“ Whatever amounts to more or less constant practice, and threatens to obstruct or unduly to burden the freedom of interstate commerce is within the regulatory power of Congress under the commerce clause, and it is primarily for Congress to consider and decide the fact of the danger and meet it. ”

“ When cattle are sent for sale from a place in one state, with the expectation that they will end their transit, after purchase, in another, and when in effect they do so, with only the interruption necessary to find a purchaser at the stockyards, and when this is a typical, constantly recurring course, the current thus existing is a current of commerce among the states, and the purchase of the cattle is a part and incident of such commerce. ”

“ Moreover, it will be noted that even in tax cases where the tax is directed against a commodity in an actual flowing and constant stream out of a state from which the owner may withdraw part of it for use or sale in the state before it reaches the state border, we have held that a tax on the flow is a burden on interstate commerce which the state may not impose because such flow in interstate commerce is an established course of business. ”

“ The stockyards are but a throat through which the current flows, and the transactions which occur therein are only incident to this current from the West to the East, and from one state to another. Such transactions cannot be separated from the movement to which they contribute and necessarily take on its character. The commission men are essential in making the sales, without which the flow of the current would be obstructed, and this, whether they are made to packers or dealers. The dealers are essential to the sales to the stock farmers and feeders. ”

“ A stockyards is defined to be a place conducted for profit as a public market, with pens in which live stock are received and kept for sale or shipment in interstate commerce. Yards with a superficial area less than 20,000 square feet are not within the act. Stockyard owners, commission men, and dealers are recognized and defined, and the two latter are required to register. ”

“ This is not to say that the nation may deal with the internal concerns of the state as such, but that the execution by Congress of its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce is not limited by the fact that intrastate transactions may have become so interwoven therewith that the effective government of the former incidentally controls the latter. ”

“ The object to be secured by the act is the free and unburdened flow of live stock from the ranges and farms of the West and the Southwest through the great stockyards and slaughtering centers on the borders of that region, and thence in the form of meat products to the consuming cities of the country in the Middle West and East, or, still, as live stock, to the feeding places and fattening farms in the Middle West or East for further preparation for the market. ”

“ Congress gives to the Secretary of Agriculture in respect to intrastate transactions that affect prejudicially interstate commerce under his protection, the same powers given to the Interstate Commerce Commission in respect to intrastate commerce which affects prejudicially interstate railroad commerce in paragraph 4, section 13, as amended in section 416 of the Transportation Act of 1920. ”

“ In each bill the averments are sufficient, if the act be invalid, to show equitable grounds for injunction in the severe penalties incurred for failure to comply with the act before opportunity can be given to test its validity. ”

“ United States, 171 U.S. 604, the defendants were buyers and sellers at the stockyards, but their agreement was merely not to employ brokers, or to recognize yard traders, who were not members of their association. Any yard trader could become a member of the association on complying with the conditions, and there was said to be no feature of monopoly in the case. It was held that the combination did not directly regulate commerce between the states, and, being formed with a different intent, was not within the act. The present case is more like Montague & Co. ”

“ The stockyards are not a place of rest or final destination. Thousands of head of live stock arrive daily by carload and trainload lots, and must be promptly sold and disposed of and moved out, to give place to the constantly flowing traffic that presses behind. ”

“ The constituent elements, as we have stated them, are enough to give to the scheme a body and, for all that we can say, to accomplish it. * * * It is suggested that the several acts charged are lawful and that intent can make no difference. But they are bound to gether as the parts of a single plan. ”

“ It assumes that they conduct a business affected by a public use of a national character and subject to national regulation. That it is a business within the power of regulation by legislative action needs no discussion. That has been settled since the case of Munn v. Illinois, 94 U.S. 113, 24 L. Ed. 77. Nor is there any doubt that in the receipt of live stock by rail and in their delivery by rail the stockyards are an interstate commerce agency. ”