Opinion of the Court. general. The log owner dealt with the boom company, and had a right to call from that company for a delivery of his logs duly brailed or rafted whenever he saw fit. To require the surveyor general to stand watch at the exit of the boom to demand of each log owner his fees, or in default of payment to seize the logs thus ready for their future transit down the river, would cast upon the surveyor general not merely the duty of inspecting and scaling, but also, for his own protection, the duty of keeping an additional watch to secure the payment of his fees. It was not unreasonable on the part of the legislature, when it gave the boom company a lien upon all logs turned into the boom, to require that it should be responsible to the surveyor general for his fees, and that he, looking to the boom company for payment thereof, should have a right to enforce a lien upon any logs turned into the boom. It cannot be said that there is, in the nature of things, such an inseparable connection between services rendered and the thing upon which the services are rendered that a lien for the former can only be enforced upon the latter, or even that such lien must be limited to the owner of the latter, for it is within the discretion of the legislature to determine whether, considering all the circumstances, the use of a given instrumentality shall not subject the party seeking that use to a lien upon his property for all the services rendered by the State to the instrumentality. Take the ordinary. case of a warehouse for the receipt and discharge of grain. Can it be that the lien for the services of a state inspector must necessarily attach separately, and only separately, to each bushel of grain delivered to and received therefrom? Is it not within the competency of the legislative power to declare that the owner of the elevator, like the owner of a boom, stands, as to all property received into it, as pro tanto an owner, and to give to any official charged with the duty of inspection a lien upon any and all of the property thus received for his services in the matter of inspection, especially when it gives to the owner of the elevator or the boom a lien upon the property placed in his possession for all services, charges and expenses ? VOL. CLXXVI-10 Opinion of the Court. We are of opinion that it was within the power of the legislature to so provide. It is not for the courts to inquire whether any other provision would have been wiser. The only question for us to consider is whether that which has been made was within the power of the legislature. It must be borne in mind that while the lien is given for the services rendered, the use of the facilties of the boom is not compulsory. We do not mean to say that a log cutter may throw his logs loosely and separately into the river and let them float down, trusting to luck that they will do no injury: Doubtless any one may make his own raft and send it down. the stream, provided he places in charge of it a sufficient number of men to suitably protect it from doing injury or interfering with others in their use of the stream. A main purpose of the boom is to stop and collect the floating logs, and the State having control over the river as a highway of navigation may make such provisions for the use of that highway by the different parties seeking to use it as will prevent any injury by one upon the other. Just as the ordinary land highways are free to the use of the public, yet it is within the competency of the legislature to make such provisions as will prevent the use by one working injury to others; and if a party wishes to use a highway in a manner which may tend to work injury to others he cannot complain if the legislaare interferes and provides some means for preventing such injury. In that way it may be said that any log owner may şend his logs down the river without the use of the boom, and when he decides to avail himself of the boom it cannot be said that he is deprived of his property without due process of law if he is compelled to subject it to the conditions which the legislature prescribes for the use of such boom. A final objection is that even this boom was one chartered by law, within the meaning of section 2400, and although the defendant, Mullen, had performed all that was required of him by the statute to secure a lien, still the law as applied to this boom, and in so far as the logs in question are concerned, is a regulation of interstate commerce which the State of Minnesota has no authority to make. It appears that these Opinion of the Court. logs, and indeed the bulk of the logs passing into this boom, came out of the Chippewa River, a stream wholy within the limits of the State of Wisconsin. The boom company was chartered by the State of Minnesota, and its principal works were within the limits of that State. Counsel for plaintiff refer to many decisions of this court in which the general power of Congress over interstate commerce and the inability of the State to burden in any direct way such commerce have been affirmed. Passing by most we may notice these quotations, as illustrating the scope of our decisions. Thus in County of Mobile v. Kimball, 102 U. S. 691, it is held that "commerce with foreign countries and among the States, strictly considered, consists in intercourse and traffic, including in these terms navigation, and the transportation and transit of persons and property;" and in Gloucester Ferry Co. v. Pennsylvania, 114 U. S. 196, 203: "Commerce among the States consists of intercourse and traffic between their citizens, and includes the transportation of persons and property, and the navigation of public waters for that