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SARAH If. HARRIS,
Editor.
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J
OBSERVATIONS. :
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It is enough to make even a legislator
smile to read the "protest" of the ticket
scalpers and their patrons against the
bill which proposes to suppress their
"business."
"We, the undersigned, earnestly protest
against the passage of the Sherman bill to
abolish ticket brokerrge. It is detrimental to
the best interests of commercial men and the
public at largo and would tend to perpetuate
railroad pools and combinations."
Ticket brokerage is against the best
interests of commercial men and the
public at large, though the committee
for the "undersigned' who drew up the
protest did not mean to say so. The
passage of the bill to abol.sh ticket
scalping would be detrimental to the
practice of forgery, theft, lying, false
representation, and other contemptible
forms of fraud in which ticket scalpers
and many of their patrons have to in
dulge in order to defraud the railways
out of a part or the whole of their pay
for transportation. Buying and selling
passes and tickets made out in other
people's names constitutes the vapt bulk
of t,he ticket scalper's business and it
cannot exist without fraud and dishon
esty. It is a sneaking trade, carried on
in undertones, with mutual suspicion of
sellers and buyers, its constant object
being to "beat the road.' The seller
fears that he may be dealing with a
"spotter," or that the customer may re
turn and demand his money back be
cause the scheme did not work; the
buyer is worried throughout his journey
by fear that his scalped ticket may be
refused, and he very often suffers the
humiliation of being detected as a
fraud and compelled to give up his pur
chased transportation and pay his fare
over or walk. The whole spirit of the
scalping business is deception; its whole
LINCOLN, NEB., SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 6. 1807
object is to defraud. How can legisla
tors who believe in honesty and right in
the conduct of business hesitate an
instant to suppress this nefarious and
corrupting traffic?
The one ground on which ticket scalp
ers base their impudent claims for pub
lic patronage, that their customers can
get transportation at lower rates than
people who buy honest tickets, is of it
self proof of the unlawfulness of their
business. The fundamental pncci le of
the interstate commerce act is the pre
vention of discrimination and the estab
lishment of equality of charges for
equality of service. The scalper's whole
effort is to evade this law, and he ought
to be suppressed and punished as t de
termined lawbreaker. As long as ticket
Ecjlping exists the interstate commerce
law will be defied.
The Call was not careful to verify the
information it received in regard to the
Lamaster family at 2215 South Ninth
street. The father of the family has
been in jail for stealing ind the county
attorney has almost decided to let him
out in order that he may support bis
family, who have been visited by Mr.
Hebard and Mrs. McCormick repeated
ly. At their request the county com
missioners have supplied them with
food and fuel. The live children have
been ill with the grip and one died, from
the effects of the disease, not from hun
ger. The Call intimates that Mr. Hebard
is in the habit of going to the "peniten
tiary on Sunday with a sanctimonious
face and talking salvation to over 301
convicts whe sit and grin at his efforts to
lead them into the straight and narrow
oath." It is Elder Howe who visits the
prison. Mr. Hebard is busy investigat
ing cases and directing them to the
proper sources of relief. It is just as
well to ''keep things sep'rate," Mr. Aus
tin. Howe is the name of the man who
disburses charity and exhortation irre
sponsibly and alternately.
The proposition for Nebraska to send
aid to Chicago ia an insult to the new
rich city. The pspere have taken up the
cause of a few hundred professional
mendicants, too lazy and too haughty to
work in the wood-yards or other poverty
testing workshops in Chicago, and the
newspapers are wholly responsible for
the false impression that Chicago is un
able to care for her poor. No city in the
country has a better organized charity
system, unless it be Baltimore. There,
as here, it is the constant effort of the
charity organization society to help the
unfortunate to help themselves, to exer
cise the muscles of hereditary and pro
fessional beggaiB at wood -yards, to icn
plant a seed of self respect which will
eventually lift them or their descend
ants out of the "submerged fifth." The
beggars rebel at this heroic treatment;
they say they will starve first. The soci
ety says, "All right, starve!" But the
flabby spine which the beggars inherit
from some lazy old vertebrate keeps
them even from starving with consistency
and decision. The beggar drops into the
first editorial office he comes to and
pours his woe into the ears of a sickly,
sentimental, unscientific chump of an
editor who never investigated a cause or
misery in his life. He prints the beg
gar's story. Why should it not be a
good one? Toe beggar has not done
anything in all his life but piactice
"touchiug"' stones. The charity organ
ization societies which are really in the
way of curing pauperism are called all
the red tape nanr.es the gifted young
man in the revolving chair can think of.
