This section is from the book "Popular Law Library Vol8 Partnership, Private Corporations, Public Corporations", by Albert H. Putney. Also available from Amazon: Popular Law-Dictionary.
Section 82. The decided weight of authority sustains the rule that, in the absence of express legislative authority, a municipal corporation has not the power to grant to any person or corporation the exclusive privilege of using its streets.
The law is well settled, that the legislature of a state has full and paramount authority over all the public ways and public places.
Judge Dillon, in his work on municipal corporations (4th Ed.), Par. 695, says: "However it may be, as respects the power of the legislature to make and grant exclusive privileges, no such power, it is clear, can be exercised by a municipal council unless it is plainly conferred by express words or by necessary or, at least, reasonable implication."
 
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