Opinion of the Court. Are the acts of Congress and the regulations established under their authority of such a character that the legislation of Kansas is without effect so far as it relates to injury done to domestic cattle by the bringing into that State of cattle liable to impart or capable of communicating Texas, splenic or Spanish fever to domestic cattle? The act of Congress of May 29, 1884, provided for the establishment of a Bureau of Animal Industry, and for the appointment of a chief thereof and two competent, practical stock raisers or experienced business men familiar with questions pertaining to commercial transactions in live stock, whose duty it should be under the instructions of the Commissioner of Agriculture, to investigate and report upon the condition of the domestic animals of the United States, their protection and use, and also to examine and report upon the best methods of treating, transporting and caring for animals, and the means to be adopted for the suppression and extirpation of contagious pleuro-pneumonia, and to provide against the spread of other dangerous, contagious, infectious and communicable diseases. §§ 1, 2. By other sections of the act it was provided: "§ 3. That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Agriculture to prepare such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary for the speedy and effectual suppression and extirpation of said diseases, and to certify such rules and regulations to the executive authority of each State and Territory, and invite said authorities to coöperate in the execution and enforcement of this act. Whenever the plans and methods of the Commissioner of Agriculture shall be accepted by any State or Territory in which pleuro-pneumonia or other contagious, infectious or communicable disease is declared to exist, or such State or Territory shall have adopted plans and methods for the suppression and extirpation of said diseases, and such plans and methods shall be accepted by the Commissioner of Agriculture, and whenever the Governor of a State or other properly constituted authorities signify their readiness. to coöperate for the extinction of any contagious, infectious or communicable disease in conformity with the provisions of Opinion of the Court. this act, the Commissioner of Agriculture is hereby authorized to expend so much of the money appropriated by this act as may be necessary in such investigations, and in such disinfection and quarantine measures as may be necessary to prevent the spread of the disease from one State or Territory into another. "§ 4. That in order to promote the exportation of live stock from the United States the Commissioner of Agriculture shall make special investigation as to the existence of pleuro-pneumonia, or any contagious, infectious or communicable disease, along the dividing lines between the United States and foreign countries, and along the lines of transportation from all parts of the United States to ports from which live stock are exported, and make report of the results of such investigation to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall, from time to time, establish such regulations concerning the exportation and transportation of live stock as the results of said investigations may require. "§ 5. That to prevent the exportation from any port of the United States to any port in a foreign country of live stock affected with any contagious, infectious or communicable disease, and especially pleuro-pneumonia, the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized to take such steps and adopt such measures, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as he may deem necessary. "§ 6. That no railroad company within the United States, or the owners or masters of any steam or sailing or other vessel or boat, shall receive for transportation or transport, from one State or Territory to another, or from any State into the District of Columbia, or from the District into any State, any live stock affected with any contagious, infectious or communicable disease, and especially the disease known as pleuropneumonia; nor shall any person, company or corporation deliver for such transportation to any railroad company, or master or owner of any boat or vessel, any live stock, knowing them to be affected with any contagious, infectious or communicable disease; nor shall any person, company or corporation drive on foot or transport in private conveyance from Opinion of the Court. one State or Territory to another, or from any State into the District of Columbia, or from the District into any State, any live stock, knowing them to be affected with any contagious, infectious or communicable disease, and especially the disease known as pleuro-pneumonia: Provided, That the so-called splenetic or Texas fever shall not be considered a contagious, infectious or communicable disease within the meaning of sections four, five, six and seven of this act, as to cattle being transported by rail to market for slaughter, when the same are unloaded only to be fed and watered in lots on the way thereto. "§ 7. That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Agriculture to notify, in writing, the proper officials or agents of any railroad, steamboat or other transportation company doing business in or through any infected locality, and by publication, in such newspapers as he may select, of the existence of said contagion; and any person or persons operating any such railroad, or master or owner of any boat or vessel, or owner or custodian of or person having control over such cattle or other live stock