Automobiles

A vehicle for the carriage of passengers or freight, propelled by its own motor. It has been held to be a carriage, not a machine; Baker v. Fall River, 187 Mass. 53, 72 N. E. 336; but by the same court in a later case if was held that a statute enacted more than one hundred years ago providing that cities or towns should pay for the repairs of highways so as to make them reasonably safe for travellers with carriages could not be construed reasonably to include a heavy modern automobile; Doherty v. Inhabitants of Ager, 197 Mass. 241, 83 N. E. 677, 14 L. R. A. (N. S.) 816, 125 Am. St Rep. 355. The legislature may, under the police power, regulate the driving of automobiles and motor cycles and provide for a registration fee, which is a license fee, not a tax; Com. v. Boyd, 18S Mass. 79, 74 N. E. 255, 108 Am. St. Rep. 464; see Com. v. Densmore, 29 Pa. Co. Ct R. 217. A city may, under a charter conferring the power to regulate the use of its highways, enact an ordinance requiring the registering and numbering of automobiles or other motor vehicles and exacting a fee from the owner to pay for the license tag to be furnished by the city; People v. Schneider, 139 Mich. 673, 103 N. W. 172, 69