COMPENSATION FOR EYE INJURY IS DENIED

"The loss of one-tenth of the normal vision of an eye will be held not to be the loss of the use of an eye. Motion for rehearing will be denied."

Thus is the disposition of a case by the Industrial Commission in which J. Prather claimed compensation from the Chickasha Cotton Oil company, and in which the Maryland Casualty company was the insurance carrier. Immediately after the injury Prather was given compensation at the rate of $6 a week, but this was terminated by the company, and on March 30, 1916, Prather made application for rehearing, claiming that his eye was permanently injured. Hearing was had at which several witnesses testified, among them being Dr. W. C. Boone, an eye specialist. The doctor had treated the man, saying that when he first examined the eye he found an ulcer, which was caused from traumatism, some foreign substance. The eye healed and left a slight scar, which left the eye about two-tenths below the normal vision. To the question "In your judgment, Dr, Boone, do you think there will be a permanent impairment of the eye or not!" The doctor answered: "I think the vision will be about one-tenth off. Those scars will, after healing, absorb and clear up to a certain extent. No man can tell exactly how much it will clear. up. It will clear some for 12 months, gradually get a little clearer, while the scar will always be there. I figure that

when all the clearing up or absorbtion of that scar that is going to be done by nature and by the treatment I left him on, when that is all cleared up, I figure that he will have about 1-10th of normal vision in that eye."

"The only question the Commission is called upon to decide in this case, is, did claimant suffer the loss of an eye under Article 2, Section 3 of the Workmen's Compensation Law. The Commission is of the opinion that the loss of one-tenth vision cannot be construed the loss of an eye. The claimant having been fully paid for all time lost by him can be entitled to no further compensation.

INCREASE IN LEGISLATION

The lower house of the next legislature will be composed of 110 members, instead of 98 as in the past two legislatures, according to the apportionment law passed in 1911. Fourteen counties will have an extra member from each county, and two counties will drop one member each. This gives a net increase of twelve members.

The legislative apportionment law created a ten-year period and dívided that into minor periods, the latter to designate the increase or decrease in representation in any one county. After the expiration of ten years, which is about 1920, the number of members of the lower house will decrease.

The second of the minor periods closed with the present legislative body, and the third begins before the next legislature convenes. Two counties, Choctaw and Stephens, are affected. These counties previously had two members each, but for the next legislature they will only have one each.

In the third period, which affects only the next legislature, McIntosh, Okmulgee, Seminole and Wagoner counties, which heretofore have only had one representative each, will have two. This will only apply to the next legislature and then they drop back to one representative from each county, as the third period ends with the next legislature.

The counties of Canadian, Carter, Creek, Custer, Hughes, Jackson, Payne, Pontotoe, Sequoyah and Washita, were placed in what is known as the third and fourth periods. The third period begins with the next legislature and runs over including the next. Each of the counties, which have had one representative each heretofore, will have two each beginning with the next legislature. Then they will drop back to one each after the fourth period is completed.

Pottawatomie and Pittsburg counties will be affected but not in the next legislature. Each county now has three representatives. After the third period, or next legislature, Pottawatomie will drop one member, and after the fourth period, Pittsburg will drop one member.

Cotton county was created since the apportionment law was passed, but the present membership of the house gives each county a representative, and this arrangement will probably be continued as it is.

With 110 members in the next legislature the apportionment will reach its highest mark. There has never been that many before and there will never be that many again. The membership will decrease gradually until 1920 when there must be a new apportionment.

REGISTRARS MAY BE PAID

County or precinct registrars under the new registration law may be paid out of the contingent funds of the counties for the fiscal year 1917, is held in an opinion from the attorney general's office to Governor Williams. In the inquiry sent by the governor it was suggested that the contingent funds of the counties for 1916 were practically exhausted, and that the law says these expenses must be met by the different counties from the contingent fund. It is pointed out by the attorney general's office that registration, with the supplemental periods, extends over into the 1917 fiscal year, and that the registration is not finally done and completed until shortly before the fall election. Hence, it makes little difference if the registrar files his claim at the end of the service. If he waits until that time, he may include his whole service, and then the county contingent fund being available for the fiscal year of 1917, the claim could be paid with that fund.

