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But votes that are purchasable are quicksands, and a government built on them stands upon corruption and revolution. — Beecher. Real political issues cannot ie manufac- tured by the leaders of political parties, and real ones cannot be evaded by political parties. The real political issues of the day declare themselves, and come out of the depths of that deep which we call public opinion. — Garfield. J5he Free Pa^ss Bribery System Showing How the Railroads, Through the Free Pass Bribery System, Procure the Government Away from the People BY GEORGE W. BERGE 1905 THE INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING COMPANY LINCOLN, NEBRASKA. COPYRIGHT, 19CB, by george w. berge HE £45 ^ Contents Page Portrait Frontispiece Introduction vii CHAPTER I. The Free Pass-Holders a Policing Squad for the Railroads 1 CHAPTER II. The Most Powerful Weapon of This Policing Squad is The Free Pass Bribery System . 9 CHAPTER III. The Free Pass Machine is Placed in the Hands of Capable Managers 16 CHAPTER IV. Professional Pass Distributors and Pass Super- intendents 21 CHAPTER V. Treason of Old Time Pass-Holders ... 30 CHAPTER VI. The Seductive Influence of the Free Pass . . 38 CHAPTER VII. Passes and Perjury 44 CHAPTER VIII. The Lobbyists Organize the Legislature . . 53 CHAPTER IX. Pass Bribery Leads to Graft 64 CHAPTER X. The Free Pass System Leads to Double Dealing in Politics 75 CHAPTER XI. State Institutions in Grip of Pass Bribery System gl Contents. CHAPTER XII. The Free Pass System is a Conspiracy . . 88 CHAPTER XIII. Big Corporations Hover Over and Protect the Little Corporations 95 CHAPTER XIV. The Betrayal of the People by Pass-Holding Officials 100 CHAPTER XV. The Nebraska Legislature and the President . 106 CHAPTER XVI. No Rope for Railroad Regulation From the Na- tional Congress Until The Free Pass System is Destroyed in the States .... Ill CHAPTER XVII. High Local Freight Rates and the "Long Haul" 116 CHAPTER XVIII. Serving Two Masters 121 CHAPTER XIX. Government is a Matter of Politics . . . 133 CHAPTER XX. Reply to a Railroad Lobbyist .... 143 CHAPTER XXI. Speech Before Committee on Railroads on Anti- Pass Bill CHAPTER XXII. Opening Speech of 1904 Campaign CHAPTER XXIII. The Government of Our Cities CHAPTER XXIV. Editorials From The Independent . 153 . 185 . 219 . 23? Biographical Sketch 30' The Free Pass Bribery System INTRODUCTION. The people of Nebraska and of the whole country are just now studying the railroad ques- tion. They are more interested in this subject than they have ever been before, and for ob- vious reasons. It is dawning upon the public that both in politics and business the railroads are the real masters of destiny: Instead of business enterprise succeeding or failing upon its merits, it succeeds or fails according to rail- road will. Instead of honest and independent men being placed in positions of trust they are pulled down and the weak and pliant tools are placed in control of public affairs. Instead of public officials compelling railroads to obey the law, the railroads compel the public officials to serve them and betray the people. Instead of the railroads serving all the people justly and without discrimination and at reasonable rates, the railroads levy tribute upon the honest citizenship of the country, while at the same tine they shield and prefer and favor thoso viii The Free Pass Bribery System. who betray the people and serve them. In other words, honest men, fair dealing and rep- resentative government are all pulled down and a railroad oligarchy controls the government. Up to this time the people have not fully understood this. They have seen this whole railroad question "as through a glass darkly." They are coming, however, to understand the question more fully. In recent years the rail- roads have so ruthlessly trampled under foot the rights of the people and so spurned with contempt their wishes, that everywhere the people are beginning to ask whether the railroads are subject to the law, or whether they are out- side and above the law. They are inquiring whether railroad influence is stronger than the government, or whether the government is stronger than the railroads. They are vigor- ously taking hold of this question, and the indi- cations are that the honest inquiring mind of the public will find out just where the trouble is, and when they have found this out there is no question but what they will find a remedy. The people have approached this question one step nearer than ever before. They see that the real trouble is not so much with the law as with the official. They see that the official, after Introduction. ix he is elected, serves the railroads and not the people who elect him. They see that no matter what the law is, it ultimately depends upon the official for its en- forcement. It has dawned upon the public that many officials elected, in city, county and state governments, and even in the national govern- ment, become in fact, after they are elected, representatives of the corporations. The peo- ple, therefore, everywhere are inquiring why this is ; and by what influence or through what instru- mentality the railroads procure this power over the official. As candidate for governor of Nebraska in 1904, I said that the railroads procured this control through The Free Pass System. I said that The Free Pass System was a bribery sys- tem ; that it stood between the people and their government, and that before we could regulate railroads, and again have representative gov- ernment, The Free Pass System must be de- stroyed. I said that many officials were inno- cently caught in this slimy net, but that most candidates for office and public officials deliber- ately entered into a conspiracy with the rail- roads to defeat the people's will. I further said that with few exceptions all pass holding ic The Free Pass Bribery System. officials "were loyal servants of the railroads, and that as a rule the people could not trust them. I am more convinced now than ever before that what I then said is absolutely true. While The Free Pass System is only an evil incident to the railroad question, yet I maintain that we cannot regulate railroads, nor make much head- way in government ownership, until The Free Pass System is striken down. It bribes the offi- cials; it bribes private citizens holding the passes. I have nothing to do, however, with in- dividuals. I speak of them only in this volume a.? I am obliged to in order to show the operation of this vicious bribery system. It is The Free Pass Bribery System that I condemn and which I insist is the instrumentality used by the rail- roads to procure control over the officials elected by the people and consequently control over the government. The Free Pass System is wrong and inde- fensible for two reasons. In the first place it is a bribery system. It bribes public offi- cials ; it also bribes private citizens. As a sys- tem it is a colossal bribe. Through the officials it bribes whole cities, counties and states. Money bribery in St. Louis is insignficant compared to free pass bribery in Nebraska. I maintain that Introduction. xi the power for evil of The Free Pass Bribery System is far greater than bribery with money. Few men can be bribed with money, but many men can be bribed with a free railroad pass. Its influence is so insidious that it is at first not understood by those who receive the passes. Therefore the free pass is much more dangerous and deadly in its work of bribery than money in the hands of the corporations. The Free Pass System is wrong in the second place because it unjustly discriminates. Those who condemn freight discrimination certainly cannot defend passenger discrimination. I in- sist that passenger discrimination is even a greater evil and works greater hardships than freight discrimination. Think of the woman with her children, who has paid for her ride on the train, but who is too poor to buy a berth in the Pullman, sitting up all night in the car just back of the smoker, while back in the Pull- man berths you find many who live in marble palaces, sleeping soundly all night, who neither paid to ride on the train nor to sleep in the berths. This is only a sample of the discrimin- ation practiced many thousand times each day in this country. No one will defend it. Such injustice should stir to action every true Ameri- xii The Free Pass Bribery System. can citizen. Xo man does his full duty as a citizen who does not contribute his influence to help eliminate such an evil. I am willing to concede that the railroad question will not be entirely solved as long as railroads are owned and controlled by private individuals. Government ownership is the only real solution of this great question. My posi- tion, however, is that government ownership is yet quite far away, and that until we can have government ownership, the people must regu- late and control the railways. It would not be right for us to say that we believe in govern- ment ownership, and then fold our arms and let the railroads rob and plunder the people and bribe their public servants. I believe the rail- roads can be regulated with honest officials. This does not mean that any injustice will be done the railroads, but it does mean that the people will be justly treated by the railroads. Since my campaign last fall, at odd hours and many times late in the night, I have writ- ten this little volume. It has been hastily pre- pared, and I make no pretense of discussing the subject fully or adding anything in a perma- nent way to the literature of the day. My only reason for writing this book is a desire to help Introduction. xiii improve conditions and do my part in making this government better and stronger for the peo- ple. I hope it will be of current interest, and that what I have said will help to awaken the people upon this vital and all important ques- tion. In its preparation I have received much valuable help from others who are vitally in- terested in this question for which I desire to make due acknowledgments. I have also added a paper I read on the pass question at a club meeting when a rail- road lobbyist tried to defend the pass question ; also a speech I made before the railroad com- mittee on an anti-pass bill I had drawn. This speech covers the question quite fully and I think it will be of interest. Also extracts from my opening speech of the 1904 campaign are given. This speech was quoted quite ex- tensively and aroused the people to the real dangers of this bribery system. Also I give some editorials from The Independent of which I am editor and publisher. These will all bo found interesting to those wishing to be- come posted upon this important question. I shall feel amply repaid for my efforts, if what is contained herein will help to arouse xiv The Free Pass Bribery System. the people so that in the very near future such legislation will be passed as will forever sound the death knell to this bribery system. GEOEGE W. BERGE. The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTER I. THE FREE PASS HOLDERS A POLICING SQUAD FOR THE RAILROADS. Corporation mastery over the politics and government of Nebraska people commenced with the beginning of railroad construction on Ne- braska soil. From the laying of the first tie, and the spiking down of the first iron rail, ex- tortion in business and control of the state gov- ernment were inseparably linked together in the railroad plans. The railroad builders foresaw from the beginning that extortionate freight rates would be resisted by the people. They foresaw that this resistance, after it had passed through the first stage, that of protest and agita- tion, would ultimately resolve itself into a trial pf political strength between the railroads and the people for the control of the state govern- 2 The Free Pass Bribery System. ment. In this struggle for the control of the state government the people had the advantage in position because they had the legal right to govern under the constitution. The people un- der the constitution had the right through their legislative representatives to regulate transpor- tation rates by law. To prevent the enactment of such law must be the steady purpose of the corporations, and to this end they must control the law-makers. Not only must the railroads procure and maintain control over the lawmaking body, but they must have control over the courts and the executive officials of the state; for a part of the law is its interpretation by the courts and its enforcement or non-enforcement by the executive authorities. In short, corporation influence must dominate the whole state government. It must dethrone the constitution, pull down rep- resentative government, and set up and maintain government by railroads. 'Every corporation that wants to plunder the public by extortion must get its influence into the various official departments. And it must do this in a manner so adroit that the public will not fully understand its purpose or the means by which it secured this advantage. Cor- TJie Free Pass Bribery System. 3 porations, when they want power in govern- ment, secure it by securing the man. The gov- ernment is the man. The policeman on hie beat, the mayor in the city hall, the legislative member in his seat at the state house, the gov- ernor in the executive office, the attorney gen- eral in the law department, the judge on the bench, — what these men do as officials is the government. Whatever will force controls the action of these men, is the power that governs. The drum-beating of party politics, under gov- ernment by corporations, is only a trick for the entertainment of the people in public, while the corporation wires are pulled in private behind the scenes. Men get into office through the machinery of politics. The railroad builders in the early days perceived that to have influence with the office-holders, they, too, must get into politics. They must control not only the men who hold the offices, but the public sentiment of the peo- ple and the working machinery of the party organizations. Politics in the early days was just what it is nenv and always will be, the only court where the common citizen can stand up for himself and make Lid own plea, — the only battle ground The Free Pass Bribery System. where lie can fight. Whoever wins in politics wins the whole fight. The corporations must meet and defeat the people in politics, or the battle to them would be lost forever. The peo- ple are in the majority. If they center their purposes and stand together for any definite principle of justice, their power is invincible. In order to distract the attention, confuse the judgment, and divide the purposes of the peo- ple, corporation influence must get itself in among the people. It must have political agents out pjuong the people in every part of the state, who will represent its interests in the control of public sentiment, and in the manipulation of local p litics. These agents must be men of influ- ence. They must be competent to get results. They must be experienced and skilled in the political game. They must know how to strike attitudes and to pose before the public in such a manner that their real purposes are not dis- covered. They must be betrayers of the people. They must not only bo tray each man in his home community, but they must submit to dis* cipline and be organize;! into a systematic be- trayal of the whole public under some central control. All this the railroads understood from the The Free Pass Bribery System. beginning, and they realized that it meant a state-wide conspiracy. It meant a conspiracy that would get corporate power in between the people and the constitution. It meant a con- spiracy that would reduce representative gov- ernment to an empty form. It meant much in money. It meant an ex- tortion on every car of food product that would be shipped out of the state. It meant extortion oi! every car of coal, building material and mer- chandise that would be shipped into the state. It meant extortion on every carload of apples that the farmers of Richardson county wanted fee sell to the farmers of Custer county. It meant extortion on every carload of hay which the hay-producers of the Republican and Elk- horn Valleys wanted to sell in the markets of Lincoln and Omaha. It meant the cold blooded robbery of every poor man who wanted to move his household goods from one part of the state to another. It meant the levying of unlawful tribute on every era to, box, bundle or parcel shipped from the wholesale merchants of Lin- coln and Omaha to the retail merchants of the towns and villages. It meant, in the aggregate, the systematic plundering of the whole people of millions of dollars annually; and it meant that 6 The Free Pass Bribery System. these political agents were bound to hold their hands over the eyes of governors, judges, legis- lators, congressmen, and United States senators, and over the mouths of the plundered people, so that there would be no official action and no outspoken public sentiment to interfere. To get men into such a conspiracy meant that there must be some consideration. This consideration must be of a character so subtle that the element of bribery in it would not be fully understood by the public or even by the conspirators themselves. "We can bribe these Nebraska politicians with a free pass system," said the railroad man- agers to each other. "They will not understand at the first the full meaning of our plans, and when they finally do, they will be so corrupt, and the whole political system so completely en- snared, that resistance will be impossible." "While the railroad workmen were complet- ing the first track between Omaha and Grand Island, and between Plattsmouth and Lincoln, the free pass agent with his insidious bribe, was procuring, from some official at the state house or at some county seat, some small detail of con- cession in the interest of the railroads and against the interest of the public. The Free Pass Bribery System. As fast as the railroad lines moved up the western slope across the state, The Free Pass System spread out and grew among the people. Wherever there were special privileges to be secured from the towns and villages, the free pass distributor was there with his bribe. Wher- ever the train men were unloading freight, there was the iron hand of extortion, and there was the free pass conspirator hovering over and guarding the extortion, with his hand over the mouth of every shipper, lest there be complaint that would check railroad building and hinder the business progress of the town. Looking back now to those early times, Nebraska people can remember how zealously these free pass- holders guarded them, as they have been guard- ing all these years the "Business Interests." The difference between reasonable and ex- tortionate freight rates meant millions annually to the Nebraska railroads. Railroad control meant millions made through extortion an;] thousands saved through tax-shirking and all this under the protection of the free pass watch- dogs, these zealous guardians of the ''Business Interests." ^ Now my contention is, and I want to make it the central thought in this discussion, that 8 The Free Pass Bribery System. The Free Pass System was inaugurated ir tills state by the transportation companies, and planned by them from the very beginning, as a system of bribery, which would cost the rail- roads nothing, and by means of which the_y could procure representatives among the people who would mould public sentiment, dominate politics, control legislation and the state govern- ment, and thus enable the railroads, untram- ineled by law, to maintain an extortionate freight rate system and to avoid just taxation of their property. This plan of the Nebraska railroad corpora- tions to organize the politicians around The Free Pass System, to use the pass holders as a policing squad for the protection of extor- tionate freight rates and low taxation on rail- road property, this original plan adopted by the railroads at the very beginning, has been carried out through all these years up to the present hour. , The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTEE II. THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON OF THIS POLICING SQUAD IS THE FREE PASS BRIBERY SYSTEM, For thirty years the polities of Nebraska has been policed and the government of the state controlled by railroads. This railroad control of politics and state government is procured through a conspiracy. The conspiracy is be- tween the railroad managers and the politi- cians. The purpose of the conspiracy is to pro- cure for the railroads, through the politicians, control over the state government. The price paid to the politicians for their part in the con- spiracy is the free pass. The systematic dis- tribution of free passes among the politicians, I call a Free Pass Bribery System. I mean by that that it bribes. It bribes the politicians to put up men for office who are under obliga- tions to serve the railroads and betray the peo- ple.! The Free Pass System bribes the official to do something which he ought not to do, or 10 The Free Pass Bribery System. to refrain from doing something that he ought to do, and would do if it were not for the free pass bribe. If it were not for The Free Pass System and for the obligations which the members of the last legislature were under to that system, for their nomination and election, that legislature would have enacted at the recent session a rate reduction law. If it were not for the passes which the county bosses have, the servile men who made up the membership of that body would never have been nominated or elected in the first place. If there had been no free pass machine in this state, Charles H. Dietrich would never have been brought out and put forward on his disgraceful political career. He would never have dared to aspire to the governorship without the free pass machine and General Manager Holdrege, of the Burlington railroad, behind it to dictate its control over the republican state convention. Following his nomination and elec- tion to the governorship, Dietrich never would have been elected to the United States senate without the bayonets of the free pass organiza- tion behind the legislature to force a thing that was offensive to the entire legislate j body. The Free Pass Bribery System. 11 Without the brutal power of the free" pass over the republican members, the legislature of four years ago never could have been brought, and held to the very last day of the session, around the senatorial candidacy of D. E. Thompson, against whose election the republi- can press and the republican voters of the state made a practically unanimous protest. In that memorable contest the party-proud republicans of the state saw their party organization used as a policing squad, rounding up the legislative members and dragooning them into that which was hateful to them and to their constituency. Business men were coerced into written en- dorsements and petitions, under the fear that their business would be discriminated against by the railroads, if they refused. Hundreds of respectable business men, free pass holders from all over the state, were dragged from their homes, brought to the state capitol and there, putting their own respectable personalities into the scale, debasing themselves to the lowest de- gree, they helped to coerce the legislative mem- bers with threats, wheedled them with lies, and deceived -them with forced petitions, literally compelling them by force to sacrifice the time of the entire session in a desperate effort to 12 The Free Pass Bribery System. elect to the highest office in the gift of the state a man wanted by no one except the manager of the Burlington railroad. Railroad managers, when they have some- thing to do that is of interest to their corpora- tions, something in which they must use the poli- tical and governmental machinery of the state, are utterly cold-blooded, having no regard for t-Sfes higher sentiment of the individual will of the citizen. They use him to the very utmost of the power that they have over him, regardless of the effect upon his higher feelings or upon his reputation with his neighbors and his politi- cal associates. In government by railroads, citi- zenship is dethroned. The higher ideals of men are crushed and trampled under foot as ruth- lessly as the marble statues of Rome were de- stroyed by the invading Vandals. The better men of the republican party pleaded vvith Mr. Iloldrege not to desecrate the party and hu- miliate its voters by the promotion of such men a? Dietrich and Thompson. But Mr. Holdrege, whatever his better manhood might have prompted, was himself, as every railroad mana- ger is, a mere instrument in the great railroad and trust machine of Wall Street; and it was not for him to hesitate or to have respect for The Free Pass Bribery System. IS the party pride of Nebraska republicans. He bad procured, uuder the direction of the Wall Street management, control of the party in Ne- braska, and it was his business, when ordered to do so, to use this power whenever it was nec- essary to get results. The railroads had bar- gained with the free pass holders, had paid the price in advance, and they reasoned that they had a right to use these pass holders, and it was not for the pass holders, who had been retained and had engaged themselves in the political ser- vice of the railroad corporations, to have party sentiment or to reason why. I cite these notable instances, not for the purpose of making a fling at ex-Governor and ex-United States Senator Dietrich, who has al- ready been severely punished by the unfortunate outcome of his political career, nor at Mr. Thompson, who has been endorsed and pro- moted by the national administration, but to show how relentlessly railroad corporations use parties and men when they have a machine which they own, and which they consider that they have a right to use because they fe-ave paid the price. A railroad manager, whenever necessity re- quires, does not hesitate to use the free pass lJf The Free Pass Bribery System. holders as if they were hired men. And from the railroad point of view, the pass holders have no complaint if they are sometimes over used or misused. I have no sympathy with the mouthing pretender who chafes under railroad dictation while carrying in his own pocket the evidence of his own bargain and sale. If the service is galling to him, let him, like an inde- pendent man, refuse to serve, and let him re- fuse the free ride like an honest man. There is coming among Nebraska people a strong conviction that this free pass business is wrong. There is a growing tendency among the voters, not only in this state but all over the western country, to line up public men on one side or the other. The President has done much to line up Congress against freight dis- crimination, but the matter of putting the free pass machines out of business is a duty that each state must perform itself. The voters of Nebraska must clean their own house If the railroads have bargained with the present state government, and if the evidence of this bargain is in the pockets of the state officials, it is the duty of Nebraska voters to smoke these officials out, and to compel them by the force of an aroused public sentiment to take an open stand The Free Pass Bribery System. 15 in defense of the corporations and the passes that are in their pockets, or else to throw away the passes, declare their allegiance to the people and join in a general crusade against The Free Pass System and a gainst Boss Rule by railroad managers. 16 The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTER III. THE FREE PASS MACHINE IS PLACED IN THE HANDS OP CAPABLE MANAGERS. It is a part of the business of the railroad managers, in their work of controlling govern- ment in Nebraska, to control legislation. It would be a serious matter with these Nebraska railroad managers if they should permit the nomination and election of legislative members over whom they had no control, even for one legislative term. A single session of the law- making body composed of intelligent and un- trammeled men could and probably would not only legislate the railroads out of political con- trol, but strip them of several millions annually of the ill-gotten profits which they derive from Nebraska business. In their work of policing the politics of the state, and holding on from year to year to their control over the state government, these rail- road managers are in dead earnest. To dictate the politics and government of a million of in- JOHN N. BALDWIN General Attorney Union Pa- cific Railway Co., Omaha. BENJ. T. WHITE Gen'l Attorney Neb. & Wyo. Div. C. & N. W. Ry., Omaha. GEORGE W. HOLDREDGE General Manager Burlington Route, Omaha. The Free Pass Bribery System. 11 dependent people is a pretty strenuous business. It means that the railroads must employ men for that particular purpose. It is just as im- portant for them to have competent political mnmigers as it is for them to have competent attorneys, engineers, and superintendents. And so it is that the railroads, not only of Nebraska, but of every state, are constantly on the lookout for men peculiarly adapted by experience and Lus1 met to organize and work out their kind of politics. "When General Chas. F. Manderson retired from a twelve years' experience as United States senator, equipped with an extensive acquaint- ance among the public men, the statesmen, poli- ticians, and officials of the whole nation, he was iust such a man as the Burlington railroad needed to superintend its particular part in the national government at Washington. Every great railroad in the country has its General .Manderson, with his wide acquaintance, with his dignified and interesting and persuasive per- sonality, with his capability to handle important matters and get results. It is never given out, ivhen these men carry the force of their' reputa- tion as statesmen and party leaders into the employ of the railroads, that their service to the 18 The Free Pass Bribery System. corporation is to be largely political. Their position with the corporation is designated as General Attorney or General Solicitor, and the public is made to understand that they are em- ployed in the legal department for their legal ability. As a matter of fact, however, they are employed for their political ability and their political influence among the political leaders of the country. By this means every great rail- road corporation has a connecting link between itself and the national government. The same system is employed by the railroad managers in each state in maintaining a close connection bohvoen their partieula. railroad and the state politics of their particular state. I do not mean that the local managers are able to secure such men as General Manderson to su- perintend the detail of their part in state poli- tics. General Manderson is a high-grade man, who, notwithstanding his employment by a soulless corporation, is bound to act along lines of conduct that are dignified and fairly honor- able, as that word is applied to politics in gen- eral. But in a state like Nebraska, each railroad corporation has its part of the political manage- ment of the state entrusted to some particular head official, some man who more than the The Free Pass Bribery System. 