Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-24
APPEAL OF HUCKSTERS
| ALLEGED "eQUATTERH' TO TAKE
CASE TO HIGHER COURT.
Request Made for Suspension Of Rsgu-
lations Pending the Appeal-Mr.
Macfarland's Action.

Attorney Henry E.Davis representing the
hucksters who are alleged to have oc-
cupied public space at the Center market
Illegally and adjudged to be violators of
the law in the Police Court, has informed
the Commissioners that he intends to ap-
peal the case to the Court Of Appeals Of the
District. and has asked that further en-
foreement of the regulations be suspended
until his case has been decided by the
Court Of Appeals.
In his letter to the Commissioners Mr..
Davis alleges that the Retail Grocers' AS
ISOLATION of the District Is the instigator
Of the prosecutions. 1t is we'll known
throughout the District that the members
of the Retail Grocers Association have long
viewed the occupancy by hucksters and
others of the space set aside for the farm
ers as injurious to the business Of the
farmer and to the members of the asso-
citation. For several years determined eff
forts were made by the members of the
association through their attorneys and
agents to secure the conviction in the
Police Court of certain individuals whom
they declared were not only OCCUPYING space
illegally but were unlicensed and carried
on a business that was in direct violation
of the law.
1t was claimed that these individuals
would control the prices in the market
and had SO dominated the space known as
the wholesale line that they controlled
practically all sales OF staple goods and
kept up prices, paying the farmers little
or nothing for their produce and selling 1t
to the grocers and others at exorbitant
prices. This agitation did not refer to the
licensed hucksters, as they are entitled to
do regular huckstering or hawking bust
ness in the streets by authority of law.
But 1t did affect those persons who made
it their business to occupy space at the
market to the exclusion of the bona fide
farmers, and SO far as the occupancy of
he a do In Ar
hucksters was concerned 1t was directed
against them also.
The efforts of the Grocers' Association
resulted in the stationing of special
policeman at the market. whose duty, it Is
alleged, 1t was to see that the law was duly
observed.
Mr.. Davis Letter.
In his letter to the Commissioners Mr..
Davis says:
II now have to add that am reliably in
formed that the agitation on the whole
subject was brought about by certain
green grocers of this city, who have en-
ployed counsel, who has been, several
occasions, present in the Police Court, and
who has. I am also reliably informed, in
other ways pressed the prosecutions. l beg
also to add that my Investigations of the
cases have revealed the fact that by dis
eliminating against the hucksters your
regulation is working a great public incon-
venience, in this way: The regulation seq
regates the huckster from the farmer and
gardeners selling their own produce and
requires them to occupy a distant space
the mere occupation of which stamps the
occupants as persons not selling their own
produce The purchasing public, buying
from these huckSters, gets as fresh and de-
s1rabie produce as those buying from the
producers themselves, but the mere fact of
the discrimination involved in the separa-
ton of the hucksters from the producers
puts upon the former an effective stigma,
the nature and result of which are obvious,
and the real disadvantage In the end falls
to the purchasing public"
Motion to Refuse REQUEST.
Commissioner Mcfarland recommended
that the commissioners refuse the request
of Mr.. Davis.
L move that Mr.. Davis be informed
that the Commissioners cannot consent to
suspend the enforcement of the law in
this matter simply because he is prosecut-
ing an appeal in the interest of his clients
after the Police Court has sustained the in
formations and his clients have been CON
Vcted under them says Mr. Mcfarland
mat the existing status is a vigorous on,
ton Of public space by unauthorized nar-
sons and will be maintained In the
pubic interest and especially for the
protection of those who, under the law
nave been given permits for the sale OF
their own products and those consumers
who desire to deal with such persons ana
not with hucksters pretending to be farm
ers and gardeners, that, in the Judgment
OF the Commissioners, the continuance
granted the defendants in these cases from
covering much of the summer marker sea
son, We're regrettable and furnish a reason
why there should be further DELAY in
the prosecution of such cases.