CRIMINAL COURT OF APPEALS

The

The criminal court of appeals affirmed the sentence of tour years in the penitentiary of Katie Mosely, Choctaw Indian girl, convicted on a charge of manslaughter in the first degree for the killing of Gift Isaac, another indian. The Mosely girl was convicted of having stabbed Isaac in the back, which resulted in his death a few days later. The stabbing took place at an Indian ball game, September 20, 1911, Pittsburg county. two contending forces were known as the Jacksford" team and the Tubucksey' team. Isaac played on the Tubucksey" side and all the Indian women arrayed themselves on one side or the other, and each with a handkerchief in her handboosted" for her favorite side. Katie Mosley was identified with the Jackstord side and did what she. could to spur that team on to victory.

During the game Gift Isaac and Wilson Isaac, the latter the step-father of Gift Isaac became engaged in a quarrel, and it was while they were fighting that it was claimed Katje Mosely stepped up and stabbed Gift Isaac in the back. It was testified that she had a knife wrapped up in her handkerchief. A number of the friends of the Mosely girl, however, testified that she did not stab the Isaac Indian, but the jury took the other view and sentenced the woman to four years in the penitentiary.

Bail in the sum of $15,000 was allowed by the criminal court of appeals for Henry Burrow, Pontotoc county, being held for complicity in the killing of Jim Ross.

Opinions by Justice Doyle affirmed three cases in which convictions had been secured for violations of the prohibitory laws. They are George Tolliver, Nowata county, $250 fine and 90 days in jail; Jim Rogers, Pontotoc county, $50 fine and 30 days in jail, and Hurschel Campbell, Okfuskee county, $250 fine and 60 days in jail.

Bail through habeas corpus proceedings was denied by the criminal court of appeals to Vincent Kerriel of Coal county. Kerriel is being held in connection with the killing of Newt and A. D. Cogburn, the shooting occurring in December last. The tragedy occurred at a little settlement near Coalgate.

The case of Charles Trione, convicted in Pittsburg county on a charge of violating the prohibitionary law, was affirmed. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail and to pay a fine of $100.

BANKING DEPARTMENT EXTENDS REWARD

The state banking department has extended its offer issued some time ago relative to capture and conviction of bank robbers who held up banks in the day time, and the reward will now cover hold-ups either day or night. The

reward was offered by the banking department in the sum of $500 and is to be paid from the guaranty fund. Several months ago a number of daylight hold-ups were committed throughout the state. insurance companies notified the banks that they would reduce the insurance and did. The banking department then offered a reward for robbers in this character of bank looting. Now the department has decided to extend the reward to cover all kinds of bank robbing done from the outside.

INSURANCE BUSINESS INCREASED Insurance business in all lines increased during 1915 over the previous business in Oklahoma, according to the annual report of A. L. Fraternal inWelch, insurance commissioner. surance written in 1915 amounted to $28,491,275, and in 1914, $25,732,565, showing an increase in 1915 of $2,758,710. Premiums on the 1915 business amounted to $1,759,766, and on the 1914 business $1,645,886, which shows an increase of $113,880. Claims paid in fraternal business amounted to $1,148,305 in 1915 and $986,378 in 1914. There was an increase of $4,673,788 during 1915 in the life business. In 1915 $46,285,898 worth of business was written and in 1914 $41,612,110. Premiums paid in 1915 amounted to $5,742,479, and in 1914 $4,786,915. During 1915 losses amounted to $1,163,451, and in 1914, $1,094,277. amount of life insurance in force in the state in 1915 was $171,113,631, and in 1914, $152,480,196, which shows an increase of $18,633,434. Premiums paid on miscellaneous insurance during 1915 amounted to $1,358,871, and in 1914, $1,130,784. Losses in 1915 amounted to $709,688, and in 1914, $592,217. Many new companies were licensed in 1915, but the greatest gain is in the amount of the increased business. All companies doing business in the state are in first class condition.

The

RULINGS UNDER KANSAS COMPENSATION LAW

An employe is entitled to compensation resulting directly from injury, but the employer cannot be held responsible if the injured man is the victim of malpractice on the part of the physician, is held by the Kansas supreme court, in ruling on a case that had been appealed to the court. In the case of J. H. Ruth against the Witherspoon Englar company of Kansas City, the court reversed the third division of the Wyandotte district court and held that an employe was entitled to compensation for injuries which he received but was not entilted to compensation for alleged malpractice on the part of the surgeon employed by the company.

Ruth should have recovered from his injury in a year, it was stated in the court petition but because of the alleged malpractice the injury became permanent. The court held that he could have money for the year's disability only.

