M’oor v. o., 1., sr. 1.. a c. 11. oo. 9 s
in them is vindicated; that is, they can compel them to keep their
roads, rolling stock, and machinery in good condition; force them to
establish and maintain depots at suitable points where the business l
and public necessities require them; provide suitable means of access
to and egress from their trains ; forbid injurious discriminations; and,
to the extent of their means, supply all the facilities for the safe trans-
mission of persons and property contemplated by their charters.
Their authority to do this was aiiirmed and applied in the recent
litigation between the express and the railroad companies, in which
the railroad companies admitted an obligation to receive, carry, and
deliver express freight, but contended that they were only bound to
do so when the freight to be carried was delivered into their custody
to be carried in the usual way at their risk and on their freight trains,
to be delivered by them to the consignees. But every court before
which the question was argued held otherwise. C s
In the last of these cases, recently decided by Mr; Justice Miller
and Judge McCra1·y at St. Louis, Missouri, the court ordered the
railroad company, upon a motion for a preliminary injunction, to
furnish the express company with suitable freight cars to be attached
to its passenger trains for the transportation of its freight in care-of ,
its own messengers, and at the rates fixed by the court, thus recog-
nizing in the fullest possible manner the authority of the court to
supervise and control the action of the railroad company in the pub- ,
l lic interest. ` 4
Now, if it was competent for the court to thus interfere and con-:
trol the rail1·oad company in a matter of detail in its business
affairs, why may I not, if the facts of this case justify relief, compel
the defendant railroad company to make deliveries of live-stock con-
signed to complainant on the same terms and in the same manner as
under like conditions deliveries are made by it to its co-defendant ?
The business of receiving, feeding, dealing in, and forwarding live-
stock is legitimate and necessary. , To do so on a scale commensurate
with the trade of Cincinnati in that line necessitates large expendi· _
tures in the erection of buildings and equipment of suitable yards;
and, being both legitimate and useful, everybody engaging in it is-
entitled to equal facilities in the use of railroads, upon which they are
largely dependent for success; for it is obvious if the railroads cen-
tering at Cincinnati, or the officials who control them, are permitted
to combine and establish a stock·yard as a private enterprise, and by “
contract make it the depot of the roads for the receipt and delivery of
all the stock brought to or carried through the city, and withhold like