I9I2-] OF THE UNITED STATES. 389 



exercise of a power granted by the Constitution. Inasmuch as the 

 power to make treaties is likewise specifically granted and such 

 treaties are declared to have the force of laws, this case is of 

 authoritative significance. 



In re Debs^-^ is a case which attracted universal interest. It 

 arose out of the great Chicago strike of 1894, and was a petition 

 for a writ of habeas corpus to secure the release of labor leaders 

 sentenced for contempt. The legal points at issue were succinctly 

 stated by the Supreme Court as follows : 



" The United States, finding that the interstate transportation of persons 

 and property, as well as the carriages of the mails, is forcibly obstructed, and 

 that a combinaLion and conspiracy exists to subject the control of such 

 transportation to the will of the conspirators, applied to one of their Courts, 

 sitting as a Court of Equity, for an injunction to restrain such obstruction 

 and prevent carrying into effect such conspiracy. Two questions of impor- 

 tance are presented: First. Are the relations of the general government to 

 interstate commerce and the transportation of the mails such as authorize a 

 direct interference to prevent a forcible obstruction thereof? Second. If 

 authority exists, as authority in governmental affairs implies both power and 

 duty, has a Court of Equity jurisdiction to issue an injunction in aid of the 

 performance of such duty"?^'* 



The Court then proceeds to quote the language of Mr. Chief Justice 

 Marshall in McCullough vs. Maryland : 



" No trace is to be found in the Constitution of an intention to create 

 a dependence of the government of the Union on those of the States, for 

 the execution of the great powers assigned to it. Its means are adequate to 

 its ends ; and on those means alone was it expected to rely for the accom- 

 plishment of its ends. To impose on it the necessity of resorting to means 

 which it cannot control, which another government may furnish or with- 

 hold, would render its course precarious, the result of its measures uncer- 

 tain, and create a dependence on other governments, which might disappoint 

 its most important designs, and is incompatible with the language of the 

 Constitution.'"'' 



The two questions of law propounded are answered as follows : 



" As, under the Constitution, power over interstate commerce and the 

 transportation of the mails is vested in the national government, and Con- 

 gress by virtue of such grant has assumed actual and direct control, it follows 



^I58U. S., 564 (1895). 



''-* 158 u. s., p. 577. 



■'== 4 Wheat., p. 578. 



