an earlier period of time than would otherwise be the case, it is not within its competency to do so."

In Rhodes v. Iowa, 170 U. S. 412, the purport of the act was again passed upon. Reiterating the ruling made in the Rahrer case, it was decided that whilst the Wilson Act caused liquors shipped into Iowa from another State to be divested of their character as articles of interstate commerce after their delivery in Iowa to the person to whom consigned, nevertheless the act did not authorize the laws of Iowa to be applied to such merchandise whilst in transit from another State and before delivery in Iowa.

In Vance v. Vandercook Co., No. 1, 170 U. S. 438, the operation of a liquor law of South Carolina was considered. By the act in question the State of South Carolina took exclusive charge of the sale of liquor within the State, appointed its agents to sell the same, and empowered them to purchase the liquor, which was to be brought into the State for sale. The fact was that by the act in question the State of South Carolina, instead of forbidding the traffic in liquor, authorized it, and engaged in the liquor business for its own account, using it as a source of revenue. The act in addition affixed prerequisite conditions to the shipment into South Carolina from other States of liquor to a consumer who had purchased it for his own use and not for sale. Considering the Wilson Act and the previous decisions applying it, it was decided that the South Carolina law, in so far as it took charge in behalf of the State of the sale of liquor within the State and made such sale a source of revenue, was not an interference with interstate commerce. In so far, however, as the state law imposed burdens on the right to ship liquor from another State to a resident of South Carolina intended for his own use and not for sale within the State, the law was held to be repugnant to the Constitution, because the Wilson Act, whilst it delegated to the State plenary power to regulate the sale of liquors in South Carolina shipped into the State from other States, did not recognize the right of a State to prevent an individual

from ordering liquors from outside of the State of his residence for his own consumption and not for sale.

Quite recently, at this term, in American Express Company v. Iowa, and Adams Express Co. v. Iowa, 196 U. S. 133, 147, the construction affixed to the Wilson Act in the previous cases was applied, and the power of the State of Iowa to control the sale of liquors shipped from another State into that State, after their delivery to the consignee, was upheld,

Applying the Wilson Act and the decisions thereunder to the statute here assailed, we think it clear that the contention that it is repugnant to the commerce clause of the Constitution is without merit, unless the reasons urged to show that the present case is not within the scope of the Wilson Act be well founded. We proceed to consider the contentions relied on to establish that proposition.

1st. The Wilson Act, it is argued, subjects liquors shipped from one State into another, after their arrival at their destination, only to the "laws of such State or Territory enacted in the exercise of its police powers As, it is said, the

law of Missouri was not enacted in the exercise of the police power, hence malt liquor received from another State and held in Missouri for sale retained its character as an article of interstate commerce until sold in the original package.

But the proposition rests upon the mere assumption that the law of Missouri was not enacted in the exercise of the police power of that State. Certainly the regulation of the sale of liquor is essentially a police power. Surely, also, provision made in a state law tending to determine the purity of malt liquors offered for sale and consumption within a State is likewise an exertion of the same power. Conceding that the law in question may be inadequate to accomplish the purpose designed and produces a large revenue to the State over and above the cost of inspection, this affords no Federal ground upon which to hold that the police power of the State was not brought into play in making the enactment where the law does not operate upon a subject within Federal control. This

