Opinion
1921.
The main features of a bill pending before the General Court, entitled "A bill to promote the conservation, development and utilization of the water resources within the Commonwealth," provided for the organization of a corporation by three or more owners or lessees of a water mill or dam upon any run or waterway within the Commonwealth for the acquisition, construction and operation of storage reservoirs on such river or waterway in order to regulate its flow and increase its usefulness; that all such owners and lessees on such river or waterway, but no one else, were permitted, although not required, to become stockholders, that shares of stock could be transferred only to successors in title of the incorporators to the water privileges; that plans for the carrying out of the enterprise of acquiring and constructing reservoirs must be submitted to the department of public works, without whose approval the project could not go forward; that, following a public hearing, of which a prescribed notice to interested parties must be given, the department of public works might authorize the corporation to take, under the provisions of existing statutes relating to eminent domain, such lands or rights as were necessary for the construction of the reservoirs; that the operation of the reservoirs should be subject to the supervision of the department of public works and must be such as to maintain as nearly as is practicable a uniform flow of the stream for the greatest common advantage of the owners and lessees of the water mills and dams thereon; that the corporation, subject to the approval of the department of public works, should have authority to make agreements as to tolls with the owners and lessees of water mills and dams on the stream and to lease or make other disposition of the water-power its reservoirs developed, except that it should not engage in the generation of electricity; that, after ten years from the incorporation, the Commonwealth should have the right to take or to purchase all or any part of the corporate property on payment "of the fair value thereof for the purpose of its use." The justices of this court, in response to an order of the Senate relating to the proposed legislation, expressed as their opinions that
(1) The uses for which property might be taken by eminent domain under the provisions of the bill were public uses within the meaning of art. 49 of the Amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth;
(2) It is constitutionally competent under art. 49 of Amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth for the General Court to restrict the participation in the benefits to be derived from the taking by eminent domain provided for in the bill to particular persons or corporations as therein specified;
(3) Under art. 49 of the Amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth, it is not constitutionally essential that the public generally, without discrimination, should be entitled to participation in the benefits to be derived from the taking by eminent domain proceedings of property for the public uses specified in the bill;
(4) Certain provisions of the bill, while not as clear and certain in their terms as might be desired, did not for that reason render the bill invalid;
(5) It was assumed that certain imperfections in the bill, contained in obviously inaccurate statutory references, would be corrected before re-enactment, and they were not considered as bearing upon the constitutionality of the measure;
(6) No essential part of the bill would violate any provision either of the Constitution of this Commonwealth or of that of the United States.
THE following order was passed by the Senate on April 6, 1921, and was transmitted to the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court on April 11, 1921.
WHEREAS, There is pending before the General Court a bill, printed as House, No. 762, entitled "An Act to promote the conservation, development and utilization of the water resources within the Commonwealth," and
WHEREAS, Grave doubt exists as to the constitutionality of the said bill if enacted into law; therefore be it
ORDERED, That the Senate require the opinions of the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court on the following important questions of law: —
(1) Are the uses for which property may be taken by eminent domain under the provisions of said bill public uses within the meaning of the Constitution of the Commonwealth?
(2) Having authorized the taking of property by eminent domain, as provided in said bill, is it constitutionally competent for the General Court to restrict the participation in the benefits to be derived from such taking to particular persons or corporations?
(3) Is it constitutionally essential that where property is taken for a public use by eminent domain proceedings, the public generally, without discrimination, shall be entitled to participate in the benefits to be derived from such taking?
(4) If enacted into law, would said bill be in any respect unconstitutional?
The bill, to which the order referred, was as follows:
An Act to promote the Conservation, Development and Utilization of the Water Resources within the Commonwealth.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
SECTION 1. In this act, unless the context otherwise requires, "department" means the department of public works, and "river" means and includes any river or waterways within the Commonwealth and that part of all other rivers or waterways within the Commonwealth through which the waters of such river or waterway flow to the sea, whether such rivers or waterways be navigable or non-navigable. "Owner" means owner or lessee of a water mill or dam located within the Commonwealth. "The corporation" or "corporation" means any improvement company organized under the provisions of this act.
SECTION 2. Owners of water mills or dams on any river may, subject to the provisions of this act, organize themselves as a corporation for the purpose of regulating the flow and increasing the usefulness of such river by acquiring, constructing and operating storage reservoirs in and along said river within the Commonwealth.
