Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 3).pdf/188

 the cases are all found seeking one common object,—the legislative purpose. “The intent of the law maker is the law;” the embarrassment is in declaring that intent. This intention may be declared in the act, or it may be inferred from its provisions in connection with the subject matter and circumstances. Howell v. Stewart, 54 Mo. 400; Machine Co. v. Caldwell, 54 Ind. 279. In the statute under discussion the legislature specified reasonable terms upon which a foreign corporation could launch its business over the entire state, unquestioned by private interests or sovereign power. Whatever may have been the primary purpose of the legislature, it certainly was not to exclude foreign corporations from the state. Nor is it reasonable to presume that it was the legislative intent to declare all contracts made by foreign corporations without compliance with the statute absolutely void. It were a reflection upon legislative wisdom to presume that consequences so unusallyunusually [sic] harsh and oppressive were expected to flow from the use of language so mild and uncertain. Our statute is a simple inhibition. It declares no penalty. It does not declare the transaction of business unlawful or contracts void. We may well use the language of Justice Swayne in Bank v. Matthews, supra: “The statute does not declare such a security void. It is silent upon the subject. If congress so meant, it would have been easy to say so; and it is hardly to be believed that this would not have been done, instead of leaving the question to be settled by the uncertain result of legislative and judicial decision.” The statute by its terms places foreign corporations upon an equality with domestic corporations in the matter of the publicity of the purposes of their creation and their powers, and in the matter of convenience and certainty with which process may be served upon them. It is not possible to read the statute without perceiving this to have been the primary purpose of its enactment. These objects are, or may be, highly necessary for the protection and convenience of our citizens dealing with such corporations. The legislature, having specified the duties of the foreign corporation, provided, in Ch. 26 of the Civil Code, the means for their enforcement.