19 others, has an acquaintance, a temperament, and a natural skill adapted to handling men and measures. For example, the politics of the Burlington road, so far as the state of ISTebraska is con- cerned, is under the control of General Manager George W. Holdregc. Mr. Holdrege is one of the most successful political managers in the entire country. The Elkhorn railroad entrusts its part of the politics and government of the state to Mr. Ben. White. Mr. White is the attorney for the Elkhorn railroad, and al- though yet a young man, is a shrewd politician, who, under the jjresent ..system of railroad con- trol of state government, will ultimately develop into a powerful political boss. Attorney White, like General Manager Holdrege, has in his per- sonal make-up the elements that make him per- sonally popular with politicians, while this per- sonal popularity is all the time re-enforced with a controlling faculty that enables him to have his way. The Union Pacific railroad, in con- tributing its pro rata share to the government of Nebraska people, furnishes John N". Baldwin, of Council Bluffs, Iowa. While Mr. Baldwin's residence is in Council Bluffs, his place of busi- ness, as one of the political bosses of Nebraska 20 The Free Pass Bribery System. government, is at the Union Pacific headquarters in Omaha. Mr. Baldwin, in addition to a valu- able political experience which he obtained through several years of successful political ma- nipulation in Iowa state politics, and in addi- tion to his strong and popular personality, is ■ctill further equipped with a silver tongue, ^hich has made his political oratory more or less famous all the way from Council Bluffs to Boston. Every board of railroad directors con- siders it desirable to employ men who can take part as orators and by their party zeal disguise the real purpose for which they are employed by the board of directors. These men are paid 'high salaries and devote their entire time to protect the interests of their respective roads. And while the interests of the railroads are so ably looked after and guarded let rne ask who cares for the people's interests ? The public officials who are entrusted with this sacred duty by the people are bribed into silence by ihe free pass, and thereby the people are betrayed and sold out. The people, as well as the railroads, need able defenders. The Free Pass Bribery System. 21 CHAPTEE IV. PROFESSIONAL PASS DISTRIBUTORS AND PASS SUPERINTENDENTS. While the railroads find it profitable to employ such high-priced men as Holdrege, White and Baldwin to act as managers and heads of the railroad government in the state, they are compelled to employ a lower grade and alto- gether different type of men to act as pass dis- tributors and professional lobbyists. While these three men whom I have designated as rep- resenting respectively the Burlington, the Elk- horn and the Union Pacific railroads, constitute the head council or the managing board of po- litical directors and are in general control of the free pass bribing machine, the detail work of the machine is carried on by traveling pass distributors, whose business it is to keep a de- tective's eye on every member of the free pass organization, and to keep the supply of free passes m constant circulation where they will do the most good. The Free Pass Bribery System. Each railroad in the state has its own par- ticular list of free pass holders, and its own particular free pass organization, but all of these organizations are kept in working harmony with each other, moving all the time toward one central purpose, under the control of their mana- gers at Omaha. Each railroad employs its own traveling pass superintendent. It is the busi- ness of this traveling pass superintendent to herd the pass holders in politics and guard their political tendencies, as a sheep herder would watch over a drove of sheep. This superintend- ent must move about and among the people, es- pecially among the politicians, to gather from gossip among them the trend of public opinion. He must note especially any impulses, starting either from newspapers or aspiring political candidates, to shake off railroad control. This superintendent must be as wise as a serpent and apparently as harmless as a dove. He must be well-informed as to the political issues. He must know the sources of public sentiment. He must be on friendly terms with all public offi- cials. He must be on such terms with the gov- ernor of the state that he can always reach the executive through a side door. He must be able to occupy the speaker's private office or the of- Tlie Free Fass Bribery System. fice of the lieutenant governor during the prog- ress of the legislative session. He must know how to meet and to chum with all classes of free pass holders and officials. He must know how to cajole the weak man who wants flattery and how to jolly up the hesitator and cause him to move forward in whatever plot is being car- ried out. He must know how, when necessity requires, to coerce and how to threaten the pass- holding official and how to turn on the screws of corporate power so as to get results without breaking the friendly connection between him- self and, those under his special guardianship. During the summer season, while the mer- chants are busy in their stores, the workmen in their shops, the farmers in their fields, the pass superintendent is expected to travel over the state from town to town. He must visit the professional politicians, the professional conven- tion delegates, the free pass holding lawyers and judges, the county officers and local political cappers of both high and low degree and always he must have ready for exhibition, when occa- sion requires, his little book in which is recorded the names of the free pass holders and the num- bers of the passes. " It is the business of the pass superintendent &4 The Free Pass Bribery System*. to superintend the politics of the pass holders. What is each one doing in his particular locality to earn the free transportation? The pass su- perintendent knows how to find this out and how to impress his importance and his particu- lar business upon each pass holder just enough to secure results without making his business too impertinent or offensive. The pass holder is given to understand that he is under constant surveillance. Any serious dereliction of duty on his part will be noted bj the superintendent. The "square deal" demanded of him by the corporation is political service. A failure on his part to render the service will not only strike his name from the favored list, but will ulti- mately put him out of the free pass organization entirely, which in Nebraska means to be out of politics and to be shut off from all political opportunity. The pass superintendent manages to let each pass holder know that his political work is being reported at the head office and that these reports form the bnsis upon which each member is marked for future promotion in politics. During this summer travel the pass superin- tendent gathers a store of information as to the local issues in each town and county. What are J. H. AGER Burlington Pass Superintendent and Lobbyist, Lincoln. The Free Pass Bribery System. 25 the newspapers discussing in their editorial columns? What new issues are being talked among the people ? What local grievance is there at this point or that, and what reforms are be- ins; incubated and are likely to hatch cut at the next convention or at the next session of the leg- islature ? All this general information the su- perintendent is expected to gather and to re- port faithfully to the railroad headquarters. When the reports of the several traveling superintendents are made to these several heads of railroad government, they are carefully noted by the general managers and from them the head counsel is able to form a skeleton plan for the nomination of state officers and congressmen, for the election of United States senators and for the general control of legislation. When a legislature is to be selected it is the special business of the traveling superintendent to gather information as to who are candidates for the legislature. The superintendent is able to gather this information from the free pass holders in each legislative district, not only as to who are candidates, but which candidates are desirable candidates, and the bringing out and boosting tip of preferred men is a delicate but a very important work, in which the pass holders 26 The Free Pass Bribery System. are expected to stoop to the very lowest degree of subserviency to the corporations. The travel- ing superintendent, in consultation with the most trusted old-time pass holders in the legislative district, goes carefully through the list of aspir- ing candidates, marking the weak man or the pliant railroad tool for preferment, and the strong man, the self-respecting and independent man for slaughter. The pass holders contrive to have the chosen candidate introduced to the superintendent, because it is a part of his busi- ness to get an early acquaintance with the candi- date and to establish between the candidate and himself an obligation that is increased from time to time by the issuance of trip passes to the candidate and his friends and party helpers. Right at this point, where the pass super- intendent establishes this relation between him- self and the candidate, is where the government of the state commences to leave the people through the influence of the free pass bribe. Many a community of unsuspecting voters rallied enthusiastically around an aspiring can- didate for weeks before the nominating con- vention, never suspecting that he has already been procured away from them and from what they want in legislation and government. The The Free Pass Bribery System. 27 influence of the free pass steals on the con- science like creeping paralysis. The man is bought and owned, body and soul, by the cor- porations before his neighbors know it, and in many cases before he knows it himself. If the candidate is putting himself forward on some local issue, some particular law which his community wants enacted, he talks this over with the pass holders at the county seat and with the superintendent, for the superintendent knows a way in which this local issue may be shuffled during the legislative session so that what the local community wants may be enacted into law or may be defeated, whichever is to the advantage of the railroads, and at the same time the local member be made to appear as having done his very best to bring about the desired legislation. It is the common practice for the railroads to assist preferred legislative candidates with free transportation, not only for themselves, but for their political friends, before the nom- inating convention. It is a part of the business of the pass superintendent, in his work of pro- curing" and seducing men, to inveigle the can- didate into as many obligations for free passes as possible, and to do this before the nominat- 88 The Free Pass Bribery System. ing convention, so that when the candidate has finally achieved his nomination, he feels that his success is due largely to the influence of the corporations. The traveling pass superintendent, in his memorandum of each candidate, notes the politi- cal environments that surround him in his home community. Who are his particular friends ? If he is a farmer, which of his neighbors exert a controlling influence over him? Or which lawyer or which judge or which official at the county seat, or which business man in the town, is his adviser? All these things are noted by the pass superintendent for these are the strings with which he will pull the member when the tug-of-war comes in the legislature. I3 it any wonder that the people cry in vain to public officialdom when such a tangled web is woven about these officials ? Is the public aware that the railroads have such a mighty organization? How to resist and overpower this tremendous organized corporate power is the struggle confronting the people in every state in this country. Am I wrong when I say that every pass superintendent should be spurned with contempt by all people when he oroffers his bribe? Am I wrong wben I say The Free Pass Bribery System. 29 that every pass holder should be marked by the people and left out of all nominating conven- tions and never be nominated for any public office? The people must arouse themselves on this question and become in dead earnest before they can shake off this blighting, deadening, para- lyzing influence. Like the thief in the night time The Free Pass System is entering the sacred temple of liberty and robbing the people of the blessings of self government and assassi- nating representative government itself. SO The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTER V. TREASON OF OLD TIME PASS HOLDERS. In Nebraska the republican party is domi- nant, and so the froo pass holders are largely republicans. Still there are a number of legis- lative districts in this state where the opposition is in power. In such districts the railroads are able, through the means of the free pass, to get the same, loyal service from the pass holders as if they were republicans. What the railroads want from each legislative district is a "friendly Injun" in the legislature. It is of little impor- tance to them what the member's political be- lief is. "When once they get their free passes into his pocket and the bargain is made for his services, the railroads have no further interest in him, except to use him until his reputation is worn out among his constituents, and then cast him aside. The bringing out of a legisla- tive candidate is left largely to the advice and judgment of the local pass holders. In some of the older counties, where the The Free Pass Bribery System. SI old pass holders are under suspicion from the public, the work of manipulating county con- ventions is very delicate and requires the ut- most caution and skill. In these counties it would be unsafe for the legislative candidates to advertise close relations with these old pass holders. These men have been conspicuous railroad cappers for so many years that they are thoroughly well known and their political maneuvering is closely watched in every part of the county. Twenty years ago the fact that these pass holders were supporting certain can- didates for the legislature would create a local band wagon into which every politician in the county would want to climb. When the old pass holders gave it out that they were for Smith, that meant that Smith would be nomi- nated at the county convention. !STow, the situation is different. They are now compelled to work under cover. They are too valuable in the services they have rendered to railroad influence to be dropped from the free pass list, and they are still in the game, but they play the game another way now If Smith is the candidate agreed on between the railroads and the pass holders, there must go along with the Smith conspiracy a decoy can- 32 The Free Pass Bribery System. didate. There must be a wooden duck out in plain view somewhere for the farmers to shoot at. Smith's candidacy is brought out in some remote part of the county, through an announce- ment in some innocent country paper, while these pass holders announce themselves for the decoy candidate Brown. By this arrangement the voters who oppose railroad dictation and are suspicious of the political plans of the pass holders are entrapped into spending their anti- railroad energies against the scapegoat Brown. And this may be done either with or without Brown's knowledge or consent. Brown may be a free pass holder, or he may be desiring to be- come a free pass holder, and he may agree to this use of himself as a candidate in order to earn his free transportation and a standing with the railroad clique. The farmers and the square business men who want open competition in the grain busi- ness and reasonable freight rates are by this trie]: of Brown's candidacy fooled into the sup- port of Smith, who in reality is the very man that the pass holders and the railroads want in the legislature. Sometimes these old time pass holders fool tho public by pretending to be "out" with the The Free Pass Bribery System. 33 railroad plans. A notable instance of this kind of maneuvering was furnished in one of the Nebraska counties four years ago. D. E. Thompson of Lincoln, now United States ambassador to Brazil, was the Burling- ton's preferred candidate for the United States senate. Thompson's candidacy from its very first announcement was offensive to Nebraska people. Their opposition to him was of about the same character and for about the same rea- sons as that of the people of Delaware to "Gas" Addicks* Their methods in politics were very much the same. There was a similarity be- tween them in their political methods and in the lack of fitness for so high and so honorable and so important a position as United States senator. And so Thompson's name as a can- didate for United States senator was a red flag- to the farmers of that county. They did not want him for senator. They did not want him in scarcely any county in the state. The people who stood for clean politics and representative government were against him. Only Mr. Holdrege and the railroads wanted him. But in this particular county, where the people had seen so much of railroad dictation, and where there was a strong determination Slf. The Free Pass Bribery System. among the republicans to throw off the railroad yoke, the announcement of Thompson's candi- dacy aroused the fiercest opposition. Thomp- son, in consultation with these old pass holders, realized that it would be folly for him to un- dertake to secure a legislative representative friendly to his candidacy by direct means. There must be a conspiracy. There must be a man brought out who was willing to act the part of the decoy. Right at this point the old pass holders took the tack which I have already suggested. They pretended to be "out" with the Burlington's plans. They pretended to be opposed to Thompson. The old pass holders were so well known in this county, and what they were doing in politics was so much a matter of general local interest, that when they gave it out flat, with a fine pretense of indignation, that they were opposed to Thompson's candi- dacy, and would fight the Burlington machine to the death on that issue, it went like wild fire among the people and was a sensation in every village and country neighborhood. . To make their story plausible and their new attitude appear sincere, they talked it frankly among the farmers and local politicians of the county that they had been working with the The Free Pass Bribery System. 35 Burlington machine for many years; that they had the highest personal respect and the warm- est friendship for Mr. Holdrege, but now this Thompson candidacy was too much. It was more than they could stand. The effect of this changed attitude on the part of these old pass holders was to check the current of opposition to them and to put them at once in harmony with the anti-Thompson republicans of the county. There were decoy candidates brought out, who announced themselves openly for Thomp- son. Agaist them these old pass holders made a flourishing opposition. a What we want," said they, "is some honest farmer for a candi- date. We want some man who is near the people, and who is opposed to D. E. Thompson and the Burlington machine." When the county convention met at the county seat a humble looking little man from the southern part of the county, who had never been seen or heard of before, bobbed up as a candidate for the legislature. The old pass holders, rallying the anti-Thompson and the anti-Burlington forces around him, secured his nomination and he was elected. The triumph of the Burlington machine, D. E. Thompson and these old pass holders was 36 The Free Pass Bribery System. complete. The next day after the election the unknown little man, in company with one of these old pass holders, with a free pass in his pocket went to Omaha, and there made a formal presentation and surrender of himself to Gen- eral Manager Holdrege. It was a smooth piece of work, and the general manager took occasion to congratulate the old pass holder as he had often done before. When the legislative session convened the people of that county read, with mingled indig- nation and shame, that their legislative member was lined up as a supporter of the hated Thomp- son. In recording this incident it is but fair to say of the unknown little man that his work of betrayal was confined to the people of that county. He was loyal to the pass holders, loyal to Thompson, and loyal to the Burlington machine. The betrayed voters of that county fumed with indignation. ( They sent commit- tees of representative men to the state capitol. They protested against their legislative member voting for Thompson. But the little man was too deep in the toils of the free pass machine. He was too weak to break away from the wicked conspiracy which had given him the legislative seat. And so, throughout the entire session, lie The Free Pass Bribery System. S7 continued to cast the stolen legislative vote from that county for a man whose onlj friends and real supporters in that county were the old time pass holders. ' 88 The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTER VI. SEDUCTIVE INFLUENCE OF THE FREE PASS. Every county in the state has its story of tricks and betrayals. Through each one runs this thread of conspiracy between the railroads and the free pass holders. If the people of Nebraska will look back through the^ast twenty- five years, they will see where they have been tricked and betrayed here and there, and always, in each plot, they will see the free pass holder £8 the chief conspirator. Legislative members, as a rule, are men who stand well at home. No one can see, and there- fore no one can say, just what is in the secret purpose of a man when he asks his neighbors and fellow-citizens to send him to, the legisla- ture. I love to think that somewhere in the plans of each one is something he hopes to accomplish for the good of the whole public. At least there is some local wrong which he hopes to make right. But at the very starting point of his candidacy, innocent of the full The Free Poss Bribery System. 89 effects of The Free Pass System to swerve him from the true course, he becomes unconsciously a victim of its influence. Not only does he entangle himself when he begins to nibble at the free pass bait, but he brings his friends and neighbors within the danger of the deadly hook. The lawyer at the county seat shows the candidate where he will need here and there some trip passes for himself and his friends during the campaign. The lawyer will procure these for the candidate, or he will introduce him to the traveling pass superintendent. Once as- sured that he has a pull for free passes, the candidate naturally begins to use it. He be- gins be be not only a free pass holder, but a free pass distributor. He not only adds him- self to the system, but helps it along by spread- ing it out where it will ensnare and seduce others as innocent perhaps as himself. He does not at the first fully realize the effect of all this. It seems harmless. Having no definite plot for wrong doing in his mind, he naturally justifies any ordinary means by which he can help liimself or his friends. He feels that his election to the legislature will be a good thing on general principles for his constituents, and any reasonable means which he can employ J+0 The Free Pass Bribery System. to bring this about is certainly not a bad tiring. To use the pass as an assistance to his can- didacy does not seem to him to be a betrayal of the public. There is no betrayal in his plans as a prospective legislator. He means to be true to his constituents in a general way. But still he must be practical. He must use such practical means as are necessary to secure his success. To be practical means that he must make some concessions to the personal wishes of others. He will never be able to build around his own candidacy the support of other local politicians unless he can show these politicians that his success will advantage them. The use of the free pass in politics may be objection- able, but it is a part of the political conditions, and he cannot change the conditions all at once to suit the higher ideals he may have. If he goes in to win, he must use the same means that others have used. The thought of buying support for himself with money would shock the candidate. Neither he nor his neighbors are familiar with the use of money as a political bribe, But the free pass is a familiar thing. It is a sort of medium of exchange. It is a measure of values between politicians. There is scarcely a man in the entire county identified The Free Pass Bribery System. £1 in any manner with the history of public af- fairs who is not, or has not been at some time, a user of free passes. To be sure the free pass has been denounced as a bribe. But is it really a bribe after all? There is the district judge at the county seat. He was a regular pass holder for many years before he was elevated to the bench. Everybody knew it and yet no one seemed to object to the judge on that ac- count. This judge has continued to ride on free passes and his family have used them more than ever since he was elected. And surely the judge would not sanction or participate "in a scheme that was intended to bribe. Most of the district judges in the state and their families, the supreme court judges and their families, the state officers and their families, the congress- men and their families, the United States sen- ators and their families, all the whole court machinery of the state and the entire official force of the state and national government from top to bottom, are directly connected with the railroads through The Free Pass System, and surely these railroads have not been able to bribe and to buy up the whole judicial system and all the official heads of the government ? The governors have used passes for themselves, 1$ The Free Pass Bribery System. their families, and their political friends from the earliest history of the state down to the present time. Legislators have always been on familiar terms with the free pass distributors and the railroad pass superintendents. And why should this candidate, now reasoning it all out to himself, why should he set up his individual judgment and reject a system that has gone hand in hand with politics and state government for thirty years ? - And now there is a young lawyer in one of the smaller towns of the county. This young lawyer can secure for this candidate the sup- port of that locality in the coming county con- vention, hut the young lawyer wants an annual pass for his trouble. The old pass holders at the county seat and the traveling pass superin- tendent have agreed that they will help to carry out this bargain with the young lawyer. After his election to the legislature the candidate will be able, with the assistance of the old time pass holders at the county seat and the travel- ing superintendent, to get the young lawyer the annual pass. Besides the young ^wyer, there are a dozen or so political worteiv in the county, each of whom is expecting a reward for his activity. When the member gets into The Free Pass Bribery System. 