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About The Red Cloud chief. (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 25, 1904)
aa&fe Merger Decision Far-Reaching EASTER MORNING.' , By Opinion Declaring Northern Securities Company Illegal, Supreme Court Settles for All Times the Right of Congress to Regulate Inter-State Commerce fi BYfiNIXON WATERMAN. Every contention of the Northern I Securities eompan.v lo legal existence to the right to control thrro groat railroad properties mid opcnitc them in hartiifiny was denied hy the Su premo Court of the i'tilted States March H, Justice lltu-lnii delivering a majority opinion. The decree ot the lour circuit Judges 1 a your ago was affirmed and the lirst fl.owi.ooo.ouo railroad coriioratloii, the first concern to centralize ownership of tho great A Sketch From Life of James J. Hill, the Father of the Northern Securi ties Company, Which the Supreme Court Declared to Be an Illegal Trust. carrying companies, in declared to be in violation of the law against combi nations in ichtrniut of trade. It Is not the first victory that the Sherman antitrust act has scored in the Supreme Court, but it is the great est. The railroad oiws which pre ceded had to do wltli rate agreements: the decisions nguiust industrial meth ods were directed against price sched ules. Tills recent opinion struck at th" corporation itself : -It went beyond the mete Incliii nt ol a rate, of a spe cific violation of I lie law. and held that the formation (.r a company to op'crate competing properties even though the announced Intention is one of economical operation, of lower rates or of greater benefits to the public, the thing itself is wrong. The Northern Securities company must disband, resolve itself Into its units, the Northern Purille railroad and the Or cat Northern railway. Its $4(10,000.000 stock Issued for the for mer at US for 100 shares and for tho latter in the propoitiou of ISO lor 100 shares will be re-exchanged. The Burlington, the third part of the com bine, is controlled by the other two, The ownership will remain in the same hands, (tie management will not be changed. The policy will not be altered, but the power of the court to go beyond dissolving the corporation was recognized. The corporate em bodiment of the scheme of unification nlone is struck down. The apparent contradiction between corporation and Individual holdings of securities of competing properties split the court, and the balance wns against the great Fchemo of J. I. Morgan and .lames .1. Hill. The majority decision was suppli ed by Justices Harlan, Drown, McKen na. Day and Brewer, the latter differ ing ns to the method of reasoning, hut agreeing with the conclusion. Thu minority likewise was partially dis jointed, Justice Holmes rending nn opinion In which Chler Justice Fuller and Peckham united. Justice White delivering a personal opinion more radical than his fellow dissenters. Hut there is uo hope held out in any of the dissenting opinions of a rehabili tation of the scheme. Justice White stands alone In opposition to the basic principle of the antl-ttust act. which ho characterized as "destructive or human liberty and destructho of ev ery principle upon which organized society depends." Justice Harlan and his three asso ciates gave u wider latitude to the anti-trust act than preIous decisions which wero directed against specific violation of Us terms. The Supremo court throws the mantle of the act over any company or combination which puts Into a common ownership the- stocks or competing tnilroads and Jnfercntlnlly competing Industries. It holds that such consolidation or merger destroys and restricts trade and as such restrains trado and It Is not necessary to cite specific acts. With five Judges In Its favor, tbo construction of the law Is absoluto; Ihnrn t HO OVBSlOn I 110 CM'UH'. TIlC reach for. corporation power has been r.n'nidnn of the Mikado. 1'erhups tho most interesting small hov in tho world Is the llttlo Prince MiVchl, grandson of the Japanese in ka lo and .lestlncd himself to bo a I some day. Ho will he 4 years Si next month. Tho heir prosump tvn to tho great eastern throno has .& dlstincthm of being the flrsUbaby o tho royal houso of Jlminu Tcnno who has been allowed to grovy is lal? Ilko nn Kngllsh baby. Both his father and tho mikado, when babes, ,hnd their heads shaved dally hy their nurses. chocked : tho crowning scheme of tho ago of consolidation Una been re buked. A score of the same charac ter were ready for liiutichliiK. The Northern Securities was a test of the limitation of financial combinations In the railroad world It watt a now feature; It opened up illimitable, pos sibilities of controlling the traffic of the country, of controlling it with out the need of great capital. The right of the corporation to hold the stocks o( two railroads would have carried with It the right to hold a do.en or more, to Issue bonds against stocks, lo buy more properties, to is sue