RAILWAY LEGISLATION 2O7 



these cases might be included Ruggles v. Illinois, 1 decided in 

 1883, in which also one of these laws was in question, and which 

 was decided on the same principles. 2 



In the first of these Granger cases, Munn v. Illinois, the 

 question involved was not the right of a state to regulate rail- 

 roads but the validity of the Illinois law of 1871 fixing maximum 

 rates for the storage of grain in the elevators of Chicago. In 

 this decision, however, were laid down the fundamental prin- 

 ciples which were followed in the other cases arising out of the 

 railroad laws, and, moreover, the warehouse act in question 

 was as much a Granger law as any of the restrictive railroad 

 acts. The way in which this case arose has been described in 

 a previous section. 3 The supreme court of Illinois had decided 

 the case against the warehousemen in 1874 and it had then been 

 carried to the United States Supreme Court. There the at- 

 torneys for the appellants claimed that the act in question was 

 repugnant to three separate sections of the federal constitution: 

 Article I, section 8, which conferred upon Congress the power 

 to regulate interstate commerce; Article I, section 9, which for- 

 bade preference to the ports of one state over those of another; 

 and Amendment XIV, which prohibited a state from depriving 

 any person of property without due process of law. 



The opinion of the court, delivered by Chief- Justice Waite, 

 considered the last of these objections first. It was pointed out 

 that it had long been customary, both in England and America, 



1 108 United States, 526. This case presented no new features but came up 

 too late to be decided with the other Granger cases. See above, p. 152. 



2 For discussion of the principles involved in these cases, see James K. Edsall, 

 " The Granger Cases and the Police Power," in American Bar Association, Reports, 

 x. 288-316 (1887); W. E. Dunbar, " State Regulation of Prices and Rates," in 

 Quarterly Journal of Economics, ix. 305-332 (April, 1895); Alton D. Adams, " Rea- 

 sonable Rates," in Journal of Political Economy, xii. 79-97 (December, 1903), 

 reprinted in W. Z. Ripley, Railway Problems, ch. xxiii; H. S. Smalley, Railroad 

 Rate Control in its Legal Aspects (American Economic Association, Publications, 3d 

 series, vii. no. 2), reprinted in part in Ripley, Railway Problems, ch. xxiv; Albert 

 Stickney, State Control of Trade and Commerce by National or State Authority, ch. iv; 

 J. F. Hudson, The Railways and the Republic, ch. iv; Nation, xxiv. 143 (March 8, 

 1877). See also David A. Wells, "How will the Supreme Court Decide the 

 Granger Railroad Cases ? " in Nation, xix. 282-284 (October 29, 1874). 



3 See above, p. 143. 



