"Excessive capitalization of corporations, dishonest management by their executive officers, the destruction of the rights of the minority, the theft of public utilities, the subordination of public interests to private gain, the debauchery of our local legislatures and executive officers, and the corruption of the elective franchise, have resulted from the facility afforded by the law to corporations to concentrate the control of colossal wealth in the hands of a few men . . . . The question presses ever more importunately for decision whether these marvellous aggregations of capital can be subordinated to the very laws which created them." Legislation in many States, the enactment of the Sherman anti-trust law by Congress, and the decision of the Supreme Court in the Trans-Missouri case rendered insecure trust agreements of the old type, in which constituent corporations surrendered the control of their affairs to trustees. But the current merely shifted to a different channel, the trust proper giving way to the giant corporation having the same aims, methods, and efficiency, while, as more legal, it was less vulnerable. In the railway world, "community of interest" assumed the place of pooling agreements. The Union Pacific acquired large holdings from Collis P. Huntington's estate and controlled the Southern Pacific. The power behind the Southern Railway got control of nearly all the other Southern railways, including the Atlantic Coast Line, the Plant System, and at last even the Louisville and Nashville. The New York Central dominated the other Vanderbilt roads. The Pennsylvania secured decisive amounts of Baltimore and Ohio stock, as well as weighty interests in the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Norfolk and Western, and so on. [1902] [Illustration: Portrait.] Collis P. Huntington. Great banking establishments, foremost among them the house of J. P. Morgan & Co., took to financing these schemes. Morgan re-organized the Northern Pacific, and it would forthwith have pooled issues with the Great Northern but for opposition by the State of Minnesota. James J. Hill was master of the Great Northern, and confidence existed between him and Morgan. They wished a secure outlet for the products of the Northwest, also access to Chicago over a line of their own. After a survey of the field the promoters selected as the most available for the latter office the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. Purchase of shares in this corporation was quietly begun. Soon the Burlington road was apparently in hand. Prices rose. [Illustration: Portrait.] Copyright. 1902. by Pach Bros., N. Y. James J. Hill.