758 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



board to the interior under a joint ocean and rail- 

 road tariff at less rates than domestic goods. The 

 railway company declined to obey the order of the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission commanding it 

 to desist from distinguishing in its charges between 

 foreign and inland traffic. The commission was 

 sustained by the circuit court, but the Supreme 

 Court reversed that decision and held that the com- 

 mission erred in making the order. It follows that 

 a railroad company can charge more for the trans- 

 portation of domestic freight between two given 

 places in this country than it charges for foreign 

 freight between the same points. Chief-Justice 

 Fuller and Justices Harlan and Brown dissented. 



Aid for Cuba. The decision in Wiborg vs. United 

 States, May 25, 1896, construed the neutrality laws 

 of the United States. Wiborg was captain of the 

 " Horsa," a Danish steamer, sailing under the Danish 

 flag, and was indicted under Sec. 5286 of the United 

 States Revised Statutes for providing means for a 

 military expedition to be carried on from this coun- 

 try to aid the Cuban insurgents. A body of men 

 went on board a tug in a port of the United States, 

 loaded with arms, were taken by it 30 or 40 miles out 

 to sea, met the steamer outside the 3-mile limit by 

 prior arrangement, boarded her with the arms, 

 opened the boxes and distributed the arms among 

 themselves, drilled to some extent, were apparently 

 officered and then, as preconcerted, attempted to 

 effect an armed landing on the coast of Cuba. It 

 was held that this constituted a military expedition 

 within the provisions of the Revised Statutes. 



French Spoliation. Blagge vs. Balch ; Brooks 

 vs. Codman ; and Foote vs. Women's Board of Mis- 

 sions, turned upon the construction of the act of 

 Congress of March 3, 1891, making appropriations 

 to pay certain enumerated claims. The French 

 Spoliation claims arose from the depredations of 

 French cruisers upon our commerce and from the 

 judgments of French prize courts, and could have 

 been enforced against France only by our Govern- 

 ment. The sufferers from the French spoliations 

 contended that, by the treaty of Sept. 30, 1800, all 

 claims for indemnity were renounced, and that 

 therefore an obligation to indemnify them rested 

 upon our Government. Under the act of Congress 

 of Jan. 20, 1885, the claims were allowed to be 

 brought before the court of claims ; but that court 

 was not to give judgment, and any committal of 

 the United States to their payment was guarded 

 against. It was held that the payments thus to be 

 made were within the category of payments by way 

 of gratuity and grace, and not as of right against 

 the Government. 



Alien Labor Contracts. In United States vs. 

 Laws, it was decided that a contract made with an 

 alien in a foreign country to come to this country 

 as a chemist on a sugar plantation in Louisiana, in 

 pursuance of which contract such alien comes to 

 this country and is so employed and his expenses 

 paid, is not such a contract to perform labor or 

 service as is prohibited by the act of Congress of 

 Feb. 26, 1885, entitled " An Act to prohibit the im- 

 portation and migration of foreigners and aliens 

 under contract or agreement to perform labor in 

 the United States, its territories, and the District of 

 Columbia." 



Sunday Trains. The case of Hennington vs. 

 Georgia involved the constitutionality of a law of 

 Georgia forbidding the running of freight trains in 

 that State on Sunday. , The court sustained the 

 validity of the law. The decision was based on the 

 right of a State to legislate for the benefit of the 

 public health, morals, peace, and order. The stat- 

 ute was held to be a police regulation, and not an 

 interference with interstate commerce. Chief-Jus- 

 tice Fuller and Justice White dissented, holding 



that the statute requiring the suspension of inter- 

 state commerce for one day in the week amounted 

 to a regulation of that commerce, and was invalid 

 because the power of Congress in that regard was 

 exclusive. 



Claims. United States vs. New York was ap- 

 pealed from the court of claims. The decision in- 

 volved the construction of statutes regulating the 

 jurisdiction of the court of claims, including those 

 known as the Bowman act of March 3, 1888, and 

 the Tucker act of March 3, 1887. It sustained the 

 claim of the State of New York for $131,188.02, in- 

 terest on money borrowed and expended in arming 

 troops for the suppression of the rebellion of 1861. 



Cii'il Jliyhtx. Tin- case of Plessis c.s. Ferguson 

 turned upon the constitutionality of an act of the 

 State of Louisiana requiring railways to provide 

 separate cars or compartments for colored persons. 

 Plessis was a citizen of the United States, of mixed 

 descent in the proportion of seven eighths Caucas- 

 ian and one eighth African blood, and, having paid 

 for a first-class passage on the East Louisiana Rail- 

 way from New Orleans to Covington, entered a 

 coach provided for persons of the white race, and, 

 on his refusal to vacate and occupy a seat in a 

 coach assigned to colored people, was forcibly 

 ejected and taken to prison to answer a criminal 

 charge. He claimed that the mixture of colored 

 blood was not discernible, and that he was entitled 

 to the same privileges and immunities as white cit- 

 izens. The statute in question did not apply to in- 

 terstate passengers, but was confined in its applica- 

 tion to passengers traveling exclusively within the 

 borders of the State, and was held not to be in con- 

 flict with the provisions of the 13th and 14th amend- 

 ments to the Constitution. The question of the 

 proportion of colored blood necessary to constitute 

 a colored person was not in issue, that being a ques- 

 tion to be determined under State laws. Justice 

 Harlan dissented, and stated that, in his opinion, this 

 decision would prove in time as pernicious as that 

 of the court in the Dred Scott case. 



Irrigation. The decision in Fall Brook Irriga- 

 tion District vs. Maria King Bradley sustained the 

 constitutionality of the California statute known as 

 the Wright Irrigation law. It attracted interest 

 throughout the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast 

 regions because of its importance to the material 

 interests of the arid belt, and gained prominence 

 from the fact that ex-President Harrison was of 

 counsel who argued the case before the Supreme 

 Court. The validity of millions of dollars of bonds 

 issued by the irrigation district commissioners de- 

 pended upon the decision. The act was attacked 

 on the ground that it deprived persons of property 

 without due process of law. Chief-Justice Fuller 

 and Justice Field dissented. 



Interruption of Mails. The decision in United 

 States vs. Clune affirmed a conviction for interrupt- 

 ing the mails during the riots of 1894. 



Battlefield Barks.' The decision in United States 

 vs. Gettysburg Railroad Company established the 

 power of the Government to condemn land within 

 the boundaries of a State for public parks to pre- 

 serve battlefields of the civil war. 



Fraudulent Use of the Mails. The decision in 

 Durland vs. United States settled the meaning of 

 section 5480 of the Revised Statutes, which pun- 

 ishes as criminal ' any scheme or artifice to defraud " 

 to be effected through the mails. This will doubt- 

 less prove of great value in preventing the fraudu- 

 lent use of the mails. 



Telephones. Among the important cases that 

 have been argued and are awaiting a decision are 

 The United States vs. The American Bell Telephone. 

 Company, a suit to cancel the patent issued to p]mil 

 Berliner for a transmitter, upon the result of which 



