246 THE BUTTER INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES [470 



sell it as an article of food. A verdict of guilty was 

 returned by the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace 

 in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The defendant was 

 adjudged to pay a fine of one hundred dollars and costs 

 of prosecution. The judgment was affirmed by the 

 Supreme Court of the State, and the case was brought 

 before the U. S. Supreme Court on a writ of error. 



The defendant contended that the sale in question was 

 not in violation of the laws of 1878 and 1883, and that 

 the law of 1885 upon which the prosecution was based, 

 was in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment of the 

 Federal Constitution in that it denied to him equal pro- 

 tection guaranteed to others in the pursuit of an 

 ordinary calling or trade; and this inequality deprived 

 the defendant of his property without that compensation 

 required by law. 



Mr. Justice Harlan, who wrote the opinion of the 

 Court, held that " the objection that the statute is 

 repugnant to the clause of the Fourteenth Amendment 

 forbidding denial by the State to any person within its 

 jurisdiction of the equal protection of the laws, is unten- 

 able. The statute places under the same restrictions, 

 and subjects to like penalties and burdens, all, who 

 manufacture, or sell, or offer for sale, or keep in posses- 

 sion to sell, the articles embraced by its prohibitions ; 

 thus recognizing and preserving the principle of equality 

 among those engaged in the same business." 



The opinion further states that reference to the laws 

 of 1878 and 1883 is irrelevant in as much as the prose- 

 cution is founded on the law of 1885; and that the 

 question of regulation of the oleomargarine industry as 

 provided for in the laws of 1878 and 1883, or that of 

 complete prohibition as provided for in the law of 1885, 

 is a matter of public policy, and is within the power of 



