operate a ferry across an interstate
river bounding its territory, or may incorporate a company for the
purpose.[861] Nor may a neighbor State make the securing of its consent
and license a condition precedent to the operation of such a ferry to
one of its towns.[862] Earlier the right of a State to regulate the
rates to be charged by an interstate bridge company for passage across
its structure was denied by a closely divided Court.[863] The ruling
does not, however, control the regulation of rates to be charged by an
interstate ferry company. These the chartering State may, in the absence
of action by Congress, regulate except in the case of ferries operated
in connection with railroads,[864] as to which Congress has acted with
the result of excluding all State action.[865] A State may also regulate
the rates of a vessel plying between two points within the State
although the journey is over the high seas; although again action by
Congress may supersede State action at any time.[866]

TELEGRAPHS AND TELEPHONES

An Indiana statute which required telegraph companies to deliver
dispatches by messenger to the persons to whom they were addressed if
the latter resided within one mile of the telegraph station or within
the city or town where it was located, and which prescribed the order of
preference to be given various kinds of messages, was held to be an
unconstitutional interference with interstate commerce;[867] as was also
the order of the Massachusetts Public Service Commission interfering
with the transmission to firms within the State's borders of continuous
quotations of the New York Stock Exchange by means of ticker
service.[868] But a Virginia statute which imposed a penalty on a
telegraph company for failure in its "clear common-law duty" of
transmitting messages without unreasonable delay, was held, in the
absence of legislation by Congress, to be valid;[869] as was also a
Michigan statute which prohibited the stipulation by a company against
liability for nonperformance of such duty.[870] However, a South
Carolina statute which sought to make mental anguish caused by the
negligent nondelivery of a telegram a cause of action, was held to be,
as applied to messages transmitted from one State to another or to the
District of Columbia, an unconstitutional attempt to regulate interstate
commerce.[871] A State has no authority to interfere with the operation
of the lines of telegraph companies constructed along p