Attachment to building or other support.
A typical law in force in the District of Columbia reads as follows: Signs must be authorized by the inspector of buildings and no such sign can project more than three feet six inches beyond the building line, or be lower than eight feet above the surface, if projecting over an alley.
Where restrictions affecting the size of billboards are in force they are usually based upon possible ger from windstorms. As these restrictions are more necessary in thickly populated districts than in the country, they are, in many states, given over to the municipal authorities.
Among the ordinances passed by the city of Chi cago for the regulation of billboards is the follow ing: All signs or billboards other than those painted or erected upon any building, shall be limited in their superficial area to one hundred (100) square feet. . . . No such 'sign or billboard shall be constructed at a greater height than ten (10) feet above the level of the adjoining streets ; in case the grade of the adjoining streets has not been estab lished, no sign or billboard shall be constructed at a greater height than ten (10) feet above the surface of the ground.
In many states, billboards of any size may be erected on private property, provided that they are erected in a safe manner. Frequently, flagstaffs, weathercocks and solid signs of any sort are not allowed to rise more than a specified number of feet above the roof.
5. Constitutionality of billboard fight against the billboard is one of long standing. A number of states and several of the Canadian prov inces have passed laws regulating roadside billboards, while the municipalities have sought thru taxation, licensing or direct prohibition to restrain the use of the billboard when attached to buildings. More fre quently the Canadian statutes, where these exist, are diTected against indecent advertisements. In most cities and towns there are municipal ordinances reg ulating and licensing advertisements with a view to restricting and regulating them.
The decisions in most of the state cases have been made on the ground that while the city can regulate the construction of billboards to protect the health and safety of the citizen, it cannot for esthetic pur poses restrict the use of private property.
Distribution of circulars and ers and handbills distributed carelessly in streets and areas are classified under the head of "public nuis ances"; city and state regulations in this, regard vary widely.
The Pittsburgh ordinance reads as follows: Be it ordained and enacted by the City of Pittsburgh . . . that hereafter it shall not be lawful for any person or per sons to distribute by throwing from wagons or other vehicles, any handbills, dodgers or other advertising device.
The distribution of handbills and other printed advertising matter is forbidden by Section 41"of Chapter 47 of the Revised Ordinances of the city of Boston, as follows: No person . . . shall distribute to persons on a street handbills, cards, circulars, or papers of any kind except newspapers.
In New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, the insertion of circulars between the leaves of a news paper-has been made a criminal offense.
Many national concerns as a part of their sales campaigns have included a wholesale distribution of samples and descriptive literature. Their activity in this respect has been greatly curtailed by ordinances similar to the above.
The constitutionality of these ordinances raises in teresting legal questions. On the part of the munici palities, they are claimed to be a valid exercise of the police power in the interest of residents to prevent the streets from being littered with advertising matter and the like. Cases are cited of children or pet ani mals having been poisoned by imbibing samples of pills, medicines and certain kinds of foods—but it has never been proved in any instance that the illness actually resulted from the use of the article. Where the campaign is part of an interstate movement, dis tributors assail such ordinances as a tax or restraint on interstate commerce.