ALBERT C. RITCHIE, GOVERNOR, 1437

more City last year seventy-eight murder and manslaughter
cases were tried, and that the mental condition of the ac-
cused did not enter into more than six of them, yet under
this proposed law it would have entered into every one of them,
and in many instances might very well have tended to con-
fuse the jury and becloud the real issues of the case. The
bill might also prevent the prompt trial of murder cases, be-
cause it prescribes no period of time within which the Psychia-
tric Committee must report. Delays would be particularly apt
to occur in the counties, in many of which the terms of court
are comparatively short.

The principal objection to the bill, however, is that it makes
the question of the prisoner's sanity part of every murder
trial whether that is in fact involved or not, and this seems to
me serious enough to require me to veto the bill.

HAWKERS AND PEDDLERS.
(Chapter 250, House Bill 134)

Under the present law, hawkers and peddlers are required
to pay a, license fee of $300 for every motor vehicle or truck
they use. House Bill 134 provides that every person selling
food products made in this State shall be entitled to use as
many motor vehicles or trucks as he pleases in Baltimore City
or in any of the counties upon the payment of only one li-
cense fee of $300 in each jurisdiction.

This bill would put it in the power of large corporations or
partnerships selling food products of various kinds to invade
the established field for retail merchants and compete with the
neighborhood grocery stores, to the serious injury of the latter.

It is no hardship on corporations and partnerships of this
kind to require them to take out a $300 license for each one
of their trucks engaged in hawking and peddling. The de-
livery of food products to regular customers is not hawking
and peddling within the meaning of the law, even though oc-
casional sales may be made to persons who are not customers,
and consequently only the ordinary traders' license would be
required in such cases,

If, however, these large corporations or partnerships, choose
to operate as hawkers and peddlers and adopt the new method
of door-to-door solicitation and in this way establish new
routes, then it is only fair that they should pay a license fee