PHI fir
m w mi in in I ii in ii
GEORGE W. BERGE, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
Volume 18
Lincoln, Nebraska, December 14, 1905
Number 30
Sentiment Against Free Pass System
Is Becomina Irresistible
v:
The Pennsylvania railway has issued an announcement th.-
all forms of free transportation will be discontinued at the end of
the present year, "in view of the general agitation on the "subject of
legislation on railroad rates and the abolition of all forms of rebates
Officials of Nebraska railways and their hired lobbyists who
have been wont to describe the free pass as "a mere courtesy" should
note that the managers of the Pennsylvania railway regard it as "a
form of rebate." Such it undoubtedly is when given to a favored
shipper and denied to this shipper's struggling competitor. There
can be no doubt that as a rebate the free pass has done 'great harm,
but as a bribe it has done incalculably more harm. As a bribe it
has warded off for years regulative legislation that would have made
rebating impossible. V
It is to be hoped that the officials of tho Pennsylvania road
are perfectly sincere in abolishing the free pass. There has been
go much hypocrisy about the utterances of railway officials with
reference to free transportation that the action of the Pennsylvania
officials cannot but be regarded with" considerable suspicion. Wher
ever there has been agitation against the free pass its use has been
condemned by railway officials who have expressed the hope that a
law would be passed to prevent the "railways from being held up,
and yet before their words have grown cold these same officials have
set at work the agencies that render futile the efforts of those who
seek to secure anti-pass legislation. In Nebraska the people have
Itad (xpVTicnv.f 1. pretense. Time and again railway
officials have feigned to oc in favor of legislation that would put
an end to the giving and receiving of free transportation, but they
have never issued an announcement such as has come from tho
headquarters of the ' Pennsylvania railway company. If they had
been sincere such an order would have been issued. But the pass
was "too valuable as a bribe to be surrendered, and Nebraska rail
way officials, when convinced that an open fight to maintain f reo
transportation would be perilous, have resorted to hypocrisy.
- ' For thirty years Nebraska has been under the iron heel of
railway domination because of the free jass. How much longer
the railways will be able to hold dominion by means of 'their insidious
bribery system is being determined daily by the growth of the anti
pass sentiment. In Pennsylvania public opinion has caused tho
Pennsylvania railway to discard, or at all events to pretend to dis
card, free transportation. Everywhere in the United States tho
sentiment against free pass bribery is gaining strength. In Ne
braska, where the system is deep-rooted and flourishing, it still has
lease of life. Its doom is sealed, but its days are not exactly num
bered. .Next year free-pass bribery will be one of the most vital
issues before the legislature. Public opinion has condemned the pass
, through the platfonns of all the parties, but the railways still enter
tain hope of defeating radical legislation by some strategy. Tho
people have been patient, but they have spoken. They will not again
see their will thwarted by railway trickery without calling swiftly
to account all recreant legislators.
Two Kinds of Federal Control
In an interesting editorial the New York World protests
against what it calls the "Prussianizing of the Republic." Presi
dent Roosevelt's message is the basis for this protest It will be
recalled that the president made government control, the keynote
of his message, asserting that state laws had been found incapable
of regulating corporations for the benefit of the people. lie argued
that the government should therefore control not only the railways
but all corporations engaged in interstate commerce, and he classed
the insurance Companies with the corporations.
In Prussia, ; and indeed throughout Germany, state ownership
and statccontrol have been carried to an extreme which excites the
f rowning disapproval of many who adhere rigidly to the letter of
Jcfrcrsonian democracy. These worthy folk, are alarmed lest the
central government become so powerful that the rights of indi
viduals will be submerged. It is natural for them to revive the old
cry of state rights and to insist that it is a fundamental principle.
They fear that after the power of control has been centralized at
Washington the corporations will strive more strenuously than ever
to own the president and dominate congress. The World in striking
language portrays the possible outcome:
'Would not the inevitable result of his program be to tosa tho prize
of the federal government into tho arena for plutocracy and the mob fight
for It? The corporate interests of tho country would exert every effort at
their command to control the presidency, in order that the hand of the
Little Father might be laid as tenderly as pojsiblo upon their sordid In
stitution? DemajTOjsuea of the Hearst class would be promising the people
evr thins from free freight to free life Insurance. An Irrepressible con
flict would 1 e rained at once between plutocracy and monocracy. Organized
capital would control the Kovernment whllo the power of money waa u
preme. Then popular tliiwatUfacttoii would give tho demagogue, his day,
with a Hllt!cuI nataclyam that piled panic and disaster upon the deapotlam
of plutocracy.
1
The ni!tuitinii lure U that when the im-oiuV win the down
gogue triumphs. The writer who elaborated the foregoing argu
ment seems to believe that the rule of the people is always "moboc
racy." ' . '
At the present time tho dominance of corporations in the affairs
of government is all but supreme. It is this evil which the people
and their president are seeking to correct. If the people decide to
endow their central government with the power of controlling cor
porations, the result would be, not "moboeracy," but government by
the people. It was upon this theory that our government was
founded, but in practice the government has come under the bane
f uj influence of corporate wealth, so that today wc witness tho
singular spectacle of a president battling with an unfriendly con
gress for restrictive laws which he thinks will protect the public from
the rapacity of the trusts. -
But the president's scheme of federal control gives cause for
just complaint. The president believes in the trusts. He does not
seek to restore competition. He even suggests that the railways be
allowed to kol on rates under federal supervision. If tlic railways
are allowed to jxiol on rates discrimination will be legalized. One
section of the country wiil bo built up at tho exjwnw of another.
High rates to the east will 1 maintained on manufactured product
so that factories will not thrive in the west. This will give the rail
ways tho long haul from the casern states to tho Middle West and
to the Paeitie timst.' High rates to tho west on agricultural product.
will Ihi maintained so that Miecessful farming will o jKwsilile "only
in the west, and thU will give tho railwnys the hug haul to tho
east.
, Tho president does tu t propoo that torHraiion rdiall take out
a government licence upon furnishing prtf that they are not iuo
iiojwdie.. The president dot not fear imnotHh He believes tho
trtMt t a natural evolution. He ha.; ::aHfatth' that coinjnti-