Opinion of the Court.

conduct of carriers while within its jurisdiction, the confusion likely to follow could not but be productive of great inconvenience and unnecessary hardship. Each State could provide for its own passengers and regulate the transportation of its own freight, regardless of the interests of others. Nay more, it could prescribe rules by which the carrier must be governed within the State in respect to passengers and property brought from without. On one side of the river or its tributaries he might be required to observe one set of rules, and on the other another. Commerce cannot flourish in the midst of such embarrassments. No carrier of passengers can conduct his business with satisfaction to himself, or comfort to those employing him, if on one side of a state line his passengers, both white and colored, must be permitted to occupy the same cabin, and on the other be kept separate. Uniformity in the regulations by which he is to be governed from one end to the other of his route is a necessity in the business, and to secure it Congress, which is untrammelled by state lines, has been invested with the exclusive legislative power of determining what such regulations shall be."

It is seen from this reasoning that the foundation for holding the act void was that it necessarily affected the conduct of the carrier and regulated him in the performance of his duties outside and beyond the limits of the State enacting the law. A provision for the delivery of telegraphic messages arriving at a station within the State is not of the same nature as that statute and would have no such effect upon the conduct of the telegraph company with regard to the performance of its duties outside the State.

In Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Pendleton, 122 U. S. 347, 358, the State of Indiana required telegraph companies to deliver dispatches by messenger to the persons to whom the same were addressed, or to their agents, provided they resided within one mile of the telegraph company's station within the city or town within which such station was. That statute was held to conflict with the clause of the Constitution of the United States which vests in Congress power to regulate commerce among the States in so far as it attempted

Opinion of the Court.

to regulate the delivery of such dispatches to places situate in other States, and it was said that the reserved police power of the State under the Constitution, although difficult to define, did not extend to the regulation of the delivery at points without the State of telegraphic messages received within the State. In that case the action was brought by Pendleton to recover of the telegraph company the penalty of $100, prescribed by statute for failing to deliver at Ottumwa, in the State of Iowa, a message received by the company in Indiana for transmission to that place. The action was brought in the State of Indiana and it was held that it was an attempt on the part of that State to enforce its own statute outside and beyond the territorial limits of the State. The object of vesting the power to regulate commerce in Congress, it was said by Mr. Justice Field speaking for the court in that case, was "to secure with reference to its subjects uniform regulations where such uniformity was practicable against conflicting state legislation. Such conflicting legislation would inevitably follow with reference to telegraphic communications between citizens of different States if each State was vested with power to control them beyond its own limits. The manner and order of the delivery of telegrams, as well as their transmission, would vary according to the judgment of each State." "Whatever authority the State may possess over the transmission and delivery of messages by telegraph companies within her limits, it does not extend to the delivery of messages in other States."

regu

In Telegraph Co. v. Texas, 105 U. S. 460, it was held that a telegraph company in respect to its foreign and interstate business was an instrument of commerce subject to the lating powers of Congress, and that state laws, so far as they imposed upon it a specific tax upon each message which it transmitted beyond the State, or which an officer of the United States sent over its lines on public business, were unconstitutional.

With this brief reference to some of the cases that have been decided in this court respecting the commerce clause in the Constitution, the question arises, which of the classes spoken

Opinion of the Court.

of in Covington &c. Bridge Co. v. Kentucky, 154 U. S. supra, 204, includes the statute under review? Is it a mere police regulation, that but incidentally affects commerce, such as Smith v. Alabama, 124 U. S. 465, and which, at any rate, would be valid until Congress should legislate upon the subject; or is it of such a nature, so extensive and national in character, that it could only be dealt with by Congress? We do not think it is the latter. It is not at all similar in its nature to the case above cited of Hall v. De Cuir, 95 U. S. 485. In one sense it affects the transmission of interstate messages, because such transmission is not completed until the message is delivered to the person to whom it is addressed, or reasonable diligence employed to deliver it. But the statute can be fully carried out and obeyed without in any manner affecting the conduct of the company with regard to the performance of its duties in other States. It would not unfavorably affect or embarrass it in the course of its employment, and hence until Congress speaks upon the subject it would seem that such a statute must be valid. It is the duty of a telegraph company which receives a message for transmission, directed to an individual at one of its stations, to deliver that message to the person to whom it is addressed, with reasonable diligence and in good faith. That is a part of its contract, implied by taking the message and receiving payment therefor.