more bonds. Three years ago this month the plan was developed, while the gigan tic steel corporation was being Moat ed out Into the rising market of speculation; it hud to wait until some of the money Invested in that indus trial combination was realized. With- Supreme Court Justice Harlan. n two months oi its projection com notitive buying by a transcontinental rival, the Union Pacific, brought on the panic of May ! and the pleasure of success was marred by relinquish ment of half the control of the Bur llugtou to its rival. Though the security scheme Is killed the Hill-Morgan plan Is not dead; through personal ownership, I In ougli combinations of Individuals, much or the original purpose will be retained. The Northern Pacific and (Jreat Northern and Burlington will 1 T'fykStiyW'&iiptAKVJTS rsr- -Ov sx vc," "- 4. s L JiL '.' "' nJ "Sv$. I l-L ! iokiii v. J It ,' y ' '! HC7'vlS,w - "f i l y j w ..'.,"." J ,'tr" 7 i"e.j i i u ', '-si!.--1.. ( i...--jt I i . r ate&jwuwTpaiKr j Great States of the American Nation Which Have Been Under the Con trol of the Ra ilroad Merger. Strong In Vitality at 82. Honjamin F. Manlerre, at one tlmo a leading Republican In New York City, and more recently a prominent Prohibitionist, !b 82 years old, but is recovering from a surgical operation which might havo killed many n man young enough to ho his grand son. It was discovered recently that ho wns suffering from hernia and nn operation wns found to bo necessary. Tho venerable patient refused to tnko an anesthetic and while the surgeons wero at work laughed and told Btorles. continue to be directed by the same Interests. When the legal ndvlsers have measured and weighed the opin ion It may he possible to accomplish the snmo result by lodging the owner ship of the stocks In some other rail road, ns Is now done In n score of similnr enses, ns the New York Cen trnl owns hake Shore, us the Penn sylvania owns Baltimore and Ohio, as the Oregon Shore Line owns the Southern Pacific, being In turn owned by the Union Pacific. As an Individual cannot be prohib ited from buying securities, so u rail road corporation cannot be prohibited. In the majority opinion there is no reference to this lorm of control. The question was not raised and non Interference with the scores of cases whore such control Is held may be re garded as pointing out the way for the retention of the 1 1 111 properties. While the decision does not touch upon the ordinary method of holding rnilroads, it has a direct bearing upon the industrial situation. Many or the corporations formed along the trust lln in the last ten yenrs come under the designation or an unlawful combi nation as laid down in the dictum oi the opinion. The Securities company as the head and ft out of those offend ing Is Justice Harlan's keynote, nnd every combination of properties, every putting together of manufacturing concerns lias been based upon the Se curities idea. The United States Stfel combination exchanged Itsr stocks for fho.se of n dozen great corporations, many of which wore in turn built 11)1011 many competing plants. This corporation, which Is used as lllus trathe of the others, derives Its rev enue by dividends from the underly ing plants, each one of which is gov erned by its own board, but under direction and control of the central power. From Its promulgation the Sherman null-trust act was understood as es tablishing a criminal offense to bo proceeded against by form oT indict ment of Individuals and to bring a corporation to punishment in the in fliction or a line. Instead or seeking n specific act of restraining trade by ovoiehnrne. rebate or extortion, the government profited by the trend of practice before courts ami appealed to the Injunction. The piocoodlngs against the Securities company was to enjoin It from doing things fenred or alleged and the order of the court below was In the form of Injunction, now alllinied by the Supreme court. Tho Securities company being pun ished not for what it has done but what it is capable of doing. Tho same procedure is Imminent against any corporation which owns the stocks or two or more engaged In the same line of business. The court declares tlieie is but one remedy, tho repeal of the law; if the enforcement along the line outlined In the opinion becomes fashionable Wall street trad ers will congratulate themselves thut tho blow lell after Security values had been brought down to the dollar for dollar basis and liquidation may possess an clement of profit. John Marshall Harlan, who banded down the decision in the Northern Se curities case, has been an associate justice of the Supreme court of the United States since Nov. 20, 1877. He was horn In Boyle county, Kentucky, in 1833, was educated In Center col lege and Trunsylvanla university, and wns a county Judge at the age of 'J5. From 18il to 1803 he was colonel of the Tenth Kentucky regiment in the Union army, and from the latter year until 1807 was attorney general ot the Blue Crass