Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-14
THE EFFECT OF TIE DECISION.

/ The decision Of the United States Supreme
| Court in what is known as ''the origina
package case" proves upon perusal Of tn,
fuller reports to have carried greater sig
nifcance in overturning the police power,
of the State than was shown by the
telegraphic summary. The early report
conveyed the inference that it simply de-
Tended the right of liquor dealer in one
State to ship, as Interstate commerce,
liquor in the original packages to pur.
chasers in another State. 1t now appears
that the ruling goes much further than that.
The case was one in which brewing firm
shipped to their agent in Iowa who was a
nonresident in that State) some beer, which
the latter offered for sale. The Supreme
Court afirms his right to sell it, notwith-
standing any State law, on the ground that
no State can interfere with commerce be-
tween the States. The following is the
language of the Court on this point:
"They tthe importers) had the right to i'm
port this beer into that State and in the view
which we have expressed, they had the right to
sell it. by which act alone it would become
mingled in the common mass of property with
in the State. Up to that point then, we hold
that in the absence of Congressional permission
to do so, the State had no power to interfere by
seizure or any other action in prohibition Of
importation and sale by the foreigner or non.
resident importer"
This decided reversal of the general &C.
ceptation as to the dividing line between
interstate commerce and the police power
OF the State has led a good many people to
Jump to some rather wild conclusions. 1t
is asserted that under this decision any man
can sell liquor without regard to State
laws whether prohibitory or regulative, and
that so long as the liquor is in the original
packages it can be sold and resold, either at
wholesale or retail. Such view is proba-
bly, inspired by the desire on the hand OF
prohibitionists, who wish to make their
issue a national one, and of the represents
tives of the liquor interest on the other, who
want to see all restrictions cast aside. 1t
goes beyond the real meaning of
the decision in two respects. In the
first place the decision only up
holds the right of ''the foreigner and nom
resident importer" to sell the liquor; and
next, its language indicates that the right
ceases and the property becomes subject to
the power of the State when the importer
has sold it once. On this point the language
Of the Court is tolerablv plain:
1.-THE point of time when the prohibition
ceases and the power Of the State begins is not
the instant when the article enters the country,
but when the importer has SO acted upon 1t
Al.
with the mass Of property in the country, which
happens when the original package is NO
longer, as such, in his hands,"
The decision is surprising enough as it is.
It implies that the liquor dealer of another
State can sell liquor in any State without
reference either to license or prohibition;
and there is an inference that even resi-
dent may do SO, If he acts strictly
as the agent of the nonresident
The same rule would seem to
apply to the olemargarine trade, and to
vast number of articles of interstate COM
merce now subject to State regulation.
But if any of our disappointed appli-
cants for license take the view that
this lets down the bars to an indiscriminste
sale aud resale of liquor by them, in the
original packages, large and small, they
may find that to act on such view would
be costls mistake. Under the strict terms
of the decision no one is given the right Of
sale except the foreigner or nonresident inn
porter, and a single sale by them 'incor-
porates the article in the common mass of
which subjects it to the police
power of the State.
1t would not be surprising if the Supreme
Court should modify even this decision when
it perceives how subversive it is of the
police power of the State. If it should not,
Congress can very easily dispose of the sub
ject by law authorizing each State to adopt
laws to regulate or prohibit the liquor traffic
between it and other States.