Mahlon Pitney

“ And thus the company, at least for the time, devotes its property in part to public uses that are more or less inconsistent with the railroad uses, and under conditions such as to render the railroad operations necessarily a source of danger to the public while enjoying the permitted use. Under such circumstances the state, in the exercise of the police power, may legitimately extend the application of the principle that underlies the maxim, Sic utere tuo ut alienum non loedas, so far as may be requisite for the protection of the public. ”

“ The ordinances now in question must be considered in view not only of the charter and property rights of plaintiff in error, but of the actual situation that has developed and now exists in Goldsboro, with the consent and long acquiescence of plaintiff in error and its predecessors in interest. A town of considerable size and importance has grown up along the line of the railroad. The strip of land 130 feet in width, so far as it is not occupied by the railroad tracks, for many years has been and still is used for the ordinary purposes of a street. ”

“ A belt line has been built around the city, over which through passenger trains and some freight trains are moved, but the use of the old main line for connecting with the other terminals, for shifting cars into industries, and loading tracks along the right of way, and for the passage of certain of its trains, is claimed by plaintiff in error to be still essential to its business. ”

“ But unless excluding fences be established adjacent to the railroad tracks (and this is not proposed nor even suggested as feasible) , it is inevitable that many people, with or without right (children of tender years, among others) , will cross at places other than the street intersections; and a police regulation intended to prevent injuries to persons thus crossing cannot be judicially denounced as arbitrary. ”

“ Of course, if it appear that the regulation under criticism is not in any way designed to promote the health, comfort, safety, or welfare of the community, or that the means employed have no real and substantial relation to the avowed or ostensible purpose, or that there is wanton or arbitrary interference with private rights, the question arises whether the law-making body has exceeded the legitimate bounds of the police power. ”

“ For the purposes of the argument it may be conceded that no person has the right, as against the railroad company, to pass over its tracks except at one of the street intersections; although this may not be entirely clear. ”

“ There remain only the limitation of car shifting and the prohibition of the standing of cars upon East and West Center streets in the four blocks that lie between Spruce and Ash streets, in the heart of the city. ”