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GEORGE W. BERGE, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
Volume 18
Lincoln, Nebraska, August 24, 1905
Number 14
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It was an interesting story- that Thomas D. Worrall told at the
Omaha hearing of the injunction case against the Nebraska Grain
Dealers' association. It gave the public an. insight into the methods
by which legislators are . corrupted, and it is a rather striking fact
that free tickets, free dinners and free entertainments of various
kinds are relied upon as the cheapest and most effective means of
obtaining important results. To kill measures considered hostile
to the interests of the trust, few, if any, cash bribes were given.
Free "courtesies" did the work.
Mr. Worrall hinted that there was one ugly transaction toward
the close of the legislative session of 1903. "I think .we did make
one mistake," was his way of expressing the idea, but he did not
specify, and the point was not pressed He did not mention the
names of any legislators who had been influenced by the grain
trust lobby, and this point, too, was ignored by both the attorney
general arid the attorneys for the defendants. These names may
be brought out later in the investigation, and there is no good
. reason why the guilty legislators should be shielded.
If the transactions were of such a nature that the members
"cannot be punished under the law, it is desirable that they should
be condemned at the bar of public opinion.. Publicity has always
been recognized as a powerful restraint on bribe-givers and bribe
takers. As long as they can work in secret they will care little
for public disapproval that cannot be brought home to them. But
when the legislator understands that he will not be shielded from
1 public opinion and from the scorn and contempt of his immediate
neighbors he will be less inclined to avail himself of the bribes
and courtesies that are held out to him at every turn during a
legislative session. On the other hand, if he finds that at every
investigation to uncover corruption the name of-the bribe-taker
is suppressed, the dishonest legislator will not fear to accejt every
bribe that is offered.
Otto Siedel, a Milwaukee councilman who fell under the in
fluence of the bribe-givers, has revealed how cheaply the game of
bribery is played. One big bribe is given, and after that the bribe
taker's vote has only a small market value. In Nebraska the bribe
taker seems to be even cheaper. His love for tilings that are freo
is possibly derived from the free-pass habit which became popular
in the early days of legislative history.
By his testimony Mr. Worrall is placed in the light of hav
ing been perhaps the most active member of the trust. It was ho
who acted as treasurer and disbursing agent in handling the cor
ruption fund, but he seems to have been unconscious that the work
he did in conjunction with Updike, Peck, Fowler, Duff, Westbrook,
Ferguson and Wright was wrong, except as to the one case, which
he called "a mistake." V
The testimony of Mr. Worrall and Mr. Peavey placed in a much'
clearer light the operations of the grain trust. The methods em
ployed to destroy the business of independent dealers were eluc
idated and instances were cited of dealers who were driven out of
business or forced to join the combination. Apparently the caao
against the trust has been proved. The evidence seems to sustain
every allegation made by Mr. Worrall or by Attorney General Norris
Brown. If the charter of the Nebraska Grain Dealers' associa
tion cannot be revoked it will not be due to any weakness in tho
a. ..j.: '
lesumuiiY.
The members of the Nebraska Grain Dealers' association can
no longer say that there is no" trust. They are somewhat in the
position in which Congressman Dingley is said to have found him
self on one occasion when he was debating with Tom Johnson con-!
ce ruing the existence of trusts.
"There are no trusty", said Dingley.
"How about the steoistljjtrust?" asked Mr. Johnson without
a suggestion of guile. ' r
"There is no such trust, and there never was one," snapped
Mr. Dingley. x
"There is a steel rail trust," calmly replied Mr. Johnson; "and
am president of it."
Public Ownership and Paternalism in Government
"" Reading, Mass., Aug. 14. To the Editor of The Independent: Is it not
true that our railroads sive the people twice as cheap freight rates as government-owned
roads? Is it not true that the Boston street railway is
superior to the Glasgow street railway in everything? And was Jefferson
not correct when he said that government was best which governed least.
F. G. R. GORDON.
The writer of this note has perhaps been reading some of the
bureaucratic literature comparing freight rates in this country with
the rates charged by the government-owned roads of Europe. The
Independent has already taken occasion to demonstrate the worth
lessness of these statistics. .
In Europe there is no such things as a long haul. A haul
of 300 miles is a long haul in Germany or France, whereas in the
United States 1,000 miles is about the shortest of our long hauls. '
Surely, our correspondent would not contend that rates in such
countries as Germany and France should be as low as rates in the
United States. The question rather would be, are the rates, on",
the government roads of Europe higher in proportion to the average
length of the haul? Some of the railway bureaucrats have con
tended that such is the case, but their comparisons are based on
what they term the "per ton mile." .
The average per ton mile for the United States is 7G cents.
J. J. Hill, who is the largest stockholder of this road, recently
compared this rate with the per ton mile of Russia, where, he
said, "the conditions of long hauls are more like out own." He
states that the American rate is only 42 per cent of the Russian
rate, on the per ton mile basis. On this basis, therefore, the Rus
sian rate would be $1.01. Mr. Hill, however, fails to take into
consideration some important facts. ,
The average car-capacity of the Trans-Siberian railroad is
about eight tons and the trains are not long. Many American cars
have a capacity of fifty tons and the trains are long. An English
visitor to the United States was recently astonished to see on the
New York Central road a train one mile in length. Moreover,
the railways in this country have 80 to 100 pound rails; their
rolling stock and locomotives are of the best, and their trains make
fast time. A freight train leaving Moscow does not reach Vladi-'
vostock, 5,300 miles away, in le,ss than eighteen days. Like dis
tances are covered in the United States in less than a week. In
1903 the Trans-Siberian raod transported 1,000,000 tons of freight
and during the same period the Pennsylvania road transported
70,000,000 tons. If under such circumstances freight can be trans
ported in Russia for $1.G1 it would seem possible to transport
freight in the United States at a lower rate than 70 cents.
The rate per ton mile in Germany is $1.40. The average'
haul per ton is GO miles against 130 miles in the United States.
And it must not be lost sight of that the terminal charges absorb
an increasing proportion of the rate as the haul is shortened. On
this basis the rate in the United States should not be over sixty
five cents. It must not be forgotten, moreover, that in the United
States there is a relatively greater amount of low-grade freight