SEC. 7. No grant, extension, or renewal of any franchise or other use of the streets, alleys, or other public grounds or ways of any municipality, shall divest the State, or any of its subordinate subdivisions, of their control and regulation of such use and enjoyment. Nor shall the power to regulate the charges for public services be surrendered; and no exclusive franchise shall ever be granted.

ARTICLE XIX.

INSURANCE.

SECTION 1. No foreign insurance company shall be granted a license or permitted to do business in this State until it shall have complied with the laws of the State, including the deposit of such collateral or indemnity for the protection of its patrons within this State as may be prescribed by law, and shall agree to pay all such taxes and fees as may at any time be imposed by law or act of the Legislature, on foreign insurance companies, and a refusal to pay such taxes or fees shall work a forfeiture of such license.

SEC. 2. Until otherwise provided by law, all foreign insurance companies, including surety and bond companies, doing business in the State, except fraternal insurance companies, shall pay to the Insurance Commissioner for the use of the State, an entrance fee as follows: Each foreign Life Insurance Company, per annum, two hundred dollars; each Foreign Fire Insurance Company, per annum, one hundred dollars; each Foreign Accident and Health Insurance Company, jointly, per annum, one hundred dollars; each Surety and Bond Company, per annum, one hundred and fifty dollars; each Plate Glass Insurance Company (not accident) per annum, twenty-five dollars; each Foreign Live Stock Insurance Company, per annum, twenty

five dollars.

Until otherwise provided by law, domestic companies excepted, each insurance company, including surety and bond companies, doing business in this State, shall pay an annual tax of two per centum on all premiums collected in the State, after all cancellations are deducted, and a tax of three dollars on each local agent.

SEC. 3. The revenue and tax provisions of this Constitution shall not include, but the State shall provide for, the following classes of insurance organizations not conducted for profit, and insuring only their own members:

First, farm companies insuring farm property and products thereon; second, Trades Insurance Companies insuring the property and interest of one line of business; third, Fraternal Life, Health and Accident Insurance in Fraternal and Civic Orders, and in all of which the interests of the members of each respectively shall be uniform and mutual.

SEC. 4. All fees collected by the Insurance Commissioner shall be paid to the State Treasurer monthly.

ARTICLE XX.

MANUFACTURE AND COMMERCE.

SECTION 1. Nothing herein shall prevent the manufacture or sale of denaturized alcohol under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.

SEC. 2. Until changed by the Legislature, the flash test provided for under the laws of Oklahoma Territory for all kerosene oil for illuminating purposes shall be one hundred and fifteen degrees Fahrenheit; and the specific gravity test for all such oil shall be 40 degrees Baumé.

ARTICLE XXI.

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.

SECTION 1. Educational, reformatory, and penal institutions and those for the benefit of the insane, blind, deaf, and mute, and such other institutions as the public good may require, shall be established and supported by the State in such manner as may be prescribed by law.

ARTICLE XXII.

ALIEN AND CORPORATE OWNERSHIP OF LANDS.

SECTION 1. No alien or person who is not a citizen of the United States, shall acquire title to or own land in this State, and the Legislature shall enact laws whereby all persons not citizens of the United States, and their heirs, who may hereafter acquire real estate in this State by devise, descent, or otherwise, shall dispose of the same within five years upon condition of escheat or forfeiture to the State: Provided, This shall not apply to Indians born within the United States, nor to aliens or persons not citizens of the United States who may become bona fide residents of this State: And provided further, That this section shall not apply to lands now owned by aliens in this State.

SEC. 2. No corporation shall be created or licensed in this State for the purpose of buying, acquiring, trading, or dealing in real estate other than real estate located in incorporated cities and towns, and as additions thereto; nor shall any corporation doing business in this State buy, acquire, trade, or deal in real estate for any purpose except such as may be located in such towns and cities and as additions to such towns and cities, and further except such as shall be necessary and proper for carrying on the business for which it was chartered or licensed; nor shall any corporation be created or licensed to do business in this State for the purpose of acting as agent in buying and selling land: Provided, however, That corporations shall not be precluded from taking mortgages on real estate for debt and acquiring title thereto in the collection of debts, conditioned that such corporation or corporations shall not hold such real estate for a longer period than five years after acquiring such title: And provided further, That

this section shall not apply to trust companies taking only the naked title to real estate or other property in this State as a trustee, solely for the execution of a trust or security for indebtedness pursuant to such trust: And provided further, That no public service corporation shall hold any land, or the title thereof, in any way whatever in this State, except as the same shall be necessary for the transaction and operation ot its business as such public service corporation.

ARTICLE XXIII.

MISCELLANEOUS.

LABOR.

SECTION 1. Eight hours shall constitute a day's work in all cases of employment by and on behalf of the State or any county or municipality.

CONVICT LABOR.

SEC. 2. The contracting of convict labor is hereby prohibited.

CHILD LABOR.

SEC. 3. The employment of children, under the age of fifteen years, in any occupation, injurious to health or morals or especially hazardous to life or limb, is hereby prohibited.

SEC. 4. Boys under the age of sixteen years, and women and girls, shall not be employed, underground, in the operation of mines; and, except in cases of emergency, eight hours shall constitute a day's work underground in all mines in the State.

