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Opinion of the Court.

225 U.S.

per cent. of protein, and the maximum percentage of crude fiber which the manufacturer or person offering the article for sale guarantees it to contain; these constituents to be determined by the methods recommended by the association of official agricultural chemists of the United States. The State Chemist is to register the facts set forth in the certificate in a permanent record (§ 3).

Section 2 provides that there shall be affixed to every package or sample of the article a tag or label which shall be accepted as a guarantee of the manufacturer, importer, dealer or agent and shall have plainly printed thereon (a) the number of net pounds of feeding stuff in the package, (b) the name, brand or trade-mark under which it is sold, (c) the name of the manufacturer, (d) the location of the principal office of the manufacturer, and (e) the guaranteed analysis stating the minimum percentage of crude fat and crude protein determined as described in § 1, and the ingredients from which the article is compounded.

A stamp purchased from the State Chemist, showing that the article has been registered and that the inspection tax has been paid, is to be affixed for each one hundred pounds or fraction thereof, special provision being made for the delivery of an equivalent number of stamps on sale in bulk. By an amendment of 1909, stamps are to be issued by the State Chemist to cover twenty-five, fifty and one hundred pounds (Acts 1909, chapter 46, p. 106). He is not required to sell stamps in less amount than to the value of five dollars, or multiples thereof, for any one feeding stuff, or to register any certificate unless accompanied by an order and fees for stamps to the amount of five dollars, or some multiple of that sum (§ 3). Sworn statements are to be filed annually of the number of net pounds of each brand of feeding stuff sold or offered for sale in the State (§ 4).

The price of the stamps under the original act was one

225 U.S.

Opinion of the Court.

dollar per hundred; but by the amendment of 1909 (supra) the charge was made eighty cents per hundred, for stamps to cover one hundred pounds, and forty cents and twenty cents respectively for stamps to cover fifty and twenty-five pounds. The fees received are to be paid into the treasury of the Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station and expended "in meeting all necessary expenses in carrying out the provisions of this act, including the employment of inspectors, chemists, expenses in procuring samples, printing bulletins giving the results of the work of feeding stuff inspection, as provided for by this act, and for any other expenses of said Indiana agricultural experiment station, as authorized by law." A classified report of the receipts and expenditures is to be made to the Governor of the State annually (§ 5).

Any one selling, or offering for sale, any feeding stuff which has not been registered, and labeled and stamped as required by the act, or which is found by an analysis made by the State Chemist or under his direction to contain "a smaller percentage of crude fat or crude protein than the minimum guarantee," or is "labelled with a false or inaccurate guarantee," and any one who adulterates any feeding stuff "with foreign mineral matter or other foreign substance, such as rice hulls, chaff, mill sweepings," etc., "or other materials of less or of little or no feeding value without plainly stating on the label hereinbefore described, the kind and amount of such mixture," or who adulterates with any substance injurious to the health of domestic animals, or alters the State Chemist's stamp, or uses it a second time, or fails to make the sworn statement as to annual sales as required, is guilty of a misdemeanor and is subject to fine (§ 6).

The State Chemist and his deputies are empowered to procure from any lot or package of the described feeding stuffs offered for sale or found in Indiana a quantity not exceeding two pounds, to be drawn during reasonable

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business hours, or in the presence of the owner or his representatives (§ 7), and it is made a misdemeanor to interfere with such inspection and sampling (§ 8). He is also authorized to prescribe and enforce regulations as he may deem necessary to carry the act into effect; and he may refuse "the registration of any feeding stuff under a name which would be misleading as to the materials of which it is made, or when the percentage of crude fiber is above or the percentage of crude fat or crude protein below the standards adopted for concentrated commercial feeding stuffs."

The evident purpose of the statute is to prevent fraud and imposition in the sale of food for domestic animals, a matter of great importance to the people of the State. Its requirements were directed to that end, and they were not unreasonable. It was not aimed at interstate commerce, but without discrimination sought to promote fair dealing in the described articles of food. The practice of selling feeding stuffs under general descriptions gave opportunity for abuses which the legislature of Indiana determined to correct, and to safeguard against deception it required a disclosure of the ingredients contained in the composition. The bill complains of the injury to manufacturers if they are forced to reveal their secret formulas and processes. We need not here express an opinion upon this question, in the breadth suggested, as the statute does not compel a disclosure of formulas or manner of combination. It does demand a statement of the ingredients, and also of the minimum percentage of crude fat and crude protein and of the maximum percentage of crude fiber, a requirement of obvious propriety in connection with substances purveyed as feeding stuffs.

