whatever. The Board of Trade is a private corporation, and it was incorporated for the purpose of affording facilities to its members in doing business with each other. In their transactions upon the floors of the exchange they deal as principals with each other, but in respect to the outside world they are brokers and commission merchants for the producers, consumers, shippers, and merchants whom they represent. For many years the board has so used its franchises, and its members have so conducted their business, as that it has become of vast commercial influence, and fixes the market values of grain and agricultural products for a large territory, and the fluctuations in prices upon its floors powerfully affect the market prices of the necessaries of life throughout the country and the world. The great power and influence which the board possesses in dictating market values are owing to the vast aggregation of products which are drawn to its portals for a market, and are bought and sold upon its floors, and which pay tribute and toll, in the shape of commissions, to its members. The great bulk of this business, though in form, and as between the members, the mere private and individual dealings of such members, -is in reality the business of the numerous producers, consumers, merchants, and shippers for and on behalf of whom these members deal. A potential factor in attracting this accumulation of business to the halls of the exchange, and in vesting the board with this power to regulate and determine the market prices of grain and provisions, is the fact that many years ago the board admitted and invited the telegraph companies, which are quasi public corporations, to the floors of the exchange, and permitted and encouraged them to gather market quotations, showing the changes and fluctuations in the prices of the various products as they occurred, and send instantaneous information from the floors of the board, by means of telegraph lines and instruments, to all the principal towns and cities, and by means of ticker circuits to the places of business of all persons desirous of such information, which information was furnished to all persons and corporations, without discrimination, who were willing to receive and pay for the same. In this way the business of the country in buying and selling agricultural products has been brought under the control of the market values for such products as fixed and determined on the Board of Trade, and the business of dealing in such products has been brought to conform to the method of receiving instan

taneous and continuous market reports, inaugurated, and for years persisted in, by the Board of Trade and the telegraph companies. This market news is a species of property, and if the statistics with reference to the individual business of the members of the association, and the aggregate business of its members, had from the start been gathered and compiled at the expense of its members, and for their sole use, it may be it would have been strictly private property held in trust by the board for the use and benefit of such members, and wholly free from any public interest therein. But the board did not so exercise its franchises and so conduct its business, but admitted the telegraph companies to the floor of its exchange, and permitted and encouraged them, from day to day and year after year, to gather these statistics of the dealings on the board, and telegraph them, immediately as they were made, throughout the land, to whomsoever would pay for such imformation, until the business of the country had adapted itself to these means and appliances, and the point was reached when the quotations upon the board were puissant to determine the market values of the products of the country, and all persons dealing in such products could not, without the knowledge and benefit of these immediate quotations, intelligently and safely so deal.

The facts that the Board of Trade is a private corporation, and that the dealings between its members are private business, such as is transacted between dry goods, grocery, and commission merchants, and that the statistics of these dealings, collected as we have stated, are private property, are not conclusive that such statistics are not charged with a public interest, and that there is no duty due the public in respect thereto. In the case of Munn v. People, 94 U. S. 113, the supreme court of the United States recognized and followed the doctrine that when private property is devoted to a public use and becomes affected with a public interest, it ceases to be juris privati only, and is subject to public regulation. The court there said: "Property does become clothed with a public interest when used in a manner to make it of public consequence, and affect the community at large. When, therefore, one devotes his property to a use in which the public has an interest, he, in effect, grants to the public an interest in that use, and must submit to be controlled by the public for the common good to the extent of the interest he has thus created." Assuming these market quotations and reports are property,

AM. ST. REP., VOL. XI. -8

and the private property of the Board of Trade, yet if they have been so used by the board, and by the telegraph companies with the knowledge and consent of the board, as to become affected with a public interest, then they are subject to such public regulation by the legislature and the courts as is necessary to prevent injury to such public interest. The doctrine in question has application both to the property of individuals and of corporations, and it is therefore immaterial that any such corporation may be a mere private corporation. If the interest is public, then it is necessarily, to all alike, common to all, and upon equal terms. The doctrine, as applied to the matter of these market quotations, would forbid that a monopoly should be made of them by furnishing them to some and refusing them to others who are equally willing to pay for them and be governed by all reasonable rules and regulations, and would prevent the Board of Trade or the telegraph companies from unjustly discriminating in respect to the parties who will be allowed to receive them.

