The Liquor Question. 



157 



an act ostensibly for the public health, and thereby destroys or takes 

 away the property of the citizen, or interferes with his personal liberty, 

 then it is for the courts to scrutinize the act and see whether it really 

 relates to and is convenient and appropriate to promote the public 

 health. It matters not that the Legislature may, in the title to the 

 act or in the body, declare that it is intended for the improvement of 

 the public health. Such a declaration does not conclude the courts, 

 and they must yet determine the fact declared and enforce the 

 supreme law." And again: " A law enacted in the exercise of the 

 police power must in fact be a police law. If it be a law for the pro- 

 motion of the public health it must be a health law." 



The Supreme Court of Illinois has also said: " As a general proposi- 

 tion, it may be stated it is in the province of the law-making power to 

 determine whether the exigencies exist calling into exercise this 

 (police) power. What are the subjects of its exercise is clearly a judi- 

 cial question." Town of Lake View v. Rose Hill Co., 70 111. 191. 



But who shall decide, and by what authority shall it be deter- 

 mined, whether the manufacture, sale or use of intoxicating liquors 

 as a beverage is injurious to the public health or detrimental to 

 the public morals or injuriously affects the well-being of society ? 

 As we have seen, these belong to the large powers of State, and are 

 not circumscribed even by constitutions, and from which the State 

 itself cannot, even if it would, shrink. So long as the State exists it 

 must meet and decide those questions. Therefore, power to decide 

 must be vested somewhere, or society is left at the mercy of those, 

 who, regarding only their own appetites or passions, are willing to im- 

 peril the peace and comfort and happiness and general well-being of 

 all, and under our form of government that power is vested solely and 

 exclusively in the legislative branch of the government. 



In the Kansas appeals, above referred to, the United States Supreme 

 Court reiterated this proposition which has been so well settled by a 

 long current of judicial authority as to remove that question from the 

 subject of debate. It said: "Under our system that power (the 

 police) is lodged with the legislative branch of the government. It 

 belongs to that department to exert what are known as the police 

 powers of the State, and to determine, primarily, what measures are 

 appropriate or needful for the protection of the public morals, 

 the public health or the public safety. It does not at all follow 

 that every statute enacted ostensibly for the promotion of these 

 ends is to be accepted as a legitimate exertion of the police powers 

 of the State. There are, of necessity, limits beyond which legis- 



