i88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



comes a public nuisance, endangering the public health or the public 

 safety. As circumstances change, regulations affecting the exercise 

 of a franchise may be changed, too. " It can not be," said the Court 

 in one case, "that the mere form of the grant should prevent the use 

 to which it is limited being regarded and treated as a nuisance when 

 it becomes so in fact." * In that case, as in many others, the exercise 

 of the police power was held constitutional, even though it directly 

 violated rights theretofore given. By this power the removal of mill- 

 dams once lawfully erected has been compelled, and railroads have 

 been obliged to adopt devices for safety not prescribed in their origi- 

 nal charters, even though it caused expense. That is not a matter to 

 be considered when a question of public safety is concerned. Then 

 why should this power not be resorted to in the case of telegraphic 

 and electrical obstructions ? Are they exceptions to the rule that 

 when under changed circumstances lawful erections become nuisances 

 they may be abated ? We think not. The police power ought to be 

 exercised. Legislation, by virtue of it, driving the wires underground 

 and the poles from sight, would, we submit, be in every respect con- 

 stitutional and proper. 



Such legislation might take the form of direct enactments against 

 the evil, or of a delegation of authority to act in the matter to munici- 

 palities. While the police power can not be alienated, it may be 

 delegated to a municipality ; for one of the objects of the creation 

 of municipalities is to exercise certain powers of the State in localities. 

 In New York city, it may be that, in the right to regulate the use of 

 streets for poles, the local legislative body has been already clothed 

 with this power sufficiently to meet the evil. Be that as it may, the 

 point remains the same, that the evil is to be met by legislation. 

 Whether by the principal directly, or indirectly by its agent, matters 

 not, so far as its propriety or constitutionality is concerned. 



If we are right in our conclusions in this article, why should the 

 evil be allowed longer to exist ? Is the corporate power greater than 

 the influence of public opinion ? Or, if so, shall public opinion be 

 left unsupported by concerted action ? As in politics, or almost any 

 other sphere of action where many are concerned, so, in the suppres- 

 sion of this evil, much depends upon the part taken and the activity 

 displayed by the individual. Those who put forth no exertion to save 

 their rights and tranquilly sleep on them need not be surprised if their 

 rights are trampled upon. 



* Gowen (N. Y.), 605. 



