The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-04-11
OWNERSHIP OF STOCK.
Assistant Attorney General Beck Con-
strues the Decision.

PHILADELPHIA, Pa, April 10
James NJ. Beck, assistant attorney
general, who argued the Northern Sc
curities case for the government, said
today:
"Disclaiming any purpose to express
any opinion but my own. the clear and
exhaustive opinion of Jaudge Thayel
seems to me to leave nothing to be
desired in the matter of full eXpoSi-
tion of the federal law applicable to
the consolidation of competing inter
state carriers. All interests should
welcome such a result, for it seems to
me of first Importance that the exact
meaning of existing statutory law
Should be definitely ascertained. When
so ascertained, the question of the wis.
dom of the statutes can be fairly de-
bated in the greater court of public
opinion. The decision of the circuit
court accOmpliSheS this purpose. II
destroys the last legal device for the
suppression of competition, shifts the
whole question from the courts to the
people and leaves for their cOnsidera-
tion and ultimate decision the question
whether railway consolidation, under
proper regulation, is desirable, or
whether it should be altogether pro-
hibited. The wild suggestion that this
decision is revolutionary and will dis
rupt the American railway system is
absurd. 1t simply reaffirms existing
principles and has no application
whatever to legitimate extensions of
railway lines, but solely applies to the
suppression of competition by railway
consolidation.
Judge Thayer's decision, in effect,
demonstrates the inaccuracy of the
phrase holding company and also
shows that the community of interest
plan through stock ownership, when it
suppresses competition and promotes
monopoly, is unlawful. 1t holds in
substance that whenever the control of
competing interstate carriers is se>
cured, either by combination of per-
sons or by a corporation which they
create and the motive for competition
has thus been destroyed by the conse-
quent unity of interest, the antitrust
law is violated The fact that each of
the competing lines is nominally oper-
ated by separate board of directors is
held immaterial, and the court, disre-
garding form and looking to substance,
holds that the real policy of a rail-
road is controlled by those who own
the majority of their stock and that
such individual holders in a real sense
determine all important corporate
acts
The decision is also of first impor-
tance in holding that the mere owner
snip in an interstate railroad brings
the owner in such direct relation with
interstate commerce as to subject him
TO the plenary powers of the federal
government with respect thereto Per-
maps ms holding gives the decision It's
greatest Importance. The defendants
attorneys contended that the mere ac-
QUESTION Of such shares had either no
direct relation to interstate commerce
or that in any event such relation was
Indirect, collateral and remote. They
sought TO establish an unsound dis
tinction between the ownership of .
road and its operation. This view the
court negatives and holds that the
purchase Of shares Of stock in an in
terstate railroad subjects the purchas-
er to the constitutional power of the
federal government. The Importance