OCR Text |
Show State Barriers to Trade We are gad to see that the delegates dele-gates to- the conference of State Governments recently gave some attention to t.ie ..multiplication of trade barriers between states. Far many yenrs, t.;e forty-eight states of the United States were considered a great free-trade area. Commerce between the citizens of the various states was unrestricted and generally protected by the Interstate In-terstate Commerce Clause. In recent re-cent years, however, .many states 'r.ave passed laws which are plainly aimed at preventing citizens in other states from doing business in their domains. Governor Stark of Missouri points out that much of this legislation legis-lation creates special privileges for focal interests, constituting a subsidy. sub-sidy. Various excuses for the legislation leg-islation are advanced, such as protecting pro-tecting the public health, encouraging encour-aging industrial development and, occasionally, the open protection of domestic industries. As Governor Gover-nor Stark very apty says, "Experience "Experi-ence has shown that while a few iminority groups reap the benefit of trade-barriers, bhe great consuming con-suming public pays the bill once .these barriers have been erected." Despite conflicts with Federal la.v, the taxing units of states has keen used quite freely for punitive cflccts on non-resident concerns. Moreover, state laws have been passed to h'.imper and prevent the use of products produced hi other states, which com; ete with, products prod-ucts locally produced. It ouguit to be apparent to the citizens of every state that if they pass restrictive laws, adversely affecting af-fecting the commercial interests of other states, every state will eventually eventu-ally fellow their example, and this coun'.ry will be honey-combed by .t r;ula lions, restrictions, and bar-litn; bar-litn; that will all but destroy lnter-Glirto lnter-Glirto commerce. In ot'.ier words, a single state mig.,t obtain a selfish advantage if it could pass restrictive laws against the citizens of all other states, but, once similar laws are passed by the states affected, the advantage vanishes. The only net result is Shit the consumer, as Governor Stark points out, "pays the bill." |