4$ the legislature these political friends will be reminding him of their valuable services already rendered. They will be demanding some "recog- nition." Recognition in politics means almost anything from a trip pass to the United States senatorship. Every successful politician must have some way of meeting these demands for "recognition." And now here is The Free Pass System offering itself as a medium of exchange. It is certainly a very convenient arrangement whereby the successful candidate can square himself with his political helpers by a few in- nocent passes which can be gotten for the mere asking. And so the candidate, reasoning with him- self, and with more or less innocence, walks into the railroad free pass net from which he never will be able to disentangle himself. .4.4 The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTER VII. PASSES AND PERJURY. When the legislature convenes at the state capitol and before it can enter upon its duties as a lawmaking body, each member is required to qualify. The official oath provided for in the state constitution is presented to him. After ho takes the oath he may assume the duties of his office, but if he finds that he is unable to take the oath without committing perjury, he may refuse to take it and retire from the posi- tion to which he was elected. The oath is as follows : "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution of the United States, the constitution of the state of Nebraska, and will faithfully discharge the duties of (a mem- ber of the legislature,) to the best of my ability ; and that at the election at which I was chosen to fill said office, I have not improperly in- fluenced in any way the vote of any elector, and have not accepted, nor will I accept or receive, directly or indirectly, any money or other valu- The Free Pass Bribery JSystem. Jf.5 able thing from any corporation, coiiipany or person, or any promise of office, for any offi- cial act or influence, for any vote I may give or withhold on any bill, resolution, or appro- priation." This oath is intended as a searchlight by which the state may examine the status of the legislative member before he is allowed to enter upon his duties. The state intends to have clean men in its official positions. It intends that when they enter its service they shall be untrammeled and free of secret obligations or influences that might come between them and the faithful performance of their duties to the state. Here now are a hundred and thirty- three men presenting election certificates. By these certificates they show that they have been elected to the legislature. But the presenting of these election certificates is not enough to satisfy the state that they are entitled to hold these offices. They may present the election certificates and report for duty and the state recognize these certificates as evidence that the men have been duly elected, but the state wants to know more than that. It wants to know whether they have been elected by proper methods and whether there is any secret bargain J/.6 Tlie Free Pass Bribery System. or obligation which, if known, would render them unfit to serve. The state understands that the people in the several legislative districts of the state may elect men to office, but in the general scramble for public place some men may be elected who are not qualified and have no right to the position. A citizen of England, for example, residing temporarily in Nebraska, might fool his constituents and gain an elec- tion. But the constitution of Nebraska has provided that no one but citizens of the United States and citizens of Nebraska are qualified to hold office in Nebraska. And now the con- stitution of the state, looking these one hun- dred and thirty-three men in the face as they stand there with uplifted hands, propounds, by means of the official oath above quoted, certain questions to them which are intended to test their qualifications. A careful reading of the oath shows that it was thoughtfully pre- pared. The keenness with which it searches the conscience of the official shows that the makers of the constitution were in earnest. They intended it, not as a mere formal matter, but as a serious obligation which no man could lightly assume. And first the state, speaking through the Tlie Free Pass Bribery System. Jf.7 oath, wants to know of the elected legislative member, as he stands there with uplifted hand, whether or not he is prepared to support the constitution of the United States. If there is a conspiracy in the legislature of the state against the general government, the state wants to know about it. Or if any one of these elected members is not legally a citizen of the United States, but is bound under oath to some foreign power, the state wants to know tnat, and it wants to know it now before it permits him to assume the functions of lawmaking. He may have been popular in the community where he lived, but that is not enough. He may have received a large vote, but that is not enough. If his neighbors have over-looked this inquiry into his citizenship, then this oath will either disclose the facts or else the man will hide the facts with perjury. Next the oath goes on to test him as to whether he is a citizen of Nebraska. He may be a citizen of the United States but if he has not obtained a legal residence in Nebraska, he 13 legally disqualified to hold office in Nebraska and must stand aside. Now suppose the member's citizenship to be regular, the oath goes on to test him as to the 48 The Free Pass Bribery System-. means by which he procured his election. If lie practiced fraud or bribery to secure his elec- tion, he is disqualified, and the state, now look- ing into his political record, wants to know about it. On this quest ioin of his election the language of the oath, if j3ut in the form of a question, would say: "Have you used any improper in- fluence to secure your election V* By this direct question the state seems to be on the lookout for some conspiracy. Im- proper influence to secure public office is always a conspiracy against the state and this is more particularly true of any conspiracy to control the lawmaking body. It will be noted by the reader that the language of this oath does not confine the inquiry to the use of money. The state understands that there are many forces conspiring against good government and many ways of bribing the voters besides the direct use of money. If any member now holding np his hand has secured his office by the use of free transportation, or the promise to obtain free transportation, that is the "improper in- fluence" which the %tate by means of this oath is now trying to search out. Any member avIio Kaa bargained for political support has used The Free Pass Bribery System. J/.9 ''improper influence" and he must now either frankly admit the facts and retire as being- disqualified under the constitution or he must commit perjury. JSTor can a member, when the oath is pre- sented to him, justify himself that the use of free transportation is not "improper influence" within the meaning of the law. For even our Nebraska judges, who themselves take free transportation, have ruled in the conduct of trials, where a railroad comoanv is one of the parties to the suit, that free transportation is an "improper influence," and a juror when challenged in any of our state courts, will be discharged from the trial of any case, if it is shown that he has been furnished with free passes by the other side. "What a comment it is upon the official record of Nebraska that for thirty years our legislators, judges, governors and public offi- cials have been taking this official oath and at the same time taking these free passes ! What a comment it is on our courts of justice that the judges on the bench will rule off a pass holding juror while the judge himself tries the case with his own pockets full of free passes ! But if our public officials shield themselves 50 The Free Pass Bribery System. on the theory that this oath, where it says "improper influence," does not mean free rail- road transportation then let us further examine the oath, for the more you consider its careful reading the more it appears that the framers of the constitution, who thought out and formu- lated the oath, were pointing directly at The Free Pass System. After the legislative mem- ber, standing there with upraised hand, has passed the test as to his citizenship, and has either justified himself by the facts or perjured himself as to the manner in which he secured his election, the oath goes on to make a special inquiry as to the past relations between the member and the corporations. The term "improper influence" was not sufficiently definite for this particular inquiry into the secret relations between the member and the corporations, and the oath at this point i* now most specific. ISTote the exact language : "I have not accepted, nor will I accept, or re- ceive, directly or indirectly, any money, or other valuable thing from any corporation, com- pany or person, or any promise of office, for any official act or influence or fo** any vote I may give or withhold on any bill, resolution or appropriation." The Free Pass Bribery System. 51 When we note the careful wording of this part of the oath we wonder that there should be any question in the mind of any intelligent official that this does not refer directly to the free pass. The member must say in this oath, "I have not received, nor will I accept, from any corporation, any valuable thing." The liberty-loving people of Philadelphia congregated in the streets and talked in whispers sc great was their anxiety, while the Conti- nental Congress was deliberating on the passage of the Declaration of Independence. And when the bells rang out, there went up from the people a great shout of exultation, for the first stroke of Old Liberty Bell told them that "No English gold or other valuable thing" had been able to bribe the members of the Continental Congress. History tells us that in all that great strug- gle for representative government, Benedict Arnold was the only man who accepted free transportation from the enemies of his country. If the people of Nebraska, whose government has been bribed and bought away from them for the last quarter of a century, could assemble in one great body as witnesses to the opening proceedings of the Nebraska legislature, and 52 The Free Pass Bribery System. if they could hear this oath, which the constitu- tion provided for their protection, being ad- ministered at the state house to legislators, judges, governors, and all public officials, and if they could at the same time see the hundreds of free pass bribes that are in the pockets of these officials, and if the people looking on could understand that among all these hundreds of trusted public servants none are true enough to swear true, and that the oath they take is "a mockery and a lie, it seems to me the people with one accord would agree among themselves that never again through all the coming years could any free pass perjurer or betrayer be allowed to hold a seat in any political conven- tion, or be named for any official position. -Just as soon as the people come to under- stand the power that this free pass system exerts, and how it not only corrupts and procures men but how it leads them to perjury, they will hold a series of conventions in which no pass holder will be allowed, and they will create a state government that will forever abolish The Free Pass System. The Free Pass Bribery System. 53 CHAPTER VIII. THE LOBBYISTS ORGANIZE THE LEGISLATURE. Having now considered the moral, or rather the immoral status of these one hundred and thirty-three men, who constitute the lawmaking body of the state, and how the free pass bribery system has led them to perjure themselves at the very outset, let us consider the general en- vironments and influences that surround them as they enter upon their deliberations. Hav- ing taken the oath in the east end of the capitol building, the thirty-three senators now retire to the senate chamber in the west end and each department is now ready to be organized. In the matter of organization the struggle be- tween the government by the people and gov- ernment by the railroads, which was carried on with such energy during the political cam- paign, now continues. The political lobbyists employed by the railroads canvassed the state from county to county prior to the conventions assisting the free pass holders everywhere 54- The Free Pass Bribery System. getting "friendly Injuns" for the legislature. It is now the business of the lobbyists to see that the legislature is "properly organized." In this work of organizing, the lobbyists are well equipped. They have the advantage of a personal acquaintance and a close relation with each individual member. They have the fur- ther advantage of an obligation from each mem- ber for free transportation, not only for him- self but for his family, his personal friends and his political helpers. Not only are the lobbyists fortified with these relations between themselves and the mem- bers, but each lobbyist is peculiarly fitted by character and experience for his business. It is their business to procure and to seduce men. The lobbyists are employed by the transporta- tion companies for that purpose. The free pass conspiracy depends chiefly upon the work of these professional lobbyists for its success. Every bribing system must have men to act as go-betweens between the bribe giver and the bribe taker. It is the purpose of the trans- portation companies not only to issue these free pass bribes, but to distribute them systematically and discriminately, and there must be ex- perienced and tactful men, who not only know The Free Pass Bribery System. 55 how to reach other men with these free pass bribes, but how to superintend this army of free pass holders and to use it in the interest of railroad government. The lobbyist must be an all-'round handy man. He must know how to procure men, and how to hold them under subjection to rail- road will. The governor over there across the hall is called the governor of the state, and the people love to think of the chief executive as being the head of the state government. There is the supreme court with its supreme judges and its court commissioners, and the people love to think that this court of last resort is above and beyond all corporate influence. There are the members of the legislature and all other public officials in the state, and the people love to think that these officials are all their representatives. But whatever the con- fiding people may think of these dignified de- partments, the chief power in the government of Nebraska is the influence of the railroad political lobbyist. . • With the legislature now convened and with hundreds of free pass holders gathered in the capital city, crowding each other every day in the corridors of the state house, the pro- 56 The Free Pass Bribery System. fessional paid lobbyist knows more men, and can call more of the men by name, and can reach more of them through his personal in- fluence than any official, whatever may be his position. The lobbyist knows the ins and outs of politics. lie knows the issues pending in every county of the state. He knows the re- lation between each state official and each mem- ber of the legislature. He knows the leading men in each home community on whom the mem- ber must depend for advice and political sup- port. Among all these hundreds of officials there is not one on whom the lobbyist cannot pull some string of power. When the house members take up the mat- ter of the organization of their body there are always some members, especially new members, who are under the superstition that they them- selves are having something to do with this business of organizing the legislature. The newspaper gossip that goes out to the people for several days prior to the organization gives the people also an impression that their repre- sentatives are engaged in this earnest struggle over the organization. But as a matter of fact, and every well informed politician in the state will bear me out in this statement, the legisla- ROBERT CLANCEY Union Pacific Lobbyist, Omaha. The Free Pass Bribery System. 51 ture is organized, especially as to the election of speaker and the make-up of important com- mittees, not by the members themselves, nor the influence of their honest constituents pressing upon them, but by railroad influence exerted through the hired professional lobbyists. The newspapers of all parties in the state have been fair enough in their accounts of these proceed- ings to advise the public at each legislative session that the struggles over the organization of the legislature are like the struggles which occur in the state conventions, merely trials of strength between the great corporation influ- ences or else an agreement between them. Generally in state and congressional con- ventions there is more or less of contention between the different railroad organizations of the state. Each railroad wants under its control as much power as it can get at the National Capitol. And so, on the question of nominating congressmen and in the election of United States senators, the railroads sometimes contend against each other. In the election of governor or other state officers there is also more or less of struggle between the corporations. Each railroad wants to exert, for the protection of its own particular interest, as much power 5S The Free Pass Bribery System. as possible at the state house over the state government. But in the matter of the organization of the legislature there is generally no contest be- tween railroad influences. What they want is general railroad control over the lawmaking body, and there is little or no friction between them as to how the lawmaking body shall be organized. The hired lobbyists are instructed to agree among themselves as to who shall be speaker of the house, who shall be president pro tern of the senate, what trusted members shall be placed on the important committees, and all this work, planned out between the lobbyists, is carried on in such a way that not only the public is fooled, but a large proportion of the members themselves are fooled into the belief that their organization is their own work. The lobbyists having the early acquaintance with the members, and having seduced and obligated them before they reached the legisla- ture, are able, in this work of organizing the body, to absolutely dictate the whole organiza- tion. The lobbyists can go so far as to parcel out the minor legislative positions to their per- sonal friends and adherents, many of whom render no particular service to the state, but The Free Pass Bribery System. 59 are occupied chiefly in the service of the rail- road lobbyists. I am not surprised that the millionaire own- ers of these railroads, living as they do far removed from these scenes where the power of their great corporations is exerted, should con- sent to the use of this power by means of free passes. I am not surprised that the gen- eral managers and attorneys of these corpora- tions from their headquarters should employ and use these corrupting lobbyists. I am not surprised that these hired lobbyists themselves, being adapted by nature and experience for the criminal work, in which they are engaged, should be willing to earn a livelihood in such infamous business. But I am surprised that self respecting and intelligent men, such as many of our legislators are, should permit themselves to be approached and used in that way; and that they, knowing the criminal pur- pose of these lobbyists and the character of the men who are employed in such disreputable business, should be willing, not only to meet these men and associate with them on the most friendly and intimate terms, but thatf they should actually seek them out and depend upon them for suggestions and advice. 60 The Free Pass Bribery System. If the self-respecting people could see the representatives that they have elected and clothed with power to act for them in the law- making body waiting in the hotel corridors at night for an opportunity to meet, for just a moment, the lobbyist for just a word of assur- ance from him that they would not be over- looked in the make-up of the committees, the people would realize how close the corporations are and how far the people themselves are re- moved from the power that runs their state government. If there was government by the people, the election of speaker of the house would be an important matter. The speaker is charged with the duty of appointing the house commit- tees. The work of the legislative body is very largely committee work. Honest and efficient committees generally mean honest and efficient legislation. The committee on railroads, for example, can push forward or it can put to sleep a bill regulating freight rates. The committee on corporations in general can assist the passage of laws looking to the control of telephone com- panies, telegraph companies, street railways and gas companies, or it can delay these measures and give the corporations interested time and The Free Pass Bribery System. 61 opportunity to procure their defeat. Not only do the railroads, the telegraph companies, the telephone companies, the street railway com- panies and the gas companies depend very largely upon what they are able to do with these committees, but the elevator trust, the harvester trust, and the corrupt bridge contractors must depend very largely upon these legislative com- mittees for whatever protection they can secure from the lawmaking body. Under a government by the people the speaker of the house, if he were a strong man and an honest man, could appoint strong men and honest men on these important commit- tees. By this means not only the railroads, but all these other corporations would be shut out from the control of legislation because they would not be able to reach or control the com- mittees. But under government by railroads where the speaker is picked out by the paid lobbyists, he is an unimportant figurehead. He is used to preside over the house in a perfunctory sort of way, to give out misleading interviews to the press and to inaugurate from time to time such grandstand plays as are necessary to hide 62 The Free Pass Bribery System. from the public the real power behind the throne. In making up the organization of the legis- 4 lature, the real work, therefore, of the paid lob- byists consists in selecting the speaker and in making up the committees. The lobbyists want a committee on railroads that is absolutely "safe and sane." They want a committee of men who have been tried and with whom they can confer in the most confidential way. They want men who are not only friendly to the railroad cause in a general way, but men who are actually bound to the railroad corporations by years and years of obligation and by expect- ations for the future. The lobbyists in secret council first go care- fully through the list of elected members, select- ing the most tried and true for places on the important committees. When the lobbyists have agreed upon the membership of these im- portant committees they submit their commit- tee list to the different candidates for speaker. If any candidate refuses to agree absolutely that he will name these men on these commit- tees, he is at once designated on the secret list of the lobbyists as an impossibility. On such candidates as agree to this committee list the The Free Pass Bribery System. 68 lobbyists confer, and having agreed among themselves who shall be on these important committees, and which candidate shall be made speaker, the lobbyists, coming out from their secret conference separate from each other, and with no hints of their secret compact to any one but the candidate agreed upon, but with apparent hostility to each other, they move among the members, meeting them by appoint- ment at the hotels, whispering with them in the corridors of the state house, here and there giving tips and confidential suggestions, and it i3 arranged that the picked candidate will win by only a few votes so that neither the defeated candidates nor the members themselves will realize that it was not a fair race or how it was secretly manipulated. Railroad govern- ment maintains itself through the free pass conspiracy, partly by the direct demands which it makes on the free pass holders, but very largely by means of such shrewd manipulation of the men against each other, that the pass holders themselves are all the time unconscious of the conspiracy against representative government, in which they ere only little dumb figures on the corporation chess board. 5 J/. The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTER IX. PASS BRIBERY LEADS TO GRAFT. The public now reads in the daily papers that after much earnest and patriotic consulta- tion among the members the two branches of the lawmaking body of the state are at last organized. They read the printed speech of the Honorable Speaker as he took the chair. How he sounded a note of warning to the mem- bers. They must keep in mind that they are the representatives of the people. They must not forget that economy must be the watchword of the session. The list of door-keepers and custodians must be cut down to the lowest pos- sible limit. Each man employed in such ser- vice must be required to earn every cent of every dollar that he gets from the state. <: What is this flourish about economy and this grandstand play of the speaker, aimed at these half dozen humble door-keepers and cus- todians, intended for ? It is intended to fool the public. It is intended to hide the railroad The Free Pass Bribery System. 65 conspiracy which is behind the speaker and every important committee and official. These misleading utterances of the speaker will be carried away by the public press to the people all over the state. The people reading of this petty economy that is to be practiced on the half dozen door-keepers and custodians will forget the millions of which the railroads plunder Nebraska people annually through tax dodging and freight rate extortion. "Let us cut down the list of door-keepers and custodians," shouted Speaker Rouse at the opening of the last Nebraska legislature. But the Honorable Speaker said nothing about the millions of bushels of corn of the 1904 crop, that was waiting to be shipped over Nebraska railroads, with an average extortion in freight rates of five cents on every bushel. Both branches of the legislature now being organized, and the flourish about economy in the wages of the half dozen unoffending door- keepers and custodians having been sent out to the people through the newspapers, we may now take a look at the members as they make a grand rush to the auditor's office to get their names on the mileage list. 66 The Free Pass Bribery System. Here is a little matter of legislative graft that is worth looking into in connection with the free pass. Thirty years ago when the con- stitution was made, and when travel was ex- pensive to members who were compelled to travel a part of the distance between their homes and the state capitol by team, the mak- ers of the constitution, with this expensive travel in mind, and with the thought that the official oath which they provided would pre- clude the use of free railroad transportation, provided for a mileage allowance of ten cents each way on every mile that the member must travel to go to the legislature and return to his home. This ample allowance for travel fare 13, it seems to me, of itself alone sufficient evidence to prove to the member that he haa no right to use free transportation. But if the member could silence his conscience while he took the oath with the "valuable thing" in his pocket, still when he now comes to reach out his hand for the travel money, which was pro- vided for in the constitution for travel expenses and for no other purpose, he ought now, in all fairness, refuse the money which is intended to pay for the ride. The law appropriates this travel money for The Free Pass Bribery System. 67 traveling expenses and for no other purpose. The state is intending by the appropriation of this mileage money to reimburse the official for the expense he is put to for railroad fare in reaching the state capitol and returning home. If he has used a free railroad pass and has paid no money, then he is entitled to no reimbursement. And how can he now take this oath and swear that he is entitled to the mileage money? In all human honesty there is much of habit and example. The man does without compunction today the thing that strained his conscience yesterday. Dishonesty in the character of a man, like leprosy, starts at the first as a small speck, but by the force of habit and example it spreads out and grows into festering rotten- ness that at the last makes him what we call "unclean." When the legislative member before he was nominated in his home county accepted the first free pass from the traveling superintendent, right in the act of taking the free pass, know- ing that he was about to enter the service of the state, and that between the state and the railroad corporations was a contention over the 68 The Free Pass Bribery System. question of freight rates and of railroad taxes upon which he as a lawmaker must sit in judgment, right at this point where the legisla- tive candidate accepted from the traveling superintendent the first free pass, the candidate entered into and connected himself with the free pass conspiracy. Whether he was conscious of it or not, the taking of the free pass made him a part of the conspiracy against representative govern- ment. When he stood in his place among the other officials at the state house and swore to the constitutional oath that lie had not received from any corporation "any valuable thing," did he not as a matter of fact commit; perjury ? And now it is easy for him with these crooked steps behind him already taken, with the in- fluence of example all around him, with a pre- cedent of fifteen legislative sessions to justify him, it is easy now for him to reach out for this twenty cents per mile, and to swear with uplifted hand that he is entitled to it. With no precedent for free passes the mem- bers of the last Nebraska legislature would not have dared to touch them. With no precedent for the manipulation of the legislature by the railroad lobbyist, the lobbyist would have been TJie Free Pass Bribery System. 69 spurned by the assembly and would have been promptly kicked out as an offender against de- cency and as an intruder on sacred ground. "With no free passes and with such conditions, each member having paid for his ride to the state capitol as the constitution contemplated, this mileage would not be, as it is now, an un- lawful perquisite which can be obtained only through false swearing, but would be an honest reimbursement from the state to an honest official whose service the state had engaged and whose traveling expenses the state was bound both in honor and in law to pay. But with this mileage money in his pocket, the record of the legislative member now stands, first a free pass conspirator, second, a perjurer, and third, a grafter. For thirty years our legislators have been taking this mileage money with the free rail- road passes in their pockets. What is this but graft? To what does the term graft apply if not to this kind of business? And T am not king now of the graft of an individual here and there, but of universal graft which is and has been practiced by practically all the members of every legislature with the excep- tion of one session. For has this practice of 10 The Free Pass Bribery System. drawing mileage money from the state for railroad fare, where no money was paid by the official, been confined to members of the legislature. The state auditor's record and the treasurer's record is rotten for thirty years back with the history of this fraudulent taking of public money by officials in every depart- ment of the state government. And do I over- state the case when I say that every dollar thus taken is tainted with perjury ? And not only has this grafting system of taking money for railroad travel, where no money was paid out, been practiced very generally by legislators and all state officials, but by county and city officials as well. The record would smell to heaven if it could be compiled and published of the men — the trusted officials and guardians of the public honor — who have practiced this fraud, led into it, seduced into it, — by what ? By The Free Pass System. I am trying to show now by this hastily prepared volume what I have always believed, and what I said to the Nebraska people in the last campaign, that The Free Pass System, not only procures railroad control over government and lawmaking, but that the system, by the very The Free Pass Bribery System. 71 nature of itself, is linked with perjury and graft, and that the power of representative gov- ernment will grow less and less, and the gen- eral standard of honesty, among public officials will sink lower and lower, until The Free Pass System is abolished by law. Now if anyone of these of our Nebraska officials, who have taken and appropriated to their own use this mileage money while they were traveling on free passes, charges me with over-stating the case when I call this practice graft, let me ask such a man how public money can be obtained lawfully by an individual ? Here is the state treasury, and there in the vault is the state money. It is the state's pocket money. This money is gathered from the peo- ple through taxation and deposited there in the vault in charge of the state's treasurer to be used by him for the payment of the expenses of the state government. The law provides that not si dollar of this money can be paid out by the treasurer until there has been an act of the legislature authorizing the payment. And no money can be paid lawfully except for the specific purpose for which it was appropriated. For example, if the legislature has appropriated a certain sum for the state penitentiary, not a 12 The Free Pass Bribery System. dollar of this can be used for the maintenance of the insane hospital at Lincoln, a few rods away. If money is appropriated for the in- dustrial school at Kearney, no part of that money can be used for the other industrial school at Geneva, or for the state farm or the university. So, also, when the state designates certain money and sets it aside to reimburse public officials for railroad fare which they are sirpposed to have paid out, this is travel money, and if the official has traveled free, then he has no account for travel against the state, and if he takes this travel money and uses it to pay his board bill, is he not using it for pur- poses other than that for which it was intended and appropriated ? The fact that this mileage allowance is based on the number of miles that the official must travel shows that the constitution intends it as a reimbursement. If the member has paid out no money for his railroad travel, he is entitled to no reimbursement. But if the official using the free pass in- sists that he is entitled to this reimbursement money, notwithstanding he paid out no money; that the pass which he used was his own in- dividual property and was given to him as an The Free Pass Bribery System. 