Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/436

 OCTOBER TERM, 1907. Opinlon o the Court. 20 U.& as that has been done in very recent cases such as the Lotte case, 188 U.S. 321, where it was held that the transportation of lottery ticket was interstate commerce, and as such sub- ject to regulation by act of Congrcm. In that case the Federal act, prohibiting the transmission of lottery tickets, was sus- tained, because of the actual carriage in interstate traffic of the tickets themselves, and in concluding the opinion of the majority of the court Mr. Justice Harlan said (p. 363): "The whole subject is too import.mt, and the questions sug- gested by its consideration are too difficult of solution, to justify any attempt to lay down a rule for determining in ad- vance the validity of every statute that may be enacted under the commerce clause.. We decide nothing more in the present case than that lottery tickets are subjects of traffic among those who choo to sell or buy them; that the carriage of such tickets by independent carriers from one State to another is therefore interstate commerce; that under its power to regu- late commerce among the several States Congress--subject to the limitations imposed by the Constitution upon the ex~ ereise of the powers granted--has plenary authority over such commece and may prohibit the carriage of such tickets from State to State; and that legislation to that end, and of that character, is not inconistent with any limitation or restriction imposed .upon the exercise of 'the powers granted to Congress." And in Leloup v. Mob//e, 127 U. S. 640, it was held that a telegraph company, whose business is the transmission of messages from one State to another, invested with the powers and privileges conferred by Congress, could not be compelled to pay a license tax by the State. And in Pensacola Tde4rraph Co. v. IV Union TeJzph Co., it was heli that inter- state 'telegraphic communications, conducted by companies organized for that purpose, was commerce within the regu- lating power of Congress. The Pensacola case was affirmed in Telegraph Co. v. Texas, 105 U.S. 460, in which case Mr. Chief Justice Waite, speaking for the court, said, p. 464: "A tele- graph company occupies the same relation to commerce as

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