U.S. Supreme Court

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U.S. Supreme Court
U. S. v. UNION PAC. R. CO., 226 U.S. 61 (1912)
226 U.S. 61

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appt.,
v.
UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY et al.
No. 446.

Argued April 19, 22, and 23, 1912.
Decided December 2, 1912.



[226 U.S. 61, 64] Attorney General Wickersham and Messrs. Cordenio A. Severance and Frank B. Kellogg, Special Assistants to the Attorney General, for appellant.

[226 U.S. 61, 68] Messrs. P. F. Dunne and N. H. Loomis for appellees.

Mr. Paul D. Cravath for appellees Jacob H. Schiff and Otto H. Kahn.

Mr. James M. Beck for appellee James Stillman.

Messrs. H. F. Stambaugh and D. T. Watson for appellee Henry C. Frick.

[226 U.S. 61, 79]

Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:

The case was begun in the United States circuit court for the district of Utah to enforce the provisions of the so-called Sherman anti- trust act of 1890 (26 Stat. at L. 209, chap. 647, U. S. Comp Stat. 1901, p. 3200) against certain alleged conspiracies and combinations in restraint of interstate commerce. The case in its principal aspect grew out of the purchase by the Union Pacific Railroad Company in the month of February, 1901, of certain shares of the capital stock of the Southern Pacific Company from the devisees under the will of the late Collis P. Huntington, who had formerly owned the stock. Other shares of Southern Pacific stock were acquired at the same time, the holding of the Union Pacific amounting to 750,000 shares, or about 37 1/2 per cent (subsequently increased to 46 per cent) of the outstanding stock of the Southern Pacific Company. The stock is held for the Union Pacific Company by one of its proprietary companies, the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company. T!
he government contends that the domination over and control of the Southern Pacific Company given to the Union Pacific Company by this purchase of stock brings the transaction within the terms of the antitr...