Note 450 — Chapter XI · THE LAW OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

Barbier v. Connolly, supra. Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S., 623 (1887). The power to regulate, that is, the jurisdiction of the police power of the State, as decided in Munn v. Illinois, 94 U. S., 113 (1876), includes the power “to provide a maximum charge for the storage and handling of grain” in a warehouse privately owned. This is settled law, but careful reading should be made of the dissenting opinions in this case: Budd v. New York, 143 U. S., 517 (1892), sustaining Munn v. Illinois, with strong dissenting opinions; Spring Valley Water Works v. Schottler, 110 U. S., 347 (1884) sustaining Munn v. Illinois, with strong dissenting opinions. The economic question here is whether the State can fix prices, wages, compensation, hours of labor, etc. In this connection examine Lockner v. New York, 198 U. S., 45 (1905), sustaining a law of New York State making it a penal offense for any employer to require and permit any employee to work for him more than sixty hours in any one week. The law was sustained as a constitutional exercise by the State of its police power; but see dissenting opinions. The per contra was “the right of the individual to liberty of person and freedom of contract.”