within such infected district, who shall knowingly violate the provisions of section six of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine not less than one hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment." "§ 10. That the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to be immediately available, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to carry into effect the provisions of this act.” 1. The answer of the railway company as well as its requests for instructions, and the opinion of the Supreme Court of the State, show that the company contended throughout this litigation that legislation by Congress and the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture in execution of the Animal Industry Act, furnished a complete defence to all claims for damages asserted in this action. That contention Opinion of the Court. was overruled by the trial court, as well as by the Supreme Court of the State. If the contention of the railway company had been sustained, the verdict and judgment must have been in its favor without reference to any other question in the case. In other words, the state court could not properly have disposed of the case without deciding the Federal question raised by the company. This court therefore has jurisdiction to inquire whether the Supreme Court of Kansas erred in holding that the legislation of Congress and the regulations of the Secretary of the Interior1 gave to the railway company the right,. privilege and immunity specially set up and claimed by it. The motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction in this court is consequently overruled. Willson v. Black Bird Creek Marsh Co., 2 Pet. 245, 251; Chicago Life Ins. Co v. Needles, 113 U. S. 574, 579; Sayward v. Denny, 158 U. S. 180, 184; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad v. Chicago, 166 U. S. 226, 232. 2. If sections 16 and 17 of the Kansas act of 1885, as amended in 1891, are not inconsistent with the legislation of Congress, no question can be raised as to other provisions of the Kansas statutes. The sixteenth section, we have seen, provides that any person or persons, driving, shipping or transporting, or causing to be driven, shipped or transported, into or through any county in that State, cattie liable to impart or capable of communicating Texas, splenic or Spanish fever to any domestic cattle of Kansas, shall be liable in a civil action to any person injured thereby for all damages sustained by reason of the communication of such fever to his cattle; while the seventeenth section makes the bringing into the State, from south of the 37th parallel of north latitude, of cattle alleged to have communicated Texas, splenic or Spanish fever 1 By the act approved February 9, 1889, 25 Stat. 659, c. 122, the Department of Agriculture was made an Executive Department. And by the act of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 835, 840, c. 373, the authority granted to the Commissioner of Agriculture by the act of May 29, 1884, 23 Stat. 31, establishing the Bureau of Animal Industry, and by the provision of the appropriation act for the Agricultural Department, approved July 18, 1888, relating to that Bureau, was vested in the Secretary of Agriculture. The regulations above referred to were issued by Secretary Rusk, February 26, 1892. Opinion of the Court. to domestic cattle, prima facie evidence that such cattle were, between February 1st and December 1st in any year, capable of communicating that disease, and that the owner or person in charge of such cattle had full knowledge and notice thereof. May not these statutory provisions stand without obstructing or embarrassing the execution of the act of Congress? This question must of course be determined with reference to the settled rule that a statute enacted in execution of a reserved power of the State is not to be regarded as inconsistent with. an act of Congress passed in the execution of a clear power under the Constitution, unless the repugnance or conflict is so direct and positive that the two acts cannot be reconciled or stand together. Sinnot v. Davenport, 22 How. 227, 243. We have seen that the first section of the Animal Industry Act provided for an investigation as to the condition of the domestic animals of the United States, their protection and use, the causes of contagious, infectious and communicable diseases among them, and the means for the prevention and cure of such diseases. The second section provided for an examination as to the best methods of treating, transporting and caring for animals and the means to be adopted for the suppression and extirpation of contagious pleuro-pneumonia, and to guard against the spreading of other dangerous, contagious, infectious and communicable diseases. If any State was ready to coöperate with the Commissioner of Agriculture, then, by the third section, that officer was authorized to use the money appropriated by Congress in such investigations and in such disinfection and quarantine measures as were necessary "to prevent the spread of the disease from one State or Territory into another." While the States were invited to coöperate with the General Government in the execution and enforcement of the act, whatever power they had to protect their domestic cattle against such diseases was left untouched and unimpaired by the act of Congress. The act of Congress did not assume to give any corporation, company or person the affirmative right to transport from one State to another State cattle that were liable to impart or capable of communicating contagious, infectious or communi |