208 Urdahl—The Present Fee System in the United States. 
local express company whose business confined itself to the city. 
The validity of this ordinance was sustained on the ground that, 
the fee was a payment for the privilege of doing business in 
the city. 
But this decision was reversed fifteen years later by the same 
court, in the case of Leloup vs. Mobile , 1 in which the facts were 
similar to those in the case just mentioned. Here the court 
held that any tax or charge levied on a company engaged in 
interstate commerce, was an interference with such commerce 
and hence unconstitutional. In Guy vs. Baltimore 2 the court 
decided that an ordinance which levied a higher wharfage fee 
on vessels laden with products of other states, than on those 
laden with products of the state of Maryland, was unconstitu¬ 
tional. In November, 1896, Judge Grosscup of the United 
States Circuit Court in Chicago, held that an ordinance passed 
by the Chicago council violated the Constitution of the United 
States in that it interfered with interstate commerce. This 
ordinance prescribed a license fee of $250 to be paid by anyone 
who should sell or offer for sale any spirituous or malt liquors 
in the city of Chicago, and was construed so as to apply to 
commercial travelers who sold liquors by sample. The United 
States Supreme Court rendered its decision in the case of Brin- 
ner vs. Rebman 3 along almost the same line. Here the state of 
Virginia had passed a statute prescribing an inspection fee of 
one cent per pound on all beef transported one hundred miles 
or more to be sold within the state. The court held tint the fee 
charged was so large as to prohibit practically the importation 
of beef from without the state. It admitted that a small in¬ 
spection fee might be legitimate, but one cent per pound was 
so large as to interfere seriously with interstate commerce. 
This is the tenor of the decisions of the court in Walling vs. 
Michigan 4 and in Railroad Go. vs. Husen . 5 
There are, however, even more extreme cases. The fee itself may 
be imposed for a legitimate purpose, and may be so low as to 
1 127 U. S., 640. 
2 100 U. S.,434. 
158 U. S., 78. 
4 116 U. S., 446. 
5 15 U. S., 965. 
