Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-25
MAY GO TO COURT.

The Peddlers License Ordinances to Be
Legally Tssted-A Prominent Grocery
Firm ID Fined and Vigorous Protest
Follows.
There is probability that the peddlers'
license law, and the ordinance framed in
conformity Herewith, will be tested in
court shortly for the first time. Hartlett &
Roller, grocers, at No. 26 Penn avenue,
contemplate such action. Last Saturd ay
the driver of a delivery wagon from their
store was arrested on West Carson street
for peddling without peddlers' license.
Ordinance Officer McKenna, who had been
watching the wagon and the driver, caused
the latter's arrest, and at the hearing be-
fore Magistrate Succop the firm was fined
$50 and costs.
Ever since the fine was imposed the
grocery firm and their friends have been
making strenuous efforts to have it re-
mitted. The politicians of the First ward
who are generally supposed by the people
down there to have o 'pull'' with the au-
thorities, were sent to make play upon
Magistrate Succop That official told them
he dare not remit the fine without Mayor
Gourley's consent, thus directing
their attentions to His Honor. They came
in upon the Mayor thick and fast
Among others was Mr.. Hartlett, one of
the defendants in the case. The e1plana-
tion he gave the Mayor to show the law had
not been violated was that in his business
he had large number of customers in the
West End, and in filling the orders they
had previously sent in, potatoes, apples
and such goods were packed in barrels and
measured out to them from the wagon.
On Saturday, he said, his driver had been
following this plan and the ordinance
officer, seeing the measure used, supposed
he was peddling.
The explanation was so plausible that
the Mayor promised to have the fine re-
mitted If he found the statement true.
When Magistrate Succop was called to ac-
count by the Mayor, he said no such de-
fense had been offered at the hearing Then
Ordinance Officer McKenna was placed
under oath and told the story. He said the
driver of the wagon had been selling to
everyone who had offered to buy, had sold
to persons who had not previously ordered
and had even called out his wares as he
drove along the streets
This evidence settled it. The Mayor yes
terday declared finally that not one cent of
the fine should be remitted. The Magis-
trate was so notified. Now it is stated
that the law is to be tested in the courts.
The peddlers' license law was passed in
1881. In 1886 an ordinance was passed
carrying into effect. It was in response to
the clamor of the retail grocers all over the
city who paid business and other taxes,
who were residents of the city and who
claimed they were entitled to protection
from outsiders, from irresponsible persons
and to some extent from each other, that
the law was made. One of the first
acts of the original retail Grocers'
Association was to combine and exert its in
fuence for the passage of the ordinance in
this city, and Chairman O'Donnell, Of the
present association, has given his hearty in
dorsement to the suit now under discussion.
The Grocers' Association maintains that no
person should sell from wagon except the
farmer or gardener who produces the goods
he offers, as the act of Assembly provides,
and it is pledged to lend its assistance to
the enforcement of the law.