and the dirty, vicious tramp is encour
aged in his parasitic life. It is in Lin
coln as it is in Chicago. It is all very
well to stand up for Nebraska and to
advertise it, rnd Nebraska is worthy of
all praise and fealty, but let us not in
sult Chicago or the magnificent state of
Illinois with a carload of victuals. We
have troubles enough of our own, and
the head-piece which Nebraska confid
ingly selected to ponder on affairs of
state for the next two years is not able
to enlarge the field of thought without
danger to itself. It is doubtful what
would become of the corn if it were sent
to Chicago, for by all the instincts of
pelf-respect the city would refuse it, and
the unmitigated, incorrigible bums
would not get a sight of it.
Every legislature goes through some
form of buncomb during the first few
days. It nearly always occurs at a period
not far from the eighth day of the ses
sion. The house or senate has generally
been dallying with some trifling matter
for an hour or two, perhaps discussing
as they always do in the same old way,
the same old question of stamps and
newspaper-wrappers. Then an indig
nant member arises, on whose mind
rests the burden of the value of time,
and in loud and warning tones, counts
up and tells the number of Lours that
have been wasted in the discussion and
what it has cost the people of the state.
And then he warns them that the fool
ishness must cease or they will hear the
roar of an outraged public who will no
longer be trifled with, and that they
must immediately get down to business
and do something for the people.
AH of this talk is arrant nonsense. If
the legislature were to spend three hours
every day for the first ten days discusp.
ing the acoustic properties of the senate
chamber, it wouidn't cost the state an
additional dollar, nor would the state
lose a cent. There is practically nothing
that either house can do until the rou
tine of organization is accomplished and
a quantity of bills well under way. It
is all the same in cost whether they are
in session thirty minutes or six hours,
whether they remain still or discuss the
Cuban question indefinitely.
The first three weeks of a session
seems to be almost wasted. To get a
number of bills through the grind so
that either house can begin considera
tion takes about that period of time. If
it were possible to begin the considera
tion of bills at once, a much larger
amount of business could be accomp
lished. The advantage would depend
on whether the doing of a largo amour. t
of legislative business is consideted de
sirable or not.
If all the bills that failed for any rea
son to be disposed of at ono session
should go over, and bo ready for imme
diate consideration at the next, many
good bills that died because of never
bjing reached, would thus live over and
be ready for attention. Quito a per
centage of successful bills at present are
fought through not on their merit, but
because they have a successful cham
pion. But if all bills not passed or de
feated should live over there would bo
something for the next session to take
hold of without delay. Thus every bill
would, some time, be considered and
Btand or fall on its merits.
Such a plan would be economy The
printed bills would be on hand without
additional cost of printing. As it is at
present nearly a I those bits are intro
duced over again at each session and
have to be printed at a great cost. Many
often wonder why the number of bills
introduced grows larger at each session.
It is because the old ones are introduced
in addition to all the new ones specialty
prepared. Members muss be heard from.
Their constituents must ba made to
think they are doing something. So
they ransack the old files of former ses
sions, copy off the bills and introduce
them. This has the appearance of busi
ness. Sometimes several memtera in
troduce the same bill. Sometimes bills
are introduced that have been defeated
one or more times. Some members hav
even been known to introduce bills that
have been passed and been laws for
years.
Bills living over from one session to
the next would have the advantage of
careful study during the two years by
prospective members of the legislature
as well as the public generally. Some
kind of a commission could examine and
report at the beginning of sessions oa
the change and effect of each bill. In
fact, there would be a certain advantags
if all important bills were introduced ia
one session and passed upon in the next.
Certainly not so mary crude and ill
considered laws would pass the legis
lature. But, of course, such a thing is
almost a fairy tale. It cannot be dons
and our legislatures must go os in ths
same "happy go lucky" way as hereto
fore. It is not easy to keep from slopping
over in regard to Rudyard Killings
story "Captain's Courageous," uow run
ning in "McCIure's." To get a briny
stinging slap of water right in the face
fifteen hundred miles from the sea, de
mands some kind of a tribute to the man
who brings the ocean thus far. From
the barrack room to the jungle, from
men to animals.from four footed animals
to the literary and artistic set in London ,