PROSECUTE THE NEW HAVEN MERGER
Prosecute the New Haven Merger LAST WEEK the Interstate Commerce Commission heard arguments on the testimony on the New Haven merger. Probably no other case has been tried on the complaint of so...
...United States District Attorney French assisted by Mr...
...In an editorial on the New Cabinet in LA Fol-lette's of March 15, commenting upon the appointment of Attorney General McReynolds, I said: "He will have an opportunity to re-institute proceedings against the New Haven Merger, and free New England from the paralysis of its entire transportation service by a relentless monopoly...
...The Boston & Maine Railroad, with its main line running from Boston to Portland, Me., operated 2,342 miles of road in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and northern and western Massachusetts...
...In so far as these lines were engaged in interstate commerce, this proceeding of the New Haven was in violation of the Sherman Anti-trust Law...
...Mellen next turned his attention to the steamship lines...
...The Under Dogs By HORATIO W1NSLOW In "The Coming Nation" If I had not heard the bitter cry, If I had not seen the bleeding feet— I think I should echo the salving lie That toil is jolly and chains are sweet If I had not walked the bedless night, If I had not lived the mealless day— I think I should censure the appetite Of thieves that pilfer and fools that stay...
...The country is waiting to see...
...If the control of the steamship lines by the New Haven was included in the Bill of Complaint, no such defense could be made, because that the steamship lines were engaged in interstate transportation, could not be denied...
...And now, finding its territory further invaded by the electric lines the New Haven had acquired in violation of law, it applied to the legislature for permission to purchase competing electric lines in eastern Massachusetts...
...If this contention could be sustained and it could be maintained that the acquisition of that forty per cent...
...Eight years later the New Haven Company authorized a committee, composed of its President and two directors,"To consider and act with full powers as to plans for uniting into one system, operated by a corporation to be controlled by this company, certain lines of electric railways constructed and about to be constructed...
...Louis D. Brandeis, instituted an investigation into the unlawful acts of the New Haven...
...Roosevelt's compliance with Mellen's request in this regard, greatly weakened the government's case...
...One of the boldest raids ever made on the Sherman Anti-trust Law was that executed under the Roosevelt Administration by Charles S. Mellen, President of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company,—Morgan in the background...
...The threatened destruction of competition in transportation had by this time thoroughly aroused the people of Massachusetts, and the legislature defeated the Boston & Maine bill...
...Within a few years thereafter all cities and towns of importance throughout New England were so connected by electric lines as to form an extended interstate service between New York City and Boston,—and indeed all of the principal centers of population throughout southern New England and portions of Northern and Eastern New England, as well...
...that while the action might be maintained if the petition charged only a combination of the railroad and trolley lines, the government could prove a perfectly plain violation of the Anti-trust law if the proper allegations were incorporated in the bill covering the merger of the steamship lines, as well...
...He did not stop until he had acquired directly, or through subsidiary companies, a control of water transportation between New England and New York...
...And so he obligingly complied with Mellen's request...
...Will he do it...
...The proceedings instituted against the New Haven Company dragged along through the eleven months remaining of the Roosevelt Administration, without any hearing on the merits of the case...
...Let's make good use of them...
...That these electric lines were early recognized as coming competitors of the steam railroads, is disclosed by the annual report of the President of the New Haven Company to the stockholders in 1893, from which the following is quoted: "The rapid application of electricity as a motive power upon the highways naturally brings the attention of railroad managers to the competition thereby created with existing steam roads...
...Farmers, especially, will find this trap adapted to their needs —the little traps at the house, the big ones at the barn...
...of the stock of its big rival, the Boston & Maine Railroad,—a number of shares in one block sufficient to constitute a working majority control of the Boston & Maine...
...The people of Massachusetts arose in revolt...
...The facts of this case warrant a brief review...
...Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the Grace of God.— Phillips Brooks...
...About 1890, electric urban and interurban lines began to be recognized as an important factor in the transportation of passengers and freight...
...It is announced that the Attorney General will appoint special counsel to investigate the New Haven merger and bring an action for violation of the Anti-trust Act, if the facts warrant such proceeding...
...It is an outdoor trap large enough to catch and hold the flies at stables, creameries, markets and other places where the smaller trap is inadequate...
