LEGAL ANALYSIS 63 



sonableness for equal protection purposes. They are as follows: 



1. In the same general field of commercial activity, the evil may 

 be of different proportions or kinds, permitting differing kinds of 

 legislative treatment. The Tigner^^ case would illustrate this, where 

 the court sustained the Texas anti-trust law even though certain 

 agricultural businessmen and other men were exempt. 



2. The legislature need not solve all the problems of a particular 

 field at the same time. It may approach the problem piecemeal, as, 

 for example, by dealing with only the severest manifestations of the 

 problem. Engel v. O^Malley,^^ a 1911 case, illustrates this. There 

 the court sustained an exemption from a statute for licensing persons 

 in the money-forwarding business of those in whose business the 

 average sum received for safekeeping or transmission was more than 

 $500, the evil being found most severe with respect to those who 

 forwarded small sums for newly-arrived immigrants, who were both 

 ignorant and helpless. Or, it would seem that the legislature might 

 try a rather small-scale remedy, with the apparent idea that it would 

 see how this worked out first before trying any wholesale remedy. 



Although other illustrations of legitimate purposes furthered by 

 reasonable classifications are to be found in the United States Supreme 

 Court decisions, they also appear with quite adequate treatment in 

 many of the decisions of the Washington State Supreme Court. For 

 this reason, further treatment of equal protection is given in that 

 section, appearing in this report following the next section. The im- 

 mediate next section deals with the development of due process in 

 the decisions of the United States Supreme Court. 



2. Due Process 



The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the 

 federal constitution reads: 



". . . nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or prop- 

 erty, without due process of law . . ."^^ 



A substantially similar clause of the Fifth Amendment imposes 

 a similar restraint upon the federal government. 



As with the Equal Protection Clause, the decisions of the United 

 States Supreme Court in applying the Due Process Clause to regula- 

 tions of economic activity have shown very dramatic change since 



18. Tignerv. Texas, 310 U. S. 141 ( 1940), discussed 5//p/Y/, n. 6. 



19. 219 U.S. 128 (1911). 



20. U.S. Constitution, Am. XIV, §1. 



