Hockett r. The State.

tire system of internal State regulation, having in view not only the preservation of public order and the prevention of offences against the State, but also the promotion of such intercourse between the inhabitants of the State as is calculated to prevent a conflict of rights, and to promote the interests of all. Cooley Const. Lim. 572.

It is a power inherent in every sovereignty, and is, in its broadest sense, nothing more than the power of a State to govern men and things within the limits of its own dominion. License Cases, 5 How. 504, 582.

It extends to the protection of the lives, limbs, health, comfort and convenience, as well as the property, of all of all persons within the State. It authorizes the Legislature to prescribe the mode and manner in which every one may so use his own as not to injure others, and to do whatever is necessary to promote the public welfare, not inconsistent with its own organic law. Thorpe v. R. & B. R. R. Co., 27 Vt. 140.

In 1867 letters patent were issued to one DeWitt for a discovery in the manufacture of a quality of oil known as "Aurora Oil," and one Patterson became the assignee of the right conferred upon De Witt by his letters patent. Under a system. of inspection provided by the laws of Kentucky, some casks containing this Aurora oil were branded "unsafe for illuminating purposes," and notwithstanding a statute of that State making it a penal offence to sell oil thus branded, Patterson sold the casks of oil in question to one Davis. Patterson was thereupon indicted, tried and convicted in one of the Kentucky courts for the alleged unlawful sale of these condemned casks of oil. This judgment convicting Patterson of a criminal offence having been affirmed by the Court of Appeals of that State, the cause was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States to test the validity of the statute under which Patterson was so convicted, as a restraint upon the sale of a commodity covered by letters patent from the United States. Upon a review of all the questions involved, the validity of the statute was maintained, and the judgment

Hockett v. The State.

of the Court of Appeals was in all things affirmed. See Patterson v. Kentucky, 97 U. S. 501.

The court held in that case, and as we have no doubt correctly, that all that the letters patent secured was the exclusive right in the discovery, and that the right thus secured was an incorporeal right, and hence without "tangible substance;" that the right to sell the oil was not derived from the letters patent, but existed and could have been exercised before the issuing of such letters, unless prohibited by some local statute; that because the patentee acquired a monopoly in his discovery, and was hence secure against interference, it did not follow that the tangible property which came into existence by the application of the discovery was beyond the control of State legislation; that, on the contrary, the right of property in the physical substance, which is the fruit of the discovery, is altogether distinct from the discovery itself, just as the property in the instruments or plate by which copies of a map are multiplied is distinct from the copyright itself; that hence the right conferred upon the patentee and his assigns to make, use and vend the corporeal article or commodity brought into existence by the application of the patented discovery must be exercised in subordination to the police or local regulations established by the State. The doctrine of that case was approved and followed in the more recent case of Webber v. Virginia, 103 U. S. 344, and has the support, either in direct terms or in principle, of numerous other carefully considered cases. Patterson v. Commonwealth, 11 Bush, 311 (21 Am. R. 220); State v. Telephone Co., 36 Ohio St. 296 (38 Am. R. 583, and note); Jordan v. Dayton, 4 Ohio, 295; Fry v. State, 63 Ind. 552; People v. Russell, 49 Mich. 617 (43 Am. R. 478); Thompson v. Staats, 15 Wend. 395; Martinetti v. Maguire, Deady, 216; Vannini v. Paine, 1 Harrington, 65; License Tax Cases, 5 Wall. 462; United States v. De Witt, 9 Wall. 41; Railroad Co. v. Husen, 95 U. S. 465; Beer Co. v. Massachusetts, 97 U. S. 25; Brechbill v. Randall, 102 Ind. 528 (52 Am. R. 695); Palmer

Hockett v. The State.

v. State, 39 Ohio St. 236 (48 Am. R. 429); Western U. Tel. Co. v. Pendleton, 95 Ind. 12 (48 Am. R. 692); New Orleans Gas Co. v. Louisiana Light Co., 115 U. S. 650.

While, therefore, it is true that letters patent confer upon the patentee a monopoly to the extent of vesting in him, his heirs and assigns, the exclusive right to make, use and vend the tangible property brought into existence by a practical application of the discovery covered by the letters patent, for a limited time, it is not true that such exclusive right authorizes the making, using or vending of such tangible property in a manner which would be unlawful except for such letters patent, and independently of State legislation and State control.

It is next contended that the Central Union Telephone Company was organized, and has so far been conducted as an ordinary business investment, and is in its methods, as well as in its relations to its patrons and subscribers, a merely private enterprise, no more subject to legislative control than any other private business with which a considerable number of persons have become either directly or indirectly connected; that consequently the act of the Legislature, under which this prosecution was instituted, is inoperative and void as a restraint upon the company in its charges for the rental and use of its instruments.

