Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-05-29
THE NORTHWEST
ORIGINAL PACKAGES.
THE SUPREME COURT HAS DE
CLARED NO NEW LAW.
Until 1888 Iowa Recognized the Doc.
trine of John Marshall. Which
Has Merely Been Reafiirmed.

trtne OF Jonu M1rsuai' "hOh
Has Merely Been Reafiirmed.
Itis singular that so much attention,
mostly unfavorable, should have been
drawn TO the recent decision OF the Su-
preme Court In the so-called iowa
iiuuor,n or "original package" case
when go little attention was drawn to
the precisely analogous case OF Bow
man against the Chicago and North
western Railway Company, decided by
the same court less than three years
ago. Bowman, like the plaintiffs in
the lately decided case, a citizen OF ILL
nols, sought to ship beer into Iowa. The
railroad company refused to take the
beer, and based its refusal on an Iowa
law forbidding the importation. The
United States Supreme Court held that
the Iowa law was invalid because 1t
confiicted with the Constitutional pow
e. of Congress to regulate commerce be-
tween the States.
But what makes 1t still more singu-
lar that the decision made last month
should be treated as new construction
of law Is that II, and the like decision
in the Bowman case, both rest On the
decision of Chief Justice Marshall, in
Brown against Maryland, rendered 63
years ago, and the further fact the
the principle underlying the latest
case, the Bowman case, and the decis-
ion of 1927 was fully recognized by the
Legislature and the supreme court of
the State of Iowa from 1855 to 1888.
The Iowa liquor law of 1866, carried in
to the revision of 1850 and codified in
1873, expressly exempted from the re-
strictive legislation of the State intox-
icating liquors imported under the au-
thority of the laws Of the United States;
and sold by the importer in original
packages. And this provision was de-
clared by the supreme court OF Iowa,
in Pearson against International Dis
tillery, 72 Iowa, 354, to be "intended
to conform the statute to the doctrine
of the United States Supreme Court,
announced In Brown against Maryland,
12 Wheat, 419. and license cases, 5 How.
J4, 80 that the statute should not con-
fiict with the laws and authority Of the
United States" -w.ar
3 So that the Legislature and Supreme
Court Iowa knew perfectly well what
the doctrine Of the United Supreme
Court was on this subject and what it
had been since 1927, but in 1888 the
Iowa Legislature repealed the exempt
ion in favor of imported liquors sold in
original packages, thereby deliberately
violating what had been the supreme
law of the land for 81 years. The Su-
preme Court last month merely re-
affirmed the old law. saJ|yE
In the Bowman case, decided within
the last three years, Mr.. Justice Mat
thews said that II Iowa could prevent
the importation of intoxicating liquors,
"It may not choose, even to be govern
ed by considerations growing out of the
health, comfort or peace of the COM
munity. Its.policy may be directed to
other ends. It may choose to establish
q system directed to the promotion and
benefit of its own agriculture, 'manufac
turers or arts of any description, and
prevent the introduction and sale with
in its limits of any, or of all articles
that it may select as coming into COM
petition with those which it's seeks to
protect" HH -a"
If there were any merit in the system
of protection the prosperity of each one
of our forty-two States would be great
ly promoted by restricting its COM
merce with the other forty-one, but
Republican legislators and judges re-
coil from any such logical applications
of their profes 'ional beliefs.
In the well-reasoned and conclusive
opinion of Chief Justice Fuller in the
cese decided last month, which seems
DE- stined to be known as the Original
package" case, mention is made of the
fact that Congress has enacted that
"any State, Territory, district city or
town within the United States" should
not be prevented "from regulating or
from prohibiting the tariffin or trans
.portation of those substances intro
glycerineand other explosives between
persons or places lying or being within
their respective territorial limits, or
>rom prohibiting the introduction
thereof into such limits for sale, use, or
consumption therein"
OF course Congress can give States
and cities the power to regulate or pro-
bibit the importation of alcoholic
d. .nks, as we'll as Of explosives, and as
we a.e strongly in favor of allowing
each community to regulate its own af-
fairs, we hope Congress will promptly
confer on Iowa, Kansas, Maine and
othc States the right to prohibit the
importations of alcoholic liquors IL the
people Of those States so desire Mo
tiondt Democrat. - 90 81 /" 3 y a.Aa's'