78 individual, and that the state has no right to claim the money saved by him in the use of the pass, then he admits that he used the pass in lieu of money which he would have otherwise expended. In that case the pass has a money value to him, and is a "valuable thing." Eight here he is caught in the clutches of the oath wherein he has sworn that he has "received no valuable thing from any corporation." At the risk of being tedious I have tried to analyze the official oath in detail, and this mileage graft, in order to show that The Free Pass System, like a signboard, points the offi- cial away from his path of duty right from the very beginning of his career and starts him on the road to perjury and graft. What is the constitution worth, and what is the official oath worth which it prescribes, unless it protects the public treasury and the public service? What is the law good for if it does not control the officials elected to serve the public under the law % What kind of a lawmaker is he who enters upon his service by committing perjury and graft at the very beginning of his term ? And if men are led into these things through The Free Pass System, why not destroy the system ? If the pass 7.f The Free Pass Bribery System. holders at the county seat can pick out weak and untrue men for public office, and procure their nominations without the people knowing how it is done or without them seeing the hairy hand of Esau that is behind the game, why not leave the county seat pass holders out of the county conventions and the state conventions, and why not make this treacherous pass holding a test that will drive railroad influence out of our politics and out of our public affairs ? If, as now, the traveling superintendent and lobbyist can go out into the legislative districts during the campaigns, and by means of free pass favors get a string on the lawmakers by which he can lead them around like blind pigs, why not put the paid lobbyist out of business by making his business criminal in law as well as in fact ? If this Free Pass Bribery Sys- tem, with all the perjury, graft and disregard for official honor that grows into and goes along with it, is allowed to continue, it will be only a matter of time when our state government and our whole system of public affairs will ba as corrupt as the government of St. Louis was before the anti-bribe crusade was started there. The Free Pass Bribery System. 75 Vi.lili i .kit ^x. THE FREE PASS SYSTEM LEADS TO DOUBLE- DEALING IN POLITICS. Now if I have already made it clear to the reader how railroad influence gets a hold on the lawmaking body, by picking our legisla- tive candidates and procuring their nomina- tions through the influence of the local free pass holders in each legislative district, how the traveling superintendent gets a personal pull on each individual member before he ever reaches the state house, and how the lobbyists, working in secret harmony, are able to organize the legislative body so as to control the im- portant committees as well as the officers, and how the conscience of the individual member becomes familiar with false swearing and graft at the very commencment of the legislative term, let me now show how this crooked begin- ning progresses into a general system of crook- edness and double dealing which runs through and characterizes the legislative work from be- ginning to end. 76 The Free Pass Bribery System. The individual member having discovered that the oath which lie took, "while the "valuable thing" was in his pockets, was a crooked oath; that the taking of the mileage money, "which he has never paid out, "was a crooked transac- tion; that the organization of the legislative bcdy, through the manipulation of the lobbyists, was a crooked business from beginning to end, he begins to believe that lawmaking is a crooked game, and that whoever wins a point must play the game in a crooked way. The member has promised his constituents that he will secure some special legislation or appropriation in the interest of some state institution in his county. Whatever he does as a representative he must. keep this promise with his constituents. He begins to realize now that the tendency toward graft is not confined to officials alone, but that whole communities of people are sometimes ready and anxious to be bribed into silence, to consent and to kneel dowm to railroad in- fluence, if only their particular locality is remembered in the distribution of spoils. , To secure his particular appropriation or measure, the member sees that he must get into the railroad band wagon. Coming as he does from nmong the people, and having heard their com- The Free Pass Bribery System. 77 plaints, he is conscious of many things that ought to be done for the general public. But this particular thing must be done for his home people, or he will lose standing with them, and that means a failure of his political career. To lift the heavy burden of high rate extortion from the backs of the whole people and to strike down railroad control by striking down The Free Pass System, these are broad issues that effect the people of the whole state, and in importance overshadow all other pending ques- tions. But these things he dare not touch.v. The railroads are in control. The lobbyists can de- feat his local measure. They can dwarf his special appropriation. Look whatever way ho will, railroad power confronts him at every point. If with this view of his environments he becomes restive, and if his better manhood prompts him to strike out boldly on independent lines, what can he do? Let him now make one threatening move ! How quickly the free pass holders of his home county are hurried to the state house and are get to whispering in his ear! They tell him his course is unpopular with "the boys" at home. "The boys" are the free pass holders of the county ring. They make things happen 78 The Free Pass Bribery System. iv. local politics. A threat from "the boys" makes a coward of the official. Railroad control of politics and government makes cowards, perjurers and grafters of all legislators and all public officials who thrive under it. If I could, I would write this on the sky. I would write it so plain and so bold that no pass-bribed conspirator in the state of Ne- braska could look upward without reading the condemnation of his guilty business. I would print it in all the newspapers. I would pla- card it on every wall. I would publish it over and over again and cry it out from every rostrum until the Nebraska people, deprived of self-government, plundered by railroad ex- tortion on everything that they eat, on every- thing that they wear, on every article of furni- ture in their homes, on every commodity that they handle in business, would come to realize that a pass bribery system which reaches into every community of the state will at the last, if allowed to continue, rot the moral fibre of the whole public conscience just as the money brib- ing system^ so long and so boldly practiced in Rhode Island, has at last drawn into its slimy net nearly the whole population of that state. The Free Pass Bribery System. 79 When predatory wealth came to realize, as i<: did some years ago, that to maintain its power over the government at Washington, it must control the United States senate, it looked down on the little state of Rhode Island and said to itself, "I'll just buy that state." And it did. At first it limited its purchase to ths officials after they had been elected. At this the politicians complained and threatened polit- ical revolt. Then the bribing system was ex- tended so as to include the politicians who were taken into the bribe conspiracy and paid in money for their services as convention organizers. Then the people complained that they were being discriminated against and threatened defeat of the dominant party at the polls. Little by little the bribery net was spread out until it caught the individual voters in every part of the state, so that, in some of the recent elections, the citizens have refused to go to the polls at all on election day, or to vote even for their own party candidates, without a cash payment in advance "for their time." If tfce picture of Rhode Island, as drawn by prominent magazine writers is a true one, and up to this time no denial has been made, that state is in a deplorable condition of universal 80 The Free Pass Bribery System. corruption, brought about by the seductive in- fluence of a wholesale bribery system. It is stated that the money paid to the individual voters of that state in a single election amounts to twenty dollars for every vote cast. Shame on us that we sit silently by while these intol- erable conditions are about us. No man is worthy the name of an American citizen who will not rise up regardless of party affiliations, and join in a movement to help strike down, not only the Free Pass Bribery System, but all other forms of bribery and double dealing in politics. The Free Pass Bribery System. 81 CHAPTER XL STATE INSTITUTIONS IN GRIP OF PASS BRI3ERY SYSTEM. With the commencement of the legislative business, the various wheels and levers of the great railroad lawmaking machine begin to move. The power house of this railroad ma- chine is in Omaha. The general management of this machine is in the hands of a powerful political boss, one who knows the machine and how to use it. 'He is altogether the ablest and most experienced political manager in the entire state. As a railroad manager and money maker for his corporation, I believe he ranks as one of the foremost in the entire country. As a political organizer he is equally able. He possesses that rare skill of being able to exercise the functions of a political boss without making his personality offensive to those he dominates. He is able to suggest to the free pass holders what he wants to have them do in such a way that many of them are unconscious of the control being exerted ovea 82 The Free Pass Bribery System. i them. But the real power of this boss is in the bribing effeot of the free pass machine which he controls. The consideration that is going out with every mail from Omaha in the form of free passes to thousands of men in this state, and the binding effect of this bribing system to hold these men, to subdue their personalities and to harness their energies into a groat po- litical force, this is the power the boss wields and before which the power of representative government is made to yield. A part of the business of a great political boss is to know men and how to handle them. But the more important thing is to know iiow to create local issues among the people, and to so manipulate these issues, one against the other, as to get and to hold the one particular thing desired, — railroad control over lawmak- ing and government. Always it is the central purpose of the railroad boss to prevent rate reduction by law. Thi3 political boss, assisted by able officials of the various railroads centered at Omaha, invented many years ago the scheme of locating the state institutions out over the state in such a manner, as to use the localities in which these institutions are located, as political strongholds The Free Pass Bribery System. 83 for railroad influence. With the headquarters of railroad control located at Omaha, and with the state institutions at Lincoln, Omaha, Beatrice, Peru, Kearney, Hastings, Norfolk, Geneva, Grand Island and Nebraska City, it is easy to organize these strategic points into a compact founded on the selfish purpose of mutual advantage. Through the free pass holders, and such newspapers as they are able to influence, the people of these thickly populated localities are mesmerized into the notion that the business success and property value, in each of these localities, depend largely on the state institu- tions, and that the heavy appropriations of state money depend largely on railroad influence. By the invention of this plan these powerful communities, even without their knowledge and consent, are taken into the railroad conspiracy and made to play an important part in railroad government of the state. If any business man or farmer in any one of these localities should complain of extortion- ate freight rates, and should threaten to carry ais complaint into the county convention, where legislative members are to be nominated, he would be instantly silenced, or his influence 8J+ The Free Pass Bribery System. overcome by tlie suggestion that such agitation hurts the state institution out there a mile or two from town. And to hurt the state institu- tion is to hurt the town. By this use of local pride and local selfishness, anti-raliroad discus- sion is made unpopular. The result is that these large communities are intimidated from year to year, and it is easy for the railroad influence to get from such localities a corps of willing tools for the legislature. Omaha being the business headquarters of the Nebraska rail- roads, its fifteen votes in the legislature are sure to be under railroad control, on the theory that Omaha cannot afford to antagonize the railroads. The city of Lincoln, in control of the seven legislative votes of Lancaster County, is also constantly hypnotized by its fear of rail- road power. Here in these two counties the railroad political machine has twenty-two legis- lative votes, !Now add the members that come fiom these other localities, whore state institu- tions are located and where the business men and the freight payers walk in gum shoes from year to year, in the fear that they will think something, or say something, or vote for some- thing, that will hurt their particular state insti- tution, and yon have forty legislative votes The Free Fass Bribery System. 85 which the railroad lobbyist can carry in his vest pocket as trading capital. With these forty votes and the powerful influences that they represent, the railroads have a legislative band wagon right from the very start. There are generally other local issues, of course, but these forty votes and the certainty that they will stand together under railroad control, and that they can be handled by the lobbyists for or against any measure, makes them a magnetic center to which every other interest is at once attracted. Lawmaking under the railroad plan is largely a matter of combining diverse interests and playing one part of the state against the other. This playing of one interest against the other is a species of combined "hold-up" and bribery in itself. But it is so subtle in its operation, and has been so long practiced, that the people who are used by it, and who consent to it, do not realize what a powerful lever it is in the hands of the corporations, or what a swift and dangerous tendency there is in it toward centralization of political control. It seems to me that the people of Nebraska might well afford to try the experiment for the next two years of choosing legislative members 86 The Free Pass Bribery System. and state officers without the intervention of the free pass holders. The people of all parties could hold a series of conventions in which no free pass holders are allowed and in which the sentiment against The Free Pass System would be so emphasized and so emphatically expressed that no pass holder could be nominated for any office. With a legislature and state govern- ment so organized, is there any danger of any state institution or any particular locality, be- ing unjustly treated? There is certainly suffi- cient integrity in the people, as a whole, to abso- lutely insure clean government and just laws, if we can eliminate the corporation influence and so re-adjust the political situation in the slate that railroad will will be set aside and the public will set up as the governing power. The hypnotic fear of railroad power causes these state institutions to huddle together just as political candidates huddle around the rail- road bosses, each one afraid to stand on high ground and fight out his own battle on its merits. The argument used by the free pass holders of each separate community, that they must go in with the railroad influence or suffer loss of political prestige and public appropria- tions, is a false argument that ought never to The Free Pass Bribery System. 87 be listened to by any intelligent community of people. Neither should the bait with which these communities have been entrapped into railroad control, be allowed to work its demor- alizing and bribing purpose. Of all the false and misleading doctrines that have been taught the Nebraska people, by the pass holding guar- dians of public sentiment, none have been more false or mischievous in their effect than the doctrine that railroad control of politics is necessary to protect the business interests. *~It will be well for the people, where these state institutions are located, and well for the institutions themselves, when the people come to understand fully the plan of organizing these communities into outposts and strongholds of railroad influence. This plan was inaugurated by the railroads years ago and has been suc- cessfully worked to the present time. The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTER XII. THE FREE PASS SYSTEM IS A CONSPIRACY. It is the policy of the railroads to organize, not only the various state institutions and their influence, but the whole official force of the state government, into a controlling power around the legislature. The relation between the railroads and the state officers is generally a close one and of long standing. Railroad control of state officials is generally secure. But in each legis- lature are many new men around whom rail- road control is not completely established. In order that there may be no mishap by which any group of these new members may organize themselves into an anti-railroad force, the in- fluence of the state officials, and of hundreds of influential politicians and free pass holders from every part of the state, is organized under the direction of the lobbyists, as a sort of "old guard" by which new members are held in check', until they have demonstrated their worthiness of railroad confidence. The Free Pass Bribery System. 89 We must therefore think of the lawmaking body as not limited to the hundred and thirty- three men who compose both houses. Generally the larger proportion of these legislative members have very little to do with the passing of laws, except to cast their vote, an act generally done under the direction of some lobbyist or some state official. In many cases the individual member acts, through the entire session, under the direction of some tried and true pass holder from his home community. When a member begins to wobble on any proposition in which the railroads are inter- ested, there is always an old-time pass holder in his home county, who can be wired to and Vvho is sure to come hurrying on the first train, with a plausible story that the home people want the member to do so and so. This coming and going of the old-time pass holders is a part of the scene at the state house during every legislative session. When mat- ters of special importance, such as the election of United States senator, or the pending of im- portant railroad bills are up for consideration, then the army of free pass holders is marshalled in full force. At such times the seat of rail- road government is temporarily transferred 90 The Free Pass Bribery System. from Omaha to the State Capitol. Riding in sumptuous private cars come the pompous polit- ical state bosses from Omaha to Lincoln. Each is attended by a retinue of subordinates, pass clerks, stenographers, officeworkers, all around handy young men, quick to comprehend, and faithful to execute every command of the boss. Here is a rate bill pending. If allowed to become a law, it will save the people of Ne- braska, or if defeated, will save to the rail- roads many millions of dollars. It is a prize worth contending for. If the people knew, as the railroad attorneys do, that the winning of this fight meant millions anm%ally to them, they would rally to the state house by the thousands and force their representatives into action* But the people do not know. They see this whole railroad question as through a glass darkly. Each individual shipper knows that there is extortion on every railroad shipment to or from his place of business. Each farmer knows that his grain brings an average of five cents a bushel less than it ought to bring him at the shipping point. But the whole public does not realize that the aggregate of these extortions amounts to a direct annual tax against the producers and consumers of the state of tea to fifteen dollars per capita annually. The Free Pass Bribery System. 91 The people read with, perhaps, more curi- osity than anger of the twenty Wall Street mil- lionaires, who a year or two ago made a spect- acle of themselves by parading before London in a special millionaire's yacht up and down the Thames River. But they did not fully realize that a large portion of the millions represented by these strutting plutocrats was made through extortion on Nebraska grain. But if the people are asleep, the corporations are not. The tire- less energy with which these high salaried rail- road attorneys from Omaha now assume direc- tion over the army of free pass holders at Lin- coln, shows how fully they comprehend the money that is at stake in the pending rate bill. The "eleventh floorers," so called because they occupied the whole of the eleventh floor of one of the large offi.ce buildings in Milwaukee, em- ployed scores of experts and spent $100,000 in a year of effort to defeat the nomination of La Follette for governor in Wisconsin. The corporations that maintained the eleventh floor organization understood what the defeat of La Follette meant. The hundred thousand spent on the political experts was mere pin money to the tax shirking and freight robbing railroads of Wisconsin. It is a small matter for the 92 The Free Pass Bribery System. corporations, who are able to steal ten or fifeen millions by extortion on freight rates and tax shirking, to spend a few thousand in a state campaign and a few thousand more in the manipulation of a legislature. Government by railroads is a conspiracy. Every conspiracy is more or less suspicious of it.5 own members. It is a part of the business of every conspiracy to watch every man, friend and foe alike. In every conspiracy to control government there are weak men who are con- tinually in a halting attitude. They are afraid on the one hand of the power of the conspiracy, and on the other hand afraid of the people. As these halting members move about, the vigilant railroad spies note their coming and going at every point, ilt would make some of these legis- lative members and state officials shudder, if they knew to what extent their every move was being watched and reported every day. As a matter of fact, these weak-kneed men, during the great legislative contests, are partly con- scious of their awkward attitude. They gen- erally carry an advertisement of that fact on their countenances. The nervousness which they exhibit whenever approached, shows how the secret force of the conspiracy pulls on them. The Free Pass Bribery System. 93 They are guarded in every word. They move about as if under some mysterious spell. I can think of no situation so undesirable as that of the unwilling conspirator, afraid to go forward and afraid to turn back. To hold these halting men in line, is now the special business of the legal bosses from Omaha. The potent energy of the boss now shows itself in the swift work of the stenographers and typewriters, who hurry out hundreds of pages daily of typewritten manuscripts, arguments and data, to be used among the members who want some reasons to show their constituents why a rate bill should not be passed. The railroads in most cases can force the members into a square stand against freight regulation, but for fear of an uprising from tho public, they prefer to make what they call "a showing." They are able to show by tables of figures that the railroad business at best is un- profitable. They can prove by figures that an arbitrary reduction of rates would not only cripple the railroad interests but would serious- ly hinder the business progress of the state. It is a part of the business of the railroad boss to meet the hesitating members, one by one, as they are steered into his private rooms at the 9 J,. The Free Pass Bribery System. hotel. If the boss is not able through his show- ing to convince the halting member and to ob- tain a dirct promise from him, he is provided b} the lobbyist with the information as to which state officer or which influential pass holder in the member's home county has a pull on this particular member. It is not an uncommon thing for the office holders at the state house to be called upon to use their influence to bring •refractory legislators "into line." It would surprise the voters to know how many of the state officers and underworkers, in the official departments at the state house, are used by the railroads as cappers and persuaders to influence railroad legislation. It would sur- prise the voters to know how many are the pass holders about them everywhere and how they all conspire together to maintain railroad gov- ernment. Every pass holder, whether conscious of it or not, becomes a part of this conspiracy to keep the state government away from the people. The Free Pass Bribery System. 95 CHAPTER XIII BIG CORPORATIONS HOVER OVER AND PRO- TECT THE LITTLE CORPORATIONS. Committee power is the chief lawmaking power of the legislature. The railroads want control over the committee on miscellaneous corporations so that they can hold the whip hand over the smaller corporations in politics. It is the policy of the big corporations to hover over and control the smaller corporations, and to knep them subservient to railroad influences. The railroads at the same time assume a sort of protectorate over the public service corpor- ations. They hold them secure against public sentiment that may arise in the cities. This arrangement by which the smaller corporate systems, such as the street railway systems, telephone, telegraph and lighting systems are organized politically and controlled by the rail- roads, as a subordinate branch of railroad power, is advantageous and therefore agreeable to both parties. 96 The Free Pass Bribery System. The railroads need the assistance of the smaller corporations to control the cities. The smaller corporations need railroad influence at the state house to protect them in the state legislature. Here is a relation of mutual de- pendence and advantage that holds these two branches of corporate power together. When- ever the railroads are being attacked in the city, it is the duty of the city corporations to rally to their defense. If, for example, there is agita- tion in any city against freight rate discrimina- tion, the public service corporations of that city are expected through the political cappers and street talkers to assist in creating a counter current in the public thought. When the wind of public sentiment begins to blow from the north against freight rate extortion the small corporations will assist in creating a wind from the south. If the over-taxed property hold- ers of the city complain that the railroads do not pay their share of city taxes, every ward heeler and street politician, under the special control of the gas company, the street railway company and the telephone company, is ready to show that the poor old railroads are already over-taxed, and that it h the respectable citi- zen, the rich men of tha city and the well-to- LEE SPRATLEN Secretary to George W. Holdredge, and a member of the Fire and Police Board at Omaha. One of the most powerful and influential men in Burlington politics. The Free Pass Bribery System. 97 do farmers who are the real tax shirkers. So also under the rule that one good turn deserves another the free pass holders of the city, who are the special champions of the railroads, are expected to defend the city corporations when- ever they need defense. If there is a bill introduced in the legisla- ture to enable the city to construct and operate its own lighting plant and to sell light to the people at a reasonable price, the free pass hold- ers are expected to assist in making public sentiment against the bill, and securing, if pos- sible, its defeat in the legislature. If the street railway company refuses to pay its taxes, and a suit is brought to compel payment, the free pass holders are expected to hold public senti- ment in check, as much as possible, so that the suit in court can be delayed from year to year, until the waiting public becomes tired with the delay and consents to a compromise. Bear in mind that the railroad companies, while they hold these public service corporations under political subjection just as they do the free pass holding officials, they must exercise their power over these smaller corporations under the rule of "give and take." They must stand by each other as friends. The people may dispute with 98 The Free Pass Bribery System. each other, political parties may contend against each other, but the corporations must stand together. The railroad lobbyists, who have laid politi- cal eggs out over the state before the conven- tions were held, who have hovered over and hatched out the legislative brood under the pay and direction of the big corporations, are ex- pected now to have regard for the little cor- porations also, and to get them into the pro- tecting conspiracy even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings. In the feudal days it was the business of the king to call the warring barons into his court and make them agree. So p.lso railroad influence being king in Nebraska politics, while it encourages party strife among the people, it knows how to command peace between the cor- porations, both big and little, whenever it hears murmurs and discontent from the people. The lobbyists being vested with full power to act for the big corporations, and occupying a+ the same time this relation of hovering moth- erhood over the little corporations, and each lobbyist being brother, guide, philosopher and friend to each individual member of the legis- lature, and to each official dignitary at the state The Free Pass Bribery System. 