A
AT
GEORGE W. BERGE, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
Volume 18
Lincoln, Nebraska, June 8, 1905
Number 3
! 1 , i S : '
Pas's Holders
TDodging
In their convention held at Falls City last week to nominate a congress-
man to fill the unexpired term made vacant by the election of Mr. Burkett
to the senate, the republicans passed the following resolution:
"We favor legislation that will prohibit the giving of free transporta
tion to all public officials and that will prohibit officials receiving and
using the same, believing that the pass system is an evil, a burden on .the
transportation companies and against public interest."
The Independent is always glad when any headway is made along right
lines.' There is some headway made in the passage of this resolution by
the republican convention, but not as much as the face of the record would
indicate. Why did the convention pass that resolution? Did it do so be
cause it honestly believed what it said, or because it was whipped into it
by public sentiment? Is that resolution an honest expression by honest
men working only for the public good, or is it an expression by a conven
tion of politicians playing the ; game of politics? These are questions on
.which every voter wishes to be enlightened.
; The. Independent believes that there were delegates , in that convention
who went to the convention without passes, and who honestly and conscien
tiously are opposed to the free pass evil. But a majority of "the delegates
had railroad passes in their pockets when the resolution was introduced,
and when it was passed. These delegates voted for the resolution not that
they favored it, but because they knew that the public favored it, and be
cause they thought it was good politics.
v No class of men in politics is more dangerous to society than this class.
It is right and proper that delegates to conventions should respond to public
sentiment, but this response must be sincere and with an intention to carry
out the people's will. No one, however, can believe that delegates are sin
cere when their own individual conduct is out of harmony with public senti
ment. If all pass holders, like men, would stand up and try to defend the
free pass, the pass evil would soon be done away with. This, however, they
will not do. The real trouble ahead for the people is to know who are
sincerely opposed to the pass evil, and who are simply playing the game of
politics. The Independent will point out a way by which every voter can
tell, without fail, to which class any delegate to any convention belongs,
and also to which class every candidate belongs. Find out whether he has
a pass in his pocket. Find out whether in private life he has been riding
POWER OF POPULAR ANTAGONISM
The popular victories achieved in Wisconsin, Kansas and Missouri, in
Chicago and Philadelphia, are teaching a golden lesson. They show that
wherever public sentiment has been aroused against railway or corporation
tyranny the people have made substantial progress in their contests to free
themselves from extortion and injustice.
V It is a lesson that will inspire the people with hope. It will convince
them that the railways , and corporations are not invulnerable, that their
grip on. legislative bodies can be loosened, and that their most skillfully
. contrived plans can be utterly defeated. There are those who fear the trusts
have grown too powerful to be restrained and controlled, and this timidity
leads them to believe that all antagonism by the people is doomed to failure.
Were the people generally to adopt such a view the trusts would indeed
become invulnerable, but indifference is everywhere giving way to a spirit
of resolute opposition. Inspired by the recent success of popular movements
against corporation rule, the lukewarm and pessimistic have joined the ranks
of reform and will hereafter fight its battles with confidence and deter
mination. " . ' .
In staid, sleepy, and apathetic Philadelphia, where bossism and ring
rule had so long carried out the will of the corporations, the people were
suddenly aroused by a scandalous "gas steal." The resoluteness, nay actual
ferocity, with which the citizens began their fight on the United Gas Im
provement company, was a revelation to the country. Some were inclined
to think that the Quakers had taken their stand too late. Others Iield that
at best the fight would be tedious and discouraging. Even the citizens them
jueeewe
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Public
free, or whether he has been paying his fare. You can tell by this sign
only. It is a sure sign, however, in every case.
Wha a spectacle it is to see a convention of free pass holders condemn
ing free passes and favoring a law to abolish them! What a spectacle it is
to see a convention of delegates demanding a law to make pass giving
and pass receiving a misdemeanor, while most of them have the evidence
of the misdemeanor in their pockets? The Independent insists that no
effective anti-pass legislation can ever be obtained, and that the railways
in this state, or, for that matter, in the entire country, can never be con
trolled until all men with free passes are excluded from nominating con
ventions. ; ,
But the resolution passed by this congressional convention does not go
far enough. Why limit to public officials the prohibition of free passes?
It is apparent that the convention did not grasp the real evil of free passes.
The current of the free pass evil runs much deeper than the meaning of
that resolution. 1 J
In the first place the free pass is wrong, and should be prohibited
by law because it bribes. The free-pass system is a colossal bribe. The
system has bribed mayors, city councils, legislatures, judges, state officers,
and thereby the people have been betrayed, sold out and robbed of millions
of dollars. The wrong done by the boodlers of St. Louis is insignificant
compared to the wrong done by the free-pass system in nearly every state
in the union.
But the evil does not end with the bribe. The free pass is wrong for
another reason. It is wrong because it unjustly discriminates. Both public
officials and private citizens must cease to ride on passes. Why should
one man pay to ride on the trains and his neighbor ride free? Why should
the rich man ride free and the poor man pay? The state gives the rail--ways
the right to transact business in the state. The railways are public
highways. The state cannot permit any discrimination between its citizens.
It is wrong to permit freight discrimination. It is even a greater wrong
to permit passenger discrimination. Why did not the republicans in their
congressional convention pass a resolution that meant something? We
can find the answer in the convention itself. There were too many pass
holding delegates in that convention. Let a movement be inaugurated at
once that will shut out for all time from all conventions all pass holding
delegates.
selves shared in this latter belief. They beheld mighty powers of- greed
and corruption arrayed against them. The committee of seventy was forced
to seek legal help in New York because all the leading lawyers of Phila
delphia had been retained by interests allied with the United Gas Improve
ment company. . Even when Mayor Weaver rid himself of two officials who
openly sided with the "gang," the people did not dream that the United
Gas Improvement company could be frightened from its course. When
the members of the common and select councils began to desert the "gang"
and declare against the lease, the citizens did not expect an easy triumph,
but suddenly the gas company retired from the field in a panic. Its presi
dent announced that even were the ordinance granting the lease to be passed
over the mayor's veto the company would not, enter into the contract.
At first the people were a bit mystified. They could not understand
clearly why the United Gas' Improvement company had been seized with such
a sudden fright. In a few days, however, the reasons back of the move
came to light. The United Gas Improvement company holds franchises
in forty cities. On an average four of these leases expire every year and
the company almost invariably seeks renewals of its contracts. The gas
officials discovered that the Philadelphia agitation was extending to the
other cities in which they transacted business and that there was great
danger that they would be unable to obtain extensions of their franchises.
They realized that even though they gained the franchise they sought in
Philadelphia it would not compensate them for the franchises they would
lose elsewhere. Then they hauled down the black flag of piracy and sur
rendered. The Philadelphia episode is a lesson, which the people of this country