The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-03-18
The Northern Securities Case.

The Northern Securities merger case
was argued in the United States circuit
court at st. Louis to-day. Assistant At
torney General Beck appears for the gov
eminent and presents a statement OF the
issues involved that clears away good
deal Of the misrepresentation which has
been SO diligently and deliberately built up
around the Northern Securities TRANSACT
ton He points out that such extraordin-
airy powers as are conferred by the
Northern Securities charter were never
before conferred upon any corporation,
and that the effect of that form
Of organization Is to concentrate
power in the hands Of a few to an extent
never before attempted under corporation
laws. The government contends that pre-
cisely that which was attempted in 1898,
but which was prevented by the decision
Of the supreme court of the United States,
has been attempted under the Northern
Securities organization. and that formal
consolida ton Of the two companies could
have produced no more complete merger
of the Great Northern and the Northern
Z
the organization of the Northern Securi
ties company.
Mr. Beck's summary of the cases before
the federal appellate court under the Sher-
man law is especially interesting. He
enunciates ten different propositions as
Established in these cases. among which
are these: s That public policy requires
peting transportation lines; that the police
power Of the government extends to cor
porations so engaged in the public SER
vice; that where the necessary result Of
combina ton is to eliminate competition
the intent to accomplish that result will
be presumed and need not be formally
proved; that the contention that the power
to increase prices has not been so exer-
cised is not important. because the law is
concerned not with what is done but with
the power to do; that where a fiction Of
the law is employed to violate criminal
statutes or to defy sound public policy
such fiction must be disregarded and &C.
count taken of the acts of the individuals
who control the corporations as if those
acts we've the acts of the corporation it.
self. &@
Mr.. Beck is happy in his exposition OF
the fact that with a common ownership OF
competing lines and with the proceeds OF
their joint traffic coming into common
treasury, it is idle to suggest that COM
petition is possible, since as a matter OF
utility it is an absurdity.
AS to the Northern Securities being a
mere holding corporation, the government
says that it's powers are those of ultin-
ate control and that the stockholders OF
the Northern Securities company are as
GERS who drive their locomotives or the
employees who conduct their business
Therefore to enjoin the employees of an in.
terstate railway from interfering by boy.
colt with interstate commerce and ther
deny equal authority to control the EN-.
ployer who seeks to hide behind a paper
charter, would be a monstrous and indie.
feasible maly in law. ,y#;5.
AS to the benefits conferred by the ex
istence of monopoly in commerce, the at
torney general says that such argument.
should be addressed to the legislature.
and not to the courts. to those who make
the laws and not to those whose sole dut,
It is to enforce them. -t"s
The arguments Of the attorneys for tn,
corporation. are not released for publ
cation at this writing and until released
may not be stated, but they are indicated
4 in part by the argument of the govern
ment