Joseph McKenna

“ The question presented by the contentions is not easy of offhand solution, though its elements are easy of declaration. A railroad is private property, and, as such, a rate may be fixed for its use; but it is private property devoted to the public service, and as such it is subject to the power of the state to see and require that the rate fixed be just and reasonable, one that, while it will yield a revenue to the railroad, will be proportioned to that which should be charged to the public. ”

“ They did not discredit what had been announced of either theory or practice; they only removed them from misunderstanding and controversy and declared a principle that assigned to the state a useful power of regulation while it accorded to railroads a reasonable return upon the capital invested and a reward for its enterprise; a principle, therefore, which keeps power and right in proper relation, if we may repeat ourselves, power not exercised in excess, right not used in abuse. ”

“ That of the Railroad Company is that the revenue from traffic to which the rates apply is the test of their legality and any deficiency in them cannot be made up by rates on some other traffic; that of the defendants in error is that the revenue from all of the intrastate business of the Railroad Company is to be taken into account, and if it be sufficient to remunerate the Railroad Company, the particular rates though unremunerative, are nevertheless legal. ”