whom the power to fix prices is conferred.46 Nor was the selective service law enacted during the war with Germany void as a delegation of federal power to state officers, 47 or as vesting administrative officers with legislative discretion.48 And the designation by the post office department of certain privately owned receptacles for mail as mail boxes makes them authorized depositories of the mail, within the meaning of the statute punishing persons who steal mail or its contents from such depositories or receive articles so stolen, and persons may be punished under that statute for stealing or receiving mail stolen from them.49

A person may be prosecuted for a conspiracy to bribe an officer or employee of an executive department to violate his duty as a public official by giving out advance information as to the contents of reports required to be made by such department, in violation of regulations prescribed by the head of the department under authority of law, although there is no statute which expressly prohibits the giving out of such official secrets in advance of their lawful promulgation.50 And a person may be convicted of perjury or false swearing under a federal statute for giving false testimony in a contest before land officers in respect to a homestead entry, although the proceedings on the contest and the tribunal before which it takes place are provided for by regulations prescribed by the land department under authority

U. S. 397, 63 L. Ed. 668, 39 Sup. Ct. 324; United States v. Ford, 265 Fed. 424; United States v. Pennsylvania Cent. Coal Co., 256 Fed. 703; United States v. Casey, 247 Fed. 362.

46 United States v. Ford, 265 Fed. 424; United States v. Pennsylvania Cent. Coal Co., 256 Fed. 703.

47 Selective Draft Law Cases, 245 U. S. 366, 62 L. Ed. 349, 38 Sup. Ct. 159, L. R. A. 1918 C 361.

48 Selective Draft Law Cases, 245 U. S. 366, 62 L. Ed. 349, 38 Sup. Ct. 159, L. R. A. 1918 C 361; Angelus v. Sullivan, 246 Fed. 54; United States v. Stephens, 245 Fed. 956.

49 Pakas v. United States, 240 Fed. 350, aff'd 245 U. S. 467, 62 L. Ed. 406, 38 Sup. Ct. 148.

50 Advance information as to monthly cotton reports prepared by

the bureau of statistics of the de-
partment of agriculture. Haas V.
Henkel, 216 U. S. 462, 54 L. Ed. 569,
30 Sup. Ct. 249, 17 Ann. Cas. 1112,
aff'g 166 Fed. 621. Followed in Peck-
ham v. Henkel, 216 U. S. 483, 54 L.
Ed. 579, 30 Sup. Ct. 255, aff'g 166
Fed. 627.

"Such regulations need not be pro-
mulgated in any set form, nor in
writing." And a prosecution will
lie although they were never officially
promulgated in writing, where it is
understood that the giving out of ad-
vance information is forbidden. Haas
v. Henkel, 216 U. S. 462, 54 L. Ed.
569, 30 Sup. Ct. 249, 17 Ann. Cas.
1112, aff'g 166 Fed. 621. See also
Benson v. Henkel, 198 U. S. 1, 49 L.
Ed. 919, 25 Sup. Ct. 569.

conferred by acts of Congress; 51 or for making a false affidavit before a justice of the peace of a state in support of a claim against the United States, although there is no federal statute authorizing justices of the peace to administer oaths in such cases, where a regulation of the department to which the adjustment of such claims is committed. authorizes affidavits so made to be received and considered in support of them.52

A state legislature may provide for the punishment of persons who violate rules and regulations prescribed by a board of railroad commissioners, 58 or a board of park commissioners,54 or a police board,55 or a board of health,56 or a live stock sanitary commission,57 or a board of county commissioners,58 or a public safety commission,59 in respect to matters over which they are given control. And there is

51 Caha v. United States, 152 U. S. 211, 38 L. Ed. 415, 14 Sup. Ct. 513. 52 United States v. Bailey, 9 Pet. (U. S.) 238, 9 L. Ed. 113.

53 Governing common carriers. State v. Seaboard Air Line Ry., 56 Fla. 670, 47 So. 986; State v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 56 Fla. 617, 47 So. 969, 32 L. R. A. (N. S.) 639; Atlantic Exp. Co. v. Wilmington & W. R. Co., 111 N. C. 463, 16 S. E. 393, 18 L. R. A. 393, 32 Am. St. Rep. 805.

Brod

54 In respect to the use and government of parks and parkways. bine V. Inhabitants of Town of Revere, 182 Mass. 598, 66 N. E. 607; Com. v. Abrahams, 156 Mass. 57, 30 N. E. 79.

55 There is no unconstitutional delegation of authority where a statute authorizes the city council of a city to empower a board of police to make rules and regulations in regard to licensing, regulating and restraining theatrical exhibitions, itinerant musicians, and the like. Com. v. Plaisted, 148 Mass. 375, 19 N. E. 224, 2 L. R. A. 142, 12 Am. St. Rep. 566.

56 Rules requiring physicians to report contagious diseases. Pierce v. Doolittle, 130 Iowa 333, 106 N. W. 751, 6 L. R. A. (N. S). 143.

