The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-06
THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.
1t Cannot Be Construed for Benefit of tin,
Humble Chinese Laundryman.

1t Cannot Be Construed for Benefit of the
Humble Chinese Laundryman.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5.-A decision was rend-
dered by the United States Supreme Court to-
day, in the Chinese laundry case of Francis Bar
bier, plaintiff in error against Patrick Connolly,
in error to the Supreme Court of San Francisco
Barber the plaintiff in error was tried in the
Police Court of San Francisco upon the charge
of violating the fourth section of the
municipal ordinance, relating to the
establishment and maintenance with
in certain limits of public laundries,
The alleged violation consisted in washing
clothes between the hours of 10 o'clock in the
evening ana o'clock in the morning. On the
following day Barber was found guilty and
sentenced to imprisonment in the county Jail
for five days. He sued out writ of habeas
corpus in the Superior Court and moved for his
discharge, on the ground that the fourth sec
ton OF the ordinance was in violation of the
fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of
the United States The court overrued the mo-
tion and dismissed the writ, whereupon the
prisoner appealed
This court, in an opinion by Justice Field
holds that the fourth section of the ordinance
whose constitutionality is called in question. is
purely police regulation within the competency
OF any municipality possessed of the ordinary
powers belonging to such bodies and it would
be an extraordinary usurpation of authority mu-
niclpal If federal tribunal should
undertake to supervise such regu-
lations. The fourteenth amendment
was not designed to interfere with the power of
State-sometimes termed its police power--to
provide for the health, peace, morality, educa-
ton and good order of the people, and to legis
late to increase the industries of the State.
develop its resources, and add to its wealth and
prosperity. From the very necessities of society,
legislation of special character having these
objects in view must often be had in
certain districts, such as for draining
marshes and irrigating arid plains Special
burdens are often necessary for special benefits
for supplying water, preventing fires, lighting
Districts cleaning streets, opening parks, and
thousand other objects Regulations for these
purposes may press with more or less unequal
or unnecessary restrictions upon one than upon
another, but they are designed not to impose un
equal or unnecessary restrictions upon any one,
but to promote. with as little inconvenience as
possible, the general good. Evils which may
arise in the administration of such laws are mat
ters of purely State regulation. They can be
remedied only by the State
In the present case, the provisions requiring
certificates from the health officer, ETC.. may in
some instances, be necessary, and the changes
to be made to meet the conditions upon which
the certificates are granted may be burdensome,
Still, it is matter of administration, and not
a violation of any right secured by the four
teenth amendment The judgment of the Su
perior Court is affirmed.
Another question relating to the construction
of the fourteenth amendment was decided by the
court, in the case OF Samuel Head, plaintiff in
error, against the Amoskeag Manufacturing
Company, in error to the Supreme Court of
New Hampshire. The court holds that the
statute of a State authorizing q person
to erect and maintain water r-mll and mill dam
on an unnavigable stream does not deprive
owners of land overfowed by such stream of
property without due process Of law, provided
the owner of the mill and dam pays the owner
of such Overfowe6 land the amount of damages
assessed by the jury. In such case, therefore
the statute is not violation of the fourteenth
amendment to the Constitution. The judgment
of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire is
affirmed