becomes evident when it is borne in mind that, whether the statute be regarded as a prohibition, as a regulation, as a license or as an inspection law, if it encroached upon the Federal authority it would be void, and, on the contrary, in all or any of these aspects, the law would be valid, so far as the Federal Constitution is concerned, if it did not so encroach. The purpose of the Wilson Act was to make liquor after its arrival a domestic product and to confer power upon the States to deal with it accordingly. The police power is hence to be measured by the right of a State to control or regulate domestic products, a state and not a Federal question as respects the commerce clause of the Constitution. So far as the state aspect is concerned the matter is foreclosed by a decision of the Supreme Court of Missouri passing upon the validity, under the state constitution, of the law now under consideration. State v. Bixman, 162 Missouri, 1. In that case a person was proceeded against for selling malt liquor made within the State of Missouri without complying with the statute. The validity of the statute was assailed, on the ground, among others, that it was a revenue law and repugnant to the uniformity clause of the state constitution; that it was not an inspection law because it did not provide for an adequate inspection, and because the burden which it imposed was obviously out of all proportion to the cost of inspection, since the charge which was exacted copiously enriched the state treasury. The state court, after an elaborate review of its previous decisions, held that the mere fact that a revenue was produced by the execution of the statute did not cause the statute to be merely a revenue measure, and that although the inspection which the law provided might be inadequate, nevertheless the statute did not violate the state constitution. These views were sustained upon the ground that the statute dealt with a subject which was peculiarly within the police power of the State. Summing up its conclusions as to the validity of the statute, the court declared:

"In our opinion, it [the law] is a police regulation, imposing

conditions upon the business of manufacturing and selling beer and malt liquors in this State, which business the State may absolutely suppress, or permit upon such terms as the legislature may prescribe. We construe the act in view of all its parts, and in connection with other license laws of this State, and hold that the fee exacted is the price which the State demands for the privilege of doing the business of brewing and selling beer and malt liquors in this State, and it is immaterial by what name it is called."

As then, the Supreme Court of Missouri has determined that the statute does not conflict with the state constitution and is valid because it is a police regulation imposing conditions upon the business of manufacturing and selling beer in Missouri, a traffic which it is conceded the State had the power to prohibit entirely, it follows that we are without power, from a consideration of the state constitution, to treat the law as invalid because of the revenue provisions of the state constitution or other limitations imposed by that constitution upon the state government. It necessarily results from this that the assailed law comes directly within the express terms of the Wilson Act. The determination of this question by the Supreme Court of Missouri, as to liquor manufactured in Missouri, in the absence of discrimination, is necessarily conclusive also as to the character of the law when applied to a similar article shipped from other States into Missouri after arrival at its destination, and when held for sale and consumption in that State. This must be the case, since, as we have seen, the Wilson Act, to use the words of In re Rahrer, places liquor coming from another State after its arrival "within the category of domestic articles of a similar nature."

To decide that an exertion by a State of its power to regulate the sale of malt liquors manufactured within the State was an exercise of its police authority, and yet to say that the same, when applied to liquor shipped into the State from other States, after delivery, was not an exertion of the police power, would be to destroy the Wilson Act, and frustrate the very

object which it was intended to accomplish, and besides would overrule the previous decisions of this court upholding and enforcing that statute.

We need not, however, further consider the subject, since the proposition relied upon is not open to discussion, as a similar contention was expressly ruled upon in Vance v. Vandercook Co., No. 1, supra. In that case, as has already been said, the State of South Carolina had by law taken charge of the sale of liquors in the various counties of the State, no liquor being allowed to be sold except through the state agencies. The law by which this system was put in force had been upheld by the state courts as a lawful exertion of the police power. The validity of the act was assailed in the Circuit Court of the United States on the ground of its repugnancy to the commerce clause of the Constitution, and the lower court sustained the contention. Among the grounds relied upon in this court was that the law in question was not within the Wilson Act, because it was not an exertion of the police power of the State, since it did not forbid the sale of liquor, but on the contrary fostered and encouraged it and made it a source of revenue. In holding this proposition to be untenable the court said (p. 447):

"The confusion of thought which is involved in the proposition to which we have just referred is embodied in the principle upon which the court below mainly rested its conclusion. That is, 'if all alcoholic liquors, by whomsoever held, are declared contraband, they cease to belong to commerce, and are within the jurisdiction of the police power; but so long as their manufacture, purchase or sale, and their use as a beverage in any form or by any person are recognized, they belong to commerce and are without the domain of the police power.' But this restricts the police power to the mere right to forbid, and denies any and all authority to regulate or restrict. The manifest purpose of the act of Congress was to subject original packages to the regulations and restraints imposed by the state law. If the purpose of the act had been to allow the