The underlying purpose of this proceeding in mandate is to test the validity of certain provisions of the Personal Property Brokers Act, as amended by the legislature in 1931 (Stats. 1931, p. 558), particularly the provisions of sections 2 and 3 thereof, which are alleged to be in conflict with the provisions of the Usury Law (Stats. 1919, p. lxxxiii).

Petitioner is a personal property broker, engaged in the business of loaning or advancing money in sums of $300 and less and taking as security for such loan or advance a chattel mortgage, bill of sale, or other obligation involving the forfeiture of rights in or to personal property, the use or possession of which is retained by another than the lender, and also engaged in the business of loaning or advancing money or other thing, taking in whole or in part as security therefor a lien on, assignment of, or power of attorney relative to wages, salary, earnings, income or commissions.

Pursuant to sections 7, 8, 9 and 10 of said act (Stats. 1931, pp. 559, 560) petitioner duly applied to the commissioner of corporations of this state for a license to do business, paying the required fee, posting a bond and otherwise complying fully and in every respect with all the provisions of said act relating to its said application. The commissioner, however, refused to issue the license because of doubt and uncertainty respecting various questions as to the extent and validity of the act. Petitioner being thus deprived of the right to pursue its regular occupation and business after expending large sums of money in connection therewith, and fearing irreparable loss through delay, filed its petition for mandate herein, praying that respondent be directed to issue a license to it in accordance with the provisions of said act and that the rights and duties of the parties hereto be declared and that the construction and validity of the act also be determined.

Petitioner alleged its intention to charge, receive or collect the full benefit or percentage allowed by said sections 2 and 3 of the act, which read: “Such personal property broker may charge, receive and collect a benefit or percentage upon money or other thing advanced, or for the use and forbearance thereof, of three and one-half per centum per month on remaining unpaid balances on sums loaned up to and including the sum of three hundred dollars, where such loan or advance is made upon security properly falling within the scope of business as set forth in section 1 hereof.” (See. 2.) “No further or other charges either for recording, insuring or examining the security or property, or for the drawing, executing or filing of papers, or for any services or upon any pretext whatsoever beyond the aforesaid charge for interest or discount shall be asked, charged, or in any way received, where the same would thereby make a greater charge for the money or thing advanced than the aforesaid rate, and where made all such charges shall be considered and be of the same effect as so much added interest. ’ (Sec. 3.)

The above sections, respondent claims, purport to authorize a charge of three and one-half per cent per month, or forty-two per cent per annum, on certain loans of $300 and less, and hence they are obviously in conflict with the provisions of the Usury Law, which latter statute makes it unlawful for any “person, company, association or corporation” to “ ... directly or indirectly take or receive in money, goods or things in action, or in any other manner whatsoever, any greater sum or any greater value for the loan or forbearance of money, goods or things in action than at the rate of twelve dollars upon one hundred dollars for one year ...”

Further, respondent argues that if sections 2 and 3 of the Personal Property Brokers Act were valid, then the provisions of the Usury Law would be modified, and to that extent superseded and repealed by it. But the Usury Law is an initiative measure and the Constitution (art. IV, see. 1) provides that “ . . . no act . . . adopted by the people at the polls under the initiative provisions of this section shall be amended or repealed except by a vote of the electors ... ”; hence, the Usury Law may not be held to be modified by said sections 2 and 3 and they are therefore invalid.

Lying at the base of this inquiry is the effect of the Usury Law upon sections 2 and 3 of the Brokers Act of 1909 (Stats. 1909, p. 969), as amended in 1911 (Stats. 1911. p. 978). This is so because sections 2 and 3. of the Act of 1931 above quoted are substantially re-enactments of sections 2 and 3 of the Act of 1909 and differ only in the rate that may be charged on the loans and the number of parties that will be affected thereby. This question, in reality, is settled by our holding in In re Washer, 200 Cal. 598 [ 254 Pac. 951 ]. We there plainly held that the Usury Law established the maximum rate of interest for all loans, whether secured or unsecured, and this, too, regardless of the amount or the nature of the security. It is impossible for the Washer case to stand and at the same time to permit an arbitrary charge by a certain group of personal property broilers of a greater amount. It is true that we held that the Corporate Securities Act (Dccring’s Gen. Laws, 1923, part 1, p. 1407, Act 3814), together with its amendatory and supplementary provisions, the Public Utilities Act (Deering’s Gen. Laws, 1923, part 2, Act 6386, p. 2683) and the Bank Act (Deer ing’s Gen. Laws, 1923, part 1, Act 652, p. 153) were not affected by the Usury Law, but this is justified upon the ground that the transactions governed by those acts are in reality not loans at all within the meaning of the said Usury Law. We indorse the discussion of this question found in the case of Crooks v. People’s Finance etc. Co., 111 Cal. App. (Supp.) 769 [ 292 Pac. 1065 ], recently decided by the appellate division of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, opinion by Judge Hartley Shaw, from which we quote the following:

Further discussion might be indulged as this cause has been presented most earnestly by lengthy and able briefs, supplemented by briefs of amici curiae, but the effort seems unnecessary further than to say that we have been mindful of the asserted economic value that might accrue through an exception to the Usury Law allowing a greater rate of interest than one per cent per month on loans of $300 or less and that such a change would probably be just both to the lender and to the borrower. Nor are we unmindful of the fact that a statute substantially similar to the act of 1931 here under review is successfully operating in each of some twenty-five or more states of the Union, due largely to the philanthropic efforts of the Russell Sage Foundation of New York. The answer is that the Usury Law is adamant and has the force of a constitutional provision. It cannot be amended except by re-applying to the people of the state for their consent.

If the Usury Law displaces sections 2 and 3 of the Act of 1909 it follows that sections 2 and 3 of the Act of 1931, here under review, must fall, being likewise and for the same reasons in plain conflict with the Usury Law itself. Further comment might be made to the effect that in order to uphold said sections of the act of 1931, it would be necessary to hold that the entire subject of charges and regulations of personal property brokers of all classes was intentionally omitted from the operation of the Usury Law. But the act of 1931 only proposes to affect one group of this class of lenders. What, then, we may ask, becomes of the remainder of the group 1 Under petitioner’s contention pawnbrokers (Pen. Code., secs. 338-340) are likewise unaffected by the Usury Law. We would then have one class and part of another without the Usury Law and part of one class only under it. Many other impossible difficulties might arise were exceptions to the Usury Law created.

Whether or not there is any substance left in sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Act of 1909, as amended in 1911 and 1913, is not a question directly here involved.

We may add that we were to some extent impressed for a time with the contention that the three and one-half per cent per month rate could be subdivided into an interest rate of one per cent per month and a service and expense charge of not to exceed two and one-half per cent per month. And we have been pointed to the ease of Koen v. State, 162 Tenn. 573 [ 39 S. W. (2d) 283 ], where a statute was held valid which read as follows (Code of Tennessee, 1932, Williams Shannon Harsh, p. 1512, sec. 6733) : “Every person, licensed hereunder, may lend any sum of money not exceeding in amount the sum of three hundred dollars, and may contract for, charge and receive thereon interest not to exceed six per cent per annum; provided, however, that the licensee may charge and receive for investigating the moral and financial standing of the applicant, investigating the security, titles, etc., and for other expenses and losses of every nature whatsoever, and for closing the loan, a fee not above three per cent per month of the principal sum lent over the term of the loan, both interest and fee to be computed on the unpaid balance of the principal due at the end of each month over the life of the loan.” This statute was upheld because the lender could charge the actual service and expense outlay, but could not in any event exceed the three per cent per month. In this behalf the court said:

We are unable to construe sections 2 and 3 of the act before us as having the same meaning as the above-quoted Tennessee statute. These sections fix an arbitrary amount that may be charged regardless of the actual value of the service or expense and regardless of the fact that there may be no service or expense.

We are not intending to hold that the Usury Law prevents a classification, as made by the act, of brokers according to the amount involved and the nature of the security taken. We recognize that similar segregation has been held valid in several other states of the Union. Nor are we intending to hold that a statute which allows the legal rate fixed by the Usury Law and yet limits the service or expense charges to the actual outlay, and not to exceed a definite limit, would be in conflict with other provisions of the Usury Act. The Usury Law does not purport to fix or limit the legitimate expense or service charge that may properly be borne by the borrower. (Wallace v. Zinman, 200 Cal. 585, 589 [62 A. L. R. 1341, 254 Pac. 946 ]; Haines v. Commercial Mortgage Co., 200 Cal. 609, 616 [53 A. L. R 725, 254 Pac. 956 , 255 Pac. 805 ].)

Notwithstanding the above holding, as under authority of the case of In re Halck, ante, p. 500 [ 11 Pac. (2d) 389 ], this day decided, the license provisions contained in the said act have been sustained, no sufficient ground exists for respondent’s refusal to issue a license to petitioner.

Let the writ issue as prayed. '

Shenb, J., Seawell, J., Curtis, J., Tyler, J., pro tem., and Waste, C. J., concurred.