Quarantine regulations. Globe School Dist. No. 1 of Globe, Gila County v. Board of Health City of Globe, 20 Ariz. 208, 179 Pac. 55; People v. Tait, 261 Ill. 197, 103 N. E. 750; Hurst v. Warner, 102 Mich. 238, 60 N. W. 440, 26 L. R. A. 484, 47 Am. St. Rep. 525.

Quarantine regulations for live stock by live stock board or other similar body. State v. McCarty, 5 Ala. App. 212, 59 So. 543; Abbott v. State, 106 Miss. 340, 63 So. 667; Smith v. State, 74 Tex. Cr. 232, 168 S. W. 522.

Adulteration of food. Isenhour v. State, 157 Ind. 517, 62 N. E. 40, 87 Am. St. Rep. 228.

Exposure of bread and other food products to flies and dirt. State v. Normand, 76 N. H. 541, 85 Atl. 899, Ann. Cas. 1913 E 996.

Disposition of fæcal matter. State v. Syas, 136 La. 628, 67 So. 522. 57 See Ex parte Leslie, 87 Tex. Cr. 476, 223 S. W. 227.

58 In respect to highways. Floyd v. State, 15 Ala. App. 654, 74 So. 752.

Or license taxes upon vehicles. State v. Strawbridge, 16 Ala. App. 195, 76 So. 479, certiorari denied 201 Ala. 62, 77 So. 356.

59 Cook v. Burnquist, 242 Fed. 321.

no unconstitutional delegation of legislative power in statutes or ordinances prohibiting the doing of certain specified acts without first having obtained a license or permit from a specified officer or board,60 nor in a statute giving a commission or board power to fix minimum wages for women and children and making it an offense for employers to pay them less than the amount so fixed; nor in a statute which prescribes the quality of headlights which may be used on automobiles, and provides for a testing agency to determine whether particular types of lenses comply with the regulations laid down in the act, and makes it an offense to use lenses not approved by such agency.62 Nor is a statute making it an offense to take oysters planted by a lessee on oyster bedding grounds leased to him by a state commission invalid because it delegates to the commission power to deter

mine whether a particular area constitutes a natural oyster bed, which they are forbidden to lease.63 The legislature may give a state game warden power to shorten, close or open the season for killing game which the law permits to be killed during a specified period each year, but may not give him authority to establish an open season for killing game which the law itself does not permit to be killed at any time.64 And a statute giving power to officers and members of a board of viticultural commissioners to establish a quarantine against infected vines, cuttings and empty fruit boxes, and making a violation of such quarantine regulations a misdemeanor, has been held to be invalid.65

A commission upon which the legislature has conferred discretionary power to make rules in respect to a matter cannot delegate such power to others.66

67

§ 35. Laws operative on future contingency. The rule prohibiting the delegation of legislative powers does not necessarily prohibit a conditional statute, the taking effect of which is made to depend upon a subsequent event, as upon the action of certain designated officials, or upon a vote of a city council,68 or upon its approval by the electors of the locality specially interested.69 So statutes, commonly known as local option laws, permitting the submission to a vote of the people residing in particular localities of the question whether the sale of intoxicating liquors should be permitted in such locality, and making it an offense to sell liquor there in case the vote

63 State v. Guidry, 142 La. 422, 76 So. 843.

64 State v. Thompson, 111 Wash. 525, 191 Pac. 620.

65 The court gave as a reason for holding the act invalid that it did not say that it should be unlawful to import, distribute or dispose of infected articles, but attempted to give the board power to so declare. Ex parte Cox, 63 Cal. 21.

66 Ex parte Leslie, 87 Tex. Cr. 476, 223 S. W. 227.

67 As a live stock quarantine law providing that it shall go into effect in a particular part of the state when a board created to enforce it shall deem it best, State v. McCarty, 5

Ala. App. 212, 59 So. 543; or a statute making it an offense to permit cattle to run at large in counties where a certain portion of the land is under fence, and making it the duty of the board of county commissioners to determine whether such condition exists on petition of a specified number of freeholders. State v. Storey, 51 Wash. 630, 99 Pac. 878.

68 State v. Sullivan, 67 Minn. 379, 69 N. W. 1094.

69 State v. Holland, 37 Mont. 393, 96 Pac. 719; State v. Parker, 26 Vt. 357; and the other cases cited in the two following notes.

was against permitting the sale, which were in force in many of the states prior to the adoption of the eighteenth amendment,70 and similar statutes relating to other matters,71 have very generally been held not to violate the rule, provided the statute is complete in itself when it leaves the hands of the legislature, and the option to become or not to become subject to its requirements and penalties is the only question to be submitted to the electors.72 And the same has been held to be true of a statute providing for a vote of the people to determine on which of two dates it shall take effect.73 It has also been held that an act of Congress may be made to depend upon the contingency of certain action by a foreign government, and that a state legisla