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.