Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-03
.STATESL|M|TED
ON STAGE CONTROL
Sd Supreme Court Ruling
Denies Power Over
Prices Charged.
by Consolidated Press.

By Consolidated Press.
Few decisions of the Supreme Court
Of the United States have attracted
rs much attention among legislators
as the ruling this week that State
Legislatures have no authority 10
specify what prices shall be charged
for so-called necessities or luXuries
of life.
The Supreme Court divided five to
four on the question. and the ma jorlty
and dissenting opinions reveal the far
reaching character of the problem as
1t relates to the police power OF the
States. The majority contended that
e theater performance or an athletic
contest, for that matter, is not a Dusl
ness affected with the public In
terest," and hence the prices charged
ere a matter entirely between the
Iuyer and the seller. But the mi
nority pointed out that ticket brokers
buy all the good seats and constitute
q virtual monopoly, and when resold
TO the public there is opportunity Tor
fraud.
Policy Held Wrong.
The majority answered this by ar
e1line that while some brokers may do
This, II is a wrong policy TO put out
a. dragnet, bringing in the innocent
with the guilty, and that the ucket
agency in question had a fiat charge,
and that if other brokers deceived the
public they could be reached through
the usual laws governing fraud or
misrepresentation.
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who
IS IS years old this month. but who is
regarded by his colleagues as having
rs alert and keen a mind as men
many years his junior. took in his dis
senting opinion. the view that theaters
have become affected with public
interest. He said:
The truth seems to me to be that,
subject to compensation when COM
pensation is due, the Legislature may
forbid or restrict any business when
1t has a sufficient force of public
opinion behind it. Lotteries were
thought useful adjuncts OF the State
q century or so ago: now they are be-
l;eved to be immoral and they have
been stopped. Wine has been thought
good for man from the time of the
apostles until recent years, but when
public opinion changed it did not need
the eighteenth amendment, notwith-
standing the fourteenth, to enable a
State TO say that the business should
end.
What has happened to lotteries
and wine might happen to theaters in
some moral storm of the future, not
because theaters were devoted to a
public use, but because the people had
come to think that way.
But IL we are to yield to fashion
able conventions, 1t seems to me that
the theaters are as much devoted to
the public use as anything well can
be. We have not that respect for
art that is one OF the glories Of
France. But to many people the
euperfiuous is the necessary, and it
seems TO me that the Government
tempting to make life livable for
them. ! am far from saying that
this particular law Is a wise and
rational provision. That il not my
affair. But IL the people of the State
Of New York, speaking their author.
txed voice. say that they want 1t, ]
zee nothing In the Constitution Of the
United States to prevent their having
their wiIl."
PriceFixing Apart.
Entirely apart from the question OF
whether theater has a public use is
the matter Of price-f1xing. The
Supreme Court. by its decision, insists
that . business which has public in
terest" must be more OF the type
which derives its franchise or right
road or public utility, and that, while
in some emergencies a business might
suddenly have public interest" the
line tends to narrow rather than widen
IN normal times and that the in
dividual has a right to fix whatever
price he pleases for his product, sub.
3ect. Of course, to the laws which pre-
vent his collaborating with other
producers to fix prices or restrain
trade.
State Legislatures have been in.
clined to believe that under their po'
lice powers they could fix prices for
eo-called necessities. The Supreme
Court decision may some day, OF
course, be overturned. as sometimes is
the case with opinions on which a FIVE
to.four vote Is taken, but for the pres
ent, at least, the warning Is given that
States cannot interfere in the arrange
ment between buyer and seller of any
commodity except those like rail and
motor transportation, power rates and
other quasi-monopolistic businesses.
II