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[217 U.S. 79, 80] Messrs. George B. Rose, U. M. Rose, W. E. Hemingway, D. H. Cantrell, and J. P. Loughborough for plaintiff in error.
[217 U.S. 79, 83] Messrs. Hal L. Norwood, William F. Kirby, and C. A. Cunningham for defendant in error.
Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court:
Plaintiff in error was convicted for violating a statute of the state of Arkansas, entitled, 'An Act for the Protection of Passengers, and for the Suppression of Drumming and Soliciting upon Railroad Trains and upon the Premises of Common [217 U.S. 79, 86] Carriers,' approved April 30, 1907
The 1st and 2d sections of that act are as follows:
The case was tried upon the following agreed statement of facts:
Plaintiff in error challenged the act as unconstitutional on the grounds that it deprived him of liberty and property without due process of law, and also of the equal protection of the law guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
The principles that govern this case have been settled by very many adjudications of this court. They were sufficiently set forth in McLean v. Arkansas, 211 U.S. 546 , 53 L. ed. 319, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 206, in which a statute making it unlawful for mine owners employing ten or more men underground in mining coal and paying therefor by the ton mined, to screen the coal before it was weighed, was held valid; and also that it was not an unreasonable classification to divide coal mines into those where less than ten miners were employed and those where more than that number were employed, and that a state police regulation was not unconstitutional under the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment because only applicable to mines where more than ten miners were employed. This court in that case, discussing the police power, said: [217 U.S. 79, 88] 'In Gundling v. Chicago, 177 U.S. 183 , 44 L. ed. 725, 20 Supp. Ct. Rep. 633, this court summarized the doctrine as follows:
... * *
And see Donovan v. Pennsylania Co. 199 U.S. 279 , 50 L. ed. 192, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 91.
In the present case, the supreme court of Arkansas (85 Ark. 470, -- L. R.A.(N.S.) --, 122 Am. St. Rep. 47, 108 S. W. 838) said:
As to the objection that the act discriminated against plaintiff in error and denied him the equal protection of the law, because forbidding the drumming or soliciting business or patronage of the trains for any 'hotel, lodging house, eating house, bath house, physician, masseur, surgeon, or other medical practitioner,' which, it was contended, was an unreasonable classification, the state supreme court said:
It is settled that legislation which, 'in carrying out a public purpose, is limited in its application, if within the sphere of its operation it affects alike all persons similarly situated, is not within the Amendment' (Barbier v. Connolly, 113 U.S. 27 , 28 L. ed 923, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 357); and 'when a state legislature has declared that, in its opinion, policy requires a certain measure, its action should not be disturbed by the courts under the 14th Amendment, unless they can see clearly that there is no fair reason for the law that would not require with equal force its extension to others whom it leaves untouched.' Missouri, K. & T. R. Co. v. May, 194 U.S. 267 , 48 L. ed. 971, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 638.
Judgment affirmed.
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Citation: 217 U.S. 79
Docket No: No. 138
Decided: April 04, 1910
Court: United States Supreme Court
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