It includes navigation and the control of all navigable waters of the United States ; Gilman v. Philadelphia, 3 Wall. (U. S.) 713, 724, 18 L. Ed. 96 ; quoted in v. Wheeler, 179 U. S. 141, 21 Sup. Ct. 48, 45 L. Ed. 126, as well as the improvement of har bors, bays and rivers ; id., quoting Mobile County v. Kimball, 102 U. S. 691, 26 L. Ed. 238.
Commerce Is not a technical legal concep tion, but a practical one drawn from the course of business ; Savage v. Jones, 225 U. S. 501, 32 Sup. Ct. 715, 56 L. Ed. 1182.
"Nothing is more complex than commerce"; 6 Webster's Wks. 8.
Retail trade as well as wholesale is in clUded in the idea of commerce; Gucken heimer v. Sellers, 81 Fed. 1000.
Commerce takes its character as inter state or foreign when it is actually shipped or started in the course of transportation to another state or to a foreign country ; Rail road Commission of Louisiana v. Ry. Co., 229 U. S. 336, 33 Sup. Ct. 837, 57 L. Ed. -; Reid v. R. Co., 153 N. C. 490, 69 S. E. 618.
It does not end on the arrival of the train. at the terminal, but the breaking up of the train and removal of goods to other trains is part of it ; St. Louis, S. F. & T. R. Co. v. Seale, 229 U. S. 156, 33 Sup. Ct. 651, 57 L. Ed. -; it continues until the delivery to the consignee ; Barrett v. New York, 183 Fed. 793; id., 189 Fed. 268, where in two hearings it was held that an express company taking goods from a steamer or railroad and trans porting them through the street of the city to the consignee is still engaged in inter state commerce. The transportation to be effective under the commerce clause takes ef fect at the time when it "commences its final movement for transportation" out of the state ; Coe v. Errol, 116 U. S. 517, 6 Sup. Ct. 475, 29 L. Ed. 715 ; Diamond Match Co. v. Ontonagon, 188 U. 'S. 82, 23 Sup. Ct. 266, 47 L. Ed. 394 ; in both of which cases the prop erty was to remain within the state of depar ture until it was convenient to transport it; but in Ogilvie v. Crawford County, 7 Fea. 745, where it was stored awaiting transporta tion it was protected from taxation ; Ogilvie v. Crawford Comity, 7 Fed. 745; and to the same effect is Standard Oil Co. v. Bachelor,
89 Ind. 1.
The decisions in cases arising under the federal Employers' Liability Act involve in teresting questions as to when a workman is engaged in interstate commerce, and the test is said to be-"is the work in question a part of the interstate commerce In which the car rier is engaged?" Pedersen v. R. Co., 229 U. S. 146, 33 Sup. Ct. 648, 57 L. Ed. -, cit ing many cases. In that case it was held that one carrying materials (bolts or rivets) to be used in repairing an instrumentality of interstate commerce (a bridge) was engaged in such commerce, although injured by an intrastate train; so also was an engineer while taking his engine from the roundhouse to the track on which were cars to be hauled by him in interstate commerce ; Johnson v. Southern P. Co., 196 U. S. 1, 21, 25 Sup. Ct. 158, 49 L. Ed. 363 ; Lamphere v. R. & Nay. Co., 196 Fed. 336, 116 a 0. A. 156. See EM PLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT.
Contracts generally seem not to be sub ject to the commerce clause. It is said by a text-writer on the subject that to bring them within its scope some other element must be involved such as "transportation of property or transmission of intelligence, as by tele graph" ; Cooke, Com. Cl. § 6.
Insurance is not commerce ; Paul v. Vir ginia, 8 Wall. (U. S.) 168, 19 L. Ed. 357; Fire Ass'n of Philadelphia v. New York, 119 U. S. 110, 7 Sup. Ct. 108, 30 L. Ed. 342; Noble v. Mitchell, 164 U. S. 367, 17 Sup. Ct. 110, 41 L. Ed. 472; New York Life Ins. Co. v. Cra vens, 178 U. S. 389, 20 Sup. Ct. 962, 44 L. Ed. 1116 ; New York Life Ins. Co. v. Deer Lodge County, 231 U. S. -, 34 Sup. Ct. 167, 58 L. Ed. -, decided Dec. 15, 1913, but not yet officially reported ; nor are contracts for per zonal services between persons in different states ; Williams v. Fears, 179 U. S. 270, 21 Sup. Ct. 128, 45 L. Ed. 186 ; Smith v. Jackson, 103 Tenn. 673, 54 S. W. 981, 47 L. R. A. 416 ; though Boothe v. King, 71 Ala. 499, seems contra.
Congress has power by the constitution to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states, and with the In dian tribes ; Const. U. S. Art. I, § 8; 1 Kent 431; Story, Const. § 1052.