to regulate fare for the use of said ferries, even for those using them who are not passegers of the railroad. N. Y. Central & Hudson River R. R. Co. vs. Board of Chosen Freeholders of County of Iludson. (Decided Feb. 24, 1913.) The above seems a great stretch of Federal power, but such is the recent decision relative to the ferry between Weehawken, New Jersey and New York City. The "Employers, Liability Act of 1908 introduced a new policy and radically changed existing law and will not be construed as a remedial statute having retrospective effect: An action brought under the Employers Liability Act of 1908 by the personal representative of the person who was killed prior to the passage of the act cannot be ustained as stating a cause of action under the law of the State, where that law gives the action to the parents. Winfree, as Administrator of Phipps, vs. Northern Pac. Ry. Co. Supreme Court Advance Sheets, vol. 227, page 296. (The Banks Law Publishing Co. Rep.) Where the Charter of a city is given power to pass ordinances to regulate its affairs and the higest court in the State has passed upon the power of the city to establish a sewerage system, the Supreme Court of the United States will not allow the Fourteenth Amendment clause to be invoked where it is not shown that the action of the city council was prompted by any other motive than that of the public good, Hutchinson vs. City of Valdosta. Until the legal title to public land passes from the Government, inquiry as to all equitable rights comes within the cognizance of the Land Department. Brown vs. Hitchcock, 173 U. S. 473. Until the matter is closed by final action the proceedings of an officer of a department are as much open to review or reversal by himself or his successor as are the interlocutory decrees of a court open to review upon the final hearing. New Orleans vs. Paine, 147 U. S. 261. A decision of the Secretary of the Interior revoking his prior approval of an adjustment between contestants, one of whom is a minor, and which is not arbitrary or capricious, but given after a hearing and in the exercise of the discretion confided to him by law, cannot be revivewed, nor can he be compelled to retract it by mandamus. Ness ve. Fisher, 223 U. S. 683. The power gigen by the Act of July 1st, 1902, provid. ing for allotment of Cherokee lands in severalty, to the Secretary of the Interior to decide between contestants, |