SEC. 5. The Legislature shall pass laws to protect the health and safety of employees in factories, in mines, and on railroads.

CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE.

SEC. 6. The defense of contributory negligence or of assumption of risk shall, in all cases whatsoever, be a question of fact, and shall, at all times, be left to the jury.

PERSONAL INJURIES.

SEC. 7. The right of action to recover damages for injuries resulting in death shall never be abrogated, and the amount recoverable shall not be subject to any statutory limitation.

WAIVER OF RIGHTS.

SEC. 8. Any provision of a contract, express or implied, made by any person, by which any of the benefits of this Constitution, or of any law made in accordance therewith, is sought to be waived, shall be null and void.

SEC. 9. Any provision of any contract or agreement, express or implied, stipulating for notice or demand other than such as may be provided by law, as a condition precedent to establish any claim, demand, or liability, shall be null and void.

CHANGE IN SALARY OR EMOLUMENTS.

SEC. 10. Except wherein otherwise provided in this Constitution, in no case shall the salary or emoluments of any public official be changed after his election or appointment, or during his term of office, unless by operation of law enacted prior to such election or appointment; nor shall the term of any public official be extended beyond the period for which he was elected or appointed: Provided, That all officers within this State shall continue to perform the duties of their offices until their successors shall be duly qualified.

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DEFINITION OF RACES.

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SEC. 11. Wherever in this Constitution and laws of this State, the word or words, colored race," colored or negro or negro race," are used, the same shall be construed to mean or apply to all persons of African descent. The term "white race shall include all other persons.

ARTICLE XXIV.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.

SECTION 1. Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in either branch of the Legislature, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall, with the yeas and nays thereon, be entered in their journals and referred by the Secretary of State to the people for their approval or rejection, at the next regular general election, except when the Legislature, by a two-thirds vote of each house, shall order a special election for that purpose. If a majority of all the electors voting at such election shall vote in favor of any amendment thereto, it shall thereby become a part of this Constitution.

If two or more amendments are proposed they shall be submitted in such manner that electors may vote for or against them separately. SEC. 2. No convention shall be called by the Legislature to propose alterations, revisions, or amendments to this Constitution, or to propose a new Constitution, unless the law providing for such convention shall first be approved by the people on a referendum vote at a regular or special election, and any amendments, alterations, revisions, or new Constitution, proposed by such convention, shall be submitted to the electors of the State at a general or special election and be approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon, before the same shall become effective: Provided, That the question of such proposed convention shall be submitted to the people at least once in every twenty years.

SEC. 3. This article shall not impair the right of the people to amend this Constitution by a vote upon an initiative petition therefor.

SCHEDULE.

In order that no inconvenience may arise by reason of a change from the forms of government now existing in the Indian Territory and the Territory of Oklahoma, it is hereby declared as follows:

SEC. 1. No existing rights, actions, suits, proceedings, contracts, or claims shall be affected by the change in the forms of government, but all shall continue as if no change in the forms of government had taken place. All processes which may have been issued previous to the admission of the State into the Union under the authority of the Territory of Oklahoma or under the authority of the laws in force in the Indian Territory shall be as valid as if issued in the name of the State.

SEC. 2. All laws in force in the Territory of Oklahoma at the time of the admission of the State into the Union, which are not repugnant to this Constitution and which are not locally inapplicable, shall be extended to and remain in force in the State of Oklahoma until they expire by their own limitation or are altered or repealed by law. SEC. 3. All debts, fines, penalties, and forfeitures which have accrued or may hereafter accrue to the Territory of Oklahoma shall inure to the State of Oklahoma and may be sued for and recovered by the State.

SEC. 4. This Constitution shall take effect and be in full force immediately upon the admission of the State into the Union.

SEC. 5. Until otherwise provided by law, notaries public appointed under the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma, or under the authority of the laws heretofore in force in the Indian Territory, may continue to exercise and perform the duties of the office of notary public until the expiration of their commissions: Provided, That any notary public appointed in the Indian Territory for any district, or in the Territory of Oklahoma for any county, shall, after this Constitution takes effect, exercise the powers, privileges, and rights of a notary public only of the county formed in whole or in part out of the district or county for which such person is a notary public, and in which such person resides at the time the State is admitted into the Union; but before any such notary public, except notaries public for those counties in the Territory of Oklahoma, the boundaries of which have not been changed by the Constitution, shall exercise the powers, privileges, and rights of a notary public of such county, he shall have filed in the office of the county clerk of the county in which he resides his commission as notary public and an affidavit stating that he is a resident of such county, whereupon he shall become a notary public for such county.

SEC. 6. The appointments of female persons as notaries public, heretofore made by the Governor of Oklahoma, and by the United States courts for the Indian Territory, and by the judges of said courts, are hereby confirmed and made valid, and all official acts of such notaries public heretofore performed are hereby validated, in so far as the acts of such notaries public may be affected by any ineligibility of such persons to appointment as notaries public. Female persons possessing the other qualifications prescribed by law shall be eligible to the office of notary public in the State of Oklahoma.