The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-22
ent Puts Up a Vigorous Fight.

St. Paul, Minn.. April 2o.-Judge Sanborn in the United States circuit court this noon granted the petition of the Northern Securities and the North ern Pacific and the Great Northern railway companies, that the recent de- cree again the Northern Securities com pany be so far suspended as to permit the payment by the railroads of the regular May dividends to the securities company.
 Attorneys for the companies named appeared in court to-day, and presented the case. They maintained that the money would ultimately reach the same individuals whether. paid to them direct or through the medium of, the Northern Securities company On all other points of the decree no modification was asked. The attorneys presented their petition to Judge Sanborn on Fri day, but United States District Attor- ney Haupt, under instructions from Attorney-General Knox objected, and the case was set for argument to-day. A little over four million dollars will be released for the May dividends by the decision, and nearly fourteen million dollars will be paid out before deci- sion can be secured from the supreme court of the United States.
 Further instructions from Attorney ! General Knox this morning were to the l effect that he should continue to oppose i the petition and not to agree to any l suspension Of the decree.
 l Judge George B. Young appeared for l the Northern Securities company, M. D. Grover for the Great Northern Rail-
 way and c. W. Bunn for the Northern
 Pacific railway. District Attorney 1 Haupt appeared for the government I against the petition presented last Fri | day by the attorneys for the Securities and Railway companies. Under the provisions of the act for expediting , such matters, all the judges should sit, and he thought the action was not one which could properly-even in part-be set aside. The government has sought 1 to prevent the violation of the law, and that was what the decree enjoined. 1 The defendants, he maintained, ask the court to nullify the decree and permit a violation of law.
 He cited cases to sustain his conten- 1 tion that such suspension was not | permissible, except iii 6 case where the ] damages could be estimated in dollars
 and cents, whereas this was purely a
 request to permit a violation of a stat
 ute. The petition was in reality re-
 quest to suspend statute and not to l suspend decree.
 Judge Young, for the Northern Se-
 curities company, contended that the
 fact of an appeal to higher court
 was in itself form of suspension of
 the decree, and maintained that the re-
 quested payment of the dividends
 would not in any way affect the gene
 ral terms of the decree. This suspen-
 sion of small part of the decree would not be a violation of the law to
 prevent a restraint of trade. The in- junction being obeyed would be just as
 effective whether the dividend paying
 be permitted or not. He maintained
 that the divided injunction did not
 come under the main injunction, which
 referred to the running of the rail-
 roads.
 No harm could result if the Northern
 Securities was permitted to distribute
 the dividends, instead of having the
 money accumulated in the banks of
 New York. He insisted the money
 would reach the same people ultimate ly, and that to give 1t to them now 1 would benefit them and harm no one
 else.
 1 c. W. Bum, general counsel for the
 Northern Pacific railway, maintained
 that the petition was not for q suspen-
 sion of @ decree against violation of
 law, but that this was clearly a case
 in equity under the provisions of com
 mon law. He considered the request
 perfectly fair and just. but that the ac-
 tion opposing it was unfair.
 MT. Haupt repeated his contentious 1 as to the violation of the statutes. ar
 guing against the points presented by
 Judge Young and MT. Bum. Judge Sanborn then took the case under col,-
 sideration. The appeal has been per
 fected and the bond will be filed at once.
 l 'I think auntie is very inconsistent '