Page:Earle, Does Price Fixing Destroy Liberty, 1920, 056.jpg

56 more reasons could be given, and be discussed in detail, but in a matter so plain, a general statement is deemed sufficient.

The subject is simplified, however, by understanding certain fundamental conceptions of our law. In the first place, it has been settled for centuries, and in accordance with sound reasoning, that property really consists in the free enjoyment of its fruits. Lord Chief Justice Coke gives many illustrations of this primary principle. For example, this idea is so paramount that, as he points out: "If a man seised of lands in fee by his deed granteth to another the profit of those lands, to have and to hold to him and his heires, and maketh livery secundum forman chartae, the whole land itselfe doth passe; for what is the land but the profits thereof."

This, of course, being founded upon reason, remains our law today. Mr. Justice Clarke, delivering the opinion in Branson vs. Bush, says: "But the value of property results from the use to which it is put, and varies with the profitableness of that use, present and prospective, actual and anticipated. There is no pecuniary value outside of that which results from such use.  The amount and profitable character of such use determines the value."

It is, of course, therefore, just as unconstitutional to take any part of the profits as it is to take any part of the commodity without just compensation. Upon this subject the Supreme Court, in treating of legislation providing that one man's property should be vested in another private person, says: It "would,