against him and have a copy thereof, and be confronted with the witnesses against him, and have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his behalf. He shall have the right to be heard by himself and counsel; and in capital cases, at least two days before the case is called for trial, he shall be furnished with a list of the witnesses that will be called in chief, to prove the allegations of the indictment or information, together with their post-office addresses.

SEC. 21. No person shall be compelled to give evidence which will tend to incriminate him, except as in this constitution specifically provided; nor shall any person, after having been once acquitted by a jury, be again put in jeopardy of life or liberty for that of which he has been acquitted. Nor shall any person be twice put in jeopardy of life or liberty for the same offense.

SEC. 22. Every person may freely speak, write, or publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. In all criminal prosecutions for libel, the truth of the matter alleged to be libelous may be given in evidence to the jury, and if it shall appear to the jury that the matter charged as libelous be true, and was written or published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted.

SEC. 23. No private property shall be taken or damaged for private use, with or without compensation, unless by consent of the owner, except for private ways of necessity, or for drains and ditches across lands of others for agricultural, mining, or sanitary purposes, in such manner as may be prescribed by law.

SEC. 24. Private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use without just compensation. Such compensation, irrespective of any benefit from any improvements proposed, shall be ascertained by a board of commissioners of not less than three free-holders, in such manner as may be prescribed by law. The commissioners shall not be appointed by any judge or court without reasonable notice having been served upon all parties in interest. The commissioners shall be selected from the regular jury list of names prepared and made as the legislature shall provide. Any party aggrieved shall have the right of appeal, without bond, and trial by jury in a court of record. Until the compensation shall be paid to the owner, or into court for the owner, the property shall not be disturbed, or the proprietary rights of the owner divested. When possession is taken of property condemned for any public use the owner shall be entitled to the immediate receipt of the compensation awarded, without prejudice to the right of either party to prosecute further proceedings for the judicial determination of the sufficiency or insufficiency of such compensation. The fee of land taken by common carriers for right of way, without the consent of the owner, shall remain in such owner subject only to the use for which it is taken. In all cases of condemnation of private property for public or private use the determination of the character of the use shall be a judicial question.

SEC. 25. The legislature shall pass laws defining contempts and regulating the proceedings and punishment in matters of contempt: Provided, That any person accused of violating or disobeying, when not in the presence or hearing of the court, or judge sitting as such, any order of injunction, or restraint, made or entered by any court

or judge of the State shall, before penalty or punishment is imposed, be entitled to a trial by jury as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. In no case shall a penalty or punishment be imposed for contempt, until an opportunity to be heard is given.

SEC. 26. The right of a citizen to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person, or property, or in aid of the civil power, when thereunto legally summoned, shall never be prohibited; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the legislature from regulating the carrying of weapons.

SEC. 27. Any person having knowledge or possession of facts that tend to establish the guilt of any other person or corporation charged with an offense against the laws of the State, shall not be excused from giving testimony or producing evidence, when legally called upon so to do, on the ground that it may tend to incriminate him under the laws of the State; but no person shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for or on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which he may so testify or produce evidence.

SEC. 28. The records, books, and files of all corporations shall be, at all times, liable and subject to the full visitorial and inquisitorial powers of the State, notwithstanding the immunities and privileges in this bill of rights secured to the persons, inhabitants, and citizens thereof.

SEC. 29. No person shall be transported out of the State for any offense committed within the State, nor shall any person be transported out of the State for any purpose, without his consent, except by due process of law; but nothing in this provision shall prevent the operation of extradition laws, or the transporting of persons sentenced for crime to other States for the purpose of incarceration. SEC. 30. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches or seizures shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, describing as particularly as may be the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized. SEC. 31. The right of the State to engage in any occupation or business for public purposes shall not be denied nor prohibited, except that the State shall not engage in agriculture for any other than educational and scientific purposes and for the support of its penal, charitable, and educational institutions.

SEC. 32. Perpetuities and monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free government, and shall never be allowed, nor shall the law of primogeniture or entailments ever be in force in this State.

SEC. 33. The enumeration in this constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny, impair, or disparage others retained by the people.

ARTICLE III.
Suffrage.

SECTION 1. The qualified electors of the State shall be male citizens of the United States, male citizens of the State, and male persons of Indian descent native of the United States, who are over the age of 21 years, who have resided in the State one year, in the county six

months, and in the election precinct thirty days, next preceding the election at which any such elector offers to vote: Provided, That no person adjudged guilty of a felony after the adoption of this constitution, subject to such exceptions as the legislature may prescribe, unless his citizenship shall have been restored in the manner provided by law; nor any person, while kept in a poorhouse or other asylum at the public expense, except Federal and confederate ex-soldiers; nor any person in a public prison, nor any idiot or lunatic, shall be entitled to vote at any election under the laws of this State.

SEC. 2. For the purpose of voting, no member of the Regular Army or Navy of the United States shall gain a residence in this State by reason of being stationed in this State, nor shall any such person lose a residence in the State while absent from the State in the military or naval service of the United States.

SEC. 3. Until otherwise provided by law, all female citizens of this State, possessing like qualifications of male electors, shall be qualified to vote at school district elections or meetings.

Primary Elections.

SEC. 4. The legislature shall enact laws creating an election board (not more than a majority of whose members shall be selected from the same political party), and shall provide the time and manner of holding and conducting all elections; and, at any time the Federal Constitution may permit the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people, the legislature shall provide for their election as for the election of governor and other elective officers.

