1358 VETOES.

more City auctioneers are thus enabled to take out county
licenses, and conduct their business in the counties where
they are so licensed, as well as in Baltimore City.

As already stated, however, county auctioneers are not
permitted to take out Baltimore City licenses, and the pur-
pose of House Bill 525 is to protect Baltimore County auc-
tioneers against competition in that county from Baltimore
City auctioneers. The bill undertakes to do this by provio!-
ing that no person shall be licensed as an auctioneer in Balti-
more County except a resident of Baltimore County.

It does not seem to me that the right of a person to con-
duct a business anywhere in the State, which is not subject
to the police power, should depend on his place of residence
in the State. In other words, I do not think that either a
county or a city should discriminate against a person's right
to carry on such business within its limits solely on the
ground that he lives somewhere else within the State. State
vs. Mercer, 132 Md. 263; Havre de Grace vs. Johnson, 143
Md. 601.

If this is a sound principle, then, of course, the Baltimore
City discrimination against non-resident auctioneers violates
it, in the same way that the Baltimore County discrimina-
tion against non-residents under House Bill 525 would vio-
late it.

I do not think, however, that this justifies the approval of
the Baltimore County Bill. It does mean that the discrimi-
nation in the Baltimore City law ought to be removed, and
assuming the existing interpretation of the Baltimore City
law on this point to be correct, then this could not be done
until the next Legislature meets. The Baltimore City law,
however, has been construed this way for thirteen years,
and I think it better to wait two years more until the next
Legislature can be appealed to, rather than make a second
unsound discrimination of exactly the same kind in another
political unit.

For these reasons, this bill will be vetoed.
BETTING BILL FOR WASHINGTON COUNTY.
(Chapter 521, House Bill 311.)

The effect of this bill is to make applicable to Washington
County Section 247 of Article 27 of the Code, making betting
unlawful.

Since the adjournment of the Legislature the Senator
from Washington County, and a number of representative