Edward Douglass White

“ The mere delegation to the secretary of the right to determine whether a structure authorized by law has been so built as to impede commerce, and to direct, when reasonably necessary, its modification so as to remove such impediment, does not confer upon that officer power to give original authority to build bridges, nor does it presuppose that congress conceived that it was lodging in the secretary power to that end. ”

“ Conceding, without deciding, that the words 'waterways of the United States,' therein used, apply to all navigable waters, even though they be wholly situated within a state, and passing, also, without deciding, the contention that congress can lawfully delegate to the secretary of war all its power to authorize structures of every kind over all navigable waters, nothing in the statute gives rise even to the implication that it was intended to confer such power on the secretary of war. ”

“ Indeed, the argument at bar does not assail the rule settled by the foregoing cases, but asserts that, as the power which it recognizes as existing in the states is predicated solely upon the failure of congress to exert its paramount authority, therefore the rule no longer obtains, since the act of 1890, relied on, substantially amounts to an express assumption by congress of entire control over all and every navigable stream, whether or not situated wholly within a state. ”