Railroads and Anti-Trust

For full story, click title. A little over 100 years ago, some famous names — J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and Minnesota’s James J. Hill — got together and formed the Northern Securities Co., a trust to control the Northern Pacific Railway, the Great Northern Railway, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and other lines. The nation’s rail system west of Chicago became a monopoly, and there was great public outcry. President Teddy Roosevelt took umbrage, filed a law-suit against the trust and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1904 held that the Sherman Anti-trust Act forbid such monopolistic control. The Northern Securities Co. was dissolved. Out of this, President Roosevelt earned the reputation as a “trustbuster.” Unfortunately, we seem to have forgotten why he was one.