The statute in question is of a nature that is in aid of the performance of a duty of the company that would exist in the absence of any such statute, and it is in nowise obstructive of its duty as a telegraph company. It imposes a penalty for the purpose of enforcing this general duty of the company. The direction that the delivery of the message shall be made with impartiality and in good faith and with due diligence is not an addition to the duty which it would owe in the absence of such a statute. Can it be said that the imposition of a penalty for the violation of a duty which the company owed by the general law of the land is a regulation of or an obstruction to interstate commerce within the meaning of that clause of the Federal Constitution under discussion? We think not. No tax is laid upon any interstate message, nor is there any

Opinion of the Court.

regulation of a nature calculated to at all embarrass, obstruct or impede the company in the full and fair performance of its duty as an interstate sender of messages. We see no reason to fear any weakening of the protection of the constitutional provision as to commerce among the several States by holding that in regard to such a message as the one in question, although it comes from a place without the State, it is yet under the jurisdiction of the State where it is to be delivered, (after its arrival therein at the place of delivery,) at least so far as legislation of the State tends to enforce the performance of duty owed by the company under the general law. So long as Congress is silent upon the subject, we think it is within the power of the state government to enact legislation of the nature of this Georgia statute. It is not a case where the silence of Congress is equivalent to an express enactment. As has been said, this statute levies no tax and seeks no revenue from the company by reason of these interstate messages.

The case of Gloucester Ferry Co. v. Pennsylvania, 114 U. S. 196, is an illustration of the invalidity of an attempt to tax persons or property received and landed within a State which had been transported from another State. It was there held that the tax was upon interstate commerce and a regulation thereof upon a matter national in character, requiring uniformity of regulation, and that, therefore, the power of Congress was exclusive. If Congress were silent, no exactions could be made or levied. In the case at bar there is no tax laid upon these messages, and no obstruction is placed in the way of the company in regard to the performance of any duty owed by it in connection with them. Instead of obstructing, this statute aids commerce. The subject of the act is not national in character nor is uniformity at all requisite. Conduct which might incur the penalty of $100 in one State might violate no statute in another, and in still a third might subject the carrier to a penalty of but $50, and yet there would exist no reason for uniformity of rule governing the subject, and the carrier would really suffer nothing from its absence.

Nor is the statute open to the same objections that were

Opinion of the Court.

regarded as fatal in the Pendleton case, 122 U. S. 347. No attempt is here made to enforce the provisions of the state statute beyond the limits of the State, and no other State could by legislative enactment affect in any degree the duty of the company in relation to the delivery of messages within the limits of the State of Georgia. No confusion therefore could be expected in carrying out within the limits of that State the provisions of the statute. It is true it provides a penalty for a violation of its terms and permits a recovery of the amount thereof irrespective of the question whether any actual damages have been sustained by the individual who brings the suit; but that is only a matter in aid of the performance of the general duty owed by the company. It is not a regulation of commerce, but a provision which only incidentally affects it. We do not mean to be understood as holding that any state law on this subject would be valid, even in the absence of Congressional legislation, if the penalty provided were so grossly excessive that the necessary operation of such legislation would be to impede interstate commerce. Our decision in this case would form no precedent for holding valid such legislation. It might then be urged that legislation of that character was not in aid of commerce, but was of a nature well calculated to harass and to impede it. While the penalty in the present statute is quite ample for a mere neglect to deliver in some cases, we cannot say that it is so unreasonable as to be outside of and beyond the jurisdiction of the State to enact.

While it is vitally important that commerce between the States should be unembarrassed by vexatious state regulations regarding it, yet on the other hand there are many occasions where the police power of the State can be properly exercised to insure a faithful and prompt performance of duty within the limits of the State upon the part of those who are engaged in interstate commerce. We think the statute in question is one of that class, and in the absence of any legislation by Congress the statute is a valid exercise of the power of the State over the subject.