The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-10
A NoPENloN WORTH STUDYING.
The Decision of Judge Lochren Commend
ed to President RooseveIt,s Insnection

ed to President Roosevelt's Inspection.
Has the president found time to study
the text of the long opinion expressed. a
month ago. by Judge Lochren, of the
Minnesota against the Northern Securf-
ties company? 0h he has not 1t is to be
hoped he will before he has finished the
preparation of his next annual message
to congress.
The opinion was delivered by federal
judge, who had heard arguments by cam
petent lawyers on each side. 1t deserves
honorable mention2 as a conscientious
piece of judicial work. If it shall be
really studied by the president, it cannot
fan ito light candle of understanding
In mind which has been dark since,
some two years ago, he undertook at
Minneapolis, in the same state of Min
nesota. to reconstruct and restate that
normal relation of government to capital
which ". Ie.t has existed far beyond the memory
Judge Lochren found. as matter of
fact. that the. Northern Securities COM
pany, not itself a railroad corporation. is
merely an investor. Being without fran
chise, power, or authority to manage,
to control, or to operate any railroad,
OF these two companies does not, there
fore. he said, come within the prohibit
I've 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, if one
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
large quantity of the shares of those two
parallel railroads created a monopoly.
preventing competition between these
railroads. which presented a case within
the mischief intended to be remedied by
tn Minnesota statute of 1874, and which
should be held, even If outside of the Ian
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-
carriers. I'll
Having destroyed that contention, the
court uttered aysentence 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 'monopolies and trusts are
perhaps, in cases like this. too often ap
piled at the bar to all business enterprises
requiring and. employing great aggrega-
in which on the hustings they are used
to arouse envy. and jealousy, forgetting
the manifest necessity of such aggrega-
lions of wealthfit produce the commodi-
ties. and their transportation. which our
civilization and comfort require
After those words .'monopolies" 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
has been thus cIeansed, 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 pres1-
dent does not desire any longer to use
the court in perfecting the destruction
New York Sun.