usurious only when the interest exceeds 12 per cent., or when the interest and compensation together exceed 12 per cent., then 4 is a useless and purposeless enactment; as such contracts would in every case be usurious and void under the other sections of the chapter. We cannot adopt a construction of § 4 which renders it mere surplusage. The fact that the law is unusually stringent or even harsh in some of its provisions, or that by it our legislature has declared contracts usurious for reasons not heretotore known to the law, are matters with which we are not concerned, if the statute is a constitutional enactment. But, granting that the note in question violates the provisions of S 4, it is contended that said section, and the entire chapter 184 is unconstitutional by reason of the exception contained in § 11, which reads as follows: "None of the provisions of this act shall apply to any building and loan association incorporated under the provisions of any law of this state." It is claimed that this section is a violation of § 11 of the state constitution, which requires all laws of a general nature to have a uniform operation; and also of § 20, which forbids the granting of privileges or immunities to any citizen, or class of citizens, which, upon the same terms, shall not to granted to all citizens; and also of subdivision 13 of § 69, which prohibits the legislature from passing any special law "regulating the rate of interest on money." The questions thus presented are by no means free from embarrassment. We are asked to annul an important legislative enactment-one that reached the statute book only after receiving the sanction of the deliberate judgment of the legislature and the executive. The subject, too, is one peculiarly within the legislative branch of the government, and a proper control of the matter of usury has long been regarded as one of the most beneficial and salutatory objects of legislation. This is a case which demands implicit adherence to that well established rule which requires courts to respect and enforce the will of the legislature, unless there has been a clear and unequivocal violation of the fundamental law of the state. "A statute relating to persons or things as a class is a general law; one relating to particular persons or things of a class is
