Opinion of the Court.

ference of state laws was protected by the Constitution of the United States, as up to such sale the goods brought into the State were not commingled with the mass of property in the State. Summing up its conclusions the court said (p. 124): "The plaintiffs in error are citizens of Illinois, are not pharmacists and have no permit, but import into Iowa beer which they sell in original packages, as described. Under our decision in Bowman v. Chicago &c. Railway Co., supra, they had the right to import this beer into that State, and, in the view which we have expressed, they had the right to sell it, by which act alone it would become mingled in the common mass of property within the State. Up to that point of time we hold that, in the absence of Congressional permission to do so, the State had no power to interfere by seizure, or any other action, in prohibition of importation and sale by the foreign or non-resident importer."

The statute of the State of Iowa, under which the prosecution now before us was instituted, is as follows:

"If any express company, railway company or any agent or person in the employ of any express company, or of any common carrier, or any person in the employ of any common. carrier, or if any other person shall transport or convey between points, or from one place to another within this State, for any other person or persons or corporation, any intoxicating liquors, without having first been furnished with a certificate from and under the seal of the county auditor of the county to which said liquor is to be transported or is consigned for transportation, or within which it is to be conveyed from place to place, certifying that the consignée or person to whom said liquor is to be transported, conveyed or delivered is authorized to sell such intoxicating liquors in such county, such company, corporation or person so offending, and each of them, and any agent of said company, corporation or per son so offending, shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of one hundred dollars for each offence, and pay costs of prosecution, and the costs shall include a reasonable attorney fee to be assessed by the court, which shall be paid into the county fund, and stand committed to the county jail

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until such fine and costs of prosecution are paid. The offence herein defined shall be held to be complete, and shall be held to have been committed in any county of the State, through or to which said intoxicating liquors are transported, or in which the same is unloaded for transportation, or in which said liquors are conveyed from place to place or delivered. It shall be the duty of the several county auditors of the State to issue the certificate herein contemplated to any person having such permit, and the certificate so issued shall be truly dated when issued, and shall specify the date at which the permit expires, as shown by the county records. Provided, however, that the defendant may show as a defence hereunder by preponderance of evidence that the character and circumstances of the shipment and its contents were unknown to him." (Iowa Code, section 1553, paragraph 2410, McClain's Annotated Code of Iowa.)

This statute is identical with the one which was held to be unconstitutional in the Bowman case, except that the latter contained the words "knowingly bring within this State," these words having been stricken out by an amendment adopted after the decision in the Bowman case. In other words, the statute which was under review in the Bowman case provided, "if any express company, railway company or any agent or person in the employ of any express company, or of any common carrier, or if any other person shall knowingly bring within this State, or transport or convey between points or from one place to another within the State," whilst the statute now before us provides exactly the same thing, except that the words "knowingly bring within this State" are omitted. It is hence manifest that the present statute, as interpreted by the Supreme Court of Iowa, has exactly the significance it would have did it contain the words found in the act reviewed in the Bowman case. It follows that the law before us now, as interpreted below, is the exact equivalent of the statute which has once before been declared by this court to be repugnant to the Constitution. This result in reason is inevitable, since the court below held that the words, as found in the present law, were not confined to transporta

Opinion of the Court.

tion of commodities originating within the State, but related to shipments made from another State. This ruling hence subjects shipments made from another State to the control of the statute at once on the arrival of the merchandise within the territorial limits of the State, and before the completion of the interstate shipment, as completely as if the words "bring within this State" were yet in the statute. As it was

held in the Bowman case that the power to ship from one State into another embraced of necessity the right to have the goods carried to the place of destination, and be delivered at that point to the consignee, it follows that an interpretation of the present law which gives the State the right to stop the goods shipped into the State at the state line, and before their arrival at destination, is directly within the rule announced in the Bowman case.