The market information here involved is not collected by the board merely for the use of the members of the association. For many years it was gathered and disseminated by the telegraph companies, and sent to all alike who would pay for it, wholly regardless of any question of membership in the board. The change that has been made by section 20 of rule 4, in respect to this commercial news department, seems to be more colorable than substantial, and appears to be intended merely to enable the board to make a monopoly of such news. At first the telegraph companies, by their paid agents, gathered the statistics and telegraphed them from the floors of the exchange. Now the board appoints and pays the agents who collect the statistics and transmit them to the central telegraph office of the Western Union Telegraph Company, from whence they are distributed to the approved correspondents. But nine tenths of the expense of this service of collecting the market reports is refunded to the board by the telegraph company.

The question here is not one of withholding altogether instantaneous quotations and information respecting the prices at which grain and provisions are being sold upon the market of the exchange, nor one of discriminating between its own members and such persons as are not members, in giving such information. Before the board itself assumed to control the sending of this news, no discrimination was made in dis

tributing it between those who were and those who were not members of the board; and since the change was made a very large proportion of the approved correspondents are not members, and the rule contemplates that persons other than members should be such correspondents. The question is, Can the board so conduct its affairs for a long term of years as to create a standard market for agricultural products, and, acting in concert or combination with the telegraph companies, build up a great system for the instantaneous and continuous indication of that market and its fluctuations, until the public and all persons dealing in such products conform their business to this system, and until, by the usage and custom of merchants thus advanced by the methods adopted by the board and telegraph companies, such instantaneous market quotations become necessary to the successful and safe transaction of business, and until such system has become impressed and affected with a public interest, and then be allowed to discriminate between persons and parties, and, where all alike are willing to conform to reasonable rules and requirements and pay for the information desired, say that one shall and another shall not have such information? If the board has such right, and these corporations are lawfully permitted so to do, then they have the power to create monopolies and dictate who shall deal in the agricultural products of the country, and at will impoverish or enrich merchants, shippers, and producers.

It is vain to say that the ordinary newspaper reports of the state of the market are all that are necessary to legitimate dealers in grain and provisions. The business of the country has outgrown such condition, and this very largely through the methods adopted and introduced by appellees themselves. The fact that fourteen hundred persons, firms, and corporations are in receipt of these instantaneous market reports, and are willing to pay therefor the large fees and charges demanded of them for the receipt of the same, is proof positive that a business advantage is gained by immediate knowledge of the condition of the market. The persistent efforts of the Board of Trade itself to control these market reports are an indication of their estimate of their value.

We do not wish to be understood as holding that the Board of Trade is bound by law to continue the business of collecting and furnishing to the public market quotations, or that it may not voluntarily abandon such business; but we hold

that so long as it continues to carry it on, either directly or indirectly, it must do so without unjust discrimination as to persons, and must furnish market quotations to all who may desire to obtain them for lawful purposes, and upon the same terms.

There is no question involved in this case of gambling contracts, or of so-called "bucket-shops." There is no evidence in the record tending to show that appellant is engaged in a gambling business or dealing in "puts" and "calls," and it is admitted that the business it is doing is not in violation of law.

We think the case made by the bill of complaint and the proofs brings it within the rule announced by the supreme court of the United States in Munn v. People, supra, and in our opinion, it was error in the circuit court to dismiss the bill for want of equity, and error in the appellate court to affirm the decree of dismissal.

The judgment of the appellate court and the decree of the circuit court are reversed, and the cause is remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion, and with leave to both parties to take such further testimony as they may deem advisable.

PUBLIC POLICY. — Under a statute declaring that telegraph companies shall receive dispatches from and for other telegraph lines, and from and for individuals, and transmit them with impartiality and good faith, a contract between a telephone company and the owner of telephone instruments, providing that the company in the use of the instruments shall discriminate as between telegraph companies, is void as against public policy: State v. Telephone Co., 36 Ohio St. 296; 38 Am. Rep. 583, and note 587; to the same affect, substantially, is American etc. Tel. Co. v. Connecticut etc. Tel. Co., 49 Conn. 352; 44 Am. Rep. 237, and note 241–243.

GAGE V. STEwart.

[127 ILLINOIS, 207.]

TAX SALES-RETROSPECTIVE Laws. A statute declaring that hereafter no purchaser at a tax sale shall be entitled to a deed, unless he has complied with certain conditions designated in such statute, applies to sales previously made for which no deed has issued, and for which the landowner yet retains the right of redemption. Such statute is not retrospective, for it relates exclusively to acts to be performed after its passage. Neither is it void as impairing the obligation of a contract. BILL to set aside a cloud upon title arising from certain tax sales and deeds.