Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/596

560 56o HARVARD LAW REVIEW conspirators, applied to one of their courts, sitting as a court of equity, for an injunction to restrain such obstruction and prevent carrying into efifect such conspiracy. The injunction was granted. The same power which can thus protect from physical interference the ordinary means of interstate transportation does not become power- less when the method of obstruction is less tangible though equally efifective. Tax laws,^^ inspection laws,^^ and laws of other kinds ^^ have been held unconstitutional whenever their operation has been such as to cast a direct burden upon interstate commerce. It can hardly be contested that the effect of forged interstate bills of lading is to discredit and render hazardous the use of genuine interstate bills; or that the section of the statute in question is aimed to protect the business of dealing in genuine interstate bills. This can be its only purpose, and its provisions are calculated to effect that pvirpose. There is here no question of attempting to use the constitutional power to regulate commerce for an indirect object. The power is invoked only to protect business which it is a function of the national government to protect. The Effect of References in a Bill of Exchange to Shipping Documents or Goods. — "The enormous volume of sales of produce by a vendor in one country to a purchaser in another has led to the creation of an equally great financial system intervening between vendor and purchaser, and designed to enable commercial transactions to be carried out with the greatest money convenience to both parties." ^ The vendor draws a bill of exchange and sells it, with the order bill of lading and insurance papers for the goods attached^ to a batik or exchange house, thus getting his money immediately after shipment. Sometimes the draft is drawn on the purchaser, but where it is payable on time the exchange house is often unwilling to part with the collateral in return for an acceptance by a mercantile house, and it is common for the pur- chaser to arrange that a bank of high standing shall be drawee and' accept the draft. On acceptance the shipping documents are siu:- rendered to the acceptor, and the purchaser can make immediate sale of the goods so as to secure funds to pay the draft at maturity. Bills of exchange secured in this way usually bear some reference to the attached docimients or to the goods. It is convenient for all parties to be able to identify the bill as relating to a particular transaction and check the documents of title accordingly. Even after acceptance, " See Crenshaw v. Arkansas, 227 U. S. 389 (1913); Stockard v. Morgan, 185 U. S. 27 (1902), and cases cited therein. " Brimmer v. Rebman, 138 U. S. 78 (1891); Minnesota v. Barber, 136 U. S. 313 (1890). 1* International Paper Co. v. Massachusetts, 246 U. S. 135 (1918) (taxation on par value of the capital stock of a foreign corporation) ; Darnell v. Memphis, 208 U. S. 113 (1909) (a law exempting from taxation growing crops and articles manufactured from the produce of the state); Buck Stove, etc. Co. v. Vickers, 226 U. S. 205 (1912) (a law requiring certain statements from foreign corporations). ^ Scrutton, L. J., in Guaranty v. Hannay, [1918] 2 K. B. 623, 659, gives an excel- lent description of the system.