99 house, the power of railroad lobby sovereignty over the legislature and over the state govern- ment is suprema 100 The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTER XIV. THE BETRAYAL OF THE PEOPLE BY PASS HOLDING OFFICIALS— THE PEOPLE DEMAND BREAD BUT ARE GIVEN A STONE. As a nation of people we have many intri- cate problems which neither our statesmen nor our political philosophers have been able as jet to solve. One of these, perhaps the most im- portant, is that of establishing a direct and working connection between the will of the peo- ple and the official acts of our public officers. The theory upon which our government is founded, that the power of government comes alone from the will of the people, makes our government in form ideal. But we fail in this, that we are not able to keep the will of the people directly connected with our officials as the controlling power over their acts. We say that the will of the people is the law of the land. We say this because that is the theory upon which our government is organized. But even while we say this to each other, as loyal The Free Pass Bribery System. 10 1 citizens, we realize that it is not true. In all our patriotic boasting we are still conscious of the fact that the will of the people does not control our officials. The will of the corpora- tions intervenes and stands between the will of the people and their law makers. So that in fact it is not the will of the people, but the will of the corporations that is the law in Ne- braska. In this last year we have seen an uprising of public sentiment against railroad domination in Nebraska. We have heard the people in every city, town and village of the state demand- ing relief from freight rate extortion. * We have heard the demands of the people for the abolition of The Free Pass System. "We are not mistaken in this. The attitude of public sentiment has been pronounced and out-spoken. In answer to this public demand we see now the results of a legislative session. We see the legislature not only disregarding the de- mands of the people, but showing a subserv- iency on the part of the legislative body to corporation will that shames the state and hu- miliates every self-respecting citizen. Looking back now over this last year we have an object lesson which seems to me to 102 The Free Pass Bribery System. completely demonstrate the fact that when tho people's will is squarely confronted by the will of the corporations, the corporation will is the master over the official. With the free passes in their pockets, we see our lawmaking officials moving this way and that under the crack of the corporation whip like trained oxen moving under their master's yoke. The voters elect the official and from them he gets authority to act. But after the election the corporation whip controls him and the gov- ernment that he gives the people is corporation government. During the state campaign of 1904, this question was raised, and so far as I was able, as candidate for governor, I forced this issue, believing, as I said to the people over and over again, that the first question to be solved by the Nebraska people was how to get back self- government. Of what avail is it to us as a com- munity to discuss needed reforms, if we have no power over our officials to put these reforms into law and into practice ? Why discuss ex- tortion in freight rates, if we have no power to regulate our railroad corporations and to pre- vent extortion ? The first thing to do is to get our hands on our state government. In this The Free Pass Bribery System. 103 campaign I tried to show that the politicians of Nebraska were procuring the power in our state government from the people and deliver- ing it over to the railroad corporations in con- sideration of free passes. I called the atten- tion of the voters to the fact that the distri- bution of free passes, by the Nebraska railroads, had been reduced to a system which had the effect of bribing the politicians and public offi- cers, and was therefore a bribery system. I took the ground that the destruction of this free pass bribery system was the very first duty that was pressing upon Nebraska people, and that until this duty was performed by the peo- ple, it was idle to discuss other political re- forms. It seemed to me then, as it seems now, un- reasonable to expect anti-pass legislation, or any legislation that will curb the greed and po- litical power of the railroads and trusts, so long as the people continue to elect free pass holders to office. I am trying to emphasize what most of the Nebraska people already know, that representa- tive government in this state is practically dead. The form of it is all that we have left. Its spirit has been crushed by corporate power. 10 Jf. The Free Pass Bribery System. To prove this, I am citing the history of the last legislature. "When it convened on the third day of^Jamiary, 1905, it was confronted fairly and squarely with what we call the railroad ques- tion. By the railroad question we mean the people's demand for, — 1. A law that will abolish The Free Pass System. 2. A law that will abolish freight rate dis- crimination and extortion. 3. A law that will compel the railroads to pay their just share of taxes. There are many other questions between the people and the railroads, in which corporation power needs pruning with the legislative knife. But the people were especially urging legisla- tive action on these three matters, — the free pass bribe, freight rate discrimination and ex- tortion and tax shirking. The legislative members had been fully advised during the campaign that these matters were being pressed by public sentiment, and the members certainly knew that the people expected them to take up these questions and settle them by laws that could be understood; that could be enforced, and that would give the people the relief they The Free Pass Bribery System. 105 had a right to expect from a representative gov- ernment. The people do not talk of tnese things, of the extortionate freight tax put upon their commodities, and of the offensive free pass that is flaunted impudently in their faces on every railroad train ; they do not com- plain of these things, as the pass holders say, merely because they are bad tempered and jealous of the prosperity of the corpora- tions. They complain of these things be- cause they are unjust, and the people under- stand that it is the business of the state govern- ment to protect them against such injustice. If our state government is representative in fact, as veil as in form, there should be laws on our statute books, and honest officials stand- ing ready to enforce such laws, so that any citi- zen unjustly discriminated against by any cor- poration, could resist the injustice by an ap- peal to the law. If there is no law to reach the injustice complained of, it is the business (if the representatives * * the people to enact such a law 106 The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTEE XV, THE NEBRASKA LEGISLATURE AND THE PRESIDENT. I have already pointed out that the senti- ment for railroad regulation by law was prac- tically universal among the people during the state campaign. The dishonesty, greed and un- fairness of the railroads, and the audacity with which they had assumed dictatorial control over the politics and government of the state, had become so offensive to the people that during the campaign there was no newspaper, public speaker, political leader or candidate for office, who dared to utter a word in their defense. They stood condemned from every stand- point of business fairness and common honesty. Their political methods were despised by every self-respecting citizen who wanted the government of public affairs to be representa- tive in character and practice. The legislative candidates as they moved among the people before election conceded these The Free Pass Bribery System. 107 conditions as to public sentiment. They un- derstood then what was in the public mind. They begged for the votes of the cheated tax- payers and freight robbed producers with the understanding that laws would be passed which would remedy the abuses. Not only did the legislative members promise before election, but on the eleventh day of January after they had organized the legislative machinery for busi- ness, they passed a resolution and gave it out for publication to the people of the state, de- claring that they were in "full accord with President Roosevelt's views of dealing with corporations as outlined in his last message to Congress." I have quoted the exact words of the resolu- tion. In this they were advertising to the peo- ple that they, as a legislative body, were, not in part, but in full accord with the President's views. And what wore the President's views? "A square deal." That is what the President recommended that the National Congress should provide for by law. Now when this Nebraska congress sent out to the Nebraska people this advertisement of their endorsement of what the president had 108 The Free Pass Bribery System. recommended to the National Congress, it was equivalent to a promise that this Nebraska congress would give the Nebraska people a "square deal." A "square deal" in the National congress meant the exactment of a law that would stop discrimination and extortion in in- terstate rates. "A square deal" in the Nebraska congress meant a law that would stop discrim- ination and extortion in Nebraska rates. Am I right about this ? Do I overstate the case ? Is there any other reasonable con- struction to be put on the resolution of the Ne- braska legislature ? If this resolution meant anything to the Nebraska people who read it, it meant "we, as the lawmakers of Nebraska, will deal with the corporations in Nebraska as the president wants congress to deal with the corporations at Washington. We will enact laws in Nebraska that will compel the Nebraska railroads to give every shipper who ships, and every passenger who rides, a "square deal." Nov/ this Nebraska resolution was published in the newspapers and went out to the people al] over the state. On the 15th day of January, four days after this "square deal" resolution had been passed, the Southwestern Nebraska r ' -uit Growers Association met at Auburn. As The Free Pass Bribery System. 109 the fruit growers met to consider the condition of their business, they found the outlook gloomy enough. Their business was practically para- lyzed. The fruit growers had done their part. They had developed the business to the point of success so far as production was concerned. The conditions also were favorable for the con- sumption of their products. ''There was a home demand right at their very door. The people in the Northwestern part of the state could raise cattle but not fruit. Here among the cattle farmers was a market for the product of the fruit growers. The producers had the fruit t? sell in abundance and the consumers stood ready to buy it and they had the price. But still the business was paralyzed and the fruit was rotting on the ground in the orchards. Why? Because the Nebraska railroads, to which the state government had given a monopoly on the carrying business, had put a carrying tax on this Nebraska fruit that practically excluded it from its home market. And its home market was all the market it had. The fruit business of Southeastern Nebraska must depend on Northwestern Nebraska for its market. If it is excluded from this market it must fail as a business proposition. 110 The Free Pass Bribery System. It is a hard thing to say of the Nebraska railroad managers that they deliberately and systematically arrange their local freight sched- ules so as to depress and hinder the develop- ment of many industries within the state in order that they may bring into the state com- modities from other states over a long haul, simply because a long haul can stand a heavier freight charge than a short haul. But how- ever hard this charge may seem in print it is nevertheless true. There is not a single local industry in this state which has not felt the iron hand of this injustice. There is no indus- try or factory or business enterprise, outside the limits of this commonwealth, that does not con- stantly feel the weight of this railroad mill- stone hanging about its neck. Then their resolution endorsing the Presi- dent was insincere ? It was. It was merely a temporary expedient, a subterfuge intended to lull the clamor of public sentiment and tide over the emergency through the session, thus giving the railroads another two years of ex- tortion. The Free Pass Bribery System. Ill CHAPTER XVI. NO HOPE FOR RAILROAD REGULATION FROM NATIONAL CONGRESS UNTIL FREE PASS SYSTEM IS DESTROYED IN THE STATES. If Nebraska were the only railroad-ridden state in the Union her people might well hope for an early riddance of the railroad boss and bis free pass club. The influence that would come into our politics and government from other states, and the higher sentiments and cleaner methods prevailing in the entire country, as object lessons before us, would shame us and prompt us to take higher ground in our politics and state government. But the condition of Nebraska is not an isolated case. There is not a state west of the Mississippi River where representative government exists except in form. Every Western state has its free pass machine, maintained by the railroads, directed by their general managers and attorneys, and operated in detail by experienced lobbyists. It is useless for the people in these railroad- 112 The Free Pass Bribery System. ridden states to look to the President and the National government for relief. The President through his bold and outspoken attitude has aroused the people in every part of the country to hope that through his influence on congress the evils may be remedied. This stirring of public sentiment by the President, who is be- lieved by the people to be both sincere and courageous, has already done much good, and good will continue to now from the efforts of an honest and courageous president and an aroused public sentiment. But when the President has done his very best through the whole four years of his present term, what will be the result? Can the Presi- dent force the National Congress into any ac- tion that will drive railroad control out of the government at Washington and out of these various state governments? The American Congress, as now constituted, is a railroad con- gress. The members, with perhaps a few ex- ceptions, were picked out and put up by the railroad bosses. It is true that they were elected by the votes of the people, but congressmen have learned that the influence which can dictate nominations is the power that they must look to for future nominations, and the effect of The Free Pass Bribery System. 113 this view upon the congressman makes him afraid to oppose the corporations and afraid to trust his political fortunes to the people. The railroad-procured congressman talks glittering generalities to the people in public, but he talks business with the railroad boss in private. The railroad boss has a pull on him and his own instinct of self-preservation makes him yield to this pull, even when his higher sentiments and better manhood are prompting him to resist. Railroad corporations, in their policy of maintaining control over the party machinery in each state, hold in their hands the political destiny of the congressman. By this means they keep themselves in close connec- tion with the members and their official acts. The public influence in the meantime is crowded away and when the time comes for the con- gressman to act he can distinctly feel the close connection between himself and the railroads. With their lobbyists hovering over him, they seem very near while the people seem very far away. To oust railroad representatives, and to in- stal the people's servants in the National Con- gress, the people themselves in the several states must demonstrate that they are in control of 1 Hi The Free, Pass Bribery System. the politics and are the real masters of political destiny. Notwithstanding the influence of the President, and notwithstanding the general pub- lic sentiment, railroad control of government will continue at V/ashington so long as it con- tinues in the states from which the congress- men and senators are elected. The people can make a direct and potent connection between their will and congress whenever they get a direct connection between themselves and the nominating conventions. When the people, commencing in their ward caucuses and pri- maries and moving on to their county and district conventions, announce the doctrine, and agree to stand together on the proposition, that no pass holder or railroad politician shall sit ac a delegate in any county or district conven- tion, then the congressmen at Washington will begin to feel a direct connection between them- selves and their constitu tents. The people must back the President with practical political work if they expect practical results from his influence. All talk of railroad regulation by congress is mere twaddle until the people take steps to regulate the congress- man. Get after the man. There is no other way. l Get after the pass holding congressman The Free Pass Bribery System. 115 in the caucuses and in the conventions, and if, as may happen now and then, some two-faced pretender slips into the nomination, then get after him at the polls. The people can exert their influence and make the congressman feel it, if they will put forth the necessary energy to do it. The President can arouse public sen- timent, but he cannot run all the ward caucuses and district conventions in the country. The President is and always will be powerless to help the people so long as they continue negli- gent in the initiative steps in politics. The President will remain a mere figure-head, his higher ideals will be of no avail, and his pur- poses will be thwarted on every important issue, if the people continue to fill the congressional seats with men who owe allegiance to the rail- roads. ■ " 116 The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTEE XVII. HIGH LOCAL FREIGHT RATES AND THE "LONG HAUL." Congress is being urged by the President and by the press of the country to strengthen the interstate commerce law so that it can ac- tually take hold of the rate question. The Avhole country commends the President in the bold stand which he has taken, but no one can foresee what the result will be. "Whatever good docs come from national legislation is a long ways off. The backs of the people will bend under the weight of extortion for many years yet before any practical relief will come from the National Congress. And when at last, after years of delay, congress has clone its very best, still it will have done but little. The fixing of interstate rates by the Inter- state Commerce Commission is only a part of the remedy. The other part, and by far the most important part of rate making by law, is the fixing of just local rates within the states. The Free Pass Bribery System. 117 • It seems to me the real work of regulating railroads by law, not only as to freight rates and taxes, but as to all other questions in dis- pute between the people and the railroads, must bo done by state legislation. Congress can stop the rebate system. It can take away the ad- vantage which the big shipper now has over the little shipper. Congress can help the peo- ple some in the equalizing in rates between dif- ferent cities, and congress can, if it will, cor- rect the evils of discrimination and extortion on interstate rates. But after this has been done by congress, still the question of removing the great burden of extortion that is in the local rates will be unsolved. Also the taxation ques- tion will be left untouched. A reduction of local rates in each state would have the effect to reduce interstate rates all over the country. It is always the steady purpose of the railroads to promote the "long haul." ^ This principle is upheld in all the railroad plans. The rail- road managers want to compel every commodity to ride as far as possible. The railroads have transportation to sell and they naturally want to sell as much of it as possible to each shipper. To reduce local rates in Nebraska for ex- ample on apples, would promote the "short 118 The Free Pass Bribery System. haul" business on apples from Richardson County to Custer County, but would interfere with the "long haul" business on apples from Michigan and from New York state to Custer County, Nebraska. In this case the people of Custer County can see that the railroad plan of discriminating against the Richardson County apples, which are near by, in favor of the New York apples, is directly against the interest of the Custer County people, who are in justice entitled to the privilege of buying the apples which are nearest to them, and to have these shipped to them at a reasonable rate for tlie "short haul." So also the apple producers of Richardson County are entitled to the advan- tage of the Custer County market, from which they are practically excluded by reason of an extortionate local rate which compels the Rich- ardson County apples to pay about three times as much per mile for their ride to Cii3ter County as the New York apples pay. If the late Ne- braska legislature had enacted a law reducing the rate on apples in Nebraska, the effect would be to raise the price of apples to the producers in Richardson County, and at the same time re- duce the price of apples to the consumers in Custer County, for the lower rate between Falls The Free Pass Bribery System. 119 City and Broken Bow would also reduce the long haul rate from Rochester, New York, to Broken Bow. With the price lower in Custer County by reason of the lower local rate, the railroads would be compelled to lower the long haul rate frcm New York, from Michigan, and from the Red Apple Country of Southern Missouri. The New York apple producer has the world for his market. The Nebraska de- mand is but a small matter to him. When he finds the price of apples reduced in Custer County by reason of the lower local rate, he will naturally withdraw from the Custer County market and sell his apples elsewhere. The effect would be to cause the railroads to reduce the long haul rate between New York and Custer County in order to induce the shipment of New York apples to the Nebraska market. This natural competition between the long and short haul is, in my judgment, the lever of power by which state legislation should regulate both state and interstate rates. As I said be- fore, it is the steady purpose of the transpor- tation companies to maintain high local rates within the states in order to protect their high interstate rates. It is a part of their plan to hold the railroad question, especially the rate 120 The Free Pass Bribery System. question, as much as possible to the matter of interstate regulation. Local reduction is the only logical solution of the rate problem, and the sooner Nebraska people recognize this fact and address themselves to the task, the sooner they will be free from railroad extortion that Nebraska people have endured so many years. In our attempt to regulate the railroads, it is important that the Interstate Commerce Com- mission be given power, not only to prevent discrimination and rebates but also to fix rates, but to bring about effective control of the rail- ways, the states also must pass similar laws. The states have exclusive control over local rates and taxes and unless the states do their part all attempted railroad regulation will avail nothing. Government ownership is the only solution of this railroad question. " There are many, however, who hesitate to go this far. They believe regulation should be first thorough- ly tested. The states and the general government, therefore, should move simultaneously and to- gether and in good faith make an honest effort to rid the country from the present railroad evils, and if it cannot be done that way, gov- ernment ownership will come just that much sooner. The Free Pass Bribery System. 121 CHAPTER XVIII. SERVING TWO MASTERS. !No man can serve two masters. This truth is as old as time itself. It has remained for the modern politician to try and give this ancient truth a new meaning. The corporations and the trusts have grown to such large proportions that their influence in the state is a positive menace. While they make professions of wanting only what is right, they always want public officials to leave it to them to say what is right and what is wrong. The truth is that they are not satisfied with just treatment or a square deal between themselves and the peo- ple. Everywhere the corporations are infring- ing upon the rights of the people. Everywhere the corporations are defeating wholesome legis- lation that the people want and are placing upon our .statute hooks such laws as will give the corporate cial favors and special privileges. In or necial favors, they have gone into politics for the purpose of 122 The Free Pass Bribery System. electing mayors, councimien, county officers, state officers, members of the legislature and judges, and these officials generally represent the corporations and ignore the wishes of the people. Public officials, feeling that they have been elected by and through the influence of the corporations, favor the corporations all the way through in the administration of public affairs. The people have endured these wrongs until they have grown tired of them. This abuse of political power has gone on until any candidate nominated by the people, or any official who is in office, who is actually the true servant of the people, is never satisfactory to the railroads and the corporations generally. This is so be- cause there is an irrepressible conflict on be- tween the people and these corporations. The people want only what is right and just, but the corporations want more. Therefore the corporations all the time are in politics and are using their influence to have elected to all public offices men who are friendly to them and who are not faithful to the people. These candidates, therefore, after they are elected, become faithful servants of the cor- porations. It is seldom that any candidate who is elected by the corporations goes back The Free Pass Bribery System, ] 12B on them after election. He always remains loyal to them. And while he is doing this he all the time pretends to represent the people. He tells them that he is in sympathy with them ; he tells them that they are wronged by the railroads; he tells them that he favors such legislation as will give them relief. Generally speaking the people take him at his word. He is elected and re-elected but all the time this official is a representative of the corporations and all the time he is deceiving and misleading and acting the traitor to the people. Apparent- ly he is serving the people, but in fact is the loyal agent and representative of the corpora- tions. The reader should bear in mind that this kind of a candidate or public official never can deceive the corporations like he can deceive the people. The corporations always know their man before he is elected, and they know after election whether or not as a matter of fact he is serving them. They seldom, if ever, make any mistakes. It would be absolutely impossible for any public official to tell the cor- porations that he is representing them when as a matter of fact he is not. Officials know this. Therefore they are always loyal to the Tlic Free Pass Bribery System. corporations. Officials also know that it is an easy matter to deceive the people, and, there- fore, they marshal all of the elements of de- ception and disloyalty within their characters and practice it upon the people. As an illustration of the truth of these as- sertions let me apply it to the railroads of Ne- braska. In this state the railroads do not pay their just share of the taxes; the people pay more than their share. In this state freight and passenger rates are extortionate. The people are robbed and plundered on everything that is shipped into the state and on every- thing that is shipped out of the state. The railroads are in collusion with the grain trust, the lumber trust, the machine trust, and the beef trust to fleece the people. The truth is that all trusts are maintained largely by the aid and through the assistance of the railroads. Almost our whole public officialdom in Nebraska is bribed by The Free Pass System. Through The Free Pass System public officials are named and elected by the railroads. In other words we have railroad government here. The peo- ple have absolutely nothing to do with the gov- ernment. The people are becoming aroused. They have condemned The Free Pass System. The Free Pass Bribery System. 125 All people, who are not in a conspiracy with the system to destroy representative govern- ment, say that The Free Pass System shall be stricken down; they also say that freight and passenger rates shall be reduced; and they also say that the railroads shall be properly taxed and that the people shall be properly taxed. All over the state the public is aroused on all these questions. And now come the pass holding politicians fully equal to the occasion. Old time pass holders, who have been in the service of the railroads for years, are now joining this gen- eral sentiment for the abolition of the free pass. They also say that railroads generally should be regulated. Why do they do this ? Arc they sincerely in favor of this remedial legislation? Not at all. The railroads go on the theory that it would be a dangerous thing to let honest and sincere men get into the of- fices and legislate upon these questions. But the sentiment of the people is so strong that unless they do something, the people's candi- dates will get into the offices and will bring about legislation that will remedy these evils. The railroads, therefore, say that they better have this legislation attended to by their friends and 126 The Free Pass Bribery System. not by their enemies. Men, therefore, who have been in the service of the railroads for years, get into the midst of this aroused public sen- timent and profess to be in sympathy with it, and by these methods they deceive the people, and the people elect these old pass holders to the offices again, and rest assured that when they are elected they will never give the people the relief they demand. It is a trick success- fully played by the professional politicians and old pass holders who are in the employ of the railroads. Take the pass question by itself. Either the free pass is right or else it is wrong. But do you hear any of the old pass holders de- fending the pass ? Have you heard any can- didates for office who are pass holders defend- ing The Free Pass System ? No. They never defend the free pass. They know that public sentiment is against it. They know that if any railroad candidate should endeavor to be elected by defending the free pass that he would go down in ignominious defeat. Therefore you will find old time pass holders, whenever they run for .office, saying that they too are in favor of the abolition of the free pass. Platforms adopted by free pass holders denounce The Free The Free Pass Bribery System. 