purpose;" and from Wabash &c. Railway Co. v. Illinois, 118 U. S. 557, 571, this paragraph is quoted: "But we think it may safely be said, that state legislation which seeks to impose a direct burden upon interstate commerce, or, to interfere directly with its freedom, does encroach upon the exclusive power of Congress. The statute now under consideration, in our opinion, occupies that position; it does not act upon the business through the local instruments to be employed after coming within the State, but directly upon the business as it comes into the State from without, or goes out from within. While it purports only to control the carrier when engaged within. the State, it must necessarily influence his conduct to some extent, in the management of his business throughout his entire voyage. It was to meet just such a case that the commercial clause in the Constitution was adopted. The river Mississippi passes through or along the borders of ten different States, and its tributaries reach many more. The commerce upon these waters is immense, and its regulation clearly a matter of national concern. If each State was at liberty to Opinion of the Court. regulate the conduct of carriers while within its jurisdiction, the confusion likely to follow could not but be productive of great inconvenience and unnecessary hardship." Upon these authorities it is contended that the navigation of these logs from the place of cutting in Wisconsin along the navigable waters of Minnesota, to their market, wherever it may be in the lower waters of the Mississippi, must be free. If Minnesota can burden the transit with the expense of booming, inspection or scaling, why may not Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and any other State along whose borders the logs may pass before reaching their destination? Even if a State may (as would seem to be indicated by the decisions heretofore referred to), for logs cut within its borders, provide booms, compel their use and enforce payment for the expenses thereof, because for those logs no interstate commerce has commenced, yet here Minnesota is directly regulating the transit of logs cut in another State and passing through its borders on their way to market. This is undoubtedly the most significant if not perhaps the only distinctive Federal question presented in this record. We are not disposed to limit in the slightest degree the scope and effect of the decisions referred to. But we are of opinion that these authorities are not pertinent, and that the matter is governed by another line of decisions equally clear and as frequently recognized. The State has a right to improve the waterways within its limits and to make reasonable charges for the use of such improvements, at least until Congress interferes, and either itself assumes control of the improvements or compels their removal. This parallel line of decisions runs back to the early history of this court. In Willson v. Blackbird Creek Marsh Company, 2 Pet. 245, it was held that, inasmuch as Congress had passed no act bearing upon the case, the State of Delaware might authorize the building of a dam across the Blackbird Marsh Creek, although thereby a navigable waterway was obstructed. In Pound v. Turck, 95 U. S. 459, the right of a State to make dams, booms and other instrumentalities to be used in the navigation of logs and lumber was adjudged. Other decisions affirmed the power Opinion of the Court. of the State to build bridges, even toll bridges, over navigable streams, to construct wharves and charge wharfage. In Huse v. Glover, 119 U. S. 543, 548, the right of the State of Illinois to collect tolls for the passage of vessels through locks in the Illinois-River was sustained, the court saying: "The exaction of tolls for passage through the locks is as compensation for the use of artificial facilities constructed, not as an impost upon the navigation of the stream. The provi- sion of the clause that the navigable streams should be highways without any tax, impost or duty, has reference, to their navigation in their natural state. It did not contemplate that such navigation might not be improved by artificial means, by the removal of obstructions, or by the making of dams fordeepening the waters, or by turning into the rivers waters from other streams to increase their depth. For outlays caused by such works the State may exact reasonable tolls. They are like charges for the use of wharves and docks constructed to facilitate the landing of persons and freight, and the taking them on board, or for the repair of vessels." In Sands v. Manistee River Improvement Co., 123 U. S. 288, 295, a corporation had been authorized by the State of Michigan to improve the Manistee River, and to charge tolls for the use of the improvement. An action to collect tolls was resisted on the ground that the imposition was a taking of property without due process of law, which contention was overruled, and in the course of the opinion it was said: "The Manistee River is wholly within the limits of Michigan. The State, therefore, can authorize any improvement which in its judgment will enhance its value as a means of transportation from one part of the State to another. The internal commerce of a State - that is, the commerce which is wholly confined within its limits-is as much under its control as foreign or interstate commerce is under the control of the general government; and, to encourage the growth of this commerce and render it safe, the States may provide for the removal of obstructions from their rivers and harbors, and deepen their channels, and improve them in other ways,. if, as is said in County of Mobile v. Ki ball, the free navigation of |