The court held also in the case of S. O. Gailey against the Peet Brothers' Manufacturing company of Kansas City, that an employe, partially incapacitated by an injury, does not lose his right to compensation even if he remains in the employ of the company. Gailey continued to work after his injury but could not close his fingers in a natural manner, the petition showed. The court held that he should receive compensation.

That a son cannot collect compensation for the death of his mother, even though she had contributed to his support, was the decision of the court in the suit of Albert W. Taylor against the Sulzberger & Sons company of Kansas City. The supreme court's decision reversed the decision of the first division of the Wyandotte district court, which gave the son judgment for compensation. Taylor had a wife and children. His mother lived with him but was not regarded as a member of the family in the court ruling.

FIXES PUNISHMENT FOR VIOLATION

LIQUOR LAW

The supreme court of Arkansas on May 8, with Justice Smith dissenting, handed down a decision holding there was but one punishment for persons convicted of selling or giving away liquor in violation of the new state-wide prohibitory law. That punishment, as set forth in the "Newberry act" is one year's imprisonment.

The test case came from the circuit court of Cross county, in which a man named Seawood, charged with bootlegging, was discharged when the court sustained a demurrer in his behalf. The court held that the act was cumulative only in respect to issuance of license, as Section 4 of the law says:

"All parts of laws providing for issuance of liquor licenses in the State of Arkansas that are in conflict herewith are hereby repealed, and this act is intended to be cumulative to all present liquor laws prohibiting the issuance of liquor license in the State of Arkan

The ruling was that if a person was indicted for selling or giving away liquor and were found guilty, he must serve one year's sentence in the state penitentiary, with no other penalty provided. He could not be tried on a misdemeanor charge based on old statutes, because they are expressly repealed by the new law.

The question of whether it was necessary for the indictment to charge that the offense was,feloniously" committed was settled in the opinion by the court that it is usual in the state for an indictment to use only the words of the statutes, and the statute does not use the word "felonious" in the prohibition bill, hence an omission of that word in the indictment does not warrant sustaining a demurrer based on that omission.

The supreme court held, in conclusion, that the indictment of Seawood was for a public offense within the jurisdiction of the circuit court, and that it was an error to sustain the demurrer.

FINE ASSESSED BY COMMISSION

Fine of $100 was placed against the Skelley. Sankey company, by the corporation commission, after hearing on a complaint by J. C. Lowrey that the company had wasted gas in an amount of more than two and one-half million cubic feet a day. The order of the commission said that the facts showed a misunderstanding of the commission's mudding in order rather than wilful violation of the order.

INSURANCE COMPANY'S FINE REDUCED Becoming convinced that the company had no intention to violate the insurance laws of the state, but that they were operating as they believed within the statutes, Insurance Commissioner A. L. Welch reduced the fine he had placed against the Maryland Casualty compnay from $300 to $50 and it was paid by the company. F. A. Skipwith filed complaint against the company several weeks ago alleging they were doing business in the state contrary to the laws. Hearing was conducted by Commissioner Welch and in his finding and order announced that they had violated the laws and assessed a fine of $300. He gave the company ten days to pay the fine, and afterwards extended the time ten days. Representatives of the company came in and asked that the fine be reduced. They held that they believed they were not violating the insurance law, and that they had no intention of doing so.

INCREASE IN LAND VALUE

School land sales have been completed in Texas county, and of the 739 tracts offered for sale 736 were sold. These tracts comprised 107,436.57 acres and of this 106,956.57 acres were disposed of. The appraisement on the land made by the school land commission was $732,325, while the land sold for $1,094,143, or an increase over the appraisement of $361,818. Nearly all of it was sold to persons who held leases on the land. Texas county land is in high altitude and generally this part of the state is harder hit by drouth than any other portion.

CAMPBELL RUSSELL'S SECTION 12-A

Ballot title for the new section 12-a relative to the taxation laws of the state, and which will be submitted to the people in the form of an amendment to the constitution, of which Campbell Russell is author, was prepared by the attorney general today. The amendment would levy and collect taxes against the public service corporations and distribute it to the benefit of the schools as are other school taxes. This would place the tax for the benefit of all the school districts in the state according to scholastic population. There are about 28 counties in the state without public service corporations, yet the schools in these counties would get the benefit of the tax according to the number of school children in the districts.

This is the provision of the proposed amendment which provoked the opposition to it.

