TIDBIT FROM A BOOK I'M READING

The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America is a fascinating collection of historical essays on what we now call the Noise Machine. The article on "The Constitutional Review," a magazine published from 1917 to 1929, mentions the Supreme Court case Nebbia v. New York (1934) as a landmark decision affirming the power of the government to enact social legialation:

Under our form of government the use of property and the making of contracts are normally matters of private and not of public concern. The general rule is that both shall be free of governmental interference. But neither property rights [8] nor contract rights [9] are absolute; for government cannot exist if the citizen may at will use his property to the detriment of his fellows, or exercise his freedom of contract to work them harm. Equally fundamental with the private right is that of the public to regulate it in the common interest.

Here are the footnotes:

[ Footnote 8 ] Munn v. Illinois, 94 U.S. 113, 124 , 125 S.; Orient Ins. Co. v. Daggs, 172 U.S. 557, 556 , 19 S.Ct. 281; Northern Securities Co. v. United States, 193 U.S. 197, 351 , 24 S.Ct. 436; and see the cases cited in notes 16-23, infra.

[ Footnote 9 ] Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U.S. 578, 591 , 17 S.Ct. 427; Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Riverside Mills, 219 U.S. 186, 202 , 31 S.Ct. 164, 31 L.R.A.(N.S.) 7; Chicago, B. & Q.R. Co. v. McGuire, 219 U.S. 549, 567 , 31 S.Ct. 259; Stephenson v. Binford, 287 U.S. 251, 274 , 53 S.Ct. 181, 87 A.L.R. 721.