127 Pass System. This is done to deceive the people. This is done to win the offices. You will hear these candidates talking about their platforms and you will hear them saying that they stand squarely on them. Let me sound the note of warning and tell the people that all this is done to keep the railroads in control and t.-. bring to naught all legislation that is calcu- ; to curb the greed of the railroads. They i this plan because it wins. If the people believe the professions of these old pass holders they will never get relief. As I have said in this little volume again and again, the only way to find out whether a man is really a tool of the corporations, or whether he is not, you must find out whether in private life he has been a pass holder. This is a sure sign every time. Why will not the official who holds the of- fice deny that the pass is a bribe? Why will he not defend the pass? It would seem that pass holders would not keep the passes in their pockets and remain silent. They do so be- cause the pass cannot be defended. If they do anything they will condemn the pass while their pockets are full with passes. They adopt all these tactics because in this way they can 128 The Free Pass Bribery System. keep control of the government. We would think that these public officials would either throw the passes away or else defend the passes and insist that they do not unduly influence them, and that they are not bribes. If these public officials retain the passes and cling to the system they certainly owe it to the voters, who have honored them with honorable posi- tions, to defend their actions. The people are entitled to know just what they have a right to expect from their public servants. No pub- lic official having self-respect will carry in his pockets the evidence of a conspiracy against his state government, into which he has entered, without giving reason or justification for his con duct. The Nebraska people today are asking the governor, the state officers, the members of the legislature, the judges of our courts, the con- gressmen and the United States senators of the state : "Can you as servants of the people justify yourselves in carrying free railroad transporta- tion, which is of money value to you, pending the great issue that is now on between the people of Nebraska and the railroads of Ne- braska ?" Tf these public officials remain silent, does that not mean that the fr^e pass cannot The Free Pass Bribery System. 129 be defended, or else that they have deliberately tfken their stand with the corporations and are ready to take the consequences ? In their own minds have they not concluded that they will remain loyal to the corporations and deceive the people? If these officials answer that the people are right and that the state press is right and that the free pass is a bribe, then it would be showing only proper respect for pub- lic sentiment and for public decency, for these high officials, whom I have designated, and for all other pass holding officials in the state, to gather at the state house, and there, in the presence of witnesses, burn their passes and purge the state of the disgrace that now rests upon its government. What we need is some of the old time in- dependence, — some of the old time patriotism. Some years ago when the people of Kansas had paid their indebtedness to the Eastern money lenders they gathered at the state capitol, and there with ceremony and exultation they burned the evidences of their former obligations. They had freed themselves from obligation. They celebrated their independence. If pass hold- ing is wrong and if the free pass bribes, then all pass holding officials in Nebraska should at ISO The Free Pass Bribery System. once follow in the foot-steps of these Kansas patriots. In the early days of the republic men stood out boldly before the people on the public issues. Calhoun believed in state's rights. "Webster believed in an indissoluable union. Each de- fended his doctrine, and the issue was fought out before the people on its merits. Calhoun was wrong, but he did not dodge the issue or conceal his position. If Webster and Calhoun had been of the modern type of politicians, they would have dodged the real issue and tried to deceive the people, and the people would have been at an utter loss to know how to vote. In the early days of the republic, however, men stood for principle, while today too many men in public life are simply playing the game of politics so that they may win the offices. The question of state's rights in another form is up for solution in Nebraska. The ques- tion is whether the people of Nebraska shall control their own state government, or whether it shall be dictated from Wall Street. Wliether we belive it or not, this is the real issue that confronts us. The real head of the railroads is in Wall Street. Nebraska railroad agents sim- ply reflect the will and the wishes of the man- The Free Pass Bribery System. 181 agement in Wall Street. If we had the Web- ster and Calhoun type of statesmen, there would be, no trouble about the issue or the outcome of the struggle. The real difficulty, however, that confronts the people, is to know who are the real Wall Street representatives and who are the people's representatives. In the future all over the state men will aspire to public office whose candidacy will be groomed by the railroads, and they will get their inspiration from Wall Street headquar- ters. Many of these will make loud professions claiming to be the friends of the people and the people will rally to their support, not knowing that these men have already pledged them- selves body and soul to the corporations, and will be their faithful servants when they are elected. This is the real problem that con- fronts the people. The people must be wise in this regard and see to it that men honestly in sympathy with them are nominated and elected to the offices, and see to it that no de- ceiver or pretender will slip past them on elec- tion day. If any candidate slips into the nom- ination who is not a friend to the people, the people should see to it that he is defeated on election day, no matter to which political party 132 Tli c Free Pass Bribery System. he belongs. It will, in many cases, be difficult to know postively about each candidate. I be- lieve, however, that if the people will always inquire and find out about the free passes in the candidate's pockets that this will be the surest sign and will point unerringly to the fact whether he is a representative of the cor- poration or not. A man who has never accepted free passes, and who long before he became a candidate, has not been under any obligations to the railroads, will very likely be a truer repre- sentative of the people than the man wh^i has been, through all the years that are gone, the recipient of favors in the form of passes from the railroads. This is the surest sign by which you can tell. If there is a better sign I would like to know what it is. The Free Pass Bribery System. CHAPTER XIX. GOVERNMENT IS A MATTER OP POLITICS. It is a common tiling to hear men compli- ment themselves with the statement that they have nothing to do with politics. The man who makes such a statement generally does so without realizing what the statement means. When a citizen denounces politics in general and undertakes to seat himself upon a pin- nacle of respectability, by isolating himself from the politics and politicians of his ward, city, county or state, he marks himself down lower in the scale of manly character than he realizes. Politics is government. Whatever the in- dividual citizen does for his government, he must do through politics. Everything in the government has its starting point in politics. At the county seat w r e see the county gov- ernment going on in its work from vear to year without halt or intermission like a well planned piece of machinery. But this piece of government machinery was not made by these 184 The Free Pass Bribery System. men who are now operating it at the county seat. This county governmental machine was made through politics, through the political ac- tion of the voters of the county, each contribut- ing his part. And if this governmental machine, in its structure and operation, is not a composite result of the judgment and the will of the voters of the county, it is because a part of the voters failed to put their judgment and their will into the machine when it was made. If thf- county government is a ring-rule govern- ment and does not represent the interests of the tax payers, it is because the tax payers failed to represent themselves by independent and energetic action in the county politics. It is bad for the local government of a city, town or county when the tax payers allow local poli- tics to drift into the control of professional dele- gates and self-interested political leaders. The city government of Lincoln, for ex- ample, is always as good as the Lincoln people deserve. If the better part of the people fail to do their share in constructing and shaping the government, it is sure to fail to that extent ao a representative government. ISTo citizen can represent another in government. Each citizen must represent himself. If the city govern- The Free Pass Bribery System. 135 merit is bad, that means that bad energy is put into the politics which precedes the govern- ment, and if the government as it is carried on is not representative, that means that the politics which preceded the government was not rep- resentative. If there is ring rule at the county seat, if there is collusion, fraud and extrav- agance in the bridge contracts, if the county officers are over-reaching in their fee lists, if the tax levy is over-high, if the individual as- sessments are full of discrimination and injus- tice, if the county funds are recklessly squan- dered, if the public service at the court house is poor, if political grafters and ward heelers are maintained upon the county pay roll, if all these conditions exist, no tax payer, whether hr> be farmer, banker, laboring man or business man, has a right to complain, unless he has put his vote and his personal influence into the primaries and caucuses at which this county government got its starting point. The great mass of the people fail in their duty right at the starting point. There can bo no such thing as bad government without the consent of the better element of the people. The better element is in the majority. Not only are the better people in the majority, but their 186 The Free Pass Bribery System. cause is better and they can exert more force if they put their energy and action into the better cause. If the people of Lincoln permit the slum bosses to manage the city politics, that means slum government. If there is ring rule at the county seat, that means that there is ring rule in the politics of the wards and country precincts. King rule in these several primary departments of county politics means that the better element of the people, both in the city and in the country, are voluntarily surrender- ing their rights and cheating the county gov- ernment out of the moral obligations which arc justly due from them. Everything that is in the government is put there by men. When the Burlington railroad emj^loys skilled workmen at the shops in Have- lock, it gets good engines, and the traveling public gets safety from accidents. The honesty and skill of the workmen employed determines the character of the engines which they con- struct. If the general manager of the Burling- ton should employ personal favorites and grafters, as purchasing agents, superintendents and foremen at these shops, the result would be poorly constructed machinery, and that would mean ultimately unsafe ty to the traveling pub- The Free Fass Bribery System. 137 lie and loss of business to the corporation. The men who make the laws naturally make such laws as are wanted by the influences which put them into the law making body. The con- gressman from the First Congressional District, where the City of Lincoln is the dominating- power in the political conventions of the district, naturally submits to the dictation of the Bur- lington railroad, because the people of Lincoln, by their inaction at the ward caucuses and pri maries, permit the Burlington railroad to police and control the politics of Lincoln. The ward caucuses and primaries of the City of Lincoln are the starting points of congressional power in the First Congressional District. The City of Lincoln is the stronghold. It is for the voters of Lincoln to protect that stronghold at all hazards. If they surrender it to the corporations, that means the surrender of the entire district. And after the people of Lincoln have surrendered this stronghold, it avails but little for the newspapers and the freight robbed citizens to complain that their interests are not represented at Washing- ton. It is too much to expect of the representa- tive that he should be mindful of the people when the people have not been mindful of him. What right has the freight robbed public to 138 The Free Pass Bribery System. expect loyal service from a member of congress, "who owes his election to a starting point where only ten per cent of the voters participate ? Is it not perfectly logical that lie should consult the wishes of this small fraction of the people 'i And if this ten per cent is under the control of The Free Pass System, is it not perfectly logical that the congressman should also be un- der the control of the free pass organization and of the railroads which furnish the free passes? The obligations of the citizen to his govern- ment are two-fold. There is a money obliga- tion and a moral obligation. The money ob- ligation is discharged when the citizen pays his taxes. The moral obligation is discharged when he puts his vote and the full weight of his per- sonality into the political machinery of the government. The citizen pays his taxes but once a year. But the moral obligation cannot be discharged by the single act of voting at the annual election. The obligation to give the government moral support rests upon him con- tinually from day to day and from year to year. Always there should flow continuously, into the central power of the government, the individual force of every citizen. If but one The Free Pass Bribery System. 1S9 single citizen fails at this point, the govern- ment lacks just that much of being a representa- tive government. But when ninety per cent of the citizens fail at this point, as they some- times do in the City of Lincoln and at many other places in the state and over the country, then the result is a serious matter, especially when this ten per cent of active citizens is organized under the control of the corporations. Men put too much stress on the fact that they pay their taxes. The moral support which the citizen owes is of more value and of more importance than taxes. There is no particular virtue or patriotism in paying taxes. The tax is an obligation against the property of the citizen, and not against his conscience and his manhood. The government needs the weight and the integrity of every man put into public sentiment, for the government will never be on any higher plane than that of the active and forceful public sentiment upon which it rests. It is an uncertain compliment which the dignified citizen pays to himself when he boasts of his isolation from local politics. Reply to a Railroad Lobbyist At a Club Meeting Held in Lincoln During the Winter of 1904-05, a Railroad Lobbyist Discussed the Free Pass Question. Mr. Berge Read a Paper Condemning the Whole System. In Part the Paper is Here Given. The Free Pass Bribery System. 14-3 CHAPTER XX. REPLY TO A RAILROAD LOBBYIST. In discussing The Free Pass System, and railroads in general, we must keep in mind that railroads are chartered and created to serve the people. The people should be the master and the railroads their servants. The railroads should be compelled to serve the people for the mutual advantage of the stockholders and the shippers. They should be operated so as to promote equal industry. They should give all shippers equality in service and equality in rates. Business opportunities should be open to every man alike. The product of each farm and each factory should have opportunities for distribution on the same terms and at the same rates that other like products pay. Commodities are in competition with each other just as men are. Each in its competition with the other is entitled tc equal opportunity. Nebraska, farmers and shippers are entitled to the same rates that Iowa and Kansas farmers and shippers get. lit It The Free Pass Bribery System. One man is as good as another in the eyes of the state, and should be so treated by the corpora- tions which are under the control of the state. Each city has the same business rights that other cities have. The rights of the small busi- ness man are as much entitled to respect as the rights of the large business man. In short, the railroads should serve all the people alike. But they do not. Look at the facts. In- stead of the public being the master and the railroads the servant, the relation is exactly reversed. The railroads are our masters, not only in politics, but in business. They do not serve us; we serve them. Waller Wellman in a recent article in a magazine called "Success" says, that the railroads in at least one-third of the states of the union are absolutely in con- trol, and are running the state government with- out any real interference from the people. In these states the railroads elect the offi- cials or enough of them to control the whole state government. They charge just such rates as they want to. They charge each commodity all it will bear. They treat the passenger busi- ness with the same unfairness. They make one passenger pay while the other who demands a free ride gets it. Tho railroads fix the tax rate The Free Pass Bribery System. 1^5 on the people's property and on their own property. They make governors, United States senators and members of Congress, and they unmake them whenever it suits their purpose. They say whether the '.Nebraska farmer shall sell his fruit or whether it shall rot under the trees. They determine whether the JSTebraskan shall sell his corn or burn it for fuel. v They make this industry live and prosper while they cause that industry to die. These railroads pass sentence on every undertaking whether it shall succeed or fail. They seem to be the masters of destiny. They can and they do make one city grow while they strike its competitor with the paralysis of death. They build up party bosses in politics. The citizen who favors them rides free while the independent man who op- poses tbem must pay the highest possible rate. The poor woman pays more in order that the insolent party boss may pay nothing. They build a road for five millions, capitalize it for ten millions, sell the stock at par, put five millions in their pockets as net profits, then tax the patrons to pay interest on ten millions. These railroads act as the business agents and promoters of trusts. They handicap the ordinary shipper by giving the trust a better secret rate. 1J{6 The Free Pass Bribery System. The Nebraska farmers received an average of thirty cents for their corn in 1902, while the Kansas farmers received thirty-four cents. The railroads made this difference in value by the difference in rates. The Nebraska farmer received forty-nine cents for his spring wheat while the Kansas farmer received fifty-five cents. This difference of six cents a bushel was caused by the extortionate rates in Ne- braska. In Nebraska oats brought twenty-five cents while Kansas oats brought thirty cents. Eye sold for thirty-six cents in Nebraska while it brought forty-five cents in Kansas. All this handicap against the Nebraska farmer is on account of freight rate discrimination against this state. It means that railroad greed goes unshackled ir. Nebraska. There is no control of the rail- roads by our state government. They do with us and our business whatever they please to do, and whatever we can stand. Our people cry out for relief but there is no ear at the state house to hear. - How do the railroads get this power over us and our affairs ? You know the answer ; we all know it; they get control of us because they control our officials. They buv them with their The Free Pass Bribery System. lJf.1 free passes. They buy them and we do not know it. The free pass is insidious in its deadly work upon the morality of men. If the peo- ple knew the power that it exerts they would organize their politics against it and strike it down. The little pink slip looks innocent and harmless when the pass holder shows it to the conductor in lieu of money. Some call it a "courtesy," but its real name is bribe. It is an enemy to free government. 5f a foreign foe should invade any state in this union to oppress its citizens, the whole power of our mighty nation would be exerted in their defense. But what power can defend us as a state against a corrupting bribing sys- tem, if we do not defend ourselves. The Ameri- can people have no fear of any outward foe. The danger is from secret influences that work among our people corrupting the fountains of government and authority. If our great gov- ernment and the splendid fabric of Christian civilization that we have established, ever crumbles, it will be because of moral decadence. It will be because of corruption and bribery. It will be because the common people are sold out by the men who. are put up as their repre- sentatives in the state. 1J/8 The Free Pass Bribery System. Nebraska public officials, with very few ex- ceptions, are free pass holders. Our governors, state officers, members of the legislature, judges of our courts, mayors of our cities, members of our city councils, members of congress, United States senators, practically all of the influential men, who are active in our politics and public affairs, are in this favored class who ride with- out pay. I do not say that every man who accepts free transportation is bribed thereby. But I do say that the effect of the free passes among our leading citizens causes them to remain sil- ent. They do not defend the state in its strug- gle against railroad domination. By the dis- tribution of these free passes the railroads pur- chase immunity from all these men. Let me put it another way. You show me a man who courageously opposes railroad dom- ination in politics, and I will show you a man whose name is not on the free pass list. The free pass is withheld from the independent and outspoken citizen. The lawyer, who takes cases against the railroads and prosecutes them vigor- ourly, is not a free pass holder. The free pass stands between the people and their govern- ment. The Free Pass Bribery System. 149 I hear a good deal said about issues lately. There is but one prominent issue in this state, and that is whether the railroads or the people shall rule. Government ownership of railroads may be the ultimate solution, but until that day comes, the railroads must be controlled. The people must hold on to the spirit as well as the form of representative government, and to this end The Fr&o Pass System should be de- stroyed. Speech ea Anti=Pass Bill During the Nebraska Legislative session of 1904- 1905, Mr. Berge framed and had introduced in the House of Representatives, an Anti-Pass Bill. He appeared before the committee on rail- roads and advocated the passage of the bill. The bill was treated with contempt and met instant death. The hearing took place with lobbyists representing the railroads occupying front seats. Mr. Berge delivered the following forceful and impassioned speech. The Free Pass Bribery System. 153 CHAPTEE XXI. SPEECH ON ANTI-PASS BILL, Gentlemen of the Committee: I am obliged to you for your courtesy in permitting me to come before you and urge the passage of House Bill ISTo. 239, the anti-pass bill, now under consideration by this committee. I think you will agree with me that the people of Ne- braska are tired of the free pass. It seems to me there can be no controversy on that point. And if the people are tired of it, it must be because it is bad for the people, and if it is bad for the people, it ought to be destroyed. And the only way to destroy it, to stop the is- suance and acceptance of free passes, is through a legislative enactment. And before there can be a legislative enactment, there must be a bill, and that bill must be considered before the com- mittee on railroads. So right here we are at the commencement point where the destruction of the free pass ought to begin. I hope this committee will not embarrass 154- The Free Pass Bribery System. this question by thinking of it as a partisan matter. To destroy this free pass system in Nebraska is certainly not a partisan matter. It was not considered a partisan matter down in Missouri to destroy the bribery system they had there. I believe that the republican voters of this state, outside of the pass holders themselves, are practically unanimous in the desire to have this bill, or some other bill that will do away with this evil, passed by this legislature. I drew this bill practically in its present form a few weeks after the election last fall. I gave this bill to Mr. Harmon, who, by the way, is a republican member. He told me that he would be glad to introduce it, and, as I under- stand it, he did introduce it. And now if this committee will recommend it for passage, it will probably pass and Mr. Harmon will be entitled to credit, the committee will be entitled to credit, the whole legislative body will be en- titled to credit, and the whole republican party in this state and all the people of ISTebraska will feel that the state is more respectable and that its government is on a higher plane when The Free Pass System is abolished by law. Gentlemen of the Committee, I would like The Free Pass Bribery System. 155 to discuss this pass question under three differ- ent heads. 1. That the free pass is unjust and un- lawful discrimination. 2. That it is a bribery system. 3. That the acceptance of it by any offi- cial is a violation of the oath which every legis- lative member, every state official and every judge in this state must take on entering his office. (1.) That the Free Pass is Unjust and Unlaw- ful Discrimination. I think we all agree that the principle of discrimination is wrong. Each man should have an equal show, not only in business, but in the exercise of his rights and his influence as a citi- zen. It should be made a criminal offense for the railroads to charge a part of the people who ride and let the other part ride free. The railroads do business under the constiution of the state, at least that is the theory. The state is therefore both legally and morally responsible for seeing to it that each citizen is charged the same fare for riding on the trains. I don't know how you look at it, gentlemen of the com- mittee, but it seems to me that the state is as 156 The Free Pass Bribery System. much responsible ^or the treatment of passen- gers, who ride on the railroad trains of this state, as if the state owned the railroads. The state could not, if it owned the railroads, charge one man three cents and another man only two cents per mile. This would be discrimination and would be contrary to the constitution which guarantees equal rights to all and special privi- leges to none. Neither could the state charge one man three cents per mile and allow another man to ride free. This system of discrimina- tion would be class legislation, for it would build up a free class and a paying class. If the state would undertake to do a thing so un- fair as that in the transportation business, or in any other line of business over which it had control, the people would cry out with one united voice that the state government was op- pressive, and there would be a revolution un- less the injustice was removed. Now if we admit, as I think we all do, that the state government is responsible for what the railroads do, then this Free Pass System by which a part of the people are permitted to ride free while the other part are required to pay is discrimination, and it seems to me to be the plain duty of the lawmaking body The Free Pass Bribery System. 157 of the state to enact a law that will stop this discrimination. It is a serious thing for a state govern- ment to sanction by silence and inaction a rank injustice like this. Every citizen of Ne- braska is guaranteed justice under the consti- tution of the United States. If the govern- ment of Nebraska sanctions discrimination in business between its citizens, it is out of har- mony with the constitution of the United States. This legislature has already placed itself on record as supporting the President of the United States in his attitude against freight discrimination. In the early part of the ses- sion your legislative body, gentlemen, passed a resolution endorsing the President. What are the people of the state to understand by this? Do you mean to say that you endorse President Koosevelt on his attitude against discrimination in freight rates, while you, as the lawmakers for Nebraska people, sanction discrimination in passenger rates? A part of our citizens pay while the other part ride free. Is that right, gentlemen? And is it right for the state government to endorse this and to continue to endorse it from year to year? If you allow this legislative session to pass with- 158 The Free Pass Bribery System. out the enactment of a law abolishing dis- crimination in passenger rates in this state, what then becomes of the resolution which your body has passed commending President Roosevelt? If you commend the President for striking out boldly against discrimination, how then can you remain passive with this dis- crimination here at home among our own peo- ple, under our own state government, stand- ing up hero like a mountain peak so that all the nation can see it? It is enough to bring the blush of shame to the face of every ~Ne- braskan when he sees the state government tolerating a wrong that is offensive to every sense of justice and fairness between men. I spent the last two nights upon a passenger train. At ten o'clock at night just back of the smoker I saw poor women with their babies restless and uncomfortable. These women were too poor to pay the extravagant price for a Pullman bed in which they could sleep. The next morning I saw those same anxious faces. They showed that they had had no rest or sleep. These Avomen paid their fares. There was no mercy or favoritism shown to them when they bought their tickets. But in the Pullman cars were a number of well-to-do men The Free Pass Bribery System. 