Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1910 — Legal Information [ARTICLE]

Legal Information

While a girl passenger was on a train she was the recipient of th« demonstrative and unconventional at tentlon of the conductor thereof. In Birmingham Railway, Light & Powei Company ~v. Parker, 50 Southern Reporter, 55, the complainant alleged that the conductor had wantonly assaulted her by grasping her by the arm and shoulder and by winking and smiling at her. It waa contended that tha count was bad In that It charged two assaults, grasping, the first, and then the winking. The Alabama Supreme Court held that one assault only was charged, and as a circumstance of agi gravation It was averred that the conductor at the same time made demonstrations which may well have been offensive and shocking. They need not "55"TgttfrB-to "constitute the assault alleged, or even any necessary part ol it, but, if proved, gave a character and meaning to the assault; and further stated that a carrier’s duty was to protect feminine passengers from obscenity, immodest conduct, or wanton approach, which cannot be frittered away by questions of whether the servant was acting within the scope of his authority. The Ohio Constitution provides that all elections shall be by ballot. In State v. Board of Deputy State Supervisors, 89 Northeastern Reporter, 33, the purchase and use of voting machines was objected to on the ground that it transgressed this provision. Cardboard ballots are attached to the machine; they do not pas 3 Into the custody of any voter, nor, by the act of voting, into the control of the officers of the election. To speak of such cardboard as the ballot of the Constitution Is obviously paying but mock deference to that instrument. However consistently with the intention of the designer the machine may operate, and however simple its manipulation may be to those who have become familiar with it, it is In contemplation that it shall be used by the body of the electors, most of whom have no knowledge whatever of its operation, and that from the necessities of the use but little time can be allowed to acquire such knowledge and understanding, one minute being the time allowed by the statute to each elector for that purpose. The Ohio Supreme Court declared the use of this voting machine unconstitutional. A Federal statute made it a crim-

inal offense to violate any rule which should thereafter be made by the Secretary of the Interior. The regulation in question prohibited the pasturing of stock within the forest reserves without a permit. In United States v. Grlmaud. 170 Federal Reporter, 205, defendant, having been arrested for pasturing sheep within a reserve, contended that the statute was void because it did not define the acts to be punished, and because it delegated legislative power to an executive officer. It did not declare the grazing of sheep to be a crime, nor make any reference thereto, but declared that whatever the executive prohibited Bhould.be punishable. There was no way by which a person examining a statute could conclude that the act referred to was criminal. The executive officer by the statute was allowed to define and determine the crimes, which, according to all the,authoritles. is a legislative affair. The United States District Court concluded that there could be no crime except those created, expressly defined, and penalized by an act of Congress, and that the indictment could not be sustained.