Bisbee daily review., 1909-05-12
RAILROADS ARE
 VICTORIOUS Can Own Coal Mines Through Stock in Subsidiary Corporations Government Taken An Awful Fall Out of By Courts Decision
Especial to Review

'opcCldl to htNleN-l
 WASHINGTON, May 11.-''You may own coal mines and transport coal from the same over your lines, but you must not own the coal mines holding stock in subsidiary corpor- ation."
 This, in effect, is the command of the United States Supreme court to tLe railroads owning coal mines. as made ir the commodities clause" de cisiun
 On it's face the decision sustains the contention of the government. b:.t in fac. it is substantial victory for | the is',roads. many of which have ep- parently been anticipating similar ! decision, as they have disposed of direct ownership in mines and are | now holding and controlling them in
 manner declared by the highest tri-
 bunai to be lawful.
 Here is what the court rules: That it will be unlawful for rail- road company to trasport over its l lines those articles which it directly produces or has legal interest or title in.
 1 But that a railroad will not be held
 to have legal interest or title in an article which is manufactured, mined, produced. or owned by an. other corporation in which the rail road is a stockholder. The latter proviso. in the opinion 1rxra sattth hnr A1 in Washington, is the clause of the opinion which does not prevent rail road from doing anything complained of by the government, but which mere ly makes it necessary for the carrier to hold and own mines through a sub sidiary corporation. It may thec con tinue to transport coal from mines so held.
 This decision of course refers to in terstate traffic. A railroad company may own coal mines, but it would be unlawful under the Supreme court de cision to haul coal so held, outside ot the state.
 The decision makes it easily possi- ble for the mine-owning roads to re- organize their holdings under new subsidiary corporations, and continue without substantial chanS in their business relations.
 For the larger part-indeed, the most part-the actual mining is done by mining companies controlled by the railroads. This is not interferred with by the decision.
 The Lehigh Valley, the Reading, the
 Lackawanna. the Henry H. Rogers ". ,h. ~y-s.- sT I4la | eastern roads own coal mines along
 their lines in their own name, as we'll
 The Burlington, Northern Pacific, ! Union Pacific, Denver and Rio ! Grande. and other Of the big western railroads own coal properties through 1 subsidiary corporations, and the de | cision will have litle or no effect on | these roads.
 The decision is of vital interest to | every railroad in the country. Seven [ ty-five per cent of the coal mined and I brought to the surface in Pennsyl-
 vania, the great coal producing state, | is owned by railroads. directly or in l directly, within the state. Ninety per cent of all the coal yet unmined | in the state is controlled by them. It | is estimated that railroads own an l interest in more than 50 per cent of i the unmined coal supply of the coun' | try.
 | The decision uphoids the clause Of | the Hepburn act which makes it un. | lawful for a railroad to haul between states "any article or commodity other than timber and the manufac | tured products thereof, which it may
 own in whole or in part, or in which i,
 may have any interest direct or in
 direct
 The following paragraph Of the de
 cision, which relates to the construc ton placed upon the words direct or indirect" is the one which pre-
 vents the government from attainint
 the uniform ends for which the legis
 lation was framed:
 "It is also decided that the provis
 ion cf the commodities clause relat ing to interest, direct or indirect
 does not embrace an interest which ;
 carrier of stock in such corporation irrespective of the amount of stocl
 which the carrier may own in sucl
 corporation, provided the corporation
 has been organized in good faith.