g "has a right of franchise or privilege,
that no man may set up a common ferry without a prescription time out
of mind, or a charter from the king," and so later he quotes Lord Hale
as saying that the same principle applies to a public wharf "because
they are the wharves only licensed by the king." We also found
legislation fixing rents and so on in staple towns, and consequently
of the charges of property owners therein, such towns having grant of
a special privilege. The early law books are full of cases showing
that discrimination and extortion were unlawful, even criminal,
offences. And finally, as Chief Justice Waite points out, we find the
rates of carriers fixed by law in 1691. Ordinary carriers, not having
the right of eminent domain such as express companies, might to-day be
considered to have no legal monopoly, and indeed, possibly for that
reason, the regulation of charges of express companies has not yet
been attempted; but in King William's time it was doubtless considered
that the carriers had special privileges on the highways, as indeed
they did.

It seems to me, therefore, that the real reason, both logical and
historical, for regulation of rates rests on the fact that the person
or corporation so regulated is given a monopoly or franchise by some
law or ordinance, or at least a special privilege from the State; or
at least that he maintains a wharf, a bridge, or a ferry, or
other avocation which (really for the same reason) has, from time
immemorial, been subject to such regulation. This, indeed, has been
the doctrine officially adopted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
in its legislation--"Where monopoly is permitted, State regulation
is necessary." The new "Business" Corporation Act of 1903 makes the
express distinction between public-service corporations and all other
private corporations for gain: it applies to "all corporations ...
established for the purpose of carrying on business for profit ... but
not to ... railroad or street railway company, telegraph or telephone
company, gas or electric light, heat or power company, canal, aqueduct
or water company, cemetery or crematory company, or to any other
corporations which now have or may hereafter have the right to take or
condemn land or to exercise franchises in public ways granted by the
commonwealth or by any county, city, or town." The implication is that
such other corporations are not given the entire freedom of action and
contract con