Chapter 595. An act permitting the organization of corporations for engaging in the business of buying and selling real estate. This is undoubtedly a most salutary and excellent change of policy on the part of Massachusetts and might well be emulated in all the rest of the states.

Chapter 493. An act relative to the probate of wills, which provides that if the probate is assented to in writing by the widow or widower of the deceased, if any, and by all the heirs at law and next of kin, it may be allowed without testimony.

Chapter 678. An act amending the inheritance tax law so that now in Massachusetts only the real estate of a deceased non-resident is taxed on the theory that the tax on his personal property at the time of death should go to the state where he resides.

Chapter 542. An act repealing a statute that an engagement of an attorney of record shall be an excuse for not proceeding to trial in certain cases.

Chapter 649. An act providing that if a person elect to bring suit in the Municipal Court of Boston which he might have begun in the Superior Court, he is deemed to have waived trial by jury and his right to appeal to the Superior Court.

Chapter 175. An act providing that in any corporation having two or more classes of stock of different par value, the voting powers of the different classes may be fixed in proportion to such par values respectively.

Chapter 271. An act providing that no conditional sales of heating apparatus, plumbing, or other personal property afterwards attached to the real estate shall be valid against a mortgage or purchaser of the real estate, unless recorded in the city clerk's office within ten days after making the contract of conditional sale.

Chapter 277. An act providing that no bank shall be liable to a depositor or drawer for the payment of a forged instrument unless within one year after the return of said instrument to the depositor or drawer he notifies the bank in writing of the facts. Chapter 354. An act increasing the amount recoverable from a railroad corporation for death through negligence from five to ten thousand dollars.

Chapter 651. An act prohibiting discrimination in the sale of commodities and aimed at unjust discrimination and at the

creation of monopolies and combinations to destroy the trade of others.

Chapter 635. An act regulating tenement houses in towns.

Chapter 719. An act to establish a commission on economy and efficiency for the commonwealth.

Chapter 726. An act to establish a State Board of Labor and Industries.

A joint resolution of the legislature ratifying the proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States providing that Senators shall be elected by the people of the several states.

Passed resolutions providing for an amendment to the constitution authorizing the referendum. Resolution was referred to the next general court.

Passed resolutions advocating the establishment of a parcels post system by the government of the United States.

MICHIGAN.

The legislature of Michigan, at the first session, passed the following acts, among others:

No. 1. An act to authorize the construction or purchase of detention hospitals and for the care and treatment of persons afflicted with contagious or communicable diseases in cities having a population of less than five thousand inhabitants.

No. 6. An act amendatory of the banking laws of the state. No. 8. An act to amend the law as to recording town plats and vacating the same.

No. 9. A presidential primary act.

No. 10. An employer's liability act. This is a long elaborate act, which, however, is optional with the employe, under the usual coercion of being deprived of certain defenses if he does not come into this arrangement.

No. 12. An act to authorize the formation of mutual insurance companies whose members may be composed of persons, firms, partnerships, associations or corporations who have elected to come under the law relating to employers' liability and workmen's compensation.

At the second session, among other statutes, the following acts were passed:

No. 1. An act to amend the liquor laws of the state.

No. 3. An act to authorize the Board of Supervisors of each county to appropriate or raise money by taxation for the encouragement of improved methods of farm management and practical instruction and demonstration in agriculture.

No. 4. An act amending the statute making it unlawful for any person not regularly admitted to practice in Michigan to represent himself as being an attorney at law or a solicitor in chancery. It is provided that the act shall not apply to licensed attorneys of other states while temporarily in Michigan.

No. 8. An act to amend the law as to the conduct of, and preventing fraud and deception at elections.

No. 9. An act to amend the game laws as to the protection of game birds.

A joint resolution proposing an amendment conferring on women the right to vote. This is to be submitted at the general election in November of this year.

Joint resolution proposing an amendment relative to the amendment of the charters of cities and villages. This amendment seems to be calculated to give a very large measure of local self-government to cities and villages.

MINNESOTA.

The legislature of this state at its recent session passed the following among other acts:

A state primary election law for the nomination of all state officers. This law embraces the first and second choice that is embodied in other recent legislation on this subject following a somewhat similar law in Wisconsin. The law also provides that the justices of the Supreme Court and judges of the District, Probate and Municipal Courts, county superintendents of schools and municipal officers in cities of the first class containing a population of more than fifty thousand, shall be nominated upon separate, non-partisan ballots.

An act relating to corrupt practices at primaries and elections, very strict in its provisions and in its limitations upon expenditures, to which reference has already been made.

An act was passed for raising the gross earnings tax upon railroads from four to five per cent.

A joint resolution was passed ratifying the amendment to the constitution of the United States providing for the election of Senators by popular vote and also a like resolution ratifying the amendment to the federal constitution providing for an income

tax.

An act was passed amending the law as to the employment of children.

An act was passed regulating foreign fraternal benefit societies doing business in Minnesota.

MISSISSIPPI.

The legislature of this state passed numerous statutes relating to taxation and increasing the number of occupations subject to a privilege tax.

Chapter 101. An act providing for the levy and collection of a tax on incomes.

Chapter 108. An act for numbering and registering automobiles.

Chapter 113. An act for the taxation of freight line companies.

Chapter 114. An act for the taxation of equipment companies. Chapter 115. An act to encourage manufactories and other new enterprises by granting five year exemption from state, county and levee taxes; and also authorizing municipalities to grant a like exemption for a period not exceeding ten years.

Chapter 120. An act providing for the commission form of government in cities which adopt the act.

Chapter 122. An act to enable the municipal authorities to appropriate funds towards the support of brass bands for the amusement and entertainment of the citizens.

Chapter 126. An act validating all municipal bonds theretofore authorized by a legal majority of the qualified electors when municipal authorities have failed to take any of the preliminary steps necessary to the issuance of such bonds.

Chapter 136. An act to prohibit hotels, restaurants, cafes,

dining cars, railroad companies and sleeping car companies from allowing tips to be given to employes, to prohibit all persons from giving the same, and to prohibit employes from receiving them. Certainly under the law as generally understood, this would seem to be entirely unconstitutional as to the person bestowing such gratuity. It seems to me to be an absurdity in any event, well illustrating the disposition of some law givers to attempt to regulate everything by law. They thus usually make more trouble than they prevent.

Chapter 138. An act to regulate the traffic in commercial fertilizers.

Chapter 139. An act to provide for and regulate the inspection, sale and analysis of commercial feeds and feeding stuffs.

Chapter 141. An act requiring corporations, companies, associations, partnerships and individuals to pay their employes in money once each month in the absence of a written contract to the contrary.

Chapter 142. An act providing for the winding up and dissolution of corporations doing business in Mississippi and owning property therein upon insolvency, or under certain other circumstances, whether such corporation is organized under the laws of Mississippi or some other state or foreign country.

Chapter 143. An act authorizing administrators, executors, and testamentary trustees, with the consent of the chancery court or chancellor in vacation, to renew encumbrances of the deceased or to borrow money to pay them off, or execute deeds of conveyance where such conveyances are necessary to carry into effect contracts made by the deceased.

Chapter 145. An act amending the law as to public roads in this state, creating a highway commission, and defining its powers. Chapter 148. An act requiring companies to equip street cars with vestibules and provide some means of heating the same.

Chapter 149. An act authorizing the State Board of Health to establish a bureau of vital statistics.

Chapter 151. An act to make railroad corporations liable for damages for fire set directly or indirectly by locomotives and to give such corporations an insurable interest in the property along the line of the road.