136 Strong—The Legal Status of Trusts . 
regrating given in the note on page 134, and a recent decision 
will serve as an illustration of this class of articles, namely, 
that of Foss v. Cummings, 15 where it was held that a combina¬ 
tion to enhance the price of an article of necessity, such as 
wheat or other article of food, for purposes of extortion, is 
against public policy, although there may be no attempt to cor¬ 
ner the market. 
At this point a serious difficulty is encountered. What arti¬ 
cles are to be considered as necessaries, for what may be so con¬ 
sidered at one time may not be so considered at another? There 
have been several decisions in regard to particular articles, but 
they do not furnish any general rule for answering the ques¬ 
tion. It has been held that the following are articles of neces¬ 
sity within the meaning of the law: Coal — Morris Run Coal 
Co. v. Barclay Coal Co., 1871, 68 Pa. St. 173; Gas — Gibbs v. 
Baltimore Gas Co., 1888, 130 U. S. 408; Matches — Richardson 
v. Buhl, 1889, 77 Mich. 632; Salt — Central Ohio Salt Co. v. 
Guthrie, 1880, 35 Ohio St. 666; Grain — Craft v. McConoughy, 
1875, 79 Ill. 346; Sugar — People v. North River Sugar Re¬ 
fining Co., 54 Hun 354, 1889; Lumber — Santa Clara Valley 
Mill and Lumber Co. v. Hayes, 1888, 76 Cal. 387; Cotton 
bagging — India Bagging Association v. Kock, 1859, 14 La. 
Ann. 164; Butter — Chaplin v. Brown, 1891, Supreme Court of 
Iowa, June. 
(2) The principle of public policy extends also to a business 
in which the public have a right as distinguished from a busi¬ 
ness which may be purely beneficial to the public. To this class 
belong the businesses of transportation, communication by tele¬ 
graph and telephone, the supply of light and water, and similar 
companies which derive their right to condemn property from 
the fact that their business is established for a public use. In 
regard to railway corporations every sort of legal effort has 
been made in England and in this country to prevent the con¬ 
solidation of independent roads. According to stringent statutes 
the original corporation is unable to sell out to the trust, for in 
the absence of express legislative permission, a corporation in 
15 47 Illinois App. 665 ; S. C., 40 Id. 523. 
