Oregonian Railway Company, 130 U. S. I, and Central Transportation Company v. Pull man Company, 139 U. S. 24. There was a further objection to this lease based on the fact that the road was leased to a corporation controlled by its competitor, contrary to section 4 of article 17 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, as follows: "No railroad, canal, or other corporation, or the lessees, purchasers or managers of any railroad or canal corporation, shall consoli date the stock, property or franchises of such corporation with, or lease or purchase the works or franchises of, or in any way control, any other railroad or canal corporation own ing or having under its control a parallel or competing line." This section of the Constitution had been interpreted in the case of Commonwealth v. Beech Creek Company, i County Court Re ports 223, where a consolidation essentially like that attempted in this case had been held unlawful. Anderson further showed by a newspaper clipping that this case had been affirmed by the Supreme Court, although the case had never been reported in the official reports.
He distinguished the case of Lauman v. Lebanon Valley Railroad Company relied on by the defendants on the ground that it had been decided in 1858, before the Constitu tional provision cited above had been adopted and also on the ground that the roads con solidating at that time were not parallel and competing lines. Anderson's stock, his counsel added, was not for sale. It was private property, and on familiar Constitutional principles it could not be condemned except for a public use. This principle he was able to establish beyond peradventure by late authorities notwithstanding some ill-considered words to the contrary found in Lauman v. Lebanon Valley Rail road Company. The court took the matter under advise ment, but intimated a strong impression that plaintiff's contention was sound in law. Anderson was immediately waited on by counsel for the Pittsburg Northeastern and a confidential interview took place. Next day Anderson sold his stock in the two com panies for seventy-five thousand dollars, dis missed his injunction suit and returned to St Louis.
