The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-04-27
A DEATH BLOW
IS DELIVERED
Cigarette Law Clearly Con-
strued by the Indiana
Supreme Court.
CANNOT STOP SMOKING
ONLY THAT PART OF THE STAT
UTE PERTAINING TO SALE OF
CIGARETTES CAN BE EN-
FORCED.
Publishers Press1

Indianapolis, April 26.-The Indiana
Supreme Court delivered a death blow
to the famous cigarette law today.
1t has held that the statute is valid,
but that an erroneous construction
has been placed upon it; that it does
not apply in the case of a person who
brings cigarettes into the state in the
conduct of interstate commerce, and
it does not forbid persons to smoke
cigarettes
That part of the law, however,
which forbids the sale of cigarettes
or cigarette papers stands for enforce
ment.
The conviction of John M. Lewis of
Anderson, for smoking a cigarette
was reversed, and the refusal of the
trial court to convict w. w. Lowry of
indianapolis, for obtaining cigarettes
from Louisville, was upheld. The
court, by Judge Gillett, said in part:
After a painstaking study of the
statute in question, the conviction has
been forced upon us that said enact
ment does not apply to the act of
in possession for the sole purpose of
smoking. Several reasons conspire to
lead us to this conclusion: If it had
been the purpose of the Legislature
to prohibit smoking cigarettes, it can
scarcely be supposed that the inten-
tion so to do would not have found
direct expression. That being within
s,,4o 1t, 80
would naturally have been the major
announcement.
"Of course, we know that the smok-
ing of cigarettes, at least in some
circumstances, was the evil with
which the law-making power sought
knowing whether the end was to sup
press the smoking of cigarettes en-
tirely, or to limit their use, ,eby making
them difficult to obtain, particularly
by boys, we are unable to say that the
legislative purpose could only attain
its consummation by holding that the
cigarette was intended to be contra
band in all circumstances. Indeed, If
we may judge by contemporaneous
legislation, we may assume that be-
cause the cigarette was a recognized
menace to the boys of the State, 1t
was deemed advisable to take cigar
cites out of commerce by prohibiting
the manufacture, sale, gift or other
transfer of them.
Ridiculous Presumption.
''It is also to be noted that it is the
keeping or owning of 'cigarettes'-
the plural number, which is exhibited,
a fact that has a degree of signifi-
canoe in view of what precedes. More
over, it would be but little short of
ridiculous to say that person smok-
ing a cigarette kept or owned it, and
even the possession by a smoker of
quantity of cigarettes, designed for
mediate or immediate consumption,
would, in ordinary parlance, be more
likely to be characterized as a hav-
ing of them in his possession than as
an owning or keeping of them.
There can be no doubt that the
legislation in question proceeded from
the postulate than an evil had grown
out of the readiness, with which
cigarettes could be procured. but,
looking at the words relied on, colored
as they are by that which is specific,
we are unwilling to conclude that it
was the intention OF the General AS
sembly to invade the private life of
the adult further than to the extent
that he must necessarily be subject
to those requirements of the statute
which do not admit of doubt