The fundamental right which the decision in the Bowman case held to be protected from the operation of state laws by the Constitution of the United States was the continuity of shipment of goods coming from one State into another from the point of transmission to the point of consignment, and the accomplishment there of the delivery covered by the contract. This protection of the Constitution of the United States is plainly denied by the statute now under review, as its provisions are interpreted by the court below. The power which it was held in the Bowman case the State did not possess was that of stopping interstate shipments at the state line by breaking their continuity and intercepting their course from the point of origin to the point of consummation. The right of a State to exert these very powers is plainly upheld by the decision rendered below. It follows that if the ruling in the Bowman case is applicable to the question here presented, it is decisive of this controversy, and must lead to a reversal of the judgment below rendered. The claim is, however, and it was upon this ground that the court below rested its judg ment, that under and by virtue of the provisions of the act of Congress of August 8, 1890, c. 728, 26 Stat. 313, the ruling in the Bowman case is no longer apposite, as the effect of the act of Congress in question was to confer upon the State of Iowa

Opinion of the Court.

the power to subject to its statutory regulations merchandise shipped from another State the moment it reached the line of the State of Iowa, and before the consummation of the contract of shipment by arrival at its destination and delivery there to the consignee. And it is to this question that the discussion at bar has mainly related, and upon which a decision of the cause really depends.

It is not gainsaid that the effect of the act of Congress was to deprive the receiver of goods shipped from another State of all power to sell the same in the State of Iowa in violation of its laws, but whilst it is thus conceded that the act of Congress has allowed the Iowa law to attach to the property when brought into the State before sale, when it otherwise would not have done so until after sale, on the other hand, it is contended that the act of Congress in no way provides that the laws of Iowa should apply before the consummation by delivery of the interstate commerce transaction. To otherwise construe the act of Congress, it is claimed, would cause it to give to the statutes of Iowa extraterritorial operation, and would render the act of Congress repugnant to the Constitution of the United States. It has been settled that the effect of the act of Congress is to allow the statutes of the several States to operate upon packages of imported liquor before sale. In re Rahrer, 140 U. S. 545.

Did the act of Congress referred to operate to attach the legislation of the State of Iowa to the goods in question the moment they reached the state line, and before the completion of the act of transportation, by arriving at the point of consignment and the delivery there to the consignee is then the pivotal question? The act of Congress is as follows:

"That all fermented, distilled or other intoxicating liquors or liquids transported into any State or Territory or remaining therein for use, consumption, sale or storage therein, shall, upon arrival in such State or Territory, be subject to the operation and effect of the laws of such State or Territory, enacted in the exercise of its police powers, to the same extent and in the same manner as though such liquids or liquors had been produced in such State or Territory, and shall not be exempt

Opinion of the Court.

therefrom by reason of being introduced therein in original packages or otherwise."

The words "shall upon arrival in such State or Territory be subject to the operation and effect of the laws of such State or Territory," in one sense might be held to mean arrival at the state line. But to so interpret them would necessitate isolating these words from the entire context of the act, and would compel a construction destructive of other provisions contained therein. But this would violate the fundamental rule requiring that a law be construed as a whole, and not by distorting or magnifying a particular word found in it. It is clearly contemplated that the word "arrival" signified that the goods should actually come into the State, since it is provided that "all fermented, distilled or other intoxicating liquors or liquids transported into a State or Territory," and this is further accentuated by the other provision, "or remaining therein for use, consumption, sale or storage therein."

This language makes it impossible in reason to hold that the law intended that the word "arrival" should mean at the state line, since it presupposes the coming of the goods into the State for "use, consumption, sale or storage." The fair inference from the enumeration of these conditions, which are all-embracing, is that the time when they could arise was made the test by which to determine the period when the operation of the state law should attach to goods brought into the State. But to uphold the meaning of the word "arrival," which is necessary to support the state law, as construed below, forces the conclusion that the act of Congress in question authorized state laws to forbid the bringing into the State at all. This follows from the fact that if arrival means crossing the line, then the act of crossing into the State would be a violation of the state law, and hence necessarily the operation of the law is to forbid crossing the line and to compel remaining beyond the same. Thus, if the construction of the word "arrival" be that. which is claimed for it, it must be held that the state statute attached and operated beyond the state line confessedly before the time when it was intended by the act of Congress it should take effect.