The proposed provision also authorizes the school districts, out of the first year's net increase in public service school tax, to reimburse for the expenses incurred in securing the adoption and enforcement of the law. Provisions of the law become effective upon adoption.

PROHI PARTY HAS STANDING YET Candidates for the Prohibition party may be placed on the ballots for the primary and general elections of this year, according to an opinion from the attorney general's office to Secretary Joe Morris of the state election board. A state law specifies that where a party fails to cast ten per cent of a preceding election at two different general elections, then that party is not entitled to recognition as a political party in the state. Under this test the attorney general's opinion holds that the general election of 1914 was the first election under the rule and that the 1916 election would be the second. According to this the Prohibitionists would have one more try in the state.

MANY FARM LOANS APPROVED Applications for loans from Oklahoma farmers aggregating $50,000 were approved by the commissioners of the school land office in one day, which breaks the records in this respect since the present state administration went into office. The commissioners also adopted a new rule which provides that loans may be retired any time after two years. Heretofore it had been a rule of the commission that all loans must run their allotted time. There was no advantage to this except the state got more interest money. Funds in the loan division have been accumulating rapidly in the last few months because most of the land under lease has been sold. Thirty tracts of land in Noble, Jefferson and Pottawatomie counties have been segregated for oil and gas purposes. This is in addition to land in these counties which had previously been segregated for oil and gas purposes.

TO PROBE GASOLINE PRICES Probe of gasoline prices in various parts of the state may result in prosecutions under the anti-trust laws of Oklahoma is intimated at the attorney general's office, where the matter has been under investigation. Owing to other work in the office not yet completed, investigation of the gasoline situation may be delayed ten days or two weeks, but it is the intention to go thoroughly into the conditions bringing about the high price of gasoline. Prices are known to vary so out of proportion in various points in the state that discrimination is not impossible. Under the laws prices of gasoline or other products must be the same at all places, consistent with the cost of transportation. Figures that have been submitted show that gasoline costs more in Oklahoma than in surrounding states, and that the price within this state ranges from 20 to 28 cents a gallon.

OIL LEASES ARE APPROVED Secretary Lane of the interior department has approved and delivered gas leases on about 1,000,000 acres of Osage Indian land in Osage county. The company awarded leases were the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil company, 304,000 acres; Charles Owen, Caney, Kans., 165,700 acres; American Pipe Line company, 181,000 acres; Charles Page, Tulsa, 100,000 acres; Osage Oklahoma Gas company, 105,000 acres; Pawhuska Oil and Gas company, 60,000 acres. The leases are for gas rights only, and for all the gas produced the Osages receive 3 cents per 1,000 feet at the well.

NEW BIRD PROTECTION LAW Proposed regulations for the protection of migratory birds to become effective on Aug. ust 16 next, or whenever they are approved by the president have been issued by Secretary Houston of the agricultural department at Washington. Hearings will be held on any complaint filed after the public has examined the regulations which prescribe closed seasons and designate the migratory game birds and insectivorous birds.

Two zones with different closed seasons are established for protection, one a breeding zone and the other a wintering zone. All the states north of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Ariona and California are declared in the breeding zone and the states named and those south of them in 'the wintering

zone.

The closed season for water fowl including brant, wild ducks, geese and swans, is set as December 21 to September 6, inclusive, in the breeding zone and February 1 to October 14, inclusive, in the wintering zone with exceptions in certain states.

TIME LOST IN STRIKES

According to the annual report of the New York state bureau of mediation and arbitration, the total number of working days lost between September 30, 1914, and September 30, 1915, by persons directly involved in strikes, was 829,395, while 868,838 days were lost by persons indirectly involved. On the basis of 313 working days in a year, the time lost represents a total of 2,380 years lost in strikes during a single year in New York state alone. Allowing $1 in wages for each day lost, the loss to workers amounted to over $1,500,000. During the year ending September 30, 1915, forty-one strikes were successful, seventeen were partly successful and forty-four failed. There was a total of 102 strikes during the period, forty-three of which were for an increase in wages and twelve for shorter hours, while others were for recognition of unions, etc. The state bureau of mediation was called upon to settle forty-nine industrial disputes, arranged thirty-five conferences and adjusted twenty-seven disputes. The metal trades were involved in more strikes than any other group, the record being twenty-seven strikes in which 9,986 men lost 155,843 days,

CHICAGO JUDGE RENDERS AN OPINION TO THE EFFECT THAT BACON WROTE SHAKESPEAREAN PLAYS

Supporters of the contentions that Francis Bacon was the author of the works of William Shakespeare, have been given judicial backing by a Chicago judge. Judge Richard Tuthill, in the circuit court of that city declared that he believed Lord Bacon was the real author of the works. The declaration was made in dissolving an injunction issued on the petition of William N. Selig, motion picture manufacturer, to restrain George Fabyan, publisher, and Kate E. Wells and Elizabeth Wells Gallup from completing the publication of a series of books supporting the Baconian theory.

