The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1894-02-07

cIaring the places where and the
hours within which they shall be
sold; in providing for the in.
spection and destruction of un-
sound articles; in providing for
chemical analysis and branding of
fertilizers; in providing for the
exclusion of diseased cattle, and in
many other ways restraining and
Regulating" the trade as to the
quality of articles to be bought aud
sold, and as to the times when and
the places where the articles may be
bought and sold by individuals.
This is admittedly regulation" If,
however, the State can lawfully, in
the exercise or under the guise or
pretext of the police power, add to
the system Of existing regulation and
restraints trade, another system Of
engaging IN or Of erclusioe monopoly,
Of buying and selling By the State
itself Of all these articles, then we
may have, constitutionally, exclu-
sively conducted by the State,
through it's officers and agents, with
the public funds aud absorbing the
revenue, the following trades The
State fertilizer dispeDsary, the State
tobac CO dispensary, the State butter
dispensary, the State fresh meat
dispensary, the State salt meat
dispensary, the State drug dispen-
sary, the State fruit dispensary, the
State -four dispensary, and SO on,
through every trade in which in the
exercise of the police power the
State could make regulations, and
thus practically the whole business,
trade and commerce of the State
could be constitutionally turned into
system of official conduct of busi-
ness, with an army of officers and
State agents !; and thus instead Of
j the individual citizen conducting
trade with private capital and private
enterprise, under the protection and
restraints of the Government, the
Government would be conducting
trade. with public fnnds, through
official employees To state this
result is to demonstrate the falsity of
the principle, for this result ,is simply
socialism and paternalism and COM
munism run mad. and destroys the
very purposes. and transgresses all
the hounds of "civil government
founded by our Constitution.
The trading by the State in liquor
being against the Constitution it is
void, and cannot be upheld by resort
to the police power for the police
power cannot be exercised in acts
"repugnant to the Constitution. "
Cooley Const Limitations, p. ia, 5th
line from bottom.
So also the Supreme Court of the
United States say :: "Under guise OF
exerting police power State cannot
pass an unconstitutional law" l3S
q. S. 80.
In the light Of these principles the
exercise of the police power cannot
be by the State itself engaging in
the trade. Whether it be the liquor
trade or any ether trade the constitu.
tional principle equally applies, and
is fundamental and vital. To lose
sight of this principle because the
liquor trade alone is now under dis
cussion is to surrender one of the
mightiest constitutional bulwarks Of
our Government, and to return to the
absolute governments of the East or
Continental Europe, where any and
all trades, arts and industries might
at any moment be engaged in. usurped
or monopolized by the monarch.
Let US preserve the State from en-
gaging 10 any and all trade. 1t the
trade be hurtful unless controlled, let
the State regulate it by proper re.
strictions. If trade be noxious per
Sc, aud inherently endangerIng the
health and morals Of society, then let
the State prohibit it and abolish it
entirely. thus applying aud exhaust
ing the whole police power OF the
State in protection of society. But
when, under the public policy of the
State, the trade is not noxious, and
in this instance intoxicating liquor is
not only permitted. but poured
out in sale by the State by
thousands of barrels each year),
let not the State appeal to the
police power for the State itself to
engage in this trade, for the police
power does not, as we have seen, ln-
clude the power of the State itself to
engage in any trade.
Fatal have been the consequences
to any trade, and corrupting also to
the State and it's citizens, when the
absolute monarchs of the Continent