SECTION 3. Upon the written application of three or more owners on any river in the Commonwealth to a justice of the peace, stating that they intend to organize a corporation under the provisions of this act, and the names of all owners on said river known to the applicants, he shall issue his warrant to one of the applicants directing him to call a meeting, to be held within the Commonwealth, of all said owners on said river and expressing in the warrant the time, place and purpose of the meeting. The meeting shall be called by publishing a notice containing the substance of the warrant, signed by the person to whom the warrant is directed, in a newspaper published in each county through which said river flows, once each week for three successive weeks prior to the meeting, and by mailing a copy thereof, by registered mail, fourteen days at least before the meeting to the owners named in said application. All meetings of the corporation shall be held within the Commonwealth.
SECTION 4. At such meeting, by vote of a majority in number of all owners of water mills or of dams located on said river, each water mill and each dam involved being entitled to a single representative, and a majority in interest of all said owners, said interest being measured in gross developed hydraulic horsepower of the respective developments, said owners may organize themselves as a corporation under the provisions of this act and the corporate name assumed shall contain the words "improvement company" at the end thereof. The organization shall be effected and certified to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and he shall issue his certificate of incorporation in the manner, set forth in, and subject to, the provisions of sections nine and ten of chapter seven hundred and forty-two of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and fourteen. Said corporation shall be in all other respects subject to the first ninety-one sections of said chapter, so far as the same may be applicable and not inconsistent herewith, but the approval of the issue of stock and bonds by said corporation shall vest in the department and said corporation may issue bonds to such amount in excess of the amount of its capital stock actually paid in at the time of such issue as the department may authorize. Any corporation which is an owner on said river, if authorized by vote of its stockholders so to do, may be represented at and participate in said meeting, and may acquire and hold shares in such improvement company.
SECTION 5. The owners participating in such first meeting for organization shall hold the franchise until the organization has been completed, but all owners on said river shall be entitled to take shares of the original capital stock authorized at said first meeting or any additional issue in proportion to their respective interests as defined in the preceding section or, in case of dispute, as determined by the department. Shares in said improvement company shall be transferable only to successors in title to said owners, and only upon approval of the department after a hearing thereon, and this restriction shall be so expressed on the certificates thereof.
SECTION 6. Before acquiring or constructing any storage reservoir, or incurring any obligations in connection therewith, other than for preliminary expenses, surveys and reports, the corporation shall file with the department plans and a statement of the cost of any reservoir to be acquired, and plans and specifications of any reservoir to be constructed, showing in detail the manner in which such reservoir is to be constructed and its estimated capacity and cost, and such other engineering and financial data as the department may require. The department after such notice as it may order, and a public hearing, shall consider the project in its relation to the public interest, and the interests of all owners of shares in the corporation whose dams or water mills are included in any plan submitted; and shall itself estimate the cost of each such reservoir and the advantages to accrue therefrom, and shall approve or disapprove the acquisition or construction thereof. If the department shall approve the acquisition or construction of any such reservoir, it shall by order authorize the acquisition or construction of the same in accordance with the plans and specifications as originally filed, or as the same may be amended by the department after notice and a public hearing. Such plans and specifications may thereafter during the progress of the work be modified by the corporation with the approval of the department after like hearing, notice and approval of owners as hereinbefore provided. The order of the department authorizing the acquisition or construction of such reservoir shall become void unless such reservoir shall be acquired or constructed within two years after the date of such order or within such further time as the department may determine, after such hearing, notice and approval.
SECTION 7. Upon petition of the corporation alleging that it is unable to acquire by purchase lands or rights described in said petition necessary for the construction of a storage reservoir authorized by the department and setting forth the name or names of the owner or owners of said lands or rights so far as known to the petitioner, the department may by order authorize the corporation to take such lands or rights by eminent domain in the manner provided by section one hundred and eighty-seven of chapter two hundred and fifty-seven of General Acts of the year nineteen hundred and eighteen.
Before authorizing such taking a public hearing shall be held, of which notice shall be served upon the owner or owners mentioned in said petition at least fourteen days before the hearing in the manner provided for the service of writs returnable to the Superior Court, and by such publication as the department may order. The department may require the corporation to give such security as the department may deem adequate for the payment of damages resulting from the taking. Nothing in this section shall authorize a corporation organized hereunder to take or injure a public water supply and the state department of health shall be notified of all hearings of petitions under this section.
