The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1907-05-21

/ any vi IuCoS luS 1SS1SldIuIO u1dy lC6u-
late in the exercise of the police power
which is one of the great sovereign
rights of the state. The state may say
and rightfully does say that no one
shall practice medicine or law except
upon a license granted after ascertain
ment of capacity. 1t is open to any
citizen 20 make application for this
sort of license. Can the Legislature
restrict this privilege so that only a
designated class may enjoy it? Could
1t a that no nan should apply for
license in law or medicine unless his
grandfather was a medical or legal
practitioner? Gould it declare hat no.
body should follow these yocations
license until their number should be
reduced by nature and then only by
a limited few? Could the Legislature
enact that only certain classes or Ger
tain designated persons could plant
tobacco, peanuts, cotton or corr and
SO on down the line? During the civil
I war some of the confederate states,
| seeing that their cotton could not be
turned into money by export and that
the people were sOre1y pressed for pre-
visions. legislated that farmers should
plant only a small percentage Of their
crops in cotton. This was an extreme
and questionable exercise of police
power. Suppose these laws had de-
clared that only certain individuals or
certain groups should plant cotton?
Suppose the legislature should say that
nobody should run an engine or reap
er or motor except a hundred license;
men?
Would constitutional lawyers admit
the validity of such legislation? The
answer to all these questions is hat
under the written constitutions Of the
American states and union and under
the unWritten constitution of England,
true the muniments of British freedom
such as Magma Charta, the Petition of
Right, the Habeas Corpus Act, the Act
OF Settlement, are in writing, being
Legislative acts, which are technically
subject to parliamentary repeal but
which are really irrepealable because
of certain fundamental principles
which with increasing purpose
through the ages have run" from Run
nymede to Naseby and Marston Moor,
by the bloody fires of Smithfield, by
tho oyoo,+;oo of +bo Src+ CIorJor Ir |
the scaffolds of Russell and Sydney, by
the expulsion of the second James
with the amending battle between pre-
negative and the people. and SO have
been burned into the blood and bone
of Saxon men. No Legislature or oh
gress or parliament can confiscate pri-
yate property or annihilate personal
liberty. Liberty among other things !
means the right to the pursuit of nap
piness along industrial lines and this
right cannot be conferred on a few
and denied to the people generally.
It follows that this act denying TO the |
people the right of navigating vessels
is void unless it can be established that
this business of plotting is not an
open industry, that there is something
about it which makes it q public ser ,
vice, a sort of incident appertaining to
municipal power, a kind OF govern
mental function. Hotels and saloons
are supposed to be in a sense public
license and make regulations as to
them but it cannot exclude the great
body Of people from applying for the
license and complying with lawful reg
ulations. If these pilots were public
officers it might be contended that the
Legislature had the power to appoint
them. They are not officers for mani
fest reasons. In the Texas case, Olsen
VS. Smith, they were officers sworn and
commissioned by the governor with
necessary police powers.
The act selects certain individuals,
cOnfers upon them the exclusive priv
ilege of pursuing this industry, arbi-
trarily declares that no other citizen
of the state shall follow this vocation,
however capable and worthy he may
be, n seeks to confer the monopoly
upon the favored few regardless Of ef-
ficiency or capacity. True there may
be a reasonable presumption that those
who held branches more than two
years ago We're competent then. But
how many of them have become inca
paciated and could not today pass al
honest examination? How many Of
them are sick and weak? How many
have forgotten what they knew about
the business more than two years ago?
How many of them who know now all
or anything about the reefs and chang |
ing sands and bars and varying chan
nels? How many of them have be-
come blind? And yet by this act tie
ipfrp tho OaarSiphtpd and the blipI