state. Justice Harlan wns one of the arbiters In the Bering sea case. He it was who bunded down tho decision in the famous Ne braska maximum trelght rate case. dHV"Mifffr Senator Scott Tells of Travels.' Senator Scott or West Virginia ha-i published a neat llttlo book bearing tho title "letters From Foreign Lands." Tho volume tells with some detail of thu senator's tour abroad lust summer, and Is Illustrated. Some of tho snapshots arc unique. There Is a group of Nubians wading out to tho hont at the first cateroct of the Nile. Then ono photograph shows a "front view of a Spanish gentleman in re duced circumstances" and another "u reverse view of inn Bitrr.e eentle-man." y& m :H I A Lenten Sacrifice k There was an accusing voice in the swelling notes ol the big pipe organ. Peal upon peal of denunciation rolled out into the dim-aisled chinch and re verberated back from the vaulted ceil iug, all its solemn Impeachment seem lug finally to center Itself in tho pew occupied hy the stately .Miss Weyman. She trembled under the stormy ar raignment. She looked back over her life with a shudder and realized for the first time its utter selfishness. There were no crimes of commission upon her spotless life, lint what had sho done to make the world brighter or better? Nothing! The answer seemed to come In mighty anger from tho big organ, rather than from her own inner consciousness. Bred in luxury and reared In Idle ness, what had she over accomplished with the ten talents that the Mastei had given her? Her charities? She had given much out of her abundance but she had never given so much as a crumb of bread that meant sacrifice of ono momunt's comfort. Seltlshness, selfishness, selfishness! It was the keynote of her life -and the whole message of the big organ that morn ing. The sun presently shot through a great stnined-ghifs window that cast a flood of golden light athwart Miss Weytoan's pew, and that same mo ment tho thunderous rebuke of the organ ceased, nnd In Its place enme a strain of pleading harmony and then a sweet, clear note of humble praise with a sorrowful undertone that car ried with it a suggestion of the agony o. the cross. Shu glanced up and a bright smile from the. choir turned her cheeks aflame. There was her guilt of sel flshness! She renlb.ed now Hint this 'was the thing that had lain dormant upon her conscience for so long. And there must ho her sncrlflce! Sho turned faint and almost cried out at the thought. He belonged to her! He belonged lo her! For five long years they had been as good as be trothed and for two years she had worn hlr. ring, waiting, waiting until his prido should he satisfied with the measure of success ho had set hint pelf to accomplish before marriage. And the time had almost come. Two years. But In that tlmo her younger slBter. Orace. had suddenly bloomed Into womanhood! She turned suddenly to the sister at her side. She, too, was looking up into the choir and exchanging a bright smile with the handsome young buss, firace turned at. her sister's movement ami mot hnr eye with n calm, steady gazo In which there was no concealment , then smiled at her with the perfect understanding ol true sisterly affec tum. Miss Weyinan caught her breath with a sigli of relict. There wns no disloynlty there, she lmew. She re flected with n pang that these two young people did not know their own secrets as yet. They might never know It! Ho would. In Ills simple honor, go calmly through his pto- gram and marry her when tho tlmo came, and f J race would deck her hair Ring, joyous? bells ! Your id trill the nlriYn widen stfl vJfcV Vfi '"w w--F 0 Afonrtle tomb of Lenten gloo Breaks fortMhc bloom ly n Easter morfi tb spirits Vv 7 song is boruc; iOf life from their thfts m c bells' (lecootes Lbovf ti $. so dark u .he unfold, in t Jn spotless . whltd rave pilgrims, bent anc With heaven-sent, sac; From grief arise and llft Tifctfernal skies of woi (On thi glad day wc roll1 me that would And praisMng to God JoTthristJibe Saviour, with orange blossoms. Why should he not go through with hop shaio of the program, too? She would' She must! Again that oigiiti' II rose once more to its stern roll ol denunciation and .Miss Weyman. as If she had done a guilty thing, looked apprehensively at tho calm pure face of her sister. Ah. hut those two were made for each other, anil II' It were not for the high sense of lienor that kept I heir loyal minds untainted even by the thought tlnil things might lie other than tlie.v were, they would lie sweethearts oven now. She icllicted that herself and the innn In I lie choir were of exactly the same age and that the time would conio when she would be uo longer young; that lie must sooner or Intel see what he had missed to make his lite complete. She loved him, hut did ne love her as a man should hive the woman he marries; us lie could love (race If he were free to do so? She looked up again into the choir and sought (he smile she loved so well. She studied the smile when