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THE

LAW OF INTERSTATE COMMERCE.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

INTERSTATE COMMERCE UNDER THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.

CHAPTER II.

THE CONCURRENT AND EXCLUSIVE POWERS IN INTERSTATE COMMEBOR

CHAPTER III.

THE FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE REGULATION OF INTERSTATE COMMERCE.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FEDERAL POWER OF REGULATION IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE.

CHAPTER V.

BUSINESS COMBINATIONS IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE

CHAPTER VI.

LABOR COMBINATIONS IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE.

CHAPTER VII.

THE FEDERAL CONTROL OF STATE REGULATION OF INTERSTATE CARRIE

1

CHAPTER I.

INTERSTATE COMMERCE UNDER THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.

§ 1.

The commerce clause in the constitution.

2.

Power of congress in foreign commerce and with the Indian tribes distinguished.

3. The preference clause in the constitution.

4.

The prohibition of tax or duty on exports from state.

5. Federal sovereignty in interstate commerce.

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9.

Insurance and commerce.

10. What are the subjects of commerce.

11. Wild game and fish as subjects of commerce. 12. Natural oil and gas as subjects of commerce.

13. The commerce clause and the admiralty jurisdiction. 14. Erie Canal subject to admiralty jurisdiction.

15.

Jurisdiction of federal courts in admiralty cases. 16. State corporations in interstate commerce.

17. When transit ends; the original package in interstate commerce. 18. The Wilson Bill of 1890.

19. Limitations of state control of liquor traffic.

20. A state cannot tax interstate commerce.

21. But a state can tax the property employed in interstate commerce. 22. State power of taxation of corporations engaged in interstate com merce summarized.

"The congress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the several states, and with the Indian tribes." Constitution of the United States, art. I, sec. 8, par. 3.

"To establish post offices and post roads." Art. I, sec. 8, par. 7.

"The congress shall have power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into effect the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department, or any officer thereof.' Art. I, sec. 8, par. 18.

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"No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of an

other; nor shall vessels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another." Art. I, sec. 9, par. 5.

"The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the several states." Art. IV, sec. 2.

"This constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding." Art. VI, par. 2.

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." Amendment X (declared ratified January 8, 1798).

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.' Article XIV, Section 1 (declared ratified July 28, 1868).

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§ 1. The commerce clause in the constitution. The commerce clause in the federal constitution illustrates more pointedly than any other the circumstances which forced the adoption of the constitution and the formation of the government of the Union, and its judicial history is the clearest example of the adaptation of a written constitution by construction to conditions and emergencies never contemplated by its framers. It was the necessity for national control over foreign commerce which was the immediate occasion for calling the convention of 1787, as the defect of the articles of confederation in failing to provide for the control of this commrece was universally recognized.

Under the articles of confederation adopted during the revolutionary war congress had power to regulate trade with the Indians, but the control of foreign and interstate commerce remained with the states. The compact between Virginia and Maryland relative to the navigation of the Potomac

river and the Chesapeake Bay, and the report of the commissioners thereon led the Virginia legislature to call a conference at Annapolis in 1786 to take into consideration the "trade of the United States, to examine the relative situation in the trade of the states, to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial relations may be necessary to the common interests and their permanent harmony." From the Annapolis conference came the call for the Philadelphia convention of 1787, which framed the constitution.

Commerce among the states however was in 1787 very simple, and other than that carried on in teams and wagons was carried on by navigation. There was comparatively little discussion in the debates of the convention or in the Federalist concerning the federal control over interstate commerce, and no consideration seems to have been given to the question of the effect of this grant of the federal power upon the police or taxing power of the states. It was regarded as essentially supplemental to the control over foreign commerce, and was granted so as to make the control over foreign commerce effective. It was said by Mr. Madison,' that without this supplemental provision the great and essential power of regulating foreign commerce would have been incomplete and ineffectual, and that with state control of interstate commerce, ways would be found to load the articles of import and export during the passage through their jurisdictions with duties, which would fall on the makers of the latter and the consumers of the former.

seen.

The far-reaching importance of this federal control over commerce among the states was not and could not be foreIt only came to be realized in the course of years, as the commercial development of the country demanded a judicial construction of the federal power in harmony with the requirements of such commerce. The basis of this construction for all time was made by the far-sighted and masterful reasoning in the broad and comprehensive opinions of Chief Justice Marshall.

1 Federalist No. 42. It was suggested in the convention though not adopted, and also in some of the state conventions as a condition of ratification, that no navi

gation law or law regulating commerce should be passed without the consent of two-thirds of the members present in both houses. 2 Justice Bradley in the opinion

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