The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-11
ITO PREVENT THE MERGER Bill Filed < St. Paul Y$ :rday. os-- Arroej<f GENERAL ACTS
 $ Antl- rust Laws of the UniteQ
 States Will Be Tested. Set Forth That If the Combination
 is Effected Monoply Will bs Formsd-Provision of the Bill.

Formsd-Provision of
 the Bill.
 Washington March 1o.-By direction of 1 the Attorney General of the United States a bill was filed at St. Paul today l in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Minnesota in the case of the United States complainant. against the Northern Securities Company. the Great Northern Railway Company. the Northern Pacific Railway Company and others. defendants. to test the legality of the alleged combination or merger of the two roads and others named in the bill. The action is brought under the, act of July 2, 1890. known as the Sherman-trusf act. After recitlng the fact that the Northern Securities Company is a corporation organized under the laws of the state of New Jersey: the Great Northern Rail- road under the laws of Minnesota, and the Northern Pacific Railroad under the laws of Wisconsin and that the two last named companies are common carriers doing an interstate business. and that these companies formerly owned and operated two independent. parallel and competing lines of railway aggregating | over $500 miles in length. the petition says they were the only trans-conti- mental lines of railway extending across l the Northern tier of States west of the great lakes, from the great lakes and the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean and were then engaged in active competition with one another for freight and passenger traffic, among the several
 States of the United States and between I unA fnrn tona
 l Early in the year 1901. the defendants. | the Great Northern and Northern Pacific | Railway Company. in contemplation of | the ultimate placing of the Great North. | ern and Northern Pacific systems under | common source of control. united in the purchase of the total capital stock Of | the Chicago. Burlington and Quincy Rail- | way Company of Illinois, system about | 5000 miles in length. giving the joint bonds of the Great Northern and North
 James II Iiil xssaSxse n sssvi.sSos h,s associate stockholders of the Great 1 Northern. and the defendant, J.. Pierpont | Morgan and the majority of fiis associates owning or controlling a majority Of the stock of the Northern Pacific Company, | entered into an unlawful combination or conspiracy to effect a virtual consoltda- l ton of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern system and to place restraint
 upon all competitive interstate and foreign trade or commerce carried on by them, by forming a holding corporation, called the Northern Securities Company. under the laws of New Jersey. with a capital stock of $4oO, ,00o, 900 to which, in exchange for its own capital stock upon a certain basis and at a certain rate, was to be turned over and transferred the capital stock of a controlling interest in the capital stock of each Of the de- fendant railway companies.
 'In this manner the individual stock holders of these two independent and competing railway companies were to be eliminated and a single common stock holder the Northern Securities Company. was to be substituted. Thus the holding corporation, having the power and duty to pursue a policy which would promote the interests. not of one system at the expense of the other, but of both at the expense of the public. all inducement for competition between the two systems was to be removed. virtual consolida-
 ton effected. and a monopoly of the inter-
 state and foreign commerce formerly carried on by the two systems. On or about the 14th of November. 1901. the Northern Securities Company was organ ized by the election of a board of direc- tors and the election of President, James J. Hill and other officers who. with their associate stockholders of. the Great Northern Railway. transferred to the Northern Securities Company a con- trolling interest in the capital stock of the Great Northern Railway upon the agreed basis of exchange of $lS0 par value of the capital stock of the Northern &c., entities Company for each share Of the capital stock of the Great Northern Rail- way Company and the defendants. J. F. Morgan and his associates. stockholders
 of the Northern Pacific Railway Com- l pany transferred to the North Securities Company large majority of the capital stock of the Northern Pacific Railway Company upon the agreed basis of ex- change of S115 par value of the capital stock of the Northern Securities Company 1 for each share of the capital stock Of the Northern Pacific Railway Company Thus a combination or conspiracy in restraint of the trade or commerce formerly car ried on by the defendant railway com panies Independently and in free compe- tition Is in operation to the great and ir reparabIe damage of the people of the United States in derogation of their com mon rights and in violation of the act of Congress of July 2. 1890. entitled an act to protect trade and commerce against lawful restraint and monopohes.'
 "If the defendant. the Northern Securi-
 
 majority of the capital stock of the Great Northern Railway. 1t is because the individual defendants and their associ- ates or some of them, since it became ap- parent that the legality of their combina- ton would be assailed Tn the courts have purposely withheld, or caused to be with held. a large amount of the capital stock of said Great Northern Railway Company from transfer for the stock of the North ern Securities Company to conceal the real scope and object of the unlawful combination or conspiracy, and to deceive and mislead the State and Federal au- th0rities and to furnish ground for the ds fense that the Northern Securities Com pany does not hold clear majority Of | the stock of the Great Northern Railway | Company.
 The Northern Securities Company was not organized in good faith to purchase and nav for the stocks of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railway | Companies. It was organized solely to incornorate the pooling of the stocks of said companies and to carry Into effect | The unlawful combination or conspiracy | aforesaid,