Edward Douglass White

“ The want of foundation for the proposition relied upon disposes of all the assigned errors except the one the consideration of which we previously postponed because they all, in a greater or less degree, depend upon such proposition, and to the extent that they do not, they are devoid of all merit for the following reasons: (a) Because the interlocutory decree was in strict compliance with the mandate; (b) because the contracts and agreements executed by the parties to remove the causes of illegality, and which were approved by the court, were adequate for that purpose ”

“ There the United States filed the mandate and asked an interlocutory decree giving the time fixed by this court to take the steps which were decided to be necessary to make the organization of the defendants a legal one under the anti-trust act. The defendants presented a statement of what was proposed by them to be done in compliance with the decree of this court to accomplish the result stated, and over some objection on the part of the United States, an interlocutory decree was entered which in many respects accepted as sufficient what was proposed to be done by the defendants. ”

“ It may not be disputed that the clause of the first paragraph of the decree which is in the margin, [2] pointing out the character of the business which the terminal company, as reorganized, was authorized to pursue, is susceptible of the construction that the right was excluded to do anything but a terminal business in the narrow sense, and therefore did not permit the company to carry on as ancillary to its terminal business a transportation business, even although originating and terminating on its lines. ”

“ The combination may, however, exist and continue as a lawful unification of terminal facilities upon abandoning all operating methods and charges as and for railroad transportation, and confining itself to the transaction of a terminal business such as supplying and operating facilities for the interchange of traffic between railroads, and to assist in the collecting and distributing of traffic for the carrier companies, switching, storage, and the like, and modfying its contracts as herein specified. ”

“ This condition is not escaped by the suggestion that such limitations, if imposed, would not have been in substance repugnant to the act to regulate commerce, since, as the rate from which the repugnancy would arise would only apply to business done by the combination, and as the combination would have to be dissolved because of the repugnancy, therefore the repugnancy would cease to exist from the very fact that it arose. ”

“ In support of its petition affidavits were filed by the terminal company showing the movement of many thousands of cars annually in the business referred to, and giving the names of very many of those concerned in the movement. The prayer of the terminal company for a modification was refused without passing on its merits, the court expressly holding that it had no jurisdiction to do so, as the previous appeal taken by the United States from the final decree had transferred the case to this court. ”

“ Some of these petitions alleged that the raw material was prepared at one point and the manufactured product made by using the raw material at another, and that consequently an impossibility of continuing business would result from the inability to transport from one place to another. ”