The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1908-08-01
MOST SWEEPING
DEMURRER F|L{O
RAILROAD POINTS OUT WHERE
COVE RNMENT MAKES uNCER-
TAIN STATEMENTS.
OF VAST IMPORTANCE
wolves Right OF Steam and
Electric Lines to Form
Merger.

Boston, July 31.-A demurrer as
sweeping as legal phraseology could
make it, and offering objection both
to the form and substance Of the petit
ton was the answer filed today il
the United States circuit court here.
by the New York, New Haven and
Hartford railroad company, as defend
ant in the action brought against it
by the United States government to
dissolve the merger
As filed the demurrer Is in three
PARTS in the first of which the New
York. New Haven ana Hartford raj
road company appears as corpora
ton in three states. In the second,
the road demurs as having formerly
been the Consolidated Railroad COM
pauy, a Connecticut corporation. The
third embraces the demurrer of the
Province Securities company
The main contention on the part of
the demurrer, and all three parts are
practically identical in many specifica-
tions. is that the petition Is uncertain
in its statements concerning alleged
violations of the interstate commerce
act
This uncertainty is alleged to he
shown in sthat while the petition de-
cares the holding of stock of the
Boston and Maine railroad by the
New Haven road and the possibility
of unified management is restraint
of trade in general. and of interstate
commerce in particular, it fails to
show to what extent there exists com.
petition between the respective raif
road systems and to what extent
there exists competition between the
respective railroad systems and TO
what extent "unlied or cooperative
management of these systems would
create an advantage to the public and
the announcement and increase to
interstate trade
1t is pointed out that the New
Haven road and the Boston and Maine
road are in the main not parallel, as
the petitions ayers, but are systems
and networks Of railroads operating
in distinct fields and that they com
pete with one another only at lew
stations. at the most important of
which equally or more effective com
petition exists by the Boston and Al
bany railroad or by water
This main contestation appears
first IN the demurrer of the New
Haven as a tri-state corporation. In
another form it is presented in that
part of the demurrer where the Now
Haven appears as formerly the Con
solidated Railway company. This
part has especially to do with the al
legged consolidation of electric rail
WAYS
The demurrer says that the elec-
tric railways described in the govern
ments petition, when operating as
network of ntercommuniCation in
the streets and highways of cities and
villages and suburbs, they are en-
gagged in kind of business substan
TALLY different from that of interstate
steam railroads, and that most, at any
rate. of the electric railways Ge-
scribed. are not engaged i'm or adapt
ed for interstate commerce, except as
auXiliares of interstate railroad sys
TENS and except as they transport
passengers or goods to and from con,
nections with such railroads and |
that the ownership or control by the
New Haven of most or all of such |
railways. will enable it to encourage, |
promote and increase trade in general |
including interstate trade by making |
such service more efficient than it |
would be with divided ownership Cf |
steam roads and electric railways"
Tpon the decision of this case
largely depends the right of electric |
and steam roads to consolidate and |
because the general principal of the |
right to merge is involved the case is
of vast Importance.