Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 2).pdf/114

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88
NORTH DAKOTA REPORTS.

that one part of a statute cannot be declared void and leave any other part in force, unless the statute is so composite, consisting of such separable parts that when the void part is eliminated another part remains, capable by its own terms of being carried into effect, consistent with the intent of the legislature. People v. Cooper, 83 Ill. 585; Ex Parte Towles, 48 Tex. 413; State v. Clinton, 28 La. Ann. 201; Ex Parte Wells, 21 Fla. 280; Hinze v. People, 92 Ill. 406; Lombard v. Antioch College, 60 Wis. 459; Sparrow v. Commissioner, 56 Mich. 567; People v. Luby, 56 Mich. 551: When the different provisions of an act look to one object and its incidents, and are so connected with each other that if its essential provisions are repugnant to the constitution, the entire act must be deemed unconstitutional and void. Commonwealth v. Hitchings 5 Gray 482; Jones v. Robbins, 8 Gray 329, 339; State v. Commissioner, 5 Ohio St. 497; State v. Sinks, 42 Ohio St. 345; Railroad Co. v. Railroad Co., 28 Kan. 453; Rood v. McCargar, 49 Cal. 117; State v. Stark, 18 Fla. 255; Sparhawk v. Sparhawk, 116 Mass. 3l5, 320; People v. Cooper, 83 Ill. 585; Hinze v. People, 92 Ill. 406. If the parts of a statute are so connected as to warrant the conclusion that the legislature intended them as a whole, and would not have enacted the part held valid alone, when a part is unconstitutional, they are not separable; if one part is void the whole is void. Eckhart v. State, 5 W. Va. 515; Warren v. Mayor, 2 Gray, 84; State v. Sinks, 42 Ohio St. 345; People v. Cooper, 83 Ill. 595; State v. Pugh, 43 Ohio St. 98; Rader v. Township of Union, 39 N. J. Law 509; Flanagan v. Plainfield, 44 Id 118; State v. Commissioners, 38 Id 320; Telegraph Co. v. State, 62 Tex. 630; Childa v. Shower, 18 Iowa 261; Lathrop v. Mills, 19 Cal. 513; Moore v. New Orleans, 32 La. Ann. 726; Robinson v. Bidwell, 22 Cal. 379,

Cochrane & Feetham of counsel, for respondents:

The sole question presented by this appeal is the constitutionality of chapter 184 of the Laws of 1890, defining usury and prescribing punishments therefor. In the construction of statutes it is a rule of universal application that effect must be given to the words of the legislature, if there is no uncertainty