It came as she had never studied it before, ami as the big organ pealed out the opening passages of the TV Deitiu. she bowed her head in her hands for a moment, to fight bach the tears that sprang to her e.ves as sho silently mndo her Lenten sacrifice. Los An geles Times. ITS ORIGIN AND DATE. Earliest Christians Celebrated Easter With Prayer and Sacrifice. The Semite always "tool his re ligion much harder" than the Aryan, and the spring celebration or the lat ter took the form of feasting, dancing and having luu, while the former hud pruyer, sacrifice ami an ever-growing ritual to he observed. From these earlier Semite ancestors the .lews de rived their least of unleavened bread, the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb and other observances of Hint season, the origin or the custom being forgotten In the legend of the Passover. The earliest Christians, being them selves origliuill .lows, continued this celebration with a new slunlllcance. the death of Christ being to them the saerltlce of the Paschal lamb. When the colouration was taken up by the uon Jewish Christians, tlie.v made It a point to get as far away as possible fiom everything Jewish, and made It purely a celebration of the Insurrec tion, without reference to the coinci dent Passover. They determined, fuithiTinore, that the festival should fall on tho Sunday following the ter mination of the Paschal feast, but It was several centuries before tho au thorities at Homo decided upon the basis of calculations for tho deter mination ol the full moon, upon which Ka. ter depended. Slaves Freed at Easter. In earlier times the Christian em perors at Kuster gave .their slaves their freedom, gills wero given lo the poor and work of all kind was sus pended for two days. There, are no slaves now to set freo, but. tho two last customs are still observed. swells of deatbfess glory. worn. eternal; gladness float of joy supernal. and cold V their completeness, gla ht insxacc and weetness. )enitent tclal duty, idr eyes us beauty. away our faith imprison, our King, hath arisen. 4 Quaint Edster Customs The universal Kastor tejolclngs in olden timet were not all because of the grout event which Kastor cu in memoralis. Old iccords show that )t. was olten because tho long forty days' fast was over with a return to solid online once more not only to -tci) III eating, but for the tlmo to much feasting Anciently the paschal or Knster season extended from tho Sunday be fore ui: til tin- Sundav after Kastor proper. On Hie Holy Thursday bo fore, called Mnuuduv or Shero Thurs day, there were services commemora tive of Christ's washing the disciples' loot. 'Phe Pope at Rome, the ureh bishops in various countries, and tho monnrchs In Kuglaud even through Kllzuhoth's time had toet washing services, the ucccusar) accompani ment of which was the giving of .Jixul and money to the jwior. On llolj Saturday itiid Kaster w tlii services vary in the different churches Thai In the Urook oIiuh'.Ii lasts all night. There are great ivowds in the church at lerusnlem. though a largo admission Is charged, who are there to wlluess the -tiro descend trom heaven into tlwnwoul cher and to light Hielr caudles by It. The Kastor feast In that church Is the nios Important of the year. Lent over the ovens are ciowdod with prepara tions for banqueting. Kvcry house is fragrant with the odor of pies and baked meats and everybody Is in testa! arra. A great many visits are paid. On the last day of lont everybody In Home rushes to the Vatican. In Italy the "sopolohers" in thochuirhefl are watched nlglil and day by, peoplo clad In deep mourning from tho dawn of tho Hoi Thursday till midday on Saturday, when the body is mtpposml lo rise liom tho grave. The resurrec tion is announced by the tiring of can non, (he blowing of trumpets and tho ringing of the bells which from tho preceding Thursday havo boon care fully tied up to protect them from tho power of the devil. The ceremonies of Kaster day It self are grand, long and many featured thiotighout Catholic Christendom, but anciently these were barely over bo fore secular performances began. For mnn years, and perhaps,-oven to-daj, the first dish brought to-tho table on Kaster day at Queen's col lego, Oxford, was red honing fixed to retoinblo a man. put astrldo n corn salad, tiding away on horseback, This Is said to be a remnant ot tho old pageants which were exhibited in tho popular rejoicings that Lent was ovjr. Children in England, .is ul Wash ington, go out and roll eggn on a lawn or in u fluid, some rolling them Ilko bowls, some throwing them up In tho air like balls. The, chief glor ot a panto egg lo a boy who, wants to win the championship in hurd hitting is Its hard shell. Ono who wishes to gain a conquest with his ogg chal lenges a companion to give blow for blow, Ho Is victor whose egg Htandu the" attack, and, ho goes on challenging. f V 1 I if j? h Hi' I V I .At M m i ! i ( tf! Z?,.'3Z.U SSSSES2S3SSSLSS fcfwjssv. -CTBtejrtfttai wa