Page:Address of Frederick V. Holman at Oregon Bar Association annual meeting.djvu/38

 the Constitution, which includes perpetual and exclusive franchises. (Parkhurst v. Capital City Ry. Co., 23 Ogn. 471.)

Such franchises when granted by a city and accepted by the grantee could not be revoked by the Legislature or by the people. They would be protected by Section 10 of Article I, and Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, although the power of cities to grant future franchises of that kind could be revoked.

This but illustrates again the danger of amending the Oregon Constitution as was done by the amendments of 1906, and the troubles which arise from amending the Constitution by initiative proceedings, and having no regard for precedents or established law, either common or statutory.

The exercise of the sovereign powers of Eminent Domain by a municipality, granted by its own initiative amendment of its charter, has not yet been passed upon by the Oregon Supreme Court, although there are obiter dicta in several cases, including McMinnville v. Howenstine, supra, and Kiernan v. The City of Portland, supra, on the subject.

In one of the opinions in the McMinnville case there is dictum, at least, to the effect that a city can amend its charter so as to give itself the right to appropriate property situated as well without as within its limits. And in one of the opinions in the Kiernan case there is dictum, at least, to the effect that a city can amend its charter so as to give itself the right to appropriate property within its limits.

As there appears to be no limit to this right, until the Legislature passes a general law on the subject, as decided in Straw v. Harris, or the Constitution is amended, it would seem that the City of Salem might, by amendment of its charter, condemn or appropriate any of the State's buildings and grounds within its limits, as now or hereafter constructed, including the State Capitol. Of course the Legislature, by a general law, might recover any of these buildings or grounds by condemnatory proceedings. As to whether the people of