The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-03

ties Company was ons which tho Pvssi-
dent has much exploited, within the last
year se two. when engaged In emitting
capitalists. II was set forth In statute
form by Minnesota in the pinch Of the
hard umes Of 1874:
mo railroad corporation. o. the lcssors, pur-
chassrs. OF managers. Of any railroad corporstios
shall consolidate the stock property. or franchise
Of such corporation with. or ieass or purchase the
works or franchise o. or In any way control any
other railroad corporation owning or having under
Its control parallel Or competing line" &c.
Judge LocHREN found, as matter Of
fact, that the Northern Securities Com
pany, not itself railroad corporation, is
merely an investor. Being without fran
chise. power, or authority to manage,
to control. or to operate any railroad,
its ownership Of a majority Of the stocks
Of these two companies does not, there
fore, he said, come within the prohibi-
tive language OF the statute Of 1874. He
declared that the two corporations still
remain separate corporations, with no
interests, as such, in common. The case
would not be different, he added, II ono
natural person, having abundant capital,
should buy a majority OF the shares Of
one Of these companies, and another like
person owned the majority Of the shares
of the other company. The interest Of
the two persons, if they chose to act in
harmony, would be the same as the inter-
est Of one person owning the whole.
The Court then burked the contention
by Minnesota, that ownership by the
Northern Securities Company Of such q
large quantity of the shares of those two
parallel railroads created a monopoly,
preventing competition between these
railroads, which presented case within
the mischief intended to be remedied by
the Minnesota statute of 1874, and which
should be held, even if outside of the Ian
guage of that statute, to be within the
intention Of the Legislature which en-
acted that statute. He denied that such
ownership is contrary to the public policy
of the State in seeking competition be-
tween railroads as we'll as other common
carriers.
Having destroyed that contention, the
Court uttered a sentence which the Presi-
dents countrymen can but wish he would
lay to his heart, and keep it there till it
illumines an intelligence never SO strong
in fiscal and business affairs as in general
literature. This is the sentence:
The terms monopoes and trusts are per-
haps. In cases like this too often applied at the
bar TO all business enterprises requiring and EN-
ploying great aggregations Of wealth: and, In tho
vague sense In which the hustings they are used
to envy and jealousy. forgetting the manifest
necessity Of such assregatons Of wealth to produce
the commodities and their transportation. which
our civilization and comfort require"
After those words 4monopoies' and
trusts" have been thus employed in the
White House and in the Department Of
Justice at Washington, it is not wonder
full that members Of the bar OF st. Paul, in
Minnesota, use them ito arouse envy
and malice
If the President could rinse his mind of
the "hustings, it would concur fully with
the mind of Judge LOCHREN; but, till it
has been thus cleansed, there is, We fear,
little reason to think that the Attorney
General will be ordered to say frankly
to the Supreme Court that the invest
ment markets and stock exchanges have
since the last adjournment so far made
an end Of the trust goblin that the Presi-
dent does not desire any longer to Use
the Court in perfecting the destruction