159 who paid nothing to ride on the train nor to sleep in the Pullman berths. Is there a man on this committee who will say that this is right? Can you defend this, gentlemen? And will you defend it instead of defending this bill when you make your report to the legis- lature ? This bill does not propose that the poor women and children shall ride free. It proposes only that the well-to-do shall pay. It demands that there shall be no discrimination. The discrimination of The Free Pass Sys- tem would not be so offensive to our sense of justice if the discrimination was against the rich and in favor of the poor. If our rail- reads would give the people of small means a free ride or a lower rate, it would be dis- crimination to be sure, but it would be the kind of discrimination that all Christian governments are supposed to encourage. But, gentlemen of the committee, it is the well-to-do man who can afford to pay his fare who is the bene- ficiary of The Pree Pass System. Along with the well-to-do man, the banker, the lawyer and the wealthy shipper, comes the professional politician, the professional lobbyist and bribe distributor. These instruments of corporation power are the pets of The Free Pass System. 1 60 The Free Pass Bribery System. Shame on us as a state that such men as these are set up bj the insolent corporations as a favored class with free rides and free beds at night, while poor men and women and inno- cent helpless children are taxed for the luxu- rious ease which this other class enjoys. Gentlemen of the committee, it may be that seme of you are lawyers. If so, you know that a great many of the lawyers of this state have a graft in this Free Pass System. Some of us who pay when we ride have occasion to realize the advantage that the free pass is to the lawyer. The lawyer who has free trans- portation can travel. He can make many trips during the year, from one part of the state t^ another, to consult with witnesses, to take depositions, and in this he has a decided ad- vantage over the lawyer who must pay good money for every mile he rides. Clients un- derstand this advantage. Many of them na- turally seek out the attorney who has free transportation. The free pass means influence. It has a pull. The free pass holding lawyer has a wide acquaintance. He knows all the judges of the state, and is it disrespectful to the courts to say that the annual pass is a bond of union between lawyers and judges just as ONE WHO NEVER PAYS WHEN HE RIDES. The Free Pass Bribery System. 161 it is between politicians ? But I do not mean to arraign the legal profession especially for its intimate connection with this Free Pass System. The discrimination of the free pass i3 found in every branch of trade and busi- ness. It helps the one man in business and hinders the other man, his competitor. It makes the race between the two unequal. We are all striving to get along in our affairs here in Nebraska. We work hard. We work too hard. We need more rest than we get. When the hot summer comes we are tired out and we hurry away to the mountains and lakes for fresh air and rest. Right at this point The Free Pass System comes in with its discrimination and its heartaches. The railroad pets ride free. It is a familiar sight to us, here in Lincoln, to see these old time chronic pass holders with their families, their relatives and their friends, grouping themselves together and riding away on free passes to en- joy the summer outing. ISTow, as I said be- fore, if the poor who are most in need of fresh air and rest and sightseeing, if they were the ones who were riding free, the dis- crimination would be less offensive. But gen- tlemen, the higher conscience of this state and 162 The Free Fass Bribery System. the public sentiment that is now pressing upon you for the enactment of this law, is not ask- ing for free transportation for the poor. The people are not asking for a law that will give free rides to the poor, but they are ask- ing you for a law that will make every man pay. They want all discrimination to stop. Gentlemen, no man can appear before this committee and justify this unjust discrimina- tion. It is indefensible. Neither can you as members of this legislature place yourselves in a consistent and sincere attitude before the people of this state if you permit passenger discrimination after commending the President for his opposition to freight discrimination. (2.) That the Free Pass is a Bribery System. Now let us pass to the second proposition, that the pass is a bribe. I suppose that most of the men who carry the free pass, when ques- tioned, deny that they are influenced by it. I suppose that you, gentlemen, as you sit here now as members of this legislative committee on railroads, with free passes in your pockets, deny that these passes influence you. I don't blame you for that. A man can hardly be ex- pected to admit that he is bribed. I recognize Th e Free Pass Bribery System. '163 that it is possible for men to carry these free passes year after year for so long a time that they come at last to see things from the rail- road point of view. But, gentlemen, let me ask you for a moment to put yourselves in the place of the general public. The great masses of the people who pay the extortionate freight rates. Let me ask you to look at the question from their standpoint. They know that the rate is extortionate. They know that this ex- tortion is protected by the state government. They know that they are not treated fairly in the matter of their taxes. And, gentlemen, they believe that the lever which controls the lawmaking power of the state is The Free Pass System. Don't you see, gentlemen, how these freight payers reason it out that The Free Pass System is a bribing influence which restrains you from enacting a freight reduction law ? How long have freight rates been extor- tionate in this state ? About twenty-five years, have they not? How long has The Free Pass System been in use here ? About the same length of time. These two systems have gone hand in hand., The High Freight Rate Sys- tem and The Free Pass System. The freight payer, when he looks at these 16 Jt The Free Pass Bribery System. two systems moving side by side and hand in hand over a period of so many years, can easily see that The Free Pass System exists to protect The High Freight System. If the rail- roads can purchase from the politicians and officials the privilege of robbing the public through extortionate rates, and if the price they pay is The Free Pass System, then is it not a bribing system? The free pass has a money value. When you ride on the train you tender your free pass in lieu of money, do you not? Count up the dollars that you save on your travel in a year, and that is the money value of the pass to you.- The pass represents money in your pockets every time you ride. Suppose that when you take the train for a trip some legis- lative lobbyist would step up before you to the ticket office and buy a ticket with cash and hand it to you. Would that be a bribe ? It would certainly be humiliating to you, I be- lieve you will admit that. Or, suppose that the lobbyist, when you started on a three hundred mile trip, would hand you^eighteen dollars in cash which would be the price of your round trip ticket. Would you feel that the eighteen dollars in cash was not a bribe, The Free Paes Bribery System. 16o and was not intended as a bribe ? Would you dare to go home from this legislative session and take such a position as that before your constituents ? I have talked with a good many free pass holders on this question, and I find that they generally admit that the railroads, when they issue free passes, expect some service in re- turn. But these same gentlemen contend that the railroads do not accomplish their purpose in this respect. Before this session closes you will hear men boast in this legislature that they take all the free passes they can get and they will admit that the railroads maintain The Free Pass System for a purpose, but they will deny that the purpose is accomplished. What kind of a position is this for a man to take who pretends to be an honorable man, and who has been honored by his constituents with an office of responsibility and trust 'I What kind of a man is it who will accept from the political agents of a soulless corporation a thing which the corporation intends as a bribe, and then openly boast among his official asso- ciates that he has accepted the bribe, used it for all it is worth, but has rendered no equiv- alent for it? The fact is that the pass holders 106 The Free Pass Bribery System. know that the pass is the means by which the railroads intend to buy influence over the judg- ment and conscience of the politicians and the officials. When the politician or the official accepts the pass, knowing the purpose for which it is given, he is then placed in the position where he must betray somebody. He must either betray the railroad managers who have given him the pass, or he must betray the people. . There is a great issue here in Nebraska between the corporations and the people. The matter in dispute is a matter of money. The extortion which the corporations practice takes from the people annually millions of dollars ii which these corporations are not entitled. To stop this drain of unlawful tribute from the pockets of the people, the people are ap- pealing to the state government for protection. You, gentlemen, as representatives, #re the lawmaking power to which this appeal from the public is now made. Pending this appeal the corporations send out their hired lobbyists to distribute among you and your political friend^ these free passes. With these passes in your pockets the people are calling upon you for a law that will stop freight rate extortion. The corporations are urging you not to pass Tlie Free i J ass Bribery System. 167 such a law. You cannot serve both of these two masters. You must choose whether you will be the representatives of the freight payers, who have elected you, who have trusted you, or whether you will be the servile tools of the corporations, which have provided you and your friends with this free transportation. It is for you to say, when you act on this bill, whether these people who have trusted you shall have justice, or whether they must endure the tyranny of railroad domination m government and railroad extortion in business for another two years. The case between the people and the cor- porations is before you now for a decision. You occupy practically the same position as the judge on the bench. The people's cause is before you pleading for your consideration, and the corporation passes are in your pockets. Judas betrayed his Master for thirty pieces of silver, but still even old Judas had respect enough for himself to be sorry for the wicked conspiracy into which he had entered, and he gave the money back. It would have been more to the credit of Judas, if he had refused to enter into the conspiracy from the first and had refused the money, but still the repentance 168 The Free Pass'Bribery System. that came afterwards and the giving back of the money, even -when it was too late, saved his reputation to some extent. What' would you think of a judge upon the bench before whom a case was pending between the railroads and some freight-robbed cattle shipper, out here in this state, if the judge was carrying in his pockets the free passes of that corporation ? Would you feel that he was a safe judge in that case ? Would you, if you were the cattle shipper, feel that you had an equal chance for justice in that court, unless you put something into the judge's pockets as valuable as the pass ? As a litigent, you would naturally want to be on an equality with your adversary in the case, would you not ? Look at the situation as it is here in Ne- braska for one moment. Here are thousands of the corn raisers, cattle raisers, fruit pro- ducers and coal consumers, who are calling upon you, as the legislative body, to protect them against the extortion of the railroads, to which the state government has given a mo- nopoly on the carrying business. These cat- tle raisers, corn producers, fruit producers and coal consumers have elected you to this legis- lature to sit in judgment on this extortion, and A FAMILY WHICH MUST ALWAYS PAY WHEN IT RIDES. The Free Pass Bribery System. 169 to render a verdict that will stop the extortion. Even before you take your seats in this legis- lative court, these extortioners send their bribe distributors among you, and you accept the bribes. "What chance have the people for justice in such a court ? Gentlemen, this condition cannot continue. A million of intelligent and independent peo- ple, organized into a state government, cannot be deceived and cheated in this way year after year. The fact that the members of this present legislature have, with a very few exceptions, already accepted these free passes, indicates that they are on the railroad side of this con- troversy. It seems to me that the honesty of the public official is tested right at the point where the free pass is tendered to him. He may refuse the pass and yet refuse to support a rate reduction bill, because it may appear to him that a rate reduction law or an anti- pass law is unjust or is unnecessary. But if he accepts the free pass for himself and his friends, that means that he has entered into the railroad conspiracy against representative government. The free pass not only bribes the politician and the official, but it sometimes bribes the 1 70 The Free Pass Bribery System. whole public. Like any other system of bribery, is corrupts the public conscience. The young- men, growing up to become lawmakers and guardians of our state, seeing this distribu- tion of free passes in vogue among the leading men of the state, learn to look upon the free pass, not only as a thing of advantage, and value, but as a sign of distinction and influ- ence. We cannot maintain the vigor of youth in our body politic, if we tolerate this in- sidious and wholesale bribery system. Its ef- fect upon men and upon the conscience of the public is like that of creeping paralysis. It rots the fiber of common honesty among the people and lowers the standard of manhood. The distribution of free passes has been reduced to a system in this state. This is why I call it The Free Pass System. The rail- roads employ pass distributors to organize the pass holders into a political force. By skillful organization they have built up one of the most powerful political machines ever operated in human government. The young man of high ideals, when he comes to enter political life in this state, seeing this free pass machine and knowing the power that it wields, is afraid of it. It makes him hesitate. The The Free Pass Bribery {System. 171 higlior ideals, which he has imbibed from the books during his school life, are confronted with the brutal power of this railroad organiza- tion right from the very start. We cannot have high-minded and free men in our public af- fairs while this corporation giant, with his free pass bribe and his railroad club_, is straddled over the highway of political opportunity in front of every aspiring young man. The free pass organization is the "big stick" of the cor- porations. The big stick theory may be all right, but I want the big stick of political power to be in the hands of the people. I believe that if the free pass was abolished the con- trol of our state government would come back into the hands of the people. And just a word on that point. The power over the state gov- ernment will never be in the hands of the people while the corporation bribes are in the peckets of the public officials. (3.) The Acceptance of the Free Pass by Any Public Official Violates his Official Oath. And now, gentlemen, I come to my third and last proposition, that the taking of a free railroad pass by a public official is contrary to the oath provided by the constitution of the The Free Pass Bribery System. state. In section I of article XIV, of the constitution of the state of Nebraska, you will find the oath -which every state official, includ- ing every member of this legislature, must take before entering upon the duties of his office. Let me read the oath : "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Ne- braska, and I will faithfully discharge the duties of according to the best of my ability; and that at the election at which I was chosen to fill said office, I have not improperly influence J, in any way, the vote of any elector, and have not accepted, nor will I accept or receive, directly or indirectly, any money or other valuable thing, from any cor- poration, company or person, or any promise of office, for any official act or influence, for any vote I may give or withhold on any bill, resolution, or appropriation." Part of this same section provides: "Any such officer or member of the legis- lature, who shall refuse to take the oath herein prescribed, shall forfeit his office, and any per- son who shall be convicted of having sworn falsely to, or of violating his said oath, shall forfeit his office, and thereafter be disqualified The Free Pass Bribery System. 173 from holding any office of profit or trust in this state, unless he shall have been restored to civil rights." Xo more searching oath could be prescribed. The language is plain. Its meaning is as clear a? the noonday sun. I maintain that every man who accepts a free pass, and who takes that oath under the constitution, is guilty of swear- ing falsely, and if his just deserts were meted out to him, he would suffer the consequences provided for such offenders in that section of the constitution. • It is a common thing for public officials, when they accept free passes, to excuse them- selves from the penalty of the oath, on the theory that they have made no promises. What a flimsy excuse that is ! How crooked and evasive it sounds coming from a public official ! Everybody understands that the promise is not made in any set form of words, but it is made in the acceptance of the pass. When the pass goes into the official's pocket, the promise goes to the corporation, and I will say this, gentlemen, for the free pass holders of this state, they generally keep the promise. The influence of the pass is so insidious and so destructive of all that which is true 17 If The Free Pass Bribery System. and good in a man, that railroad officials arc able to rely upon the unspoken promise, and the cases are very rare where this trust has been betrayed. The pass holder may accept the pass, and he may try to obscure the mean- ing of it, but gentlemen, when you read this oath, prescribed in the constitution, you can- not get away from the hold that it has on you. But now, gentlemen of the committee, if you and the other honorable gentlemen, who constitute the lawmaking body now in session at the state house, dispute my theory, that the pass is unlawful and unjust discrimination ; that it is intended by the corporations as a bribe, and is a bribe; that the taking of it is a violation of the official oath provided for in the Nebraska constitution, let me cite you to the testimony of a man before whom all pass holders and all railroad politicians must bow with respect, — a railroad president. If what I say on this question has no influence on you, and if the demands of the people of Nebraska have no influence on this legislature, the testi- mony of a railroad president will certainly command your attention. Mr. A. B. Stickney, president of the Chicago & Great Western Bail- road, in speaking before a Washington Econ- The Free Pass Bribery System. 175 omic Society, in the City of Washington, on the 3rd clay of February, 1905, took the ground that the Interstate Commerce Law was hindered and railroad regulation seriously interfered with by the influence of the free pass. Let me read you, gentlemen, what Mr. Stickney said : "Turning now from the defects of the law, I desire to call attention to some extraneous conditions and influences which have conduced to render the law unenforceable and which, as long as they exist, will render the most perfect law unenforceable. . The Interstate Commerce Law not only forbids discrimination in freight rates, but it also prohibits free transportation of passen- gers. It makes the acceptance of a discriminat- ing freight rate or a free pass by an individual, a misdemeanor, each punishable alike by fine or imprisonment. If we examine the principle of law, and the principles of sound morals which justify the law, we shall find that every principle applies to the one as to the other. If we inquire into the heart burnings growing out of railway dis- criminations, which are breeding class dis- tinctions and class hatred and even anarchism among the so-called lower classes, we will find 176 The Free Pass Bribery System,. that the bitterest feelings are aroused by be- ing compelled to pay fare while richer men ride free. If we go among the laboring classes either as individuals or in their meetings, we will hear bitter denunciations, not of unreason- able or discriminating freight rates, but of free passes. In times of railway strikes we hear the park orators proclaim, 'Why should we work for scant wages in order that rich men may ride in the trains free?' Probably eighty per cent of the entire population pay fares, while not more than, say five per cent directly pay freight rates. Anti-Pass Legislation. The law which makes it a misdemeanor for any individual, not an officer or employe of a railway company, to use a pass was enacted by congress and approved by the President fifteen years ago, and as an individual rule of action, it Avas ignored by the congressmen who passed it, and by the President who approved it, and subsequent congressmen and Presidents, with rare exceptions, have ignored its provi- sions. Traveling, they present the evidence of their misdemeanors before the eyes, x of the public in a way which indicates no regard for Th e Free Pass Bribery System. 177 the law. The governors of the states, many of the judges, — in short all officialdom from the highest to the lowest, the higher clergy, college professors, editors, merchants, bankers, lawyers, present the evidence of their misdemeanors. Kow, while sheriffs, district attorneys, courts and prisons may cope with the outcast of so- ciety, they are powerless against the classes which have been mentioned. Think of the im- possibility of committing these classes to prison ! Think of a sheriff arresting himself, of a dis- trict attorney prosecuting himself, and of a court committing himself to the penitentiary ! In England, where the laws against dis- crimination are enforced, these conditions do not exist. The members of Parliament, who enacted the laws, have obeyed the laws and even the king, when traveling on the railways, pays the regular fare, and if he has a special train he pays the schedule rate for its use. The minor officials, the railway officials and the public follow their example. Therefore the law of England against discrimination is ef- fective. Public Conscience Stifled. I am not willing to admit that the average standard of official and individual morals is 17S The Free Pass Bribery System. lower in this country than in England, but for fifteen years the public conscience has ap- parently been in a sort of self-hypnotic trance of an expectancy which can never be realized, namely that the virtues of the railway com- panies will render it impossible for the in- dividual to offend the law. "While I am will- ing to admit the uncompromising virtues of railway officials, I submit that it is too much to expect the few railway presidents, who are growing fewer, to furnish the virtues for 85,- 000,000 of people. What the country needs to break the trance is an illustrious example, like the example of the king of England. There is one man and but one man, whose example would be affective ; and, unless the American people have mis- judged his character, if he realized that he was transgressing the law in accepting the courtesy of free transportation, Theodore Roosevelt would have the virtue and the courage and the ability to set the example, which shall awaken officialdom and all good citizens to a sense of the individual duty to obey this law. 'No one' says Mr. Roosevelt, 'can too strongly insist upon the elementary fact that you cannot build the superstructure of public virtue save on private virtues.' " The Free Pass Bribery System. 179 Now gentlemen, I have already occupied more of your time than I intended to. In con- clusion, let me appeal to you, as officials, just as President Stickney has appealed to official- dom all over this country, to give us in Ne- braska a law that will destroy this Free Pass System forever. As I said before, there is a struggle here in Nebraska between the rail- roads and the people. Eailroad influence has crowded itself into our politics and govern- ment for the purpose of protecting railroad extortion in business. The railroads have an unjust advantage here and they want to hold on to it For the sake of holding this ad- vantage, which amounts to millions annually to them, they are giving free transportation to whoever will betray the people and help them. The Nebraska people are appealing to you, and the press of the state is appealing to you, for a law that will strike down discrimination, both in freight and passenger business, and give the people justice in this matter. President Eoose- velt has promised the whole American people justice so for as he can help to bring it about in the national congress. What are you going to do now in this state, gentlemen ? What is your lawmaking body going to do ? Do you think 180 The Free Pass Bribery /System. the state government ought to continue, bv its silence and inaction, to endorse this free pass system, which even railroad presidents are de- nouncing in public as unjust ? What is a state government for if not to stand for justice and equality between its citizens ? Here is a bill, which, if enacted into law, will strike down rail- road discrimination in passenger rates, railroad influence in our politics, in our state govern- ment, in the public affairs of our towns and cities, which will destroy the railroad political machine and restore self-government among the people. If you pass this bill, the effect will be to bury The Free Pass System; and if it is once buried by legislative enactment, it will never be resurrected in this state. The people of Nebraska are now waiting on you, gentlemen of the committee. The bill is in your hands. If you approve it, and report it for passage, it will probably be passed and become a law. If you don't like this bill, if you object to it because it was not drawn by a republican, if you take the ground that a re- publicaiv^egislature is not bound to pass a bill which was drawn by a democrat or a populist, then, gentlemen, reject this bill and introduee one of your own making. "Whatever you as the The Free Pass Bribery System. 1S1 committee on railroads think of this particular bill, or whatever respect or disrespect you may have for my views, in thanking you for the courtesy which you have extended to me, I want to appeal to you, on behalf of all the people of this state, to give us some kind of a law that will destroy the railroad machine in politics and give us back the advantages of rep- resentative government which have been denied us for so many years. Opening Speech of 1984 Campaign Speech Sounding Keynote of Campaign when Mr. Eerge -was Candidate for Governor of Ne- braska in 1G04. This was his opening speech ol the campaign and was delivered at Epworth Lake Park before a large audience Saturday, September, 17, 1904. So much as bears upon the subject discussed in this volume is here given. The Free Pass Bribery {System. 1S5 CHAPTER XXII OPENING SPEECH OF 1904 CAMPAIGN. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: In accepting this nomination for the chief execu- tive office of the state, I am fully conscious of the responsibilities it places upon me. The cam- paign upon which we are entering, in many re- spects, is the most important in which the peo- ple of the state have ever engaged. I want to express the pleasure it is to me that this opening meeting of the campaign is here in my home city, where I have lived for fourteen years. I believe that the people of this county, who have known me during these years, will have confi- dence in what I say here, and that even my political opponents, who will, perhaps, reject my views or dispute my judgment, will at least not question my sincerity. Since my nomination I have been advised to do many things to make my election sure. Some of the suggestions I have received were good ones, others were not so good. I have 186 The Free Pass Bribery System. been glad, however, to receive every suggestion that has been made, because they have all helped nie to adopt what I hope is the right course in this campaign. I have made up my mind that the proper course for me in this cam- paign is the straight forward course without any attempt to edge myself into the executive chair. If I am elected, I will take the executive chair unpledged and free. I will not be un- der any obligation to any interest, neither will I allow myself to be put into an attitude of hos- tility to any interest. I believe the people want the public affairs of this state administered without dictation from any influence and with- out prejudice against any influence. I would rather be defeated and live out my life among you here as a private citizen than to be the mere creature or tool of any of the forces that contend against each other in Nebraska poli- tics. I hope that I have no preconceived bias or prejudice for or against any business in- terest. I believe that it is possible for an ex- ecutive to be fair to the corporations and yet be faithful to the people. I pledge you good faith and my best ability in the consideration of every question that shall come before me. Issues of the Campaign. It has been frequently asserted that there are no issues in this campaign, except to get The Free Pass Bribery System. 181 the offices. It has been said that the populists and democrats no longer represent any prin- ciple, and that this campaign is simply a scramble for spoils. If I believed this, I would resign my candidacy at once. If this were true, there would be no good reason for the election of any candidate on the fusion ticket. But who is it that says there are no issues ? It is seasy for those holding official positions under the dominant party to say that there are nc issues. Have the taxpayers said that there are no issues ? Do the farmers, the business men, and the laboring men say that there are no issues in this campaign? It can be shown that a great deal of money has been recklessly squandered during the last two years, and do the men, who are taxed to raise this money, do they say there are no issues ? The great mass of Nebraska citizens have had but little to say in the state government here for a good many years, and do these citizens say that there are no issues ? There is a class, who have enjoyed special privileges as the favorites of the cor- porations. It may seem to these that so long a* their special privileges continue that there are really no issues in this state. Certain business interests have been in part exempt from taxa- 188 The Free Pass Bribery System. tion. Perhaps the representatives of these in- terests feel that there are no issues in this cam- paign. But I believe that the people, who are looking after their side of public affairs, are beginning to realize that there are some issues in this state, and that they are of a character so serious as to be vital to them, if this is to be a self-governing state. The fact is that the government of this state has long since passed out of the hands of the people, and into the hands of political bosses and certain corporation influences. I speak of this as a fact. I believe the people generally so understand it. The dictation of our public affairs by political bosses and corporation in- fluences is a matter so universally understood as to require no argument or proof. This state in name is a government of the people. We have here the form of self-govern- ment. We have our constitution. We have our statutes. We discuss politics. We organize campaigns. The people vote at the elections. But if our officials are under corporation control and if our laws are made at the dictation of corporation influences, then our state govern- ment is not a government by the people, but a government by the corporations. The Free Pass Bribery System . 