The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1899-04-07
The Dairy Law Declared UncOnstitu.
tiOnHI.

Judge Sharp, sitting in the, Criminal Court of
Baltimore city, last week, sustained demur-
rer to an indictment brought against Henry A.
Broedbent for his failure TO register his herd
of cattle with the Live Stock Sanitary Board,
in accordance with the new law passed by the
Legislature. The act provides for fine OF
not less than 81 nor more than $50 for each
offense, and appears to be directed to dairy
men, herdsmen and private individuals who
supply cities, towns and villages with milk.
1t also provides strict regulations looking to
the sanitary arrangements of the premises.
The constitutionality of the act was brought
! into question by the demurrer; counsel for Mr..
Broadbent contended that the statute is In con-
fict with the Bill of Rights; is against the
proper exercise of the police power of the
State, and that it vested the Sanitary Board
| with arbitrary powers.
Judge Sharp, in delivering his opinion, said
that the power to pass laws regulating the con-
struction of stables belonging to persons who
sell milk, is not in question, and continuing
says
sit was agreed at the hearing that there are
dairymen, herdsmen and private individuals
who do not sell milk to cities, towns and
| villages, and that among them are at least the
| following classes of persons, viz: those who
sell to persons living in country neighbor-
hoods, those who sell to creameries situated in
cheese, those who sell to country storekeepers
and those who sell to middlemen.
at is contended for the Slate, in support OF
the validity of the law, that milk is an impor.
tant article of food and a fruitful source OF
disease; that it is particularly important in the
diet of the sick and young, and that the public
health requires that the milk supplied the com
munity should be nutritious and pure; thai
this can be obtained by the proper construction
and use of stables and care of cows, and in rc
other way, and to secure this the State may
by virtue of its police power, regulate the con
struction and use Of stables and the care OF
cows.
1.-The object of the law is the prot ction O
the health of the people of the State; but tn,
proposed classification hears no just relation
to that purpose. It does not appear that thos
supplying milk to cities, towns and village
keep their stables in any worse condition thai
others, or that their COWS are not as well care,
for. 1t cannot be said that the inhabitants O
cities. towns and villages are more liable t,
disease caused by impure milk than others, o
that they have any peculiar need for the pro
lection of such legislation.
: ono reason appears why the Legislator
should be more solicitous of the health OF resi-
{, dents of cities, towns and villages than Of tn
|
1 reasons exist requiring, on account of tn
r health of the community, that they should b
{ the subject of special regulations. All dairy
n men, herdsmen and private individuals stan
n in precisely the same relation in the object @
h the law. The injury to the public from impur
I milk is the same in any case The obligatio
s to supply pure milk is as great in the case G
8 those selling in country neighborhoods as i
d the case of those selling to cities, towns an
villages"