Al Williams v. State of Arkansas

• Court: U.S. Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Fuller
• Citation: Al Williams v. State of Arkansas, 217 U.S. 79, 30 S.Ct. 493, 54 L.Ed. 673, 18 Ann. Cas. 865 (1910)
• Decision Date: 04 April 1910
• Docket Number: No. 138,138
• Parties: AL WILLIAMS, Plff. in Err., v. STATE OF ARKANSAS

217 U.S. 79

30 S.Ct. 493

54 L.Ed. 673

AL WILLIAMS, Plff. in Err.,

v STATE OF ARKANSAS.

No. 138.

Argued and submitted March 11, 1910.

Decided April 4, 1910.

Messrs. George B. Rose, U. M. Rose, W. E. Hemingway, D. H. Cantrell, and J. P. Loughborough for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 80-83 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Hal L. Norwood, William F. Kirby, and C. A. Cunningham for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 83-85 intentionally omitted] 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 Carriers,' approved April 30, 1907.

The 1st and 2d sections of that act are as follows:

'Sec. 1. That it shall be unlawful for any person or persons, except as hereinafter provided in § 2 of this act, to drum or solicit business or patronage for any hotel, lodging house, eating house, bath house, physician, masseur, surgeon, or other medical practitioner, on the trains, cars, depots of any railroad or common carrier operating or running within the state of Arkansas.

'Any person or persons plying or attempting to ply said vocation of drumming or soliciting, except as provided in § 2 of this act, upon the trains, cars, depots of said railroads or common carriers, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty ($50) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100) for each offense.

'Sec. 2. That it shall be unlawful for any railroad or common carrier operating a line within the state of Arkansas knowingly to permit its trains, cars, or depots within the state to be used by any person or persons for drumming or soliciting business or patronage for any hotel, lodging house, eating house, bath house, physician, masseur, surgeon, or other medical practitioner, or drumming or soliciting for any business or profession whatsoever; except, that it may be lawful for railroads or common carriers to permit agents of transfer companies on their trains to check baggage or provide transfers for passengers, or for persons or corporations to sell periodicals and such other articles as are usually sold by news agencies for the convenience and accommodation of said passengers.

'And it shall be the duty of the conductor or person in charge of the train of any railroad or common carrier to report to the prosecuting attorney any person or persons found violating any of the provisions of this act, and upon a wilful failure or neglect to report any such person or persons known to be violating the provisions of this act by drumming or soliciting, said conductor or other person in charge of such train shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars.'

The case was tried upon the following agreed statement of facts:

'The defendant has for six years been keeping a boarding house in the city of Hot Springs, and was keeping the same on the 10th day of December, 1907, when he entered a train of the Little Rock & Hot Springs Western Railway Company, while running in the county of Garland and state of Arkansas, and solicited and drummed the passengers on said train to induce them to come to his said boarding house to board during their sojourn in said city; and said defendant was so engaged in drumming and soliciting upon said train when he was arrested. He had paid has fare as a passenger on said train, and was riding as such passenger while engaged in drumming and soliciting.'

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:

'In Gundling v. Chicago, 177 U. S. 183, 44 L. ed. 725, 20 Supp. Ct. Rep. 633, this court summarized the doctrine as follows:

"Regulations respecting the pursuit of a lawful trade or business are of very frequent occurrence in the various cities of the country, and what such regulations shall be, and to what particular trade, business, or occupation they shall apply, are questions for the state to determine, and their determination comes within the proper exercise of the police power by the state; and unless the regulations are so utterly unreasonable and extravagant in their nature and purpose that the property and personal...