More than 30 years ago, when former Congressman Thomas F. Hartnett still was a state legislator, he fought fiercely, but to no avail, against milk price-fixing in this state. A few weeks ago, Charleston lawmakers were once again at the forefront of the opposition to yet one more dairy protection measure. The Senate should continue to keep the lid on this ill-advised attempt to resume a losing legal battle.

The courts struck down the last milk price-fixing attempt in the mid-1980s. Further, the latest effort to regulate prices has been pronounced "constitutionally suspect" by the attorney general's office. Charleston Rep. John Graham Altman was among those who protested the legislation in the House, along with Reps. Wallace Scarborough and David Mack. According to our report, Rep. Altman said the House majority had provided a victory for socialism. Rep. Mack, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, made his point with a failed attempt to amend the "Dairy Stabilization Act" to add a "South Carolina Tomato Stabilization Act." "If we do this for milk, why not tomatoes? Why not the shrimpers in Charleston?" Rep. Mack was quoted as asking. Good questions.

The encouraging news is that they will be asked again by leaders in the Senate, including Sen. Larry Grooms, the chairman of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. Not only does Sen. Grooms recognize the legislation has legal hurdles to overcome, but he said the senators first must come to grips with a larger question: "Is there value in South Carolina-produced milk?" He notes that in recent years the number of dairies in the state has been reduced from some 350 to around 85.

Legislative advocates are attempting to get around the restraint of interstate commerce, a legal issue that has doomed milk price-fixing in the past by setting up a system that basically would subsidize state dairy farmers if the price fell below an established break-even price. Indeed, one of the advocates of the legislation was quoted in The [Myrtle Beach] Sun-News as insisting it isn't a price-fixing measure.

It is one of those instances of trying to do indirectly what can't be done directly. Allowing a proposed new milk board to set a breakeven price on milk for S.C. dairy farmers and using fees collected from buyers to pay the difference would result, in the words of Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell a "slippery slope we couldn't get off."

Gov. Mark Sanford also has expressed concerns about the bill. Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers tells us he has assurance that the governor considers the dairy industry important to the state but disagrees with the mechanism in the current legislation. The commissioner said dairymen meeting in Columbia today will be asked to assess whether there is another route that would provide aid for the industry.

The attorney general's office has sounded a clear warning that the bill under consideration would take the state down the wrong road and that's a warning both the Senate and the industry should heed.