without due process of law; that, when private property is devoted to a public use, it was subject to public regulation; that Munn and Scott, in conducting the business of their warehouse, pursued a public employment, and exercised a sort of public office, in the same sense as did a common carrier, miller, ferryman, innkeeper, wharfinger, baker, cartman, or hackneying coachman; that they stood in the very gateway of commerce, and took toll from all who passed; that their business tended ‘to a common charge,’ and had become a thing of public interest and use; that the toll on the grain was a common charge, and that, according to Lord Chief Justice Har, every warehouseman ought to be under a public regulation, viz., that he take but reasonable toll;’ that there was no attempt to compel the owners of the warehouses to grant the public an interest in their property, but to declare their obligations, if they used it in that particular manner; that it mattered not that Munn and Scott had built their warehouses and established their business before the regulations complained of were adopted; that, the property being clothed with a public interest, what was reasonable compensation for its use was not a judicial, but a legislative, question. The final conclusion of the court was that the act of Illinois was not repugnant to the constitution of the United States, and the judgment was affirmed.” The court quoted extracts from the cases cited below, showing conclusively that the precedent made in Munn v. Illinois had been firmly adhered to, and its doctrines frequently applied, by the supreme court of the United States in later cases: Sinking Fund Cases, 99 U. S. 700, 747; Water Works v. Schottler, 110 U. S. 347, 354, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 48; Wabash, St. L. & P. Ry. Co. v. People, 118 U. S. 557, 569, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 4; Dow v. Beidelman, 125 U. S. 680, 686, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1028; Railroad Co. v. Minnesota, 134 U.S. 418, 461, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 462. To show that the doctrine of Munn v. People had frequently been applied by the state courts, the following cases are cited by the supreme court of the United States in its late opinion: Lake Shore, etc., Ry. Co. v. Cincinnati, S. & C. Ry. Co., 30 Ohio St. 604; State v. Gas Co., 34 Ohio St. 572; Ruggles v. People, 91 IL 256; Davis v. State, 68 Ala. 58; Baker v. State, 54 Wis. 368, 12 N. W. Rep.
