YOUMANS
District Judge.
In this
case a writ of habeas corpus was issued on the following
petition:
'Comes
now your petitioner, W. K. Bass, and respectfully shows to
the court that he is a citizen of the United States, and a
citizen and resident of the state of Texas; that he is a
salesman or drummer acting as agent and representative for
the Spaulding Manufacturing Company, of Grinnell, Iowa, a
copartnership, all members of which are citizens of the
United States and citizens and residents of the state of
Iowa; that your petitioner is engaged in the business of
selling buggies and spring wagons by sample in the state or
Arkansas, by taking orders therefor for future delivery
said buggies or spring wagons to be thereafter shipped from
the warehouse of the Spaulding Manufacturing Company at
Seligman, Mo., to said purchasers in the state of Arkansas
in pursuance of the orders taken therefor by your
petitioner; that your petitioner has shown his sample
vehicle to numerous parties within the state of Arkansas,
and has taken orders from numerous purchasers for vehicles
to be delivered as aforesaid, but that no vehicles whatever
have yet been delivered to any purchasers in pursuance of
said orders thus taken by your petitioner; that said
vehicles are shipped into Arkansas only after orders have
been secured for each vehicle, and are shipped to be
applied on said orders, said vehicles after orders are
received for same being loaded on the cars at Seligman,
Mo., each being separated into packages, tagged with the
name of the purchaser, and being unloaded after delivery at
destination, put together and directed delivered to
purchaser by a deliveryman of said Spaulding Manufacturing
Company; that while engaged in the performance of his
duties as such salesman or agent aforesaid in Boone county,
Ark., your petitioner was on or about the 29th day of
November, A.D. 1911, arrested and taken into custody by C.
B. Francis, deputy constable of Boone county, Ark., who is
a citizen and resident of Boone county, Ark., under and by
virtue of a certain warrant of arrest issued by J. W.
Andrews, justice of the peace of Boone county, Ark.; that
ever since said 29th day of November, A.D. 1911, your
petitioner has been and now is in the custody of said C. B.
Francis, deputy constable of Boone county, Ark., in the
town of Harrison, Ark., and has been since said date, and
now is, restrained of his
liberty by the said C. B. Francis, deputy constable of
Boone county, Ark., having on the 29th day of November,
1911, been convicted and fined in the sum of $200 by the
justice of the peace; that your petitioner is informed and
believes that said warrant of arrest and said proceedings
thereunder were issued and taken under the assumed
authority purported to be conferred by a certain act of the
General Assembly of the state of Arkansas (known as Act 97
of Laws 1909 of Arkansas, page 292); that said act of the
state of Arkansas is inconsistent with and repugnant to
article 1, Sec. 8, of the Constitution of the United
States, which provides that Congress shall have power to
regulate commerce among the several states; that said act
of the state of Arkansas is inconsistent with and repugnant
to article 4, Sec. 2, of the Constitution of the United
States, which provides that the citizens of each state
shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of the
citizens in the several states; that said act of the state
of Arkansas is inconsistent with and repugnant to the
fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, which provides that no state shall deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property without due process of
law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws; that by reason of the
premises said act of the state of Arkansas is wholly void
and of no effect, and confers no jurisdiction whatever upon
officers of the state of Arkansas who attempt to enforce
it; that said warrant of arrest sets out no crime, under
the laws of the state of Arkansas or of the United States,
and is likewise wholly void and of no effect, and the
arrest of your petitioner thereunder is wholly illegal and
void, and said justice was wholly without jurisdiction to
try or convict your petitioner as aforesaid, and that said
judgment and conviction are wholly void; that your
petitioner has committed no act or acts which violate any
valid law of the state of Arkansas or of the United States,
and your petitioner is being restrained of his liberty
without authority of law, and is in custody in violation of
the Constitution of the United States.
