The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

CHAPTER XII
THE MERGER DECISION
The Anti-Trust Act—Can Prevent Combination— Judge Thayer's Decision
Held as a Victory for the People — President Roosevelt Given Much
Credit—The Declaration of the Court— Trusts are Illegal—A Sweeping
Opinion—A Triumph of Law.
On April g, 1903, Judge Thayer, of the United States Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals, at St. Paul, handed down a decision
declaring the $400,000,000 Northern Securities Company an
illegal corporation, and enjoined it from voting the stock to
the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroad Company,
a decree that this stock should be returned to the former
owners. The decree entered in accordance with the finding
was a drastic one, and did not leave a single peg for the great
merger of the Northern Pacific, the Great Northern, and the
Burlington to hang upon.
WILL PREVENT CAPITALISTIC COMBINATIONS
To Attorney General Knox the decision came with
extreme satisfaction, because the fact that he has all along
contended that the anti-trust act is broad enough, if rightfully
interpreted, to prevent a combination of railway or other
properties inimical to the best interests of the people. It v/as
recognized that the decision would have a double effect: Of
preventing other similar mergers of railway interests, and of
jilacing a ready weapon in the hands of the government in the
foini ol a clear interpretation of the law with respect to eapi-
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