se the taxing power is a distinct power and embraces the power to
lay duties, it does not follow that duties may not be imposed in the
exercise of the power to regulate commerce. The contrary is well
established. Gibbons _v._ Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 202. 'Under the power to
regulate foreign commerce Congress impose duties on importations, give
drawbacks, pass embargo and nonintercourse laws, and make all other
regulations necessary to navigation, to the safety of passengers, and
the protection of property.' Groves _v._ Slaughter, 15 Pet. 449, 505.
The laying of duties is 'a common means of executing the power.' 2 Story
on the Constitution, Sec. 1088."[475]

FOREIGN COMMERCE; BANNED ARTICLES

The forerunners of more recent acts excluding objectionable commodities
from interstate commerce are the laws forbidding the importation of like
commodities from abroad. This power Congress has exercised since 1842.
In that year it forbade the importation of obscene literature or
pictures from abroad.[476] Six years later it passed an act "to prevent
the importation of spurious and adulterated drugs" and to provide a
system of inspection to make the prohibition effective.[477] Such
legislation guarding against the importation of noxiously adulterated
foods, drugs, or liquor has been on the statute books ever since. In
1887 the importation by Chinese nationals of smoking opium was
prohibited,[478] and subsequent statutes passed in 1909 and 1914 made it
unlawful for anyone to import it.[479] In 1897 Congress forbade the
importation of any tea "inferior in purity, quality, and fitness for
consumption" as compared with a legal standard.[480] The act was
sustained in 1904, in the leading case of Buttfield _v._ Stranahan.[481]
In "The Abby Dodge" case an act excluding sponges taken by means of
diving or diving apparatus from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico or
Straits of Florida was sustained, but construed as not applying to
sponges taken from the territorial waters of a State.[482] In Weber _v._
Freed[483] an act prohibiting the importation and interstate
transportation of prize-fight films or of pictorial representation of
prize fights was upheld. Speaking for the unanimous Court, Chief Justice
White said: "In view of the complete power of Congress over foreign
commerce and its authority to prohibit the introduction of foreign
articles recognized and enforced by many previous decisions of this
court, the contentions are so devoid of meri