Page:Woods v. Carl.pdf/6

ARK.] In Wyatt v. Wallace, 67 Ark. 575, the precise question was presented there as presented here, and the court held that there could be no recovery upon the note sued on. We are asked by counsel to review the question, inasmuch as in the last-named case the alleged conflict between the statute and the constitutional power of Congress on the subject was not discussed, either in the argmment of enunsel or the opinion of the court. This question was before the Supreme Court of Tennessee in a recent case, State v. Cook, 107 Tenn. 499, and that court held that a statute similar to our own was valid, and not in conflict with the Constitution of the United States. The reasoning of the court, in the very lucid opinion by Judge Caldwell, where all the authorities are carefully reviewed, is, to our minds, conclusive of the proposition that such legislation by the States is not in conflict with the Federal Constitution. In Tennessee, as in Arkansas, the Legislature first enacted a statute permitting the same defenses against negotiable paper in the hands of any holder or assignee as while in the hands of the original payee; and later another statute was passed declaring it to be unlawful to accept a note given for the sale of a patent right unless it shall appear upon the face of the note that the same is given in the purchase of a patent right. The learned judge, in the case cited, said: "The two statutes are to be construed together as different parts of the same legislative scheme. Their combined effect, when each is strictly observed and enforced, is simply to prevent written obligations for the purchase of patents or interests therein from being negotiable in the highest sense, and to subject them in whatsoever hands to all defenses available to the maker against the original payee. So construed, neither act by itself, nor the two combined into a single scheme, can be truly said to contravene any provision of the Federal Constitution and statutes in reference to patents, or to restrict or impair the right of sale guaranteed thereby  These statutes are also sustainable as valid police regulations, having been passed in good faith for the real promotion of the public welfare, and being well calculated to accomplish that end through the fair and much needed protection thereby afforded against imposition and fraud so often and so easily perpetrated in the sale of the peculiar incorporeal right or intangible property contemplated." This view is sustained