David Josiah Brewer

“ If Minnesota can burden the transit with the expense of booming, inspection, or scaling, why may not Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and any other state along whose borders the logs may pass before reaching their destination? ”

“ No one will deny that the one state has as much jurisdiction over the commerce of the river as the other, nor that the jurisdiction of each and both must be and remain subordinate to any action of Congress under the commercial clause of our national Constitution. ”

“ In furtherance of the thought thus expressed the legislature of Minnesota has given the right to boom companies duly incorporated to take possession of the great mass of floating logs coming down a stream, and requires that those logs thus taken possession of shall be inspected and scaled under the supervision of some state official. In that way each individual owner and cutter has a guaranty of safety in respect to his logs, and the general interests are so manifestly subserved that there can be no reasonable doubt of the legislative power of supervision, inspection, and scaling. ”

“ Upon the foregoing facts the plaintiff contends: First. That the boom at the West Newton Slough, through which the logs scaled by the defendant Mullen passed, was not 'any boom . . . chartered by law' within the scope of § 2400 of the Statutes of 1894. This contention cannot be sustained. The words 'chartered by law' are not to be understood as referring simply to corporations incorporated under special acts. A corporation which is organized under a general law is as much 'chartered by law' as one whose organization is provided for by special act. ”

“ Involved in the costs and expenses is the fee for inspection and scaling, as provided by the laws of the state, and the inspector is required to give at the end of each month to the owner or managing agent of the boom a true and correct scale bill for all the services he has rendered. ”

“ The internal commerce of a state that is, the commerce which is wholly confined within its limits is as much under its control as foreign or interstate commerce is under the control of the general government; and, to encourage the growth of this commerce and render it safe, the states may provide for the removal of obstructions from their rivers and harbors, and deepen their channels, and improve them in other ways, if, as is said in Mobile County v. ”

“ The state has a right to improve the waterways within its limits, and to make reasonable charges for the use of such improvements, at least until Congress interferes, and either itself assumes control of the improvements or compels their removal. ”

“ The kinds of business specifically enumerated bear no common analogy to each other except that they are all for pecuniary profit, and of strictly private character as distinguished from those to be carried on by quasi-public corporations authorized to exercise the right of eminent domain. ”

“ In order to develop their greatest utility in that regard, it is often essential that such structures as dams, booms, piers, etc., should be used, which are substantial obstructions to general navigation, and more or less so to rafts and barges. ”

“ As a matter of fact, this corporation was organized some eighteen days before chapter 221 of the Laws of 1889 was passed. Prior to that time there was an act (General Statute Minnesota, 1866, chap. 34, § 1, as amended by chap. 13, Laws Minnesota, 1873) which authorized the formation of corporations for various purposes named, and also 'other lawful business.' Under that statute this corporation was formed. That the business of booming logs on the waters of streams running through the forests of the west is a lawful business cannot be doubted. ”

“ It may enact laws prescribing the manner in which the common right of floatage shall be enjoyed. It may determine what means shall be adopted, and by what agency, to secure results which, in its judgment, are the best and fairest practical compromises of conflicting interests the best attainable good of all concerned. Pound v. Turck, 95 U.S. 459, 24, L. ed. 525; Duluth Lumber Co. v. St. Louis Boom & Improv. Co. 17 Fed. Rep. ”