were enabled thereby to tide over their temporary necessities, and are now self-supporting.
This review of legislation in aid of destitute farmers will serve to illustrate the well-known fact that legislation under the pressure of a public sentiment, born of stern necessity, will adapt itself to new exigencies, even if in doing so a sanction is given to a broader application of elementary principles of government than have before been recognized and applied by the court in adjudicated cases. It is the boast of the common law that it is elastic, and can be adjusted to the development of new social and business conditions. Can a statute enacted for such broadly humane and charitable purposes be annulled by another branch of the government as an abuse of legislative discretion? We think otherwise. Great deference is due from the courts to the legislative branch of the state government, and it is axiomatic that in cases of doubt the courts will never interfere to annul a statute. Cooley, Const. Lim. marg. p. 487.
It will be presumed that the legislature, in passing the seed-grain statute, acted upon the fullest knowledge of the necessities of the situation, and also presumed that, they have passed the statute after due deliberation and with the clearest apprehension of the scope and purpose of the language used in § 185 of the state constitution. That section is not only restrictive upon counties, but it is also permissive. It permits counties to lend aid for “the necessary support of the poor.” To our mind, the restrictive words of that section were intended to prevent the loan of aid either to individuals or corporations, for the purpose of fostering business enterprises, either of a public or private nature; but that the people who adopted the constitution, as well as those who framed the instrument, expressly intended by the language of that section to grant a power affirmatively to the municipal corporations named in § 185, to lend their aid and make donations for the “necessary support of the poor.” The attention of the court has been directed to the constitutions of nineteen of the states, in which the language of § 185 is used verbatim, except only that in the states of North and South Dakota the words above quoted are interpolated. Why was this peculiar language introduced into the constitutions of North