The State cannot, under cover of exerting its police powers, undertake what amounts essentially to a regulation of interstate commerce, or impose a direct burden upon that commerce. Railroad Co. v. Husen, 95 U. S.

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465, 475; Walling v. Michigan, 116 U. S. 446; Bowman v. Chicago &c. Ry. Co., 125 U. S. 465; Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 100; Minnesota v. Barber, 136 U. S. 313; Brimmer v. Rebman, 138 U. S. 78; Scott v. Donald, 165 U. S. 58; Schollenberger v. Pennsylvania, 171 U. S. 1, 13; Houston & Texas Central R. R. Co. v. Mayes, 201 U. S. 321; Atlantic Coast Line v. Wharton, 207 U. S. 328; Adams Express Co. v. Kentucky, 214 U. S. 218. But when the local police regulation has real relation to the suitable protection of the people of the State, and is reasonable in its requirements, it is not invalid because it may incidentally affect interstate commerce, provided it does not conflict with legislation enacted by Congress pursuant to its constitutional authority. Plumley v. Massachusetts, 155 U. S. 461; Hennington v. Georgia, 163 U. S. 299, 317; N. Y., N. H. & H. Ry. Co. v. New York, 165 U. S. 628; Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co. v. Solan, 169 U. S. 133; Missouri, Kansas & Texas Ry. Co. v. Haber, 169 U. S. 613; Patapsco Guano Co. v. North Carolina, 171 U. S. 345; Reid v. Colorado, 187 U. S. 137; Pennsylvania R. R. Co. v. Hughes, 191 U. S. 477; Crossman v. Lurman, 192 U. S. 189; McLean v. Denver & Rio Grande R. R. Co., 203 U. S. 38, 50; Asbell v. Kansas, 209 U. S. 251, 254-256; Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Arkansas, 219 U. S. 453.

In Plumley v. Massachusetts, a law of that Commonwealth was sustained which had been passed "to prevent deception in the manufacture and sale of imitation butter." The article, for the sale of which the plaintiff in error was convicted in the state court, had been received by him from the manufacturers in Illinois, as their agent, and had been sold in Massachusetts in the original package. The court said (supra, pp. 468, 472), referring to the purpose and effect of the statute: "He is only forbidden to practise, in such matters, a fraud upon the general public. The statute seeks to suppress false pretences and to promote fair dealing in the sale of an article of food. It

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compels the sale of oleomargarine for what it really is, by preventing its sale for what it is not. Can it be that the Constitution of the United States secures to any one the privilege of manufacturing and selling an article of food in such manner as to induce the mass of people to believe that they are buying something which, in fact, is wholly different from that which is offered for sale? Does the freedom of commerce among the States demand a recognition of the right to practice a deception upon the public in the sale of any articles, even those that may have become the subject of trade in different parts of the country? Such legislation may, indeed, indirectly or incidentally affect trade in such products transported from one State to another State. But that circumstance does not show that laws of the character alluded to are inconsistent with the power of Congress to regulate commerce among the States."

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In Patapsco Guano Co. v. North Carolina, supra, the court had before it a statute of North Carolina relating to fertilizing materials. It provided: "Every bag, barrel or other package of such fertilizers or fertilizing materials as above designated offered for sale in this State shall have thereon plainly printed a label or stamp, a copy of which shall be filed with the Commissioner of Agriculture, together with a true and faithful sample of the fertilizer or fertilizing material which it is proposed to sell,

and the said label or stamp shall truly set forth the name, location and trade-mark of the manufacturer; also the chemical composition of the contents of such package, and the real percentage of any of the following ingredients asserted to be present, to wit, soluble and precipitated phosphoric acid, which shall not be less than eight per cent; soluble potassa, which shall not be less than one per cent; ammonia, which shall not be less than two per cent, or its equivalent in nitrogen; together with the date of its analyzation, and that the requirements of the law have

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