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

I50 THE MERGER DECISION
brought in the United States Circuit Court at St. Paul, Minn.,
under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of i8qo. In February, 1893,
Congress passed an act expediting anti-trust suits, and in
accordance with the provisions of this law tlie case was given
precedence over other business, and was heard before four
judges of the Eighth Circuit, namely, Judges A. M. Thayer,
H. C. Caldwell, Walter H. Sanborn, and Willis Van Devanter.
Their decision, written by Judge Thayer, but concurred in by
all, was that the Northern Securities Company was an illegal
combination within the meaning of the act of iSqo.
THE DECREE ENTERED
A decree was entered adjudging that the stock of the
Northern Pacific and Great Northern companies held by the
Securities Company was acquired in virtue of a combination
among the defendants in restraint of trade and commerce
among the several States, such as the anti-trust act denounces
as illegal; enjoining the Securities Company from acquiring
further stock and from voting such stock at any meeting of
the stockholders of either of the railroad companies, or exer-
cising any control or influence over the acts of the companies;
enjoining the Northern Pacific and Great Northern companies
from permitting such stock to be voted by the Securities Com-
pany at any corporate election for directors or officers of said
companies, and likewise enjoining them from paying any divi-
dends to the Securities Company on account of said stock, or
permitting the Securities Company to exercise any control
whatsoever over the corporate acts of the companies or to
direct the policy of either; and, finally, permitting the Secu-
rities Company to return to the stockholders of the Northern
Pacific and Great Northern companies any and all shares of
stock of those companies which it )inght have received from