Evening star., 1940-03-17

Study OF interstate trade barriers" by
the temporary National Economic Com
mittee and other branches of the Federal
Government is again drawing attention
to group of burdens on the consumer
with which is intricately entangled the
whole question Of Federal versus State
regulation Of commerce.
The problem is not new one Many
types Of business transactions between
citizens of the different States are
partially or wholly strangled by a
multiplicity of State-law restrictions.
The legal moose is for the most part in
visible and unknown to the majority of
Americans. Unless you yourself are en-
gagged in one Of the affected businesses,
or live near a State line, the chances
are that you are unaware of the more
than 1000 State barriers to interstate
commerce which have given rise to such
expressions as "Balkanizing the United
States" and Forty y-eight Kingdoms"
Many of the barriers referred to have
been laid down since the depression.
They are Of various types and-despite
the fact that the Constitution prohibits
the levying of tariffs on interstate trade
the Federal Government, it is often
claimed, has been virtually helpless In
the matter.
Trucking an Intricate Business.
One class of interstate trade barriers
deals with motor vehicle regulation. For
the purposes of raising State revenue,
making the highway users pay for the
cost of the roads, protecting local railway
or trucking interests, or merely to retail
ate against other States, there have
sprung into being complex maze of laws
which make cross-country trucking more
complicated than game of chess. There
are registration provisions mileage taxes,
gross receipts taxes, weight restrictions,
ports of entry, limitations on itinerant
truckers and the like. No two States
have identical limitations.
Texas, for example, limits truck loads
to 1000 pounds unless the shipment is
going to a railroad station for reship-
ment, in which case $4,000 pounds is per-
mitted.
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to $4,000 pounds, and so forms barrier
athwart north-south trafic. A truck
starting from Illinois with a permitted
load Of 72,000 pounds cannot enter Ken
lucky unless three-fourths of its load is
removed. Yet in Tennessee $4,000
pounds is legal and in Alabama 10000
The ports of entry are virtual in,mi-
grafton stations for commercial cars and
have much in common with the routine
which traveller in Europe encounters
whenever he crosses an international
boundary.
Dairy Products Handicapped.
Motor regulation is just one kind Of
hurdle strangling interstate business.
Another category has to do with dairy
products and involves health and sani-
tary restrictions, inspection laws, etc.
Ostensibly designed to protect the health
Of the people, such laws all too fire.
quently are the result of lobbying in
State capitols by local interests.
Oleomargarine laws introduced as long
ago as 1890, form group by themselves,
being spread over 30 different States.
The Supreme Court having ended State
laws which required oleomargarine to be
colored, the product is now subjected to
burdensome taxes, to the detriment of
both manufacturers and consumers.
Another category relates to alcoholic
beverages, the legislation being designed
to help in-State producers, and fire.
quently producing as by-product, re-
taliatory legislation in other States,
"beer wars" and the like. For example,
In Louisiana nonresident liquor dealers
must pay fee of $4,000, while residents
pay only $1,000.
Under the guise of protecting home
farmers and orchardists from insect pests
and plant diseases, State fruiI and plant
inspection stations have all too often
given rise to such results as the Georgia
Florida peach-orange war. California
shuts out Gulf State citrus fruits for dis
eases which have not been encountered
In years.
A novel instrument Of exclusion has
been the "use tax" State tax on the
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