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The Green Bag

bile “at a rate of speed greater than was

reasonable and proper, having regard to traffic and the use of the way and the safety of the public," in Commonwealth v. Cassidy, 209 Mass. 24, decided May 18. The Court said: "The section in question, after creat ing the offense, goes on to provide that

in certain localities therein described ‘a speed exceeding 20 miles per hour for the distance of a quarter of a mile’

shall be 'prima facie evidence of a rate of speed greater than is reasonable and proper,’ and it contains a similar provi sion as to a rate of speed ‘exceeding 15 miles per hour for the distance of one eighth of a mile’ in certain other locali ties. “Shortly stated, the statute forbids

to traﬂic and the use of the way and the safety of the public, they should convict the defendant; otherwise they

should acquit him." Statute

Requiring

Registnm'on and

License Fees Constitutional— Interstate

Commerce.

N. J.

An important decision bearing upon the right of a state to demand registration and license fees of non

resident motorists was recently handed down by the Court of Errors and Ap peals of New Jersey. The Frelinghuysen automobile law of 1906 was held con

stitutional. To test the law Frank J. Kane of New York brought a proceeding after he had been ﬁned for attempting to

the running of an automobile at a rate

run his car from Jersey City to Pennsyl

of speed greater than is reasonable and proper, and declares what rates of speed shall be prima facie evidence of the rate

vania without payment of the estab lished fees. Kane held that the statute was invalid because it was not merely a revenue measure and that it violated

forbidden.

“The real question in all these cases now is whether the speed is greater than was reasonable and proper, having regard to traffic and the use of the way and the safety of the public, the burden being on the commonwealth to show that it was. If the speed was such as to make out a prima facie case for the

prosecution, still the burden does not change.

“The jury are to give due weight to the prima facie case taken in connection

with the other circumstances disclosed by the testimony, whether coming from

witnesses called by the government or by the defendant, and if they are satis ﬁed that the speed is greater than was reasonable and proper, having regard

the federal

Constitution because,

as

applying to non-resident autoists, it was a regulation of interstate commerce.

The opinion, written by Chief Justice Gummere, held that the legislature, in regard to the ﬁrst contention, was clearly within its power as reserved to it under the Constitution. As to the second point, he held that the automo bile fees, while affecting interstate com

merce, are a legitimate exercise of state powers. He decided that the use by swiftly moving automobiles of roads in New Jersey causes their rapid deterio ration and that the Frelinghuysen law simply imposes a charge for the raising of revenue to be applied to the upkeep of these roads.