FEDERAL RESTRAINTS. 333 the effect of the commercial clause of the Constitution, and there- fore adds nothing to the present inquiry. The Railroad Commission Cases, ^ decided in 1885, come next in order, but are inconclusive upon the question here, although they manifest no change as yet in the opinion of the court. These cases consist of Stone v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.^; Stone v. Illinois Central Railroad Co.^; and Stone v. New Orleans & North- eastern Railroad Co.* Stone V. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.^ related to an act of the State of Mississippi, providing for the regulation of freight and passenger rates on railroads in that State, and creating a com- mission to supervise the same. The company affected was the Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company, a corporation which had been organized under the laws of Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky, being the several States through whose territory the Company's road passed. The court, by Waite, C. J., concern- ing the Federal question, said : —
- Every person, every corporation, everything within the territorial
limits of a State, is, while there, subject to the constitutional authority of the State government. Clearly, under this rule, Mississippi may govern this corporation, as it does all domestic corporations in respect to every act and everything within the State which is the lawful subject of State government. It may, beyond all question, by the settled rule of decision in this court, regulate freights and fares for business done exclusively within the State, and it would seem to be a matter of domes- tic concern to prevent the company from discriminating against persons and places in Mississippi." And again : — "The commission is, in express terms, prohibited by the act of March 15, 1884, from interfering with the charges of the company for the trans- portation of persons or property through Mississippi from one State to another. The statute makes no mention of persons or property taken up without the State and delivered within, nor of such as may be taken up within and carried without. As to this, the only limit on the power of the commissioners is the constitutional authority of the State over the subject. Precisely all that may be done, or all that may not be done, it is not easy to say in advance. The line between the exclusive power of Congress, and the general powers of the State in this particular, is not I116U. S. 307. 8116U. S. 347. 6116U. S. 307. 2 116 U. S. 307. * n6 U. 8.352.
