85 Miss. 366 | Miss. | 1904
delivered the opinion of the court.
The primary object of § 3561, Code 1892, is to protect the farmers of this state from the depredations of cattle entering over the railroad right of way, and this primary object must be the polestar of construction in determining its purpose. We have held, and again reaffirm the doctrine, that the object of the section was not only to protect farmers’ crops, but to secure the safety of the traveling public. Because, in this particular instance, the Ross cattle guard is perfect of its kind, this court is not to decree its use a perfect defense to suits for damages by trespassing stock. The kind may not be reasonably effective to keep out stock — not a perfect kind of cattle guard. The argument is that, though this surface cattle guard is ineffective to keep out stock, yet, because it is less dangerous to the traveling public than the pit cattle guard, this Ross cattle guard, if perfectly constructed, must be judicially declared a compliance with § 3561, Code 1892, whose fundamental purpose is the safety of crops. This is an easily demonstrable
As to the second branch of the argument, it is enough to say that sec. 3561 is a legitimate exercise of the police power of the state, and hence the fourteenth amendment to the constitution
The public convenience, as well as the public safety, health, and morals, is within the sweep of the police power. That power is to organized government what the atmosphere is to man — “its vital breath, its native air.” It penetrates, permeates, pervades all, in its omnifically healing reach — “broad and general as the casing air.” It is the oil in which the machinery of government efficiently moves.
Affirmed.