The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-05
M. & Q. SETTLES MISSISSIPPISUIT
 AS COMPROMISE
Railroad Pays $4O,OOO Ex- penses To End Long
 Drawn. Out Case

MERIDIAN, Miss, Aug. 4.--(Spe- cial. .)-The case of the State of Mis- sissippi ys. the Mobile & Ohio Railroad company. being the antitrust suit brought in the year 1912 by Attorney General Ross A. Collins under the writ ten instructions of Gov. Earl Brewer, and continued by his successors, Frank Robertson and the present attorney general, R. H. Knox, was dismissed Tn the ehancery court of Lauderdale county today by Chancellor George c. Tam, upon an agreed decree entered into by the attorneys representing the state and sthe defendant lines.
 Under the decree entered, the de fendanta railroad companies paid to Rush H. Knox, attorney general of Mississippi $20,000, to reimburse the state for its expenses in the prosecu- tion of the litigation which have been very heavy drain upon the contin- gent funds of each of the attorney gen. erals who have occupied the office dur ing the progress of the suit. The de- cree further provided that the defend ants should pay to the special counsel employed to assist the attorney gen. eral the sum of $20,000 for fees and expenses now due by the state to the several attorneys, which the chancellor adjudged to be reasonable in view of the tremendous amount of labor and expenses incurred in the case by the attorneys,
 It is understood that one of the mo- tives of the railroad company in set tling the case was to meet the state of Mississippi half way in its ap- parent new attitude toward capital em- ployed within the state, and to pro- mote a more friendly feeling between the Southern Railway company and its affiliated lines and the state of Mississippi and it's officials.
 There were present before the chan cellor, Rush H. Knox, attorney gen. eral of Mississippi, Cassidy Holden of Jackson. Miss, and F. E. Richardson and H. 4. Witherspoon, of the local bar, representing the complaintants, and J. B. Monroe of New Orleans, gen. eral counsel of the New Orleans and Northwestern and Alabama & Vicks- burg Railroad companies, s. R., Prince of Washington, general attorney for the Southern railway, and affiliated lines, and A. S. BozemaIi, division coun- cCA OA AhC AAdUduAd nAttlt Railroad company and local counsel of the Queen and Crescent lines.
 The decree entered today in a com plete and final settlement of this liti- gation which has been a long drawn out legal battle, pending since the year 1912, during which time it has been decided twice adversely to the state by the chancery court of Lauderdale coun- ty, and reversed once by the supreme court of Mississippi.
 The suit originally filed by Attorney General Ross Collins, was brought against the Southern railway, the Ala bama Great Southern, the Mobile & Ohio, the Alabama & Vicksburg Rail road company and the Southern Rail way company in Mississippi. It was charged in the Dill of complaint that the defendants had violated the anti trust laws of Mississippi, being statutes which was passed beginning in the year 1900 and finally embodied in the Mis- sissippi code of 1906, by consolidating under one ownership all of the above named lines.