Theodore Roosevelt

Presidency

What major trust did Roosevelt break up during his first couple years in office?

Roosevelt instructed his attorney general Philander C. Knox to investigate the Northern Securities Trust, a conglomeration of James J. Hill’s Great Northern Railroad, E. H. Harriman’s Union Pacific Railroad, and J. P. Morgan’s Northern Pacific Railroad. Northern Securities Trust served as a holding company for their collective earnings. Roosevelt earned his reputation as a trust-buster extraordinaire, as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1904 that the company did violate the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.