'Your
petitioner further shows to the court that he is engaged in
the business of a traveling salesman and of soliciting
orders for vehicles by the use of a sample for his
employers, the Spaulding Manufacturing Company, of
Grinnell, Iowa, and that, in the pursuit of his said
business or occupation, he has a right to and desires to
and will continue to carry on said business within the
state of Arkansas, and that, in consequence thereof, your
petitioner believes that he will be subjected to numerous
and repeated arrests and imprisonments under said invalid
law for each sale made or order taken or made, and that he
will be constantly and repeatedly arrested and prosecuted
for engaging in legitimate interstate commerce, and for
doing acts which are authorized and permitted and protected
by the Constitution of the United States.
'Your
petitioner further shows to the court that his employers, the
Spaulding Manufacturing Company, of Grinnell, Iowa, have
various other traveling salesmen ready to carry on their
employment or business in like manner in various parts of the
state of Arkansas, soliciting orders and carrying on business
in precisely the same way as your petitioner, who will in
like manner be subjected to repeated arrests and prosecutions
under said invalid Arkansas law, and be compelled to suffer
repeated imprisonment or furnish large amounts of money for
bonds and expenses and costs, with the result that the lawful
business of your petitioner and of his associates and of
their employer, the Spaulding Manufacturing Company, will be
totally destroyed and annihilated unless prompt and effective
relief be given as prayed for herein.
'Your
petitioner further shows to the court that many other
traveling salesmen, canvassers, or drummers employed by other
concerns or companies in various states outside of the state
of Arkansas will be prevented and prohibited from carrying on
lawful interstate commerce for their employers with citizens
of the state of Arkansas, and that in the conduct of their
lawful interstate business they will be subjected to repeated
arrests and imprisonments under said invalid Arkansas law,
and that their lawful business in engaging in interstate
commerce will be entirely destroyed and prohibited unless
relief is given as prayed for herein.
'Wherefore,
your petitioner prays that a writ of habeas corpus may issue
from this court, addressed to the said C. B. Francis,
commanding him to bring the body of your petitioner forthwith
before this court, and then and there show the cause of his
detention; and your petitioner prays that he may have
judgment discharging him forthwith from custody.'
For
return to the writ the deputy constable, C. B. Francis,
states that he holds the petitioner 'by virtue of a
warrant of commitment issued by J. W. Andrews, justice of the
peace,' a copy of which commitment is attached to his
return and made part thereof. The commitment, omitting the
formal parts and the signature, is as follows:
'Whereas,
on the 29th day of November, 1911, the above-named
defendant, W. K. bass, was before me as justice of the
peace, in Harrison township, in Boone county, Arkansas,
convicted of the crime of peddling carriages and hacks
without license in violation of the acts of Arkansas in
Session Acts of 1909, at pages 292 and 293, and fined the
sum of $200 and costs of said prosecution: Now, therefore,
you are hereby commanded to take into your custody the said
W. K. Bass and him safely deliver to the jailer of Boone
county, Arkansas, to be by him confined as provided by law,
until discharged by payment of said fine and costs or duly
discharged as the law provides.
'The
said defendant having announced in open court that he would
not pay said fine and costs.
'Given
under my hand as such justice of the peace on this November
29th, 1911.'
At the
hearing it was admitted by the attorney for the deputy
constable that the allegations of fact in the petition were
true. The discharge of the petitioner is sought on the ground
that the act of the General Assembly of the state of Arkansas
under which the petitioner was convicted in its application
to the facts in his case is contrary to the Constitution of
the United States. The act in question is as follows:
'Section
1. That hereafter before any person, either as owner,
manufacturer or agent, shall travel over and through any
county and peddle or sell any lightning rods, steel stove
range, clock, pump, buggy, carriage, or other vehicle, or
either of said articles, he shall procure a license as
hereinafter provided from the county clerk of such county,
authorizing such persons to conduct such business.
'Sec.
2. That before any person shall travel over or through any
county and peddle or sell any of the articles mentioned
above he shall pay into the county treasury of such county
the sum of $200.00, taking the receipt of the treasurer
therefor, which receipt shall state for what purpose the
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