170 CONFERENCE ON MILK PROBLEMS 



quired to get a license, which should be issued by this Commis- 

 sion which should have the absolute right to fix the maximum 

 price at which milk should be sold to the consumers in any lo- 

 cality and the minimum price at which it should be bought from 

 any producer in any locality, and if any dealer violated these 

 price lists and did not comply with the rules of the Commis- 

 sion, his license would be taken from him, and, of necessity, 

 he could not engage in the business of milk dealing. 



Now, the first objection, and probably the objection which 

 would suggest itself to any legal mind, is, is such a law con- 

 stitutional? I can't go into any extended discussion of the 

 constitutionality of such a law before you this evening, but I 

 will say that it appears to me that the United States Supreme 

 Court has already held that such a law would be constitutional. 

 Of course, it is elementary that any law which makes a price 

 for any corporation that has a public franchise, whether it be 

 a railroad corporation or a gas corporation, is constitutional. 

 If it be a railroad corporation, a legislature can regulate the 

 price of the fares, and if it be a gas corporation, the cost of 

 the gas. Such a law is constitutional, and the United States 

 Supreme Court, in the celebrated Eighty Cent Gas case held 

 that the law was constitutional and that the Legislature had 

 the right to fix a price at which gas should be sold. The the- 

 ory in those cases was that the corporation was exercising a 

 public franchise, and that, for that reason, the State had a 

 right to say what should be a proper charge, and to say that 

 that corporation should be satisfied with a reasonable profit. 



Now, in the case of Mund vs. Illinois, the U. S. Supreme 

 Court has said that even in the case where a corporation did 

 not have a public franchise, the same thing may obtain. The 

 State of Illinois had passed a law which said that no ware- 

 house man should charge more than so much for storing grain. 

 There was no question of a public franchise there, and it was 

 contended that the State of Illinois could not pass such a law 

 as would limit the warehouse man in the price that he would 

 charge for storing grain. The United States Supreme Court 

 said that this was a business that related to the public welfare 

 and that although no special franchise was. granted, neverthe- 

 less the State shall say under what terms that business shall 

 be carried on in that state. When Legislatures create ficti- 



