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Che Conservative * 7
people in the work of the development
of the state by reducing rates as fast
as increasing business would enable
them to do so.
It will be remembered by those
present that during the almost total
failure of crops in western Nebraska ,
in 1880 , and again in 1898 and 1895 ,
the railroads voluntarily came to the
relief of the sufferers by furnishing
free transportation to thousands of
the citizens of the drouth stricken lo
calities who came to the eastern part
of the state , or went to other states
in search of employment , and to the
numerous agents of the different lo
calities who went east to solicit aid
from their more fortunate brethren ,
and in one year more than a quarter
of a million dollars in freight charges
was rebated to the people of the west
ern part of this state on seed , grain
and feed for teams and stock , and
other relief goods
The foregoing has , I believe , estab
lished the right of the railroads to an
interest in the politics of the state ,
for in almost every case political
issues resolve themselves into mere
business issues , in which so great a
factor as the railroads of Nebraska are
certain to be affected one way or the
other.
Railroads and Politics.
The extent to which the railroads
participate in politics is and has al
ways been very greatly overestimated.
Politicians and the press have very
often found it seemingly to their in
terest to mislead the people on this
subject , and the defeated candidate in
convention and at the polls , has many
times jumped to the conclusion that
he was beaten by the railroads when
as a matter of fact the railroads had
no object or participation in his de
feat. As in every other state , so in
Nebraska , large numbers of men seek
ing public office have sought to gain
favor with the people by charging all
their misfortunes to oppression by
railroads and other corporations , and
some years back a great party which
for several years swept the state , was
created and built up on the theory
that the interests of the railroads and
the people were divergent and con
flicting , and that the former were en
gaged in robbing the latter of the
legitimate fruits of their toil. Dema
gogues in all parties encouraged this
idea , and the state was over run with
candidates for office , and politicians
demanding the most stringent and
unjust legislation against nearly all
forms of corporate enterprise. Up to
this time railroad participation in
state politics had been more in the
nature of rivalry between the Union
Pacific and the Burlington roads in
their efforts to settle up the territory
north and south of the Platte , thoug
which their respective lines run. But
the aggressive action of the new party
caused the rival roads to make com
mon cause against threatened adverse
legislation. A legislature was elected ,
a majority of which was pledged tea
a radical rate regulation , and a bill
known as the Newberry bill was in
troduced. Neither the introducer of
the bill nor a single member of that
legislature pretended to know any
thing about the numerous factors that
enter into the adjustment of lailroad
freight rates , and , as a matter of
course , were unable to say whether
the then prevailing rates were un
reasonable or not. The question had
been a political issue , and they were
bound by party pledges to reduce rates
any how. There was not a man in the
body who had ever spent a single day
in the service of an railroad company ,
making rate sheets. And from * the
very nature of things they could not
know whether or not railroad rates
were too high or too low. This fact
was emphasized1 when , some days after
the bill was introduced , it was dis
covered that the bill actually raised
nearly every rate in the schedule.
When this fact became known , the
bill was withdrawn and another in
troduced , making an average rate so
low as to have finally been declared by
the United States supreme court
to be unconstitutional because
the reductions were so great
as to make them coufiscatory.
However , the agitation for a reduc
tion of rates was continued by the
politicians , although the people them
selves were making little if any com
plaint. I do not think that so much
misinformation was ever furnished
to the people of this state on any
other subject by the politicians who
hoped to secure office for themselves
or friends , by a rousing and taking
advantage of prejudice against the cor
porations. One incident- illustra
tion : One of the founders of the new
party , a former farmer , but at that
time publishing a newspaper , made a
complaint before the board of trans
portation , charging the railroads with
extortion amounting to robbery engrain
grain rates to Chicago. After a radi
cal speech to the board on these lines ,
in which he stated that he repre
sented the farmers of this state ,
asked him if he thought the farmers
of Nebraska would be satisfied with a
rate which would carry their wheat to
Chicago market at three cents per ton
per mile. He replied , "yes , if the rail
roads would make that sort of a rate ,
I would not be here to complain. ' '
When I showed him that there was
at that time no rate in the
state higher than a cent and
a quarter per ton per mile , he
admitted that he know nothing at all
of the details of the rate question and
was relying on the oft repeated charge
that rates wore too high.
Hold-Up Bills.
The prejudices engendered in the
public mind were taken advantage of
by individuals usually not members
of either branch of the legislature , to
procure the introduction and passage
by the house or senate , of all sorts of
bills attacking corporate interests ,
with 110 other motive than that
of personal gain by traffic in their
real or assumed influence with the
members. The business lias grown
from year to year , until it has almost
assumed the dignity of a profession ,
and many members of the legislature
have afterward become aware of the
fact that they had unwittingly lent
themselves to the consummation of
the schemes of the professional hold
up. During more than one session of
the legislature regular syndicates have
been formed for the introduction of
what haveby long familiarity become
known to the general public as hold
up bills. These bills have not always
attacked corporations. Bills to re
duce fees of sheriffs , county clerks ,
clerks of the courts , and other county
officers , so-called pure food bills , at
tacking a single article of manufac
ture , bills for the regulation of various
kinds of business , have been intro
duced with the purpose and expecta
tion of causing the parties threatened
to hurry to the state house and raise
a fund to be disbursed for the defeat
of S"uch legislation. During the last
session of the legislature , bills were
introduced to regulate freight rates ,
to regulate the length of freight
trains , prescribing the number of
brakemeii to a train , to compel the
railroads to equip their engines with
certain kinds of ashpausto equip the
Pullman cars with fire proof safes ,
and numerous other bills of like
character. Believing that the rates
attacked were just and reasonableand
that the details of the management
and operation of the road could better
be left to the men who , by years of
service in the employ of the roads had
become familiar with the subject , the
railroad companies of course opposed
such legislation. There has scarcely
been a bill of this character affecting
the railroads , introduced in the last
ten years , that some man assuming to
have great influence with the mem
bers , has not sought out a representa
tive of one or more of the railroad
companies and offered for a considera
tion to prevent its passage.
It is due to the members of the
legislature , however , to say that in
most instances these offers have come
from the outside , from men who have
sought to use the members of the leg
islature for purposes of personal gain ,
although I have known of regular
