Montana labor news., 1937-01-21
Goods
Ban Is Constitutional
Supreme Court SustainS Federal
Statute Forbidding Shipment
to States Whose Laws Prohibit
Sale of Prison Products.

preme Court of the United States
gave unanimous approval to the
Ashurst- Summers Act, passed by the
1886 session of Congress, providing
that convict-made goods shipped in
interstate commerce must bear a
label upon the c%ontainer on which is
printed the name of the prison where
the articles were produced and to
whom they are consigned.
The object of the law is to prohibit
railroads and other carriers of inter-
state commerce from accepting pris-
on-made products to be delivered in
states that have adopted the state
use system, whereby no convict
made goods, wares or merchandise
produced OF mined in the United
States can be sold on the open mar
ket. twenty-five states now have
the state use system.
Advocated by A. f. of l..
The Ashurst-S Summers Act, whose
passage was advocated by the Amer
lean Federation of Labor, is supple
mentary legislation to more thor
oughly enforce the Hawes-C Cooper
Act (also an A. F. of L. measure)
which divests state prison made
products of their interstate character
and provides that when such goods
are shipped into a state the laws Of
that state shall govern.
Power of Congress Held Supreme
The Supreme Courts decision,
written by Chief Justice Charles
Evans Hughes, declared that the
United States Congress not only has
the full constitutional right to bar
from the channels of interstate COM
merce articles inherently obnoxious
or injurious to public health, morals
or the general welfare, but that, in
addition, Congress has equally full
authority to shape a policy in regu-
lating interstate commerce to pre-
vent interference with valid state
laws.
while the power to regulate in
terstate commerce resides in the
Congress, which must determine its
policy" Chief Justice Hughes said,
the Congress may shape that policy
in the light of the fact that the trans
portation in interstate commerce, if
permitted, would aid in the frustra-
ton of valid state laws for the pro-
lection of persons and property"
Prison Concern Fought the Act
The attack on the constitutional
ity of the Ashurst- Summers Act was
brought by the Kentucky Whip and
Collar Company, which manufac-
lures horse collars and strap goods
at the Kentucky State Prison at
Eddybille. The company tried to
force the Illinois Central Railroad
Company to accept shipments in vio-
lation of the Act, which required the
containers of the goods to be dis
tinctly marked as prison made.
One of the main arguments adj
vanced against the constitutionality
of the Act was that the goods pro-
duced by convict labor in the Ken
lucky prison were not of themselves
harmful. The Supreme Court reject
ed this contention.
"The contention is inadmissible
that the act of Congress is invalid
merely because the horse collars and
harness which petitioner manufac-
lures ard sells are useful and harm
less articles" the court said.
1.-THE motor vehicles, which are the
subject of the transportation pro-
hibited in the National Motor We
hicle Theft Act, are in themselves
useful and proper subjects of con
merce, but their transportation by
one who knows they have been stol-
en- is "a gross misuse of interstate
commerce and the Congress may
properly punish it because of its
harmful result and its defeat of the
property rights of those whose ma
chimes against their will are taken
into other Jurisdictions
Similarly, the object of the Fed
eral Kidnapping Act is to aid in the
protection of the personal liberty of
one who has been unlawfully seized
or carried away.
"On the same general principle,
the Congress May Prevent interstate
transportation from being used to
bring into a State articles, the traffic
in which the State has constitutional
authority to forbid, and has forbid
den, in its internal commerce.
Law Is Not arbitrary or
CapriciOus"
I'm the Congressional action there
is nothing arbitrary or capricious
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