§ 17-49-201 — Purpose

(a) Peddlers have always been recognized as a special class, subject to special laws regulating, licensing, and policing the class. This is based on their particular way of doing business, upon the fact that many of them contribute nothing or very little in the way of taxes and otherwise to the support and building of the communities in which they operate, on the unscrupulous methods of some of them, and on other valid considerations. The advent of the motor truck and the improved roads has brought about the existence of a special class of peddlers by motor truck who combine all of the old attributes of the class with the present ability to cover a wide territory and handle goods in large quantities. This has created serious and pressing problems of preserving local communities from deterioration and even extinction through the destruction of local established business, of maintaining adequate price levels of commodities so as to insure a fair return to producers and to justify local merchants in carrying adequate stocks of merchandise to meet the regular needs of their communities, of law violation in commercial transactions, of loss of tax revenue, and of highway hazards. (b) It is the purpose of this subchapter to: (1) Define the class of peddlers by motor vehicle without burdening local established producers, merchants, and manufacturers; (2) Regulate the class to avoid existing evils; and (3) Assess and collect taxes due the state from this class.

Legislative History

Acts 1941, No. 138, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, § 84-2401.