The Globe Republican

If the case be correctly reported, Judge Rainer, in the United States Circuit Court at Topeka, Kansas, has delivered a decision affirming the right of railroads to combine "for the regulation of business and to prevent demoralization in rates." He holds that by the organization of such associations the railroads do not necessarily monopolize, nor attempt to monopolize, nor combine, nor conspire to grasp any part of the trade and commerce among the several States. He held that the Trans-Missouri Freight Association (since dissolved) was not illegal, nor was there anything illegal in the agreement under which it was operated: that it was not a conspiracy to put in effect and maintain illegal or unreasonable rates, and was not destructive of legitimate competition among the roads, and therefore not contrary alike to the statutes and to public policy. He held further that, even supposing all these things to have been done, the anti-trust act does not in any sense apply, and cannot in any way be made to apply, to common carriers. The decision is so thoroughly in favor of the roads that they could scarcely ask or desire anything further, unless it be that the decision shall be sustained by the Supreme Court on appeal, of which it is reasonable to suppose there is at least some doubt. If the decision is sustained by the highest authority, it will be interpreted as covering the right to organize the pooling associations that have been talked of recently among the railroad magnates.