SECTION 8. The provisions of chapter one hundred and ninety-six of the Revised Laws, and acts in amendment thereof and in addition thereto, shall apply to the flowage of lands of other persons by any dam constructed under the provisions of this act, save as is herein otherwise provided.
SECTION 9. The corporation shall so operate its reservoirs as to maintain as nearly a uniform flow of water at all times in said river as is practicable by storing surplus water in times of great supply, and discharging the same in times of drought and scarcity, in such manner as shall be for the greatest common advantage to the owners on said river. The operation of any storage reservoir shall be subject to the supervision of the department, which upon the petition of any interested party may from time to time by order direct the manner of operating the same, including the times when and the amounts of water which shall pass through the gates of any dam of the corporation. The corporation shall maintain in connection with its reservoir such weirs, gauges and other instruments, conveniently located and open to the inspection of the department, as shall indicate with substantial accuracy the amount of water which passes the gates of each reservoir and shall keep such record of rainfall, stream flow and storage facilities as may be approved from time to time by the department. The department may determine the height to which water may be raised by any dam or other structure erected or maintained by the corporation, and such height shall be indicated by permanent bench marks. Nothing in this act shall authorize the corporation to interfere with the normal flow of the river and nothing contained in this act shall be construed to limit the legal liability of the corporation for any damage caused to any owner in the establishment or operation of any reservoirs of the corporation.
SECTION 10. No storage reservoir constructed under the provisions of this act shall be abandoned or alienated by a corporation, except by permission of the department and subject to such conditions as it shall impose, after such notice as the department may order and a public hearing thereon.
SECTION 11. When the corporation has been organized it may, from time to time, subject to the approval of the department, make agreements relative to the payment of tolls by owners of water mills or dams on said river.
SECTION 12. A corporation organized under the provisions of this act may make such lease or other disposition of the water power created by any reservoir dam owned by it as the department after public hearing may approve: provided, however, that in no event shall the corporation itself engage in the generation of electricity.
SECTION 13. At any time after ten years from the date of its certificate of incorporation the Commonwealth shall have the right to take or purchase the whole or any part of the franchise, corporate property and all rights and privileges of said corporation on payment to said corporation of the fair value thereof for the purpose of its use; but if a part only of such franchise, corporate property, rights and privileges is so taken or purchased, there shall be added thereto the damages, if any, caused by its severance from the remainder of such franchise, corporate property, rights and privileges. In case the Commonwealth shall desire to exercise its rights hereunder and shall be unable to agree upon said fair value, the Supreme Judicial Court shall have jurisdiction in equity to ascertain and fix said fair value, and to enforce the right of the Commonwealth to the title and possession of said franchise, property rights and privileges upon payment thereof to the corporation as determined by the court.
SECTION 14. The corporation shall annually on or before the first day of February make a report to the department in a form prescribed by it for the preceding calendar year signed and sworn to by its president and treasurer and a majority of the directors. Such report shall contain in such detail as the department may prescribe full information with respect to its financial and physical operations and condition, and shall at all times furnish any information required by the department or its duly authorized employees. The corporation shall keep such records of the operation of its plant as the department may from time to time require. The department shall have free access for its members or duly authorized employees at any and all reasonable times to all the property, books, records, contracts, documents, papers and memoranda of said corporation.
SECTION 15. If within three years from the passage of this act the owners of the water mills and dams on any river shall have failed to acquire or develop storage reservoirs thereon, the department may devise projects and prepare plans and specifications and obtain estimates for regulating the flow and increasing the usefulness of such river. At such time or times during the preparation thereof, as the department may deem best, it shall give public hearings to the owners of water mills and dams on said river and to all other persons interested after such notice as the department may require, and upon the completion thereof it shall recommend to the parties in interest that they forthwith proceed with the projects so devised in accordance with the provisions of this act. In case of their failure to act within two years of the department's recommendation, the department shall submit the same to the next general court with such recommendations as it may deem proper.
