Charles Evans Hughes

“ That has been the law since the beginning of railroad transportation. It was not intended that, pending Federal action, the use of such agencies, which, unless carefully guarded, was fraught with danger to the community, should go unregulated, and that the states should be without authority to secure needed local protection. The requirements of a state, of course, must not be arbitrary, or pass beyond the limits of a fair judgment as to what the exigency demands, but they are not invalid because another state, in the exercise of a similar power, may not impose the same regulation. ”

“ The use of locomotive headlights, however, is directly related to safety in operation. It cannot be denied that the protective power of government, subject to which the carrier conducts its business and manages its property, extends as well to the regulation of this part of the carrier's equipment as to apparatus for heating cars or to automatic couplers. The legislature may require an adequate headlight and whether the carrier's practice is properly conducive to safety, or a new method affording greater protection should be substituted, is a matter for the legislative judgment. ”

“ The statute, as the supreme court of the state said, was not directed against interstate commerce, but it was held that it incidentally applied to locomotives used in hauling interstate trains while these were moving on the main line in the state of Georgia. This being so, the act is said to be repugnant to the exclusive power of Congress. It is argued that if Georgia may prescribe an electric headlight, other states through which the road runs may require headlights of a different sort; that, for example, some may demand the use of acetylene, and that others may require oil ”