Page:Address of Frederick V. Holman at Oregon Bar Association annual meeting.djvu/45

 Legislative Assembly shall not enact, amend, or repeal any charter or act of incorporation for any municipality, city, or town. The legal voters of every city and town are hereby granted power to enact and amend their municipal charter, subject to the Constitution and criminal laws of the State of Oregon.

Note I. The above section was proposed by initiative petition filed in the office of the Secretary of State February 3, 1906, and adopted by vote of the people, 52,567 for, and 19,852 against, June 4, 1906. Total vote of the State June 4, 1906, 99,445.

Note 2. Section 2 of the original Constitution read as follows:

"Corporations may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by special laws except for municipal purposes. All laws passed pursuant to this section may be altered, amended or repealed, but not so as to impair or destroy any vested corporate rights."

As another instance of the working of the initiative under the amendments of the Oregon Constitution, attention is called to the amendment of Article VII of the Oregon Constitution, adoped at the election held November 8, 19 10, The amendment provides, in effect, that the judicial power of the State shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such other Courts as may, from time to time, be created by law. It further provides that the judges shall be elected by the legal voters for a term of six years; that the Courts shall remain as at present constituted until otherwise provided by law; and that in all civil cases, three- fourths of the jury may render a verdict.

The main objectionable features of this amendment are in its Section 3, which is as follows:

Section 3. In actions at law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of this State, unless the Court can affirmatively say there is no evidence to support the verdict. Until otherwise provided by law, upon appeal of any case to the Supreme Court, either party may have attached to the bill of exceptions the whole testimony, the instructions of the Court to the jury, and any other matter material to the decision of the appeal. If the Supreme Court shall be of opinion, after consideration of all the matters thus submitted, that the judgment of the