Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1910-11-11
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER II, 1910.
Names Hiahest Tribunal Deelar-
ss Bar Harbor Autom obile Bill
CONSTITUTIONAL.

Augusta, Nov. THE Law Court has
handed down rescript in the Hancock |
County case of State of Maine VS.. J. D. |
Phillips, giving judgment for the State
and declaring that the act to prohibit |
the use of automobiles in the towns of
Eden, Mount Desert, fremont and
Southwest Harbor on the Island of
Mount Desert, which during the last
session of the Legislature was known
as the Bar Harbor automobile bill, is |
constitutional.
The rescript which was drawn by As
sociate Justice William Penn White
house, is of general interest. 1t is as
follows:
This is criminal prosecution for an
alleged violation of a special act of
the Legislature, approved March IL,
1909, entitled IAN act to prohibit the
use of automobiles in the towns of
Eden, Mount Desert, fremont and
Southwest Harbor on the Island of
Mount Desert"
1t is a fundament al rule respecting
the distribution of the powers of COVER
ment into three departments that mo
person or persons belonging to one of
these departments shall exercise any of
the powers properly belonging to either
of the others. Constitution of Maine,
Act ILL.,, Section 2. But courts are not
justified in preventing the enforcement
of legislative enactment by declaring
it invalid unless satisfied beyond
reasonable doubt that it is in clear viola
ton of some provision of the constitu
ton, it is the duty of one department
to presume that another has acted with
in its legitimate province until the con-
trary is made to appear by strong and
convincing reasons.
The legislative power is every
where recognized as the proper guar
dian of all such public rights AS the
right of travel upon the highways and
as having as the proper representative
of the public, full power over the whole
subject of laying out, opening, altering
and disseminating highways. And this
power they may, so far as they have
not been restrained by the constitution,
exercise directly without delegating it
to any other tribunal.
1t is now we'll settled rule that in
the absence of any constitutional re-
striction or limitation, the Legislature
of sovereign state in the exercise of
it's police power which extends to the
preservation of the Elves, limbs,
health, comfort and quiet of all per-
sons and the protection of all prop
erty without the State" has the right
to prohibit automobiles from passing
over certain streets or public ways in
any city or town. And it was held by
this court in the recent case of State
VS.. Mayo, LOG Maine, g. that "pri-
vate and special" act of the Legisla-
ture authorizing the town of Eden
lone of the towns embraced in the act
before the court at any legal meeting
o. hn yAfn 30 al 20 H.,
use of automobiles certain streets in
that town, was not repugnant to any
constitutional provision and that the
ordinance adopted by the vote of the
town in pursuance of this enactment
excluding automobiles from such streets
was legal and valid one. In that case
as in this it was contended in behalf of
the defendant that the statute was in
violation of the natural, inherent and
unaiineable rights" of man specified in
Section ! of Article / of the Constitu-
ton of Maine and Article ". of the
Amendments to the Constitution of the
United States, declaring that no State
shall deny to any person 1.-THE equal
protection of the law" But it was
determined by the court in a carefully
considered opinion and in accordance
with the firmly established principle
above stated that the right to use the
public streets is not an absolute and
unqualified right, but is subject to limi-
tation and control by the Legislature
whenever necessary to provide and
promote the safety, peace, health,
morals and general welfare of the peo-
pie, and that mo constitutional guar
anty is violated by such an exercise of
the police power of the State.
The fourteenth amendment Was NOT
designed to impair the police powers
of state and has never been so con-
strued.
NOT CLASS LEGISLATION.
Such laws as the act in question
have been regarded as class legislation
simply because they effect one class and
not another inasmuch as they effect all
members of the same class alike, and
the classification involved in the law is
founded upon a reasonable basis. If
these laws be otherwise unobj ectionable
all that can be required in these cases
is that they be general in their applca-
ton to the class or locality to which
they apply, and they are then public
in character, and of their propriety and
policy the Legislature must judge.
In enacting the law in question in
tne case dI OAR, tHe Legislature must
be presumed to have had under consid-
GRAFTON not only the facts stated in
State versus Mayo, but all the neces-
sary and pertinent information respect
ing the four towns to be affected by the
act, such as the character and extent
of the population and the location and
condition of all the highways and
streets. 1t may be presumed to have
taken note of the fact that these four
towns comprise the entire area of the
island of Mount Desert, which contains
Is mountains and Is lakes, and that the
bright mosaic of island and bay" has
ever been celebrated for the surprising
beauty and grandeur of its picturesque