SECTION 16. In furtherance of the purposes of this act the department may confer and advise with officials, boards and commissions of the Commonwealth, of the United States, and of States within the limits of which any of the rivers defined in section one rises or flows, or in which rivers and water resources exist capable of furnishing power to the industries of the Commonwealth, and may appear to be represented at hearings before legislative committees or officials, boards or commissions of the United States or other States relative to matters affecting the water resources or power available to the industries of the Commonwealth.
On April 26, 1921, the Justices returned to the Senate the following answers to the questions propounded in the order:
To the Honorable the Senate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:
The Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court respectfully submit these answers to the questions set forth in the order of April 6, 1921, copy whereof is hereto annexed.
The general purpose of the pending bill, with reference to which the questions are put, is fairly stated in its title to be "To promote the conservation, development and utilization of the water resources within the Commonwealth." The means by which that general purpose is to be effectuated in any particular instance is, as set forth in the bill, the organization of a corporation, by three or more owners or lessees of a water mill or dam upon any river or waterway within the Commonwealth, for the acquisition, construction and operation of storage reservoirs on such river or waterway in order to regulate its flow and increase its usefulness. All such owners or lessees are permitted although not required to become incorporators, stockholders are confined to such owners and lessees, and shares of stock can be transferred only to successors in title to the water privileges of incorporators. Plans for acquiring and constructing reservoirs, together with estimates of cost and other financial and engineering data must be submitted to the department of public works, which shall consider the project in relation to the public interests and the interests of shareholders. It is only when approved by the department that the project may go forward.
The taking of property by eminent domain by such corporation for the construction of a storage reservoir may be authorized by the department of public works, and manifestly is within the intendment of the bill. Operation of the reservoirs is required so as to maintain as nearly as is practicable a uniform flow of the stream for the greatest common advantage of the owners of water mills or dams thereon. Authority is conferred upon such corporations to make agreements as to tolls with the owners of water mills or dams on such stream and to lease or make other disposition of the water power developed by any reservoir dam subject to the approval of the department. The right is reserved to the Commonwealth to take or to purchase, after ten years from the incorporation, all or any part of the corporate property at a fair valuation. Such corporation may not engage in the generation of electricity and most of its important functions are subject to the control or supervision of the department of public works. There are in the bill other provisions ancillary to its main features, which need not be recited in detail.
It seems clear from this outline of the provisions of the bill that its main design is to benefit those, so far as they choose to avail themselves of the facilities thereby afforded, who may be or who may hereafter become owners or lessees of dams and mills operated in whole or in part by water power within the Commonwealth, and those who may be able to make profitable use of water power generated from the reservoirs acquired or built by corporations organized under the act. These benefits are to be conferred by the purchase of existing or the construction of new reservoirs for the impounding of flood or other water not producing power directed to industrial uses, so that it may be released during times of low water and thus the flow of the stream at all seasons be equalized and stabilized. The power of eminent domain may be exercised for the construction of reservoirs for this purpose.
The bill apparently is framed in execution of power created by art. 49 of the Amendments to the Constitution ratified and adopted by the people on November 5, 1918. That article so far as material to the present inquiry declares that "The conservation, development and utilization of the . . . water . . . resources" of the Commonwealth are "public uses" and confers upon the General Court "power to provide for the taking, upon payment of just compensation therefor, of lands and easements or interests therein, including water and mineral rights, for the purpose of securing and promoting the proper conservation, development, utilization and control thereof and to enact legislation necessary or expedient therefor." That article establishes a principle of government. It must be interpreted in harmony with the other parts of the Constitution so as to make the whole a consistent frame of government. It must also be given such scope as to render it practically workable toward the accomplishment of those objects to which it appears to be directed. According to its terms, the property rights of the individual must yield under the mandate of the General Court to the enterprise of those interested in the development of water resources. The people have declared the conservation, development, utilization and control of water resources to be a public use to which all private uses must bend. The adoption of rational means for the furtherance of this end rests with the General Court.
It is apparent from the debates in the convention which proposed the amendment, that one of its aims was to set at rest the question whether the construction of dams for the development of water power for the advantage of privately owned water mills could be regarded as a public use. Whatever may have been the law concerning that subject hitherto, the amendment in unequivocal phrase makes that now a public use. It is unnecessary to review the history of our statutes and decisions concerning the mill acts and similar statutes to determine the state of constitutional law apart from the amendment. The words of the amendment in this respect are not open to doubt.
