2116 VETOES

Attached hereto is a copy of the Attorney General's letter to
me.

Respectfully,

THEODORE R. MCKELDIN,

Governor

TRMcK: mm

April 23, 1951

Honorable Theodore R. McKeldin
Governor of Maryland
Annapolis, Maryland Re: House Bill No. 346

Dear Governor McKeldin:

House Bill No. 346 adds three new Sections to Article 2A
of the Code, to be under a new sub-title "Solicitation of Farm
Labor", and prohibits the solicitation of farm labor within the
23 Counties for use beyond the State without the obtention of
a permit in writing from the State Administration Office of the
Employment Service Division of the State Department of Em-
ployment Security or its local representative. The Bill makes
the solicitation of such labor without a permit a misdemeanor.

The first matter that comes to mind is that there is no
standard, even implied, as to what shall govern the granting or
withholding of such a permit. It is apparently left to the dis-
cretion or lack of it of the agency involved.

It is obvious that the problem with which the statute at-
tempts to deal is a situation on the Eastern Shore where truck
farmers are badly in need of keeping their transient workers in
the County in the face of substantially higher wage offers of
New Jersey and Delaware truck farmers. Similar statutes
have been passed in a number of southern States and have been
approved in two decisions—one is Williams v. Fears, 179 U. S.
270. In that case, however, the issuance of the permit was
mandatory upon payment of the stated fee which was higher
than the fee required for solicitation of labor for use within the
State. The Virginia statute was upheld in Cole v. Common-
wealth, 193 S. E. 517 (1937). In this case also the basis of
classification found valid by the Court was the difference in fee
for solicitation without the State and within the State. In
the light of these cases, four grounds of possible unconstitu-
tionality present themselves:

The first is the interference with interstate commerce.
Under the Bill, a county agent could exclude all solicitation,
including newspaper and radio advertising.

Second, the Bill may deny the equal protection of the law
to out-of-state solicitors. For example, under the Act, a solici-