Judge Tuthill in his decision, said:

"That William Shakespeare was born April 23, 1564; that he went to London about 1586 or 1587; that for a time thereafter he made living working for Burbage; that he later became an actor in Burbage's theater and in traveling theatrical companies; that he retired about 1609 or 1610 to live in Stratford-on-Avon, where he engaged in business to the time of his death on April 23, 1616, and that Shakespeare was not an educated man, are allegations which the court finds true.

"The court further finds that Francis Bacon was born Jan. 26, 1560; that he was educated not only in English but in French, Latin, Italian, German and had a general education equal or superior to anyone of his age; that he was the compiler of a book of 1,500 axioms and phrases selected from the greatest authors and books of all time; that in his youth literary people were frowned upon in England but in Paris literary people were in the favor of the reigning powers and literature was having a renaissance. Bacon went to Paris in his early youth and spent several years in this atmosphere.

Controversy for 60 Years

"The court takes judicial notice of historical facts and facts well known and finds that there has been for sixty years a controversy over the authorship of certain works which were published shortly after the death of Shakespeare and attributed to Shakespeare; that the question has always been an open question among scholars of equal authority and standing in the world of letters, literature and knowledge as to the authorship of the above mentioned works and that a vast bibliography, estimated by those who are in a position to know at 20,000 volumes has been written in discussion of the vexed question.

Cipher Basis of Contention

"The court further finds that by the published and acknowledged works of Francis Bacon there is given. a cipher which Bacon devised in his early youth when in Paris, called the biliteral cipher; that the witness, Elizabeth Wells Gallup, has applied that cipher according to the directions left by Francis Bacon and has found that that name and character of Shakespeare were used as a mask by Francis

Bacon to publish philosophical facts, stories and statements contributing to the literary renaissance in England which has been the glory of the world.

"The court further finds that the claim of the friends of Francis Bacon that he is the author of said works, of Shakespeare and the facts and circumstances in the real bibliography of the controversy over the question of authority and the proofs submitted herein, convinced the court that Francis Bacon is the author."

Selig Claimed Injuries

Mr. Selig alleged that the publication of the book tending to prove that Bacon wrote the Shakespeare plays would injure him in his project of making moving pictures of plays commonly attributed to Shakespeare.

The decision was received with unusual interest because it was made public on the eve of the world-wide memorial celebration of the tercentenary of Shakespeare's death.

GUILTY OF WASHINGTON LIBEL

A verdict of guilty was returned by a jury in a superior court at Seattle, Wash., against Paul H. Haffer, accused of libeling the memory of George Washington. The case sets a precedent, in the opinion of many attorneys. The maximum penalty for the offense, under a state statute, is one year in the county jail, and a fine of $1,000, or both. Col. Albert E. Joab, an attorney, caused Haffer's arrest after the latter had sent a letter to a newspaper referring to Washington as a "Blasphemer," "slave-holder" and "inveterate drinker."

SCHOOL BOARD CHAIRMAN VOTER

The chairman of the school board is a legal voter on the board for all purposes, holds the attorney general in an opinion rendered to George W. Stidham, of Checotah. An election was held by the board in the matter of selecting another member of the board, when a tie vote resulted. There was a question of whether or not the chairman of the board had a vote in such case. The attorney general's ruling is that he has a vote in any case.

NEW POSITION FOR MCMECHAN

Having been nominated some time ago by United States District Attorney John Fain for the position of assistant attorney general, State Senator Thomas F. McMechan of this city has received notice of his confirmation. He will be assistant to District Attorney John Fain here. Mr. McMechan has assumed the duties of his new position. Mr. McMechan was elected to the Oklahoma legislature in 1910, and has been a member since that time. He was instrumental in having legislation enacted which resulted in locating the state capital in Oklahoma City. He held a position similar to that to which he has just been appointed during the administration of President Cleveland.