Federal Incorporation

The course of development which rate regulation in general in this country passed through is well known. It may be briefly stated as follows: in the early cases it was held that when a state legislature prescribed a scale of maximum charges for a business affected with a public interest they substituted their will for the common law rule of reasonableness, and their determinations were held final and conclusive. This view was gradually modified so as to place a limitation upon the power of the law-making body in accordance with the view that the "use and income of property, as well as its title and possession" are protected by the Fifth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment against deprivation without due process of law