St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-12
sUpREMA REX.
The High License Law and the
People.
To the Edttor of the Glnbn


People.
To the Editor of the Globe.
J On the day following the passage of
the high license law by the Minnesota
legislature an article appeared in the
GLOBE taking the ground that better
mode for regulating the liquor traffic
was through the medium of inspection
laws. Owing, doubtless, to the obscur-
ity of the writer, it was deemed by some
rank presumption to question the al
legged wonderful benefits to be
derived from a measure requir-
ing such very severe mental
strain as the high license law required
of WOuld-be statesmen, buOyed up by
dreams of future political preferment.
The precipitate haste with which bills
have been introduced into congress pro-
viding for national inspection laws is
ample proof that legal knowledge ac-
quired Oh the liver-pad principle of alb
sorption, when put to the crucial test in
the supreme judicial tribunal of the
land must yield to the memorable logic
of chief justice whose knowledge of
law is derived through the laborious
process of mental digestion.
1t is claimed, with what measure Of
truth each thinking man must deter
mine for himself, that in the last thirty
years rapid strides have been made in
the direction of the Capitalization of
power in the federal government. Be
that as it may, the cIean-cut, logical in
depreciation by Chief Justice Fuller of
that clause Of the federal constitution
relating to interstate commerce and
popularity known as the ''unbrOken
package" decision, reSurrectS from
amid the wreck and rubbish of years
that great principle actuating and con-
trolling the trainers of the constitution,
SaluS pOpuli est suprema lex, and re-
Yeals to its architects and builders the
inherent weakness underlying Repub-
lican legislation in Minnesota regu-
lating the liquor traffic, for, in the light
OF that decision, just so long as it is
lawful in any state of the Union to
manufacture and sell Intoxicating
liquor. that liquor may be imported into
and sold in any other state IN the I'M
broken package, large Oh small, without
mourning any liability under the laws
of such State-in the absence of federal
legislation in the premises, or unless
coming within the provisions of the
state inspection laws prohibiting the
sale of 1spuriOuS. imitation or fraudulent
compounds injurious TO health.
If resident dealers who nave invested
large sums of money in the business Of
manufacturing Spiritu0uS or malt
liquors in Minnesota are obliged to eX-
port their products in order to avoid
rulnous competition with those of other
states whose goods can be shipped into
Minnesota under federal protection,
and sold in the unbroken package, large
OF small, without mourning any liability
therefor to the state, then what be-
comes of that claim of the restraining
powers of the high license law as to the
number of drinking places? Or. if resi-
dent retailers. whose business is under
the control of the state, must pay high
manufacturer may sell intoxicating
liquor in the unbroken package
under federal protection without a
license, when it is fair to presume that,
in this material age, the well being of
wOuld-be plethOric purse, seeking to be
filled through the medium of federal
protection. will teach the contributors
to Republican campaign funds and
party success an object lesson on the
beauties of Republican Iegislation-leg-
islation in which the most powerful po-
I lttical telescope would fail to discover
the faintest shadow of trace of Re-
publican fostering care for infant in
dustries, save in the interest of manu-
facturers and dealers residing outside
the jurisdiction of the state and not sub
ject to its Wanted liquor legislation.
= 1t might be well for that large body
of Minnesotians9 engaged in the con-
fessedly unrenruneratiye labor of till
ing the soil, while earnestly striving to
Tighten the heavy burden of taxation
. and debt under which they stagger
along from year to year, to pause and
reflect on where the money goes de-
rived from license fees, and who pays
the expenses of judicial tribunals ere
ated for the adjudication and enforce
ment of the laws. If the burden of tax
alton must be equal and uniform
throughout the country, is it too much
to ask that those who share equally IN
the burdens of that taxation may share
in the benefits derived from license
fees and those benefits not confined
solely in practice to taxpayers residing
in cities and villages? JUDEX.