Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-05-03
ANOTHER PRIVATE" BUSINESS GONE.

The federal supreme court has affirmed the
constrtutionality of the act of congress of 1921 pro.
-viding for the regulation of the activities of packers
and others in the conduct of the livestock business
in and through stockyards. The law was challeng-
ed on the ground that the handling of stock in the
terminal yards did not constitute interstate COM
nerce, hence that congress had no jurisdiction over
it. The court holds that the work Of storing, buy
ing and selling in the yards is a necessary part of
the transfer of animals from state to State in the
process of marketing, and that congress has, there
fore, complete jurisdiction over it, and may not only
provide penalties for conspiracies in restraint of
trade in relation to such handling, but may provide
suitable regulations for the prevention of such con-
spiracies and other unlawful practices.
In this decision, which supplements and ex-
pands others of like character delivered earlier, an
other step is taken in the assertion of the right of
the state to regulate private business in the public
interest, and OF the superior right of the nation
over the separate state where the superior interest
is general rather than local.
We have seen the same tendency in operation
conspicuously in the case of the railroads. 1t took
a long time to establish the fact that the railroad
business is not private business. Railroad men
quite generally insisted on its privacy, and resented
efforts to apply regulatory measures to it. Some
thing of that resentment still crops out, but at any
roads is not now seriously questioned.
Until recently sharp distinctions have been
made IN the transportation business between state
and interstate commerce. The separate states were
jealous OF their prerogadvcS, and insisted on their
right to make regulations for local traffic independ-
ent OF the federal regulations. Recent legislation,
upheld by the highest court, not only declares the
superiority of national over state authority where
the two conflict, but narrows materially the field
within which the states have exclusive jurisdiction.
a similar process is observed in legislation re-
slating to the handling of grain and other agricul-
tural products. "A case decided a few weeks ago
disposed of a conflict between the federal grain
grading law and the North Dakota law on the same
subject. The two were in direct conflict. Both
could not be obeyed. The supreme court held that
wherever conflict existed the federal law must stand
and the state statute goSby the board.
he same principle is now applied to the hand
ling Of livestock. The stockyard, though IL exists
Gin 4 particular place, and is subject to the reasonable
and necessary police regulations Of the state in
which Il IS situated, is nevertheless Il link in the
cham O .interstate commerce. tits therefore subject
to such re equations as congress finds it necessary to
make il order to provide for the free dow Of this
ssrsartictaler element of commerce from place to place.
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