Opinion of the Court.

amount $50, for personal services rendered or labor done, or for damages, or for overcharges on freight, or for stock killed or injured, was adjudged unconstitutional. It was held to be simply a statute imposing a penalty on railroad corporations for failing to pay certain debts, and not one to enforce compliance with any police regulations. It was so regarded by the Supreme Court of the State, and its construction was accepted in this court as correct. While the right to classify was conceded, it was said that such classification must be based upon some difference bearing a reasonable and just relation to the act in respect to which the classification is attempted; that no mere arbitrary selection can ever be justified by calling it classification. And there is no good reason why railroad corporations alone should be punished for not paying their debts. Compelling the payment of debts is not a police regulation. We see no reason to change the views then expressed, and if the statute before us were the counterpart of that, we should be content to refer to that case as conclusive. But while there is a similarity, yet there are important differences, and differences which in our judgment compel an opposite conclusion. The purpose of this statute is not to compel the payment of debts, but to secure the utmost care on the part of railroad companies to prevent the escape of fire from their moving trains. This is obvious from the fact that liability for damages by fire is not cast upon such corporations in all cases, but only in those in which the fire is "caused by the operating" of the road. It is true that no special act of precaution was required of the railroad companies, failure to do which was to be visited with this penalty, so that it is not precisely like the statutes imposing double damages for stock killed where there has been a failure to fence. Missouri Pac. Railway v. Humes, 115 U. S. 512. And yet its purpose is not different. Its monition to the railroads is not, pay your debts without suit or you will, in addition, have to pay attor ney's fees; but rather, see to it that no fire escapes from your locomotives, for if it does you will be liable, not merely for the damage it causes, but also for the reasonable attorney's fees of the owner of the property injured or destroyed, It

Opinion of the Court.

has been frequently before the Supreme Court of Kansas, has always been so interpreted by that court, and its validity sustained on that ground. In Missouri Pac. Railway v. Merrill, 40 Kansas, 404, 408, it was said:

"The objection that this legislation is special and unequal cannot be sustained. The dangerous element employed and the hazards to persons and property arising from the running of trains and the operation of railroads, justifies such a law; and the fact that all persons and corporations brought under its influence are subjected to the same duties and liabilities, under similar circumstances, disposes of the objections raised." And in the opinion filed in the present case, 58 Kansas, 447, 450, that court observed:

"Our statute is somewhat in the nature of a police regulation, designed to enforce care on the part of railroad companies to prevent the communication of fire and the destruction of property along railroad lines. It is not intended merely to impose a burden on railroad corporations that private persons are not required to bear, and the remedy offered is one the legislature has the right to give in such cases. This is the view heretofore held by this court, which we son for changing. St. Louis & San Francisco Railway v. Snaveley, 47 Kansas, 637; Same v. Curtis, 48 Kansas, 179; Same v. McMullen, Id. 281; Missouri Pac. R. R. Co. v. Henning, Id. 465."

see no rea

It is true that the Ellis case was one to recover damages for the killing of a colt by a passing train. And so it might be argued that the protection of the track from straying stock and the protection of stock from moving trains would, within the foregoing principles, uphold legislation imposing an attorney's fee in actions against railroad corporations. We were not insensible to this argument when that case was considered, but we accepted the interpretation of the statute and its purpose given by the Supreme Court of Texas, as appears from this extract from our opinion (p. 153): “The Supreme Court of the State considered this statute as a whole and held it valid, and as such it is presented to us for consideration. Considered as such, it is simply a statute imposing a penalty

Opinion of the Court.

upon railroad corporations for a failure to pay certain debts." And again, referring specifically to this matter, (p. 158): "While this action is for stock killed, the recovery of attorney's fees cannot be sustained upon the theory just suggested. There is no fence law in Texas. The legislature of the State has not deemed it necessary for the protection of life or property to require railroads to fence their tracks, and as no duty is imposed, there can be no penalty for non-performance. Indeed, the statute does not proceed upon any such theory; it is broader in its scope. Its object is to compel the payment of the several classes of debts named, and was so regarded by the Supreme Court of the State." Indeed, the limit in amount, ($50,) found in that statute, made it clear that no police regulation was intended, for if it were, the more stock found on the track the greater would be the danger and the more imperative the need of regulation and penalty.