1S9 A state government of the people implies that if there is a law on our statute books the people do not want that they may repeal it. It means that if the people want a law for their good that they will pass that law. It means that the people shall suggest and name and elect the men they want to serve them. It means that the official who is elected shall serve the people and not some other interest or some other influence. It is a serious charge to say that we have no longer self-government in this state. But if it is a fact somebody ought to say it. Not only is our state government usurped by these po- litical bosses and these corporation influences, but the influence we exert as a state in the National Congress is of the same kind. Who elected our two present United States senators? Did the people have anything to do with it? "What influence dominated the legislature that elected those senators ? Was it the people's in- fluence or was there some other influence run- ning that legislature? What influence is it that controls republican conventions'? Tell me when did the republicans have a convention that was really a people's convention ? What did the people have to do with the extravagant appro- 190 The Free Pass Bribery System. priations of the last legislature ? What influence is it in our state politics that is so recklessly squandering our money ? What did the people have to do with the passage of our present revenue law ? It was not the farmers' influence ; it was not the influence of the business men; it was not the influence of the mechanic or laboring men that is responsible for any of these things. Such abuses as these almost dis- courage popular government. It seems almost incredible that the people of Nebraska should submit to such dictation. It is a serious thing to contemplate that while the form of our gov- ernment is right in the main, that it is con- stantly perverted by influences that work in secret. The trouble is that the people who are expected to operate the machinery of the gov- ernment are pushed away from it. Their hands do not touch it. All these years the people have been asking for bread, but the influences in control have given thorn a stone. To the people of the state, I sound a note of warn- ing. If you do not soon drive these usurpers from the throne of our state government, the time will come when you will be helpless and cannot do it. But how, you ask, is this done? How is it The Free Fass Bribery System. 191 that the people have the legal right to govern themselves and yet any man or set of men can usurp and take away this sovereign right ? Row is it that the people will permit this ? How is it that in this state where every man has the right to make himself heard and to make his influence felt, that a few political bosses and a few corporations can control the whole state government ? This is done through several sources and by several means. Let me point out a few of them. ; In its last analysis our constitution and our laws are not our real government. All officials are human beings. It matters not what our constitution is, or what our laws are. It mat- ters not what the people are crying out for from every township and every country precinct in this state. Our government is just what cer- tain influence make it. Influence is the real power in all government. Where the influence is, there is the real seat of government. In- fluence suggests candidates. Influence elects candidates* It is influence that controls the representatives in the legislature. It is influ- ence that swerves the judge on the bench. It is influence that swavs the e;overnor in the ex- ecutive chair. Influence moves or stays the 192 The Free Pass Bribery System. hand of the official. The officer, who walks the street, either sees violations of the law, or omits to see them according to the influence that named that officer. Say what you will, our state government, from the chief executive in the chair down to the janitor, who sweeps or neglects to sweep the corridors of the state house, is the power that exercises control over these men. In battle the power is in the man behind the gun. In civil affairs the power is in the influence behind the official. You get from the official just such laws, if he is a law- maker, just such interpretation of law, if he is a judge, just such enforcement of law,, if he is an executive officer, just such assessment of property, if he is an assessor, as is desired by the influences that made him. The official knows the influence that gave him his job. He knows that he must obey that authority of get out. It is therefore important to know what influence is in control. It is important to know what influence names our candidates and enacts our laws. The people should exert this influence. It is their privilege. It is their right. It is not only their privelege and their right, but their duty. Our shame is that we have not always exercised this right. We have The Free Pass Bribery System. 193 surrendered that right to some one else. Jacob of old sold his birth-right for a mess of pot- tage. We have sold ours for a free pass. The Free Pass System. There are people who scoff at this idea, but I believe it is true nevertheless. What is The Free Pass System for if not to procure the government away from the people? The first move to make towards better government is to abolish the free pass. We used to say the pass was a bribe. We were right when we said that. A pass is a bribe. If it does not accom- plish its purpose, it simply miscarries. Much has been said in recent years about freight rates, about passenger rates, about the taxation ques- tion, but, my friends, have you made any head- way? Are you any better off today than you were fourteen years ago when this agitation first started? Every piece of legislation look- ing to that end has been defeated. Every law has bees declared invalid. My friends, you will never regulate freight rates, you will never regulate passenger rates, you will never solve the taxation question so long as the free trans- portation system remains. «$ In discussing this question, I am going to 19 If. The Free Pass Bribery System. assume that railroads want only what is right. I am going to assume that railroads sometimes have to resort to this vicious system for the purpose of protecting themselves against black- mail and against unscrupulous officeholders. I condemn the officeholders just as much as I do the railroads because we have with us this vicious system. I have thought sometimes that the railroads are in the same condition as the man, who has become addicted to the use of stimulants, who would like to leave off the habit, but cannot. I am going to insist therefore that the railroads themselves should desire to abolish this vicious pass system just as much as the people. All railroad officials are not bad men, and all public officials elected in the name of the people are not all good men. It is neither the officials nor the railroads that I am after. I am after this vicious system. I believe that it must be first abolished before we can get whole- some legislation. I believe it is true and can be shown that The Free Pass System in this state has de- veloped to a point where it absolutely dictates our public affairs. It has become a menace to our state and city governments. The Free Pass System has developed into a secret political or- The Free Pass Bribery System. 195 ganization, embracing the strong men, influ- ential in their various localities throughout the state, cemented together in a compact, which grows more and more binding as the years of association together blend the members of this organization into harmony with each other, and while this compact grows stronger and stronger as between the members themselves, the organi- zation, as a body, as a powerful and potent force in politics, becomes more and more under the control of the railroads. If the power exerted by this organization could be realized by the voters of this state, they would surely find some way to sweep it out of existence at a single blow. The people of the legislative districts do not fully under- stand, what well informed men understand to be the truth, that this free pass organization, working in secret, as a secret force within the parties of the state, has actually controlled the selection of members of the legislature in many of the districts of the state for twenty-five years. The same is true in a large measure of state officials. This has been done by means of The Free Pass System. We are made each of us a grateful and appreciative human being. If one man does another a favor, it is but human 196 The Free Pass Bribery System. nature to want to return the favor. And if you don't want to return that favor, then don't permit any man to put you under obligations to him. It is contrary to the law of human nature for one man to accept a favor from another and not remember it Avith gratitude. A litigant down in Kansas recently sent the trial judge a $500.00 check. A railroad com- pany was the other party in interest. The judge had carried the pass of the railroad company for years. "I'm not trying to bribe the court," said the maker of the check, "but if the pass is of value and has influence, then I want to put up something of equal value that will off-set that influence so that I will be on an equal footing be- fore the court. If you retain the pass, please re- tain the check. But if you return the check, please also return the pass." Ex-Governor Larabce of Iowa, speaking of how a pass is regarded by railroad officials, says, "The railroad pass, when presented by a public official or even by any public man, is now, in nine cases out of ten, a certificate of dishonor and a token of servility, and is so recognized by railroad officials." The free pass has swayed many a judge. I have no doubt of that. In this state, I am The Free Pass Bribery System. 197 informed, that the whole judicial system from top to bottom is mantled with The Free Pass System. Not only the judges, but many of the jurors and court officials are affected by it. Wot only the machinery of our courts, but the officials in every department of our state are affected by it. Say what you will, you cannot get impartial administration that way. The pass system has created a gulf between the people and their government. It must be abolished, and the man who is not ready to support a movement for the abolition of The Free Pass Stysem is unworthy to sit in the legislature, on the bench, or in the executive chair. The pass system should be abolished be- cause it will be better for the railroads and better for the people. It may seem to the rail- roads that they can wield an influence and with it protect themselves, but have railroads ever thought how public sentiment is arrayed against them on account of the pass ? People don't like to be discriminated against; people love fair play. The railroads have their prop- erty in the state, in fact own more property in the state than any other one person or cor- poration. Their property deserves protection. 198 The Free Pass Bribery System. Their interests should be regarded as sacred as those of the most humble private citizen. No fair-minded man will dispute that, and no rail- road will deny the citizens of the state the right to regulate by law the railroads. Fairness is what we want here, no tiling more, nothing- less. As long as the railroads are permitted to be managed as private property and used by the stockholders for speculative purposes and private gain, just so long must the people regu- late them by law. It is unfortunate that in this regulation there has been so much friction and clashing of interests. I am firm in the conviction that if we approach this question, not as a partisan of either side, but with a spirit of fairness and reasonableness, that it is possible to do what is right between the railroads and the people. This should be the endeavor of every public official. The very fact, however, that regulation is difficult, in my judgment, will hasten the day when railroads will become, in fact as well as in theory, public highways, to be owned, and operated by the government. If I should make a prophecy, I would say that folic ving a period of attempted regulation will come govern] The Free Pass Bribery System. 199 ownership. Until that day comes it should be our endeavor to find out what is right and what is just between the people and the rail- roads, and then courageously do that which will protect the interests of both. The Professional Lobby. Another agency, which has helped to put our state government out of the people's hands, is the lobby. Men are elected to the legislature, and state officials are elected to administer the affairs of the state. These officials say they want to do what is right. They say they favor wholesome laws. But let a measure come up and the lobby appears. By one method or an- other good laws are repealed, and bad laws are passed. Sometimes the lobbyist uses money ; sometimes he uses passes ; sometimes he uses promises of political reward, but always this influence is pernicious and deadly. The in- terests of every private citizen and the interests of every corporation should be carefully guarded. But there ought not to be permitted ir- any state, in any legislature the notorious lobby that corrupts everybody it touches, and that defeats every measure against which its deadly force is directed. £00 The Free Pass Bribery System. p As an illustration of the influence of the paid lobby, I point to the provision of our own city charter denying to our city council the right to regulate telephone rates. The idea of having the right to grant a charter or franchise and then have no control over the object of our creation is a proposition so absurd that self-re- specting men blush with shame. That provision was put into the charter by the lobbyist. Dis- claiming any intention to criticise any telephone company, the work of that lobbyist is a damage and an injury to the people of this city. In the last legislature the farmers wanted the Brady bill passed. ISTo intelligent member of the legislature could read that bill without feeling that it was his duty to vote for it. The farmers petitioned for its passage. The bill simply provided that the railroads should give adequate facilities to the farmers in the ship- ment of grain. A lobby defeated the bill. A lcbby gave the farmers a bill that the farmers did not want. A lobby said that it knew better than the farmers themselves what kind of a Lav they should have. It was the deadly force of the lobby directed again.it it that killed the Erady bill. Let me give yon another instance. "We have The Free Pass Bribery System. 201 heard much about Colorado lately. Do you know that in the state of Colorado, a few years ago, that all political parties, populist, demo- cratic and republican, alike, pledged themselves to pass an eight hour law for the miners. These men, who go into the bowels of the earth and lie on their backs the long day through, in the darkness and in the mud and dirt, had aroused the sympathy of the people of that state so much that the demand for an eight hour law was well nigh universal. Everybody favored it. Almost every man who went to the legislature pledged himself to vote for such a law, but, my friends, when the legislature met, the force of the professional lobby was directed against it and the measure was defeated. There is no doubt that those who favored the eight hour law and those who were opposed to it had the I to bo heard before the legislature. But no man will pretend that a professional lobby, a paid 1 >bby, has the right to over-ride the wishes of the | e ; le in that wry. It is through ihe lobby that the people are prevented from g Ming their hands on the governments It is througb the professional lobby that the voice of the people has been silenced in our legisla- ture. I say that the professional lobbyist whose 20£ The Free Pass Bribery System. business it is to thwart the wishes of the people and defeat wholesome legislation in that way should be branded as a criminal and punished as such. He is an enemy to popular govern- ment. Partisan Politics. Another reason why our state government has passed out of the hands of the people is on account of partisanship. Political parties are only a means to an end. Let me ask the rank and file of the republican voters of this state if it is not true that the control of your party has long ago passed out of your hands? Is it not true that you have been compelled to support men and measures because you could not be heard or make your influence felt ? What is true of the republican party in this state is true of the democratic party in St. Louis. What is true of the democratic party in St. Louis is true of the republican party in Pennsylvania. It is a disease confined not to any state or any one political party. It is a disease that affects every dominant party long i.i control. I am not here to condemn or find fault with republican voters. On the contrary 1 want to tell you that I believe you want to do what is The Free Pass Bribery System. 203 right, and that you want good government just as much as I do or as populists and democrats do. I believe that you are patriotic enough that when the issue is squarely presented that you will vote for the welfare of the state re- gardless of the party to which you belong. I want the republican voters of the state to hear me. Are you longer able to say who shall represent you in the legislature ? Are you longer able to help name the men who shall sit in your executive offices in the state house? Do you help bring out these candidates ? Do you have your hands on the machinery of your party ? Is your voice heard and your influence felt in your state conventions % Let us see just how a man gets into a state office and who puts him there. Before a man can be voted for, his name must be on the ticket. Before his name can be on the ticket, he must be regularly nominated. Before he can be nominated, he must be brought out, his name must be suggested and there must be organized around him enough of force from somewhere to make his candidacy promising and success- ful. If his candidacy is announced with a nourish of confidence, with hints that he is a sure winner, then the local politicians take the 20 % The Free Pass Bribery System. hint, and they gather around him and shout for him, no matter what their real judgment of him may be. If the people lose at this point, when the candidate is brought out, they lose all. If they do not touch the party machinery there, they never get their hands on it again. The republicans of Lancaster County have shown great loyalty to the party, but what has the party done for them? The republicans of the state have shown great loyalty to the party, but what has the party done for you ? There is no sanctity in party name. Parties may outlive their usefulness, but the truth never becomes obsolete. Partisanship is more often the design of those who lead than it is the prin- ciple of those who follow. The political boss with his pockets full of free transportation tells the voter he must vote the party ticket from top to bottom. This doctrine may be all right when the party machine is in the control of the party voters, but when the party machinery is in the control of other influences, then the party ticket doctrine has no claim upon any self-respecting voter. Will anybody claim that the average voter has any say in the councils of the republican party ? When your conventions meet and name The Free Pass Bribery System. zU5 candidates, are they the candidates of the voters of the republican party ? There is not a re- publican, who knows the real situation, who will say that this is not the case. This being so, what is the plain duty of republican voters of the state ? Will you support a machine that itf not of your making, and is not run in your interest? Will you longer allow yourselves to bo made figureheads in this serious business ? Ii is easy for the captains of transportation, through their lieutenants over the state, to order the rank and file of the republican column to move forward under the republican flag, but it is hard for the private in the ranks, the common citizen, who has been voting for twenty- five years for men whose names were put upon his ticket by the party bosses, to reason out what virtue there is in party loyalty when tbe only result is higher taxes for the people, higher freight rates for the railroads, and free trans- portation for the bosses. ****** With these astounding disclosures, is there no issue before the voters in this campaign? Is it only a scramble for office ? Is there no principle involved in this fight ? We are try- ing to right a great wrong. Is there no issue in that? When the tax payers of the state come 206 The Free Pass Bribery System. together in different conventions and join hands to correct these evils, are they to be censured ? Are populists and democrats deserving of ridi- cule when they co-operate in such a cause ? I make the prediction that before election day, not only populists and democrats, but thosuands of republicans will be with us in this fight. Long before election day we will forget party lines. I am glad for an opportunity to help win the battle. If I do no other important thing as long as I live, I want to do this. My heart is in it. The hard-faced politician may smile at my enthusiasm, but I would rather work with the people than with him. But, my friends, as partisans we cannot always win these victories. Sometimes we must forget our political affiliations. We can join hands on these state issues this year and discuss our party doctrines some other time. We can march shoulder to shoulder in this fight with- out any sacrifice or compromise of our views on national questions. What has the tariff ques- tion to do with this fight ? What has the money question to do with this fight ? It is not a ques- tion with us in this campaign whether the Filipino shall have independence. It is a ques- tion whether we ourselves, right here in Ne- >; The Free Pass Bribery System. 207 braska, shall have the right to govern our- selves. It is not a question whether we believe in an income tax. It is a question whether here in Nebraska taxes shall become so burdensome as to amount to confiscation of our property. 1 1 is a question whether here at home in Ne- braska the taxing power shall be in our own hands, or whether some one else shall exercise that right. Let me say again, if we win this battle, it will not be in a partisan spirit. The issue in Nebraska is the same that is being fought out in other states. The people of Missouri are waging the same fight. For more than a quar- ter of a century the government of St. Louis has been out of the hands of the people. Valu- able franchises were bartered away. The peo- ple have been over-burdened with taxes. The whole city government has been run, not in the interests of the people, but in the interests of a corrupt political machine, a secret organiza- tion of bribers. The fight there, as here, is to wrest the government from the boodlers arid political manipulators and restore it back to the people. For twenty-five years strong men have bowed before this mighty power of organ- ized corruption. The best men were either 808 The Free Pass Bribery System. obliged to keep out of politics, or bend the knee to an organization of bribers. This con- dition has become intolerable. But now a young man has arisen there with the moral courage to risk his life and reputation in a dtsperate grapple with this monster. If Joseph W. Folk will live long enough I believe he will wrest the government of Missouri from the worst gang of boodlers that ever infested any state. I hope that he will do more than that. I hope that he will send every bribe giver and bribe taker to the penitentiary. What is being done in Missouri is being done in Wisconsin. The fight in Wisconsin is to keep the government that has been retrieved by the people. I am glad that Wisconsin has a man with such strong convictions and such moral courage. The Missouri candidate for governor is a democrat. The Wisconsin leader is a republi- can. In Missouri thousands of republicans will vote for Joseph W. Folk for governor, and it is not to the credit of the republican party of that state that they have put up a candidate against him. In Wisconsin thousands of demo- crats will vote for Governor La Toilette's re- election. Party lines there have faded away The Free Pass Bribery System. 200 before the vision of all sincere and patriotic men. The people are standing together for their common good. If I was in Missouri, I •would vote for Joseph W. Folk for governor, and if I were a citizen of Wisconsin, I would vote for the re-election of Governor La Follette. I sometimes wonder if we are not forget- ting what it means to be a citizen of this country. There is an obligation that rests on the conscience of every true man. What a splendid government we have and how much it does for us ! Can we forget this ? This gov- ernment cannot survive if patriotism and the sense of individual obligation dies out among the people. The American flag protects us in every land and on every sea. The power that it represents, the liberty that it guarantees, makes the American citizen hold up his head m every seaport on the globe. Can we re- member this and at the same time fold our hands placidly and say there is no issue in politics while conspiracy against free govern- ment is plotted and carried out under the very dome of our state house? As an illustration of what our government does for us, I am reminded of a story, told be- fore, but worthy to be told again. An Ameri- £10 The Free Pass Bribery System. can boy had unwittingly taken service upon a Cuban vessel some years ago when the Cubans were in rebellion against the Spanish govern- ment. The Cuban vessel was captured by the Spaniards, and the crew, including the Ameri- can boy, accused of piracy, and were ordered to be shot the next morning at sunrise. The young man was innocent of any intended wrong. He did not fully understand the char- acter of the vessel on which he was employed. And now this new danger and awful fate that was waiting for him stirred his dull wits to the utmost for some means of escape. When he had grasped the full meaning that the power of a great government across the sea was about to be used against him, he began to consider seriously the relations of a government to its citizens, and whether there was not some re- lation between him and his government that cculd be now used for his benefit. He remem- bered how as a little boy he had followed his father down the mountain path from his old Virginia home to the little village where the Fourth of July celebration was in progress. The stars and stripes were waving from the-iop of the tall flag pole; how it was explained to him at that celebration that thst was the Ameri- Tlie Free Pass Bribery System. 211 can flag; that tliat flag was the sign of the American government, and that wherever that flag floated, whether on land or sea, it carried with it the power of all the American people for it was their flag and represented their gov- ernment. The power which it represented was pledged to protect the humblest American citi- zen wherever he might be in any country or on any sea on the whole face of the earth. And now as this boy sat there in the Spanish prison waiting for the hours to be counted before his execution, he wondered if what he had heard ?X the Fourth of July celebration was really true, and how could he make the connection again which lie had lost between himself and his government. He found out in conversing with his associates in prison that there was an American consul at that port, and he managed to get word to that officer, who went to the Spanish authorities and protested against his execution because he was innocent and an American citizen. The intercession of the American consul was brushed aside. They told him that the young man had been taken in a Cuban ship in the act of piracy, and that there was no time to investigate as to his inocence, or as to his citizenship, and that the execution 212 The Free Pass Bribery System. would take place as ordered, the next morning at sunrise. While the grays of the morning light were glinting the waters of the Atlantic, the American boy was thinking of the little cabin where he was born, up among the Vir- ginia hills. He thought of his mother, of the scenes of his early childhood, of the Fourth of July celebration down at the cross-road town, and now with all hope gone, it seemed that the flag story after all was not really true. The prisoners were formed in line, the American boy with the rest. The firing squad with loaded guns stood waiting for the com- mand to fire. But just at that moment the American consul came running down the i carrying an American flag. Hurrying forward to where the Virginia boy stood in line waiting for the death shot, he wrapped the flag around the prisoner, and then turning to the com- manding officer he said; "You put one bullet ir.to that flag, if you dare; that boy is an inno- cent American citizen, and if you shoot him down the power of the American government will wipe the government of Spain off the face of the earth and sink your isl md into the &>ea." I don't know Low you feel about it, bnt when my government is strong enough and The Free Pass Bribery System. 218 brave enough to stand for me, I want to stand for it. I want to stand for what the govern- ment stands for, protection and security for its citizens. But I will not stand under the cover of party loyalty, or any other subterfuge, and be silent for party sake while an organzed band of party usurpers procures the control of my state government. ■ If I am elected governor, I promise you that I will recommend to the next legislature and exert every possible influence at my com- mand to put into the statutes such laws as will once and