Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1882-03-17
Compulsory Inspections.

Mich has been said, and much is still
beino said, with regard to the compulsory
inspection of tobacco at the State ware
houses, and how such requirement IN
fringes upon the natural rights of free re-
nnb,ican citizens. This contention has
always appeared to us to be based entire
" unon sentiment, and to have no solid
foundation in rational principle. Only
last week an esteemed contemporary IN a
neighboring county gives voice to this
sentiment in the following sentences
"Why," it asks, SHOULD tobacco be hedg-
ed in by a different law from any other OF
the fruits of LAHORE Why should there
be any regulation method adopted for the
sale of this product different from that
governing the sale of wheat, corn or pota'
toes2"
The reason that different REGULATION
method" is necessary in the sale oftobacco
from that of wheat, corn or potatoes. i:
simply because the former product Is
grown chiefly for the export trade, and the
nature of the product requires that 1t be
sent to market in compressed and concen
trated bulks and casks, so as not to be
open to the inspection, as to its quality
and condition, of tie buyer; while the
other commodities referred to are Away:
handled in small bags. and transferred by
measurement, so as to be open to the pri
waite inspection of the buyer, both as t6
quality and condition.
It is well known custom in trade ane
q familiar principle of commercial law
that. in the sale and transfer of all article:
that are sold openly and transferred by
measurement, the buyer himself must bt
the Judge of the commodities he buys
both as to quality and condition, the lega
maxim, caoecat emptor Qet the buyer be
ware) applying to such transactions. II
is an equally we'll known principle OF the
trade and commerce that commodities
which. from their nature, have to be trans
ferred in bulk and not thus open to the
inspection of the buper, are sold By sample
the seller implicitly warranting that thu
bulk of the commodity will correspond
both in quality and condition, with the
sample he exhibits and by which the sale
is made Large commercial and manufac
turing houses of known pecuniary respon
sibility easily place all their bulky com
modities upon the market upon the ere
dit of the samples selected and exhibited
by themselves, or by virtue of certain
brands which represent particular quail
ties. because the buyer knows that II the
bulk shall fail to correspond to the sam
pie or the brand he will have prompt and
ample redress by reclamation upon the
seller.
Tobacco is one OF those commodities
which, being transferred only in compress
ed bulks, has to be sold by sample. The
growers of tobacco who pack it and send
it to market are only in a very few excep'
merchants of Baltimore or elsewhere as
men of pecuniary responsibility, and many
of them are not thus responsible. There
fore the grower of tohscco IS unable e
sell his crop by samples selected and ex
hibited by himself as representing the con
tents of the casks Hence results the ne
cessity of Intermediary inspection in the
case of tobacco, and the selection of sam
pies by some disinterested and responsible
third party.
So it must be apparent TO the most OBJ
fuse of those who undertake to publish
their views upon this question that the
compulsory inspection of tobacco is not
the result of any usurpation 10y the Legis-
lature, or any Vaccinations of politicians,
but is an inerora5le law Of trade, resulting
from the nature of the product and the
multiciplity and responsibility of its pro-
ducers. Whether the grower is compelled
to have his tobacco inspected in the State
warehouses or not, still he is compelled to
hare it inspected, or he cannot sell it. 1t is
idle, therefore, to be talking about usur
patton and oppression and corn and wheat
and potatoes
If it be to the advantage of the tobacco
growers to retain the warehouses which
the State has purchased with their money
and holds in trust for them, in order to
have their tobacco sampled therein by the
sworn and salaried agents of the Safe and
to store it there free of charge until it can
be sold to advantage; and if, in order to
retain their privileges and to prevent the
inspection system becoming a charge up
on the rest of the State, it be necessary tor
the tobacco growers to continue to submit
to law a half a century old, requiring
every planter, under penalty, to send his
tobacco to those houses for inspection.
they may rest assured that there is nothing
servile or unbecoming freemen in such
submission. We have examples in every
section of the world of trades unions and
commercial and professional associations
imposing similar restrictions and COM
pulsions upon their members, and we have
never heard it asserted that they are any
the less freemen on account of such sub
mission; but, on the other hand, we know
that they build up their trades and pro-
fessions, and maintain their dignity and
prosperity only in that way.
Had it not been for the compulsory fea-
ture in the inspection law, the warehouses
could never have been paid for and would
not to-day be, as they are, the property of
the tobacco growers. 1t may be, and pro-
badly would be, that the precipitae Iop-
ping off Of the Compulsory feature of the
law at this time, and the establishment of