The telephone is one of the remarkable productions of the present century, and, although its discovery is of recent date, it has been in use long enough to have attained well defined relations to the general public. It has become as much a matter of public convenience and of public necessity as were the stage coach and sailing vessel a hundred years ago, or as the steamboat, the railroad and the telegraph have become in later years. It has already become an important instrument of commerce. No other known device can supply the extraordinary facilities which it affords. It may, therefore, be regarded, when relatively considered, as an indispensable VOL. 105.-17

Hockett v. The State.

instrument of commerce. The relations which it has assumed towards the public make it a common carrier of news, a common carrier in the sense in which the telegraph is a common carrier, and impose upon it certain well defined obligations of a public character. All the instruments and appliances used by a telephone company in the prosecution of its business are consequently, in legal contemplation, devoted to a public use. State, ex rel., v. Nebraska Telephone Co., 22 N. W. Rep. 237; 22 Cent. Law Jour. 33; State of Missouri v. Bell Telephone Co., 23 Fed. Rep. 539; State v. Telephone Co., supra; American Rapid Tel. Co. v. Connecticut Telephone Co., 44 Am. R. 237, n.

It is now a well settled legal proposition that property thus devoted to a public use becomes a legitimate subject of legislative regulation and control. In recognition of that doctrine the case of Munn v. Illinois, 94 U. S. 113, has become a leading case.

It was, in general terms, held in that case, that when the owner of property devotes it to a use in which the public has an interest, he in effect grants to the public an interest in such use, and must, to the extent of that interest, submit to be controlled by the public, for the common good, as long as he maintains the use to which he has so devoted his property, and that he can only escape such public control by withdrawing his grant and discontinuing the use. In support of that conclusion, the court said it has been customary in England from time immemorial, and in this country from its first colonization, to regulate ferries, common carriers, hackmen, bakers, millers, wharfingers, innkeepers, and the like, and, in so doing, to fix a maximum of charges to be made for services rendered, accommodations extended and articles sold. This case has been the subject of much unfriendly comment and has encountered some very sharp criticism, but its authority as a precedent remains unshaken.

This State regulation and control of property devoted to a public use is not the taking of property for a public pur

Hockett v. The State.

pose within the meaning of section 21 of article 1 of the Constitution of this State. Nor is such regulation and control an interference with the guaranteed rights of the citizen in private property. As bearing generally upon the subjects lastly above referred to, see, also, the cases of Chicago, etc., R. R. Co. v. Iowa, 94 U. S. 155; Chicago, etc., R. R. Co. v. Ackley, 94 U. S. 179; Winona, etc., R. R. Co. v. Blake, 94 U. S. 180; Railroad Co. v. Richmond, 96 U. S. 521; Railroad Co. v. Fuller, 17 Wall. 560; Olcott v. Supervisors, 16 Wall. 678; Ruggles v. Illinois, 108 U. S. 526; Spring Valley Water Works v. Schottler, 110 U. S. 347; Ruggles v. People, 91 Ill. 256; Illinois Central R. R. Co. v. People, 108 U. S. 541; S. C., 1 A. & E. R. R. Cas. 188; Allnutt v. Inglis, 12 East, 527; Mayor, etc., of Mobile v. Yuille, 3 Ala. 137; N. J. Steam Nav. Co. v. Merchants' Bank, 6 How. 343; Bolt v. Stennett, 8 T. R. 606; Com. v. Duane, 98 Mass. 1; Com. v. Tewksbury, 11 Met. 55; Com. v. Alger, 7 Cush. 53; Metropolitan Board v. Barrie, 34 N. Y. 657; Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wall. 36; Sharpless v. Mayor, etc., 21 Pa. St. 147; Grant v. Courter, 24 Barb. 232; Bartemeyer v. Iowa, 18 Wall. 129; Beer Co. v. Mass., supra; Ogden v. Saunders, 12 Wheat. 212; Standard Oil Co. v. Combs, 96 Ind. 179 (49 Am. R. 156); Western U. Tel. Co. v. Pendleton, supra; Indianapolis, etc., R. R. Co. v. Kercheval, 16 Ind. 84; Foster v. Kansas, 112 U. S. 201; Brechbill v. Randall, 102 Ind. 528; Fry v. State, supra; Toledo Agr'l Works v. Work, 70 Ind. 253; West Virginia, etc., Co. v. Volcanic Oil Co., 5 W. Va. 382; State v. Perry, 5 Jones L. 252; Attorney General v. Railroad Companies, 35 Wis. 425.

The obvious deduction from what has been said, as well as from the authorities cited, is, that the power of a State Legislature to prescribe the maximum charges which a telephone. company may make for services rendered, facilities afforded, or articles of property furnished for use in its business, is plenary and complete.

It was made to appear by the evidence that there are sev