So that according to the interpretation placed upon the Texas statute by its Supreme Court, its purpose was generally to compel the payment of small debts, and the fact that among the debts so provided for was the liability for stock killed was not sufficient to justify us in separating the statute into fragments and upholding one part on a theory inconsistent with the policy of the State; while on the other hand, the purpose of this statute is, as declared by the Supreme Court of Kansas, protection against fire a matter in the nature of a police regulation.

It may be suggested that this line of argument leads to the Jonclusion that a statute of one State whose purpose is declared by its Supreme Court to be a matter of police regulation will be upheld by this court as not in conflict with the Federal Constitution, while a statute of another State, precisely similar in its terms, will be adjudged in conflict with that Constitution if the Supreme Court of that State interprets its purpose and scope as entirely outside police regulation. But this by no means follows. This court is not concluded by the opinion of the Supreme Court of the State. Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U. S. 356, 366. It forms its own independent judgment as to the scope and purpose of a statute, while of

Opinion of the Court.

course leaning to any interpretation which has been placed upon it by the highest court of the State. We have referred to the interpretation placed upon the respective statutes of Texas and Kansas by their highest courts, not as conclusive, but as an interpretation towards which we ought to lean, and which, in fact, commends itself to our judgment.

That there is peculiar danger of fire from the running of railroad trains is obvious. The locomotives, passing, as they do at great rates of speed, and often when the wind is blowing a gale, will, unless the utmost care is taken, (and sometimes in spite of such care,) scatter fire along the track. The danger to adjacent property is one which is especially felt in a prairie State like Kansas. It early attracted the attention of its legislature, and in 1860-long before any railroads were built in the State-this statute was passed, (Laws 1860, c. 70, sec. 2; Comp. Laws, c. 101, sec. 2): "If any person shall set on fire any woods, marshes or prairies, so as thereby to occasion any damage to any other person, such person shall make satisfaction for such damage to the party injured, to be recovered in an action." As held in Emerson v. Gardiner, 8 Kansas, 452, its effect was to change the rule of the common law, which gave redress only when the person setting the fire did so wantonly or through negligence, whereas by this statute the mere fact of setting fire to woods, marshes or prairies gave a right to the party injured to recover damages. And in the years after the railroads began to be constructed, and prior to the passage of the act before us, the reports of the Supreme Court of that State show that nearly a score of actions had been brought to that court for consideration, in some of which great damage had been done by fire escaping from moving trains. Fire catching in the dry grass often runs for miles, destroying not merely crops but houses and barns. Indeed, in one case, Atchison, Topeka &c. Railroad v. Stanford, 12 Kansas, 354, it appeared that the fire escaping had swept across the prairies for over four miles; and one ground of objection to the recovery was that the distance of the property destroyed from the railroad track was so great and the fire had passed over so many intervening farms that it could

Opinion of the Court.

not rightfully be held that the proximate cause of the injury was the escape of fire from the locomotive. No other work done, or industry carried on, carries with it so much of danger from escaping fire.

In 1887 the legislature of the State of Missouri felt constrained to pass an act making every railroad corporation responsible in damages for all property destroyed by fire communicated directly or indirectly from its engines, and giving the corporation an insurable interest in the property along its road. This statute was, after a full examination of all the authorities, held by this court a valid exercise of the legislative power. St. Louis & San Francisco Railway v. Mathews, 165 U. S. 1. So, when the legislature of Kansas made a classification, and included in one class all corporations engaged in this business of peculiar hazard, it did so upon a difference having a reasonable relation to the object sought to be accomplished, to wit, the securing of protection of property from damage or destruction by fire.

While, as heretofore noticed, no special act of precaution was required, no statutory duty imposed upon railroad corporations in respect to protection against escaping fire, and a similar omission in the legislation of Texas was referred to in the opinion in the Ellis case as strengthening the argument that no police regulation was intended, yet we are of opinion that such omission is not conclusive upon the question of the validity of the statute. We have no right to consider the wisdom of such legislation. Our inquiry runs only to the matter of legislative power. If, in order to accomplish a given beneficial result-a result which depends on the action of a corporation — the legislature has the power to prescribe a specific duty and punish a failure to comply therewith by a penalty, either double damages or attorney's fees, has it not equal power to prescribe the same penalty for failing to accomplish the same result, leaving to the corporation the selection of the means it deems best therefor? Does the power of the legislature depend on the method it pursues to accomplish the result? As individuals we may think it better that the legislature prescribe the specific duties which the corporations must