Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-12
GREAT MERGER SUIT
TO BE ARGUED BEFORE SUPREME
COURT MONDAY.
History of the Famous Case - Com
munity Of Interest Plan is
at Stake.


From the New York Herald
Counsel for the corporations and individ-
uals named in the governments suit to dis
solve the concentrated control of railways
in the Northern Securities Company have
now filed their briefs, and on Monday ar
gument will begin before the United States
Supreme Court
The case is one of the most remarkable
ever tried before the tribunal of last re-
sort, involving as it does control Of rail-
ways traversing one-siXth of all the states
In the Union and representing about one
third of the mileage of the entire country,
represented by outstanding stocks and
bonds aggregating more than a billion and
half dollars.
On the decision of the court will depend
the elimination of the strange events grow
ing out of the principle of community Of
ownership which cut so large figure in
financial circles few years ago-one rail-
way corporation buying and holding the
stock of others. Mr.. Hill and his friends In
control Of the Great Northern had, with the
help of J. P. Morgan & Co., acquired con-
troll OF the competing Northern Pacific lines
to the south. Still further south the Union
Pacific, which had become tremendous
system. was in possession of Mr.. Hartman
and associates, backed by Kuhn, Loeb &
Co. .-
Community of ownership was regarded
oS tilc LlOSl WOtuGElul discovery Ol inc d6O,
and Wall street doomed" unconscious of
the mine beneath its feet. The Hill-Morgan
group quietly bought up the shares of the
Burlington and Quincy lines, and the Har-
riman-kuhn-Loeb group, discovering this
and resenting it as IAN invasion of their
territory" retalated by secretly striving in
the market to buy up a controlling amount
Of the Northern Pacific stock. Wall street
rejoiced in the resulting rise, unconscious
that it resulted from as yet undisclosed
warfare between the two titanic groups.
The final struggle between them for
Northern Pacific produced the corner in
that stock, putting it up to thousand dol
lars a share, and precipitated the panic of
May 8, 1901. Then the two groups called
truce, and in the following November the
Northern Securities Company was incorpo-
rated, with $500, 900 in shares, which
were given in exchange for those of the
Great Northern and the Northern Pacific
companies That is the genesis of the
Northern Securities Companies. Suits to
dissolve the deal were brought by the
states of Minnesota and Washington on the
ground that it abolished competition be-
tween naturally competing companies and
established monopoly in transportation.
At the instigation of President Roosevelt
prosecution was begun by Attorney Gen
eral Knox, alleging that the combination
was in violation of the federal antitrust
law and this is the suit which is to be
argued next Monday on appeal Of the de-
PENDANTS from the United States circuit
court Of appeals at St Paul The four
Judges or that court were unanimous in the
decision against the combination, and the
opinion, written by Judge Thayer. was so
lucid and convincing as to convince the
public that there Is little chance of it's be-
Ing reversed or set aside. In previous
cases the Supreme Court has held that rail-
ways conducting interstate traffic are sub
1ect to the antitrust law. and that to
make combination illegal it is not neces-
sary that 1t shall have suppressed competi-
ton or charged unreasonable rates, but
that 1t Is sufficient to show that the COM
bination or arrangement of whatever ma
ture confers the power to establish unreal
sonable rates Herein would seem to lie
the nub Of the controversy.