...of the stock of the Boston & Maine would not effect a control of the latter, then the New Haven might possibly defend against the charge that their combination was in restraint of interstate traffic...
...Indeed, so numerous were the remonstrances and protests that it seemed as though all the people of the old commonwealth, backed by all of New England, or that portion of it which is free, would join to indict the men who had, in violation of law, become masters of their highways of commerce...
...He will have an opportunity to make the Sherman Law mean something...
...The hearings began last July and were only recently concluded...
...It was made plain to Roosevelt and his Attorney General that the acquisition of the steamship lines by the New Haven constituted a substantial foundation for the action...
...It was the open boast of the late Mr...
...And in less than four months after Taft was inaugurated, the ease was dismissed...
...His argument before the Commission was a scathing arraignment of those who have committed this great crime against the people...
...Before the petition was signed and filed", Morgan's representative, President Mellen of the New Haven, called upon President Roosevelt, and persuaded him to have omitted from the bill of complaint, all reference to the acquisition of the steamship lines...
...French subsequently submitted the facts to President Roosevelt...
...It is gratifying to have some assurance at last that these impudent violators of law are to be brought to the bar of justice and their grip upon the transportation of New England finally broken...
...Finally, consent was obtained to bring an action against the New Haven under the Sherman Anti-trust law, and a petition was filed in May, 1908...
...But you shall be a miracle...
...It was also in plain defiance of the statutes of Massachusetts...
...If I had not heard and seen and felt And wept for lack of a pathway out— Most like I should pat an expansive belt And say nice things of the Russian knout...
...Professor Hodge has freely given us effective weapons for this war on the typhoid fly...
...In 1904 the New Haven Road, with its main line extending from New York to Boston, operated 2,037 miles of road, in Connecticut, Rhode Island, southern and southeastern Massachusetts...
...Its lines were operated in competition with the steam lines of the New Haven in thirty different cities and towns in Massachusetts...
...Another Good Weapon ON PAGE FIVE is presented the latest con-tribution of Professor Hodge to the fly-extermination campaign...
...That state in 1874 had enacted a law to protect the people from the tyranny which must follow the suppression of competition, through the consolidation of railway transportation...
...In pursuit of this scheme the New Haven secured control of the electric urban and interurban lines of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and portions of Massachusetts and New York...
...Probably no other case has been tried on the complaint of so many people...
...Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle...
...Brandeis had conferences with the President and the Attorney General...
...The disclosures as to the operations of this great merger are monstrous...
...For these reasons the Commission determined to proceed, not upon any single complaint, but rather, broadly, "on its own motion...
...The Boston & Main Railroad had always kept strictly within the prohibitions imposed upon it by the statute of 1874...
...Shortly after the legislature adjourned, Mellen's agents went stealthily through Massachusetts and other New England states, without legislative permission, and purchased for the New Haven nearly forty per cent...
...Thereafter the United States District Attorney and Mr...
...This completed the monopoly of all the lines of transportation by land and sea, and left the people of New England and all of the country dependent upon the factories of New England for supplies, completely at the mercy of the New Haven system...
...Roosevelt's idea of a "square deal" was that when he did anything against a trust or combination he must also do something for the trust or combination...
...Harriman that he could control any railroad company whenever he succeeded in acquiring thirty per cent of its entire capital stock...
...PRAY for powers equal to your tasks...
...Throughout them all, that incomparable and undaunted champion of public rights, Louis D. Brandeis, has been the dominant figure, serving without compensation as is his practice in these cases...
...This law prohibited any railroad corporation, unless authorized by the legislature, from directly or indirectly acquiring or holding the stock of any other corporation...
...The New Haven could contend that the electric lines were not engaged in interstate commerce...
...But he chose the other course, and dismissed the case, leaving all of New England in the grip of this monster transportation monopoly...
...While the obliging concession made by Roosevelt to Morgan's man Mellen took away the strongest prop sustaining the government's case, nevertheless, if Attorney General Wickersham in the performance of his plain duty had amended the government's petition by proper allegations setting out the facts regarding the steamship lines, and had zealously prosecuted instead of dismissing the merger case, he could have fully protected the public interest...
Vol. 5 • May 1913 • No. 20