SEC. 5. The legislature shall enact laws providing for a mandatory primary system, which shall provide for the nomination of all candidates in all elections for State, district, county, and municipal officers, for all political parties, including United States Senators: Provided, however, This provision shall not exclude the right of the people to place on the ballot by petition any nonpartisan candidate.

SEC. 6. In all elections by the people the vote shall be by ballot and the legislature shall provide the kind of ticket or ballot to be used and make all such other regulations as may be necessary to detect and punish fraud, and preserve the purity of the ballot; and may, when necessary, provide by law for the registration of electors throughout the State or in any incorporated city or town thereof, and, when it is so provided, no person shall vote at any election unless he shall have registered according to law.

SEC. 7. The election shall be free and equal. No power, civil or military, shall ever interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage, and electors shall, in all cases, except for treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance on elections and while going to and from the same.

ARTICLE IV.

Distribution of powers.

SECTION 1. The powers of the government of the State of Oklahoma shall be divided into three separate departments-the legislative, executive, and judicial; and except as provided in this consti

govern

tution, the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of ment shall be separate and distinct, and neither shall exercise the powers properly belonging to either of the others.

ARTICLE V.

Legislative department.

INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM.

SECTION 1. The legislative authority of the State shall be vested in a legislature, consisting of a senate and a house of representatives; but the people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws and amendments to the constitution and to enact or reject the same at the polls independent of the legislature, and also reserve power at their own option to approve or reject at the polls any act of the legislature. SEC. 2. The first power reserved by the people is the initiative, and 8 per centum of the legal voters shall have the right to propose any legislative measure, and 15 per centum of the legal voters shall have the right to propose amendments to the constitution by petition, and every such petition shall include the full text of the measure so proposed. The second power is the referendum, and it may be ordered (except as to laws necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety), either by petition signed by 5 per centum of the legal voters or by the legislature as other bills are enacted. The ratio and per centum of legal voters hereinbefore stated shall be based upon the total number of votes cast at the last general election for the State office receiving the highest number of votes at such election.

SEC. 3. Referendum petitions shall be filed with the secretary of state not more than ninety days after the final adjournment of the session of the legislature which passed the bill on which the referendum is demanded. The veto power of the governor shall not extend to measures voted on by the people. All elections on measures referred to the people of the State shall be had at the next election held throughout the State, except when the legislature or the governor shall order a special election for the express purpose of making such reference. Any measure referred to the people by the initiative shall take effect and be in force when it shall have been approved by a majority of the votes cast in such election. Any measure referred to the people by the referendum shall take effect and be in force when it shall have been approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon and not otherwise.

The style of all bills shall be: "Be it enacted by the people of the State of Oklahoma."

Petitions and orders for the initiative and for the referendum shall be filed with the secretary of state and addressed to the governor of the State, who shall submit the same to the people. The legislature shall make suitable provisions for carrying into effect the provisions of this article.

SEC. 4. The referendum may be demanded by the people against one or more items, sections, or parts of any act of the legislature in the same manner in which such power may be exercised against a

complete act. The filing of a referendum petition against one or more items, sections, or parts of an act shall not delay the remainder of such act from becoming operative.

SEC. 5. The powers of the initiative and referendum reserved to the people by this constitution for the State at large are hereby further reserved to the legal voters of every county and district therein, as to all local legislation, or action, in the administration of county and district government in and for their respective counties and districts. The manner of exercising said powers shall be prescribed by general laws, except that boards of county commissioners may provide for the time of exercising the initiative and referendum powers as to local legislation in their respective counties and districts.

The requisite number of petitioners for the invocation of the initiative and referendum in counties and districts shall bear twice or double the ratio to the whole number of legal voters in such county or district as herein provided therefore in the State at large.

SEC. 6. Any measure rejected by the people, through the powers of the initiative and referendum, can not be again proposed by the initiative within three years thereafter by less than 25 per centum of the legal voters.

SEC. 7. The reservation of the powers of the initiative and referendum in this article shall not deprive the legislature of the right to repeal any law, propose or pass any measure, which may be consistent with the constitution of the State and the Constitution of the United States.

SEC. 8. Laws shall be provided to prevent corruption in making, procuring, and submitting initiative and referendum petitions.

The legislature.

SENATE.

SEC. 9. The senate, except as hereinafter provided, shall consist of not more than 44 members, whose term of office shall be four years: Provided, That one senator elected at the first election from each even numbered district shall hold office until the fifteenth day succeeding the regular State election in 1908, and one elected from each odd numbered district at said first election shall hold office until the fifteenth day succeeding the day of the regular State election in 1910: And provided further, That in districts electing two senators, the two elected at the first election shall cast lots in such manner as the legislature may prescribe to determine which shall hold the long and which the short term.

SEC. 9. (a) At the time each senatorial appointment is made after the year 1910 the State shall be divided into 44 districts, to be called senatorial districts, each of which shall elect one senator; and the senate shall always be composed of 44 senators, except that in event any county shall be entitled to three or more senators at the time of any appointment such additional senator or senators shall be given such county in addition to the 44 senators and the whole number to that extent. Said districts shall be numbered from 1 to 44, inclusive, and each of said districts shall contain as near as may be an equal number of inhabitants, such population to be ascertained by the next