The sun., 1897-11-19
LICENSE CHARGES ILLEGAL.
Repeated Decisions to That Effect by
Courts Everywhere.

Interest has recently been aroused in
this state in the question of license
charges, as fixed in different counties
and municipalities, and the attempt is
rcpcatcdlv made to enforce these ordi-
nances, despite the fact that practically
every one of them is void, and hundreds
of them have been declared void. There
has, in fact, scarcely been a
case known which, if carried
to a court of competent appellate
| jurisdiction did not result in overthrow
ing the ordinance. In every State in the
Union these laws have been attacked,
and in every State they have been over
thrown, and where the State courts have
permitted them to stand, the Federal
Courts have invariably pronounced
against them.
Despite all these decisions magistrates
of inferior jurisdiction, and their officers,
persistcntly disregard the decisions of
the superior courts, and continue to en-
force these ordinances, to arrest agents,
and to punish them precisely as if
no decisions upon the subject existed.
The broad general principle has been
maintained in its integrity, that only
Congress can impose a tax where the
goods sold in one state were either man
ufactured in or brought from another
state. 1t may be that these magistrates
are ignorant of the decisions upon the
subject, though this scarcely seems pos
sible
The general wording of these decisions
is almost always the same. 1t is in effect
that in cases where any person is solicit
ing for the sale OF goods in any state in
which these goods are not manu-
featured, or in which the firm
or establishment selling the goods
is not established, the business is inter-
state business and can only be regulated,
taxed or licensed by act of Congress un-
der the provisions OF the Constitution OF
the United States. For instance, in a
case which arose under the laws of Ten
nessee, the Supreme Court Of the United
States said:
ut is strongly urged, as if it were a
material point in the case, that no dis
elimination is made between domestic
and foreign hummelshine, OF Tcnnes-
see and those of other States that all are
taxed alike. But that does not meet the
difficulty. Interstate commerce cannot be
taxed at all, though the same amount of
tax should be laid on domestic COM
melre, or that which is carried on solely
within the State"
In.othcr cases, decisions to the same
pllrport were rendered. In Il case tried
bv the State court at Rockford, ILL.,, 1t
was decided that an ordinance Of the
city Of Polo, imposing a tax OF $50 on
persons who took orders for goods in
that town and delivered the goods them
selves and collected the money, was
void, and that cities had no power
to enact such an ordinance. Similar
decisions in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland
New Jersey, New York and practically
every other state in the Union. In the
recent decision the Supreme Court Of the
United States held that "every tax on
Interstate commerce is burden on that
commerce; and, when imposed by a state
law, without the assent of Congress, as
in this case, it is illegal, and the law i'm
posing it is obnoxious to the federal con-
stitution, and for that reason null and
void. No state has any independent
right to place any burden upon legiti-
mate commerce between its own citizens
and those of other states, nor to curtail
that commerce in any degree.
In case tried in the United States
Circuit Court in Tennessee, damages to
the amount of 5000 were given in favor
of solicitor named Singleton against the
county of Hawkins for false arrest under
the law requiring the payment OF a priv
ilcgc tax to do business.