Spirella Manual (1913)/Section 16

SECTION 16.

What To Do When a License is Demanded.

145. THE UNITED STATES Supreme Court has decided in several cases that all local laws taxing commercial drummers, canvassers or agents who sell by sample only, and who represent houses not located in the State where they are at work, are unconstitutional and therefore void. This court is the supreme interpreter of the laws of the Nation and its edicts must be obeyed. The leading cases in which this decision has been made and affirmed are as follows: Robbins vs. The Shelby County Taxing District, 120 U. S., 489 S. c., 8 Supreme Court Rep. 592; Corson vs. Mary­land, 120 U. S., 502 S. C., 7 Supreme Court Rep. 655; Ex parte Insley, 33 Fed. Rep. 680; Simmons Hardware Co., vs. McGuire, Second Southern Rep., 592; State vs. Pratt, 9 Atl. Rep. 556. When a demand for license is made you should at once call upon the mayor of the town or city, or, if you are at work in the country, upon the sheriff or other proper officer, and call his attention to these decisions of the Supreme Court, and ask protection under them. If this does not secure protection, then place your case in the hands of a good local attorney, and he will see you through. Attorneys will generally take these cases for what they can get out of them in the way of damages for unlawful interference with your business.

Any officer demanding a license from a saleswoman places himself in contempt of the U. S. Supreme Court, and may be prosecuted accordingly.