John Hessin Clarke

“ Of the contention that if an ordinance passed in 1915 by the village, repealing the ordinance of 1889, were given effect it would result in impairing the obligation of the contract, it is enough to say that it first appears in a supplemental answer filed in the court of appeals, and the case, as we have seen, was disposed of on the assumption that all of the allegations of the petition were sustained by the evidence. ”

“ We cannot doubt that the danger to life and property from wires carrying high tension electric current through village streets is so great that the subject is a proper one for regulation by the exercise of the police power and very certainly the authorities of the municipality immediately interested in the safety and welfare of its citizens are a proper agency to have charge of such regulation. ”

“ This act was a general one, applicable to all electric lighting companies then operating, or which might thereafter operate, in the state, and all that it did was to give to the municipal authorities complete control over the placing in the streets of poles and wires for conducting electricity for lighting and power purposes, instead of the like control which they had when the franchise was granted, but subject to resort to the probate court in case of disagreement with the company as to the 'mode' of using the streets. ”