An act of Congress of 1873 expressly excepted Minnesota from the operation of the mining laws of the United States, leaving all her mineral lands open to settlement or purchase in legal subdivisions, like agricultural or timbered lands, thus virtually giving to lucky speculators these priceless ore deposits. Up to 1889 the state pursued the same policy, selling her school and swamp lands containing ore at the annual sales and getting the usual prices for arable lands. In 1889 the legislature provided for the leasing of ore properties for fifty years at a royalty of twenty-five cents per ton. At this rate, less than one third that obtained by private mine owners, the school fund will be splendidly enriched. The receipts from royalties and contracts in 1907 were $273,433. * * * * * At the close of the year 1907 the railroads of Minnesota had increased their mileage to 8023 miles, having almost doubled it in twenty years. The Supreme Court of the United States in the Blake case, decided in 1876, had affirmed the right of the state of Minnesota to regulate railroad fares and rates, according to the pleasure of the legislature. In 1890 came a decision from the same tribunal in another Minnesota case to the effect that any regulation, whether by statute or through a commission, must be subject to judicial review. The legislature could not deprive a railroad company of its property—rents, issues, and profits included—without due process of law, much less could a commission. This decision with others of the period materially moderated the effect of the “granger cases.” Another litigation arising in the state was of national importance. A small clique of capitalists who had bought control of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railway systems, each of eight thousand miles and more, desiring to operate them as one property or interest, formed a third corporation called the Northern Securities Company. It was chartered in New Jersey, November 13, 1900, with an authorized capital stock of $400,000,000. When duly organized this company proceeded to exchange its own stock for the stocks of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific, and absorbed more than three fourths of them. This consolidation, effecting a monopoly of all traffic between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast for five degrees of latitude, caused the greatest alarm. Governor Van Sant used every means at his disposal to prevent its consummation. A suit, brought by the state in one of her district courts alleging violation of her statute forbidding the consolidation of parallel and competing roads, removed to the Circuit Court of the United States, was there decided against the state on the ground that the Northern Securities was not a railroad company, but a mere “holding company.” An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, but that court declined to review the action below because the case had been