It must be presumed that the convention proposed and the people approved and ratified the Forty-ninth Amendment with reference to the practical affairs of mankind and not as a mere theoretical announcement. The development and utilization of water for power imports of necessity that water shall be impounded and suffered to flow, with considerable regularity, under an adequate head, upon a water, wheel. The science of hydraulics imposes imperative limitations as to the place and amount of power to be developed from any watershed or on any stream within the Commonwealth. Participation in the benefits of such development is inevitably restricted to comparatively few by the laws of nature concerning water power as at present understood. The development of water power always has been recognized as having peculiar features and limitations. The water course as it flows from its source to the sea affords opportunities for harnessing its current to the uses of man at every fall economically capable of being utilized by the erection of a dam. At every such fall a new potentiality arises for the production of power. The force of the water may be put to work again and again. The conservation of water as a natural resource must be inferred to have been declared in the amendment to be a public use with reference to the industrial situation existing in the Commonwealth at the time of its adoption and ratification as well as to that of the future. It is common knowledge that a large part of the head and fall on many streams in the Commonwealth is already put to use in driving the machinery of mills highly diversified in variety of product. If storage reservoirs are to be built on the upper reaches of such streams, the practicable employment of the water thus stored is by increasing the energy already developed by the appliances at such existing mills. This situation implies that the general public except as represented by the owners of such mills cannot share in the benefits of such new utilization of water resources.
A rational inference from the words of the amendment and the debate concerning it in the convention is that it is based on the thought that the economic value of the unused Massachusetts water power, limited as it is in quantity and ease of employment, cannot be realized without the interposition of some form of governmental aid and that the general welfare thus to be subserved is paramount to any private interest. It is a general principle of constitutional law that ordinarily private property can be taken only for a governmental use, the enjoyment and advantage of which is open on equal terms to the public. This is true as to water, light, transportation companies and other corporations privately owned but affected with a public interest and ordinarily given the right to exercise eminent domain. Public use implies public service. There must be a direct and immediate relation between the appropriation of private property and the public enjoyment. The circumstances may be such that only a small portion of the inhabitants may participate in the benefits of the enterprise. But the use or service must be of such character that in its essence it affects them as a community and not merely as individuals. Lowell v. Boston, 111 Mass. 454, 470. Opinions of the Justices, 204 Mass. 607; 211 Mass. 624. Salisbury Land Improvement Co. v. Commonwealth, 215 Mass. 371. Riverbank Improvement Co. v. Chadwick, 228 Mass. 242. Opinion of the Justices, 118 Maine, 503, 514, 515. See Budd v. New York, 143 U.S. 517, 549. As to water power the amendment has created an exception for the accomplishment of what is regarded as a public advantage not otherwise susceptible of being achieved even though the public has no direct use from the property taken. The general public cannot share in the use of water power development in the sense in which they share in the use of streets, ways, water supply, police and fire protection, railroads, harbor improvements and other functions of government as commonly understood. The public can enjoy water power development only through the general enlargement of manufacturing facilities, through the saving of labor and the conservation of coal and other fuels, and in other kindred ways. The people by the amendment have decided that this is a public use, for which the forces of the government may be invoked.
The provision as to damages to the private owner, whose land may be taken from him, provided in § 7 of the bill, is constitutional. Old Colony Railroad v. Framingham Water Co. 153 Mass. 561. Whitman v. Nantucket, 169 Mass. 147. So far as concerns property or rights not taken but damaged by operations under the bill, the provisions of § 7 in conjunction with those of § 9 are not as clear and certain in their terms as might be desired. It is difficult in advance to foresee all the kinds of injury which may be wrought under the bill. But we incline to say that in this respect the bill is not invalid. Saltonstall v. New York Central Railroad, ante, 391.
The bill in several sections refers to statutes which have been repealed by c. 282 of the General Laws because embodied in that compilation. This point as bearing on the constitutionality of the bill is not considered, because we assume that if the bill is enacted it previously will be perfected in these particulars.
We have not been able to perceive in the time at our disposal that any essential part of the bill violates any provision of the Constitution of this Commonwealth.
We are of opinion that the bill will not be held by the Supreme Court of the United States to contravene any provision of the Federal Constitution. There are expressions in some judgments of that court which standing alone might well be thought to be incompatible with the constitutionality of the bill. For example, it was said in Kaukauna Water Power Co. v. Green Bay Mississippi Canal Co. 142 U.S. 254, at page 273, that "it is probably true that it is beyond the competency of the State to appropriate to itself the property of individuals for the sole purpose of creating a water power to be leased for manufacturing purposes. This would be a case of taking the property of one man for the benefit of another, which is not a constitutional exercise of the right of eminent domain." It also has been stated: "It is fundamental in American jurisprudence that private property cannot be taken by the Government, National or State, except for purposes which are of a public character, although such taking be accompanied by compensation to the owner. That principle, this court has said, grows out of the essential nature of all free governments." Madisonville Traction Co. v. Saint Bernard Mining Co. 196 U.S. 239, 251. Similar statements are to be found in Missouri Pacific Railway v. Nebraska, 164 U.S. 403, and Hairston v. Danville Western Railway, 208 U.S. 598, 606. See also Opinion of the Justices, 118 Maine, 503; Helena Power Transmission Co. v. Spratt, 35 Mont. 108; Lucas v. Ashland Light, Mill Power Co. 92 Neb. 550; Minnesota Canal Power Co. v. Koochiching Co. 97 Minn. 429.
On the other hand, in numerous States the taking of private property by eminent domain under the mill acts has been held to be a public use apart from any such constitutional provision as is found in art. 49 of the amendments. Brown v. Gerald, 100 Maine, 351. Connecticut College v. Calvert, 87 Conn. 421. Rockingham County Light Power Co. v. Hobbs, 72 N.H. 531. Raystown Water Power Co. v. Brumbaugh, 246 Penn. St. 225. Burnham v. Thompson, 35 Iowa, 421. Sexauer v. Star Milling Co. 173 Ind. 342. Scudder v. Trenton Delaware Falls Co. Saxton, 694. Harding v. Funk, 8 Kans. 315. Miller v. Troost, 14 Minn. 365. Johnson v. Centerville Milling Co. 37 So. Dak. 1. Fisher v. Horicon Iron Manuf. Co. 10 Wis. 351. There are intimations to the same effect in some of our earlier decisions. See, for a review of them, Lowell v. Boston, 111 Mass. 454, 464-467; Turner v. Nye, 154 Mass. 579; Otis Co. v. Ludlow Manuf. Co. 186 Mass. 89; Duncan v. New England Power Co. 225 Mass. 155. In Holyoke Co. v. Lyman, 15 Wall. 500, it was said at pages 522, 523, by way of argument, "the enterprise of erecting a dam to create power to operate mills is so far public in its nature that it is competent for the Legislature to exercise the power of eminent domain to accomplish the purpose, if suitable provision is made to compensate the owners of the property or rights condemned under that power." See, however, Head v. Amoskeag Manuf. Co. 113 U.S. 9, 21.
The people of this Commonwealth have declared by the Forty-ninth Amendment that the development of water power such as is authorized by the bill is a public use. The tendency of recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States has been to accept as true in its application to local conditions a constitutional declaration of a State to the effect that a given expropriation of private property is to a public use. Fallbrook Irrigation District v. Bradley, 164 U.S. 112. Wurts v. Hoagland, 114 U.S. 606. Clark v. Nash, 198 U.S. 361. Strickley v. Highland Boy Gold Mining Co. 200 U.S. 527. O'Neill v. Leamer, 239 U.S. 244, 253. Houck v. Little River Drainage District, 239 U.S. 254. Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Co. v. Alabama Interstate Power Co. 240 U.S. 30. Jones v. Portland, 245 U.S. 217. Green v. Frazier, 253 U.S. 233. Walls v. Midland Carbon Co. 254 U.S. 300. Block v. Hirsh, decided by the United States Supreme Court on April 18, 1921. Under all these circumstances, in the light of the decisions just cited, we are of opinion that the Supreme Court of the United States would be likely to uphold the bill if enacted into law as not violative of any provision of the Constitution of the United States.
Therefore, confining ourselves strictly to the proposed bill, we answer questions one and two in the affirmative, and questions three and four in the negative.
ARTHUR P. RUGG. HENRY K. BRALEY. CHARLES A. De COURCY. JOHN C. CROSBY. EDWARD P. PIERCE. JAMES B. CARROLL. CHARLES F. JENNEY.