The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-22
WILD AND WooLLY EAST LEGIS-
LATION.

The New York legislature is a rare
assemblage of men. Only short time
ago it had under consideration bill
to gag the press, but that was finally
withdrawn. Now it has under con-
sideration a measure to kill department
stores. This measure provides that no
store in city of 10000 or more inha5-
itants shall sell more than one line of
goods, il another merchant is already
dealing in it, unless a license to sell
the extra goods is taken out. All mer-
charitable products are divided into Sc
groups tax of 81 insures a license to
deal in one group. Any dealer adding
a second group must pay therefor into
the city's exchequer 500. For a third
group he must pay $1,000; for fourth,
SIC, 600; for a fifth, $4,000; for sixth,
$40. GOO: for a seventh, $4,000. By pay
ing 100000 a year he may add any or
all of the other groups. On proof OF
any violation of the law the culprit is
adjudged to be guilty of nuisance,
and that, of course, subjects his bust
ness to summary suppression. This
measure has the approval of many
small merchants, and, of course, it is
in their interest that it was formu-
lated, not because there is any par
ticular solicitude for their welfare, but
for the purpose of catering to their in
fiuence in politics. The New York
Evening Sun comments on the bill in
these words:
Let him (SenatOr Davis of Erie coun-
z IL .-s,I
practice among the medical men, each
doctor to confine himself to the treat
ment OF one ailment or disease and pay
a substantial tax for invading other
fields. A doctor who had taken out a
preliminary license to treat colds would
have to pay 800 to prescribe for meas
les, $500 for adding Indigestion to his
list of complaints, $500 for insomnia,
$500 for rheumatism, and so on. To
qualify him for general practice he
might be mulcted $4,000 a year Then
Senator Davis could turn his attention
to the lawyers. Why should lawyer
deal in more than one kind of law?
Let him select from a group of legal
commodities, or be taxed for his YER
satility. If he thinks murder cases are
his strong suit, let him stick to them
and give the struggling practitioner
who had penchant for burglary law
a chance. If a juriSt has a talent for
corporations, let him leave
collections TO a brother at
torney. If torts whet his professional
appetite, why shouldn't his competitor
be allowed to subsist on assignments? !
Is there any reason why a lawyer |
should deal at one and the same time |
in the writS of mandamus certiorari /
and habeas corpus to the deprivation !
of some other lawyer who would be
glad enough TO apply for a writ of
habeas corpus? Why not tax the law
yer for his brains, his industry, and !
his ingenuity, if he is unusually tai |
ented, busy and resourceful? of course, |
this taxing idea need not be applied /
to the activities of professional men
only after the department stores have 4
been disciplined 1t is susceptible of /
the builder, the contractor, the manu- /
facturer. the druggist, the grocery
man, the butcher, the halter, the hab- +
erdasher. and all the dealers whose
goods overlap or compete with the
goods of other dealers, might be made
to understand by the Legislature that ,
the sale of too many varieties of goods
INJURIES somebody else, and is a nui-
;ance.
There is not much likelihood that the
legislature will pass any such bill as
Senator Davis has introduced, but its
shows that the minds of
he people Of the Empire state are
quite as susceptible to all sorts of va
carries as the minds of the bucolic
Iansans are supposed to be.
This bill is a beautiful specimen of
Wild and woolly east would-be Iegisla-
ion.