Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 2).pdf/367

 544. A ‘general law,’ as the term is used in this constitutional provision, is a public law of universal interest to the people of the state, and embracing within its provisions all the citizens of the state, or all of a certain class or certain classes of citizens. It must relate to persons and things as a class, and not to particular persons or things of a class. It must embrace the whole subject, or a whole class, and must not be restricted to any particular locality within the state. Cass v. Dillon, 2 Ohio St. 607; Kelley v. State, 6 Ohio St. 269; Wheeler v. Philadelphia, 77 Pa. St. 338; State v. Wilcox, 45 Mo. 458; State v. Parsons, 40 N. J. Law 123; In re Boyle, 9 Wis. 240; McGill v. State, 34 Ohio St. 237. The uniform operation required by this provision does not mean universal operation. A general law may be constitutional and yet operate in fact only upon a very limited number of persons or things, or within a limited territory. But, so far as it is operative, its burdens and its benefits.must bear alike upon all persons and things upon which it does operate; and the statute must contain no provision that would exclude or impede this uniform operation upon all citizens, or all subjects and places, within the state, provided they were brought within the relations and circumstances specified in the act. McGill v. State, 34 Ohio St. 246; Smith v. Judge, 17 Cal. 554; Darling v. Rogers, 7 Kan. 592; Leavenworth Co. vy. Miller, Id 479; Groesch v. State, 42 Ind, 547; Heanley v. State, 74 Ind. 99; State v. Wilcox, 45 Mo. 458; People v. Wright, 70 Ill. 398; McAunich v. Railroad Co., 20 Iowa 338; Humes v. Railroad Co., 82 Mo. 221; Railway Co. v. Iowa, 94 U. S. 155. From the foregoing propositions it follows of necessity that the legislature has power to classify persons and subjects for the purpose of legislation and to enact laws applying specially to such classes; and, while the laws thus enacted operate uniformly upon all members of the class, they are not vulnerable to the constitutional inhibition under consideration. But this power of the legislature is circumscribed. It is not an arbitrary power, waiting the whim or the will of the legislature. Its exercise must always be within the limits of reason, and of a necessity more or less pronounced. Classification must be based upon such differences in situation,