Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1913-01-17
The LiqaOr-shipment Law.
Washington Correspondence, Phila Ledger

Washington Correspondence, Phila. Ledger
Congress is face to face with legislative
proposition which is accepted as meaning
that, II a bill that is pending shall become
a law, the Federal Government will have
lent its aid, through the laws of Congress,
enacted under those provisions of the
United States Constitution which relate to
control by Congress of the commerce be-
tween the States, to what will amount vir-
tually to the prohibition of the sale and
use of intoxicating liquors among the peo-
pie. The pending bill has been reported
favorably from the Senate Judiciary Com
mittee. 1t was presented originally by
Senator Kenyon, of Iowa, prohibition
and local option State.
In the Congress of two years ago the
able lawyers on the Judiciary Committee
of the Senate, which included such distin-
guished men as the present Secretary of
State Mr. Knox ; Senator Rayner, of Mary
land, who recently passed away, and Sena-
tors Bacon. of Georgia Nelson. of Mime
sofa, at present second member of the
committee, reported directly upon this
question upholding non-control by Congress.
Not only is this true, but the courts of the
States and of the nation have wrestled
with the problem and have given variety
of decisions which have served to clarity
the atmosphere to some extent. but which
have left undecided the vital question
whether liquor shipped in any form from
a dealer in one State direct to buyer in
another State, may be subjected to the
laws Of the latter State before the consien-
ment Of liquors reaches the purchaser
When the question was before the Judi
ciary Committee several years ago the
majority of the committee decided that, in
view of the fact that no State has yet
passed laws which prohibit person from
receiving and consuming liquors, it is not
within the province Of Congress to enact
laws which take from such consignments
OF liquor their character as interstate
shipments, and subject such shipments to
the police powers Of the several States.
It is true that many States have laws
which prohibit the manufacture and sale
within their borders of intoxicating liquors.
But 1t has not yet been disclosed that such
laws reach the case Of a citizen Of such
prohibition State. who may purchase liquor
from another State and have it shipped
to him for his own use, and with no intent
on the part of the buyer to violate the
laws of the State enacted against the
manufacture and sale within such State of
intoxicating liquors.
The advocates of the Kenyon bill-the
direct effect Of which is to make consign-
ments of liquor subject to the laws Of the
various States Immediately upon the ar
rival of such liquors within the borders of
the States, and disreearding the interstate
character of the shipment assert that it
should not be possible for the laws govern
ing interstate traffic to annul and defeat
the plain laws of the State nor prevent the
full and uninterrupted sway of the police
powers of given State, in the exercise of
which State may desire to prevent the
shipment of liquors within its borders. II
is claimed by these advocates of the Ken
yOn bill that so far as any single prohibit
ton State is concerned the situation is, or
should be, precisely the same, as to that
State, in the matter Of receiving liquors
within its borders, as If every State had
laws prohibiting traffic inliquors. The an
swer to this suggestion, as it is made by
the opponents Of the Kenyon bill, Is that
until State has provided by affirmative
legislation that no liquor shall be received
within its borders. and that no citizen of
such State shall manufacture, buy, sell or
consume liquors. ii is not within the pro-
vince Of Congress, in its control over inter
State commerce, to enact legislation which
shall take from liquors their character as
legitimate objects Of interstate traffic.
When the Archibald impeachment case
is out of the way in the Senate II is ex-
pected this liquor question will be debated
in great detail, and that the discussion of
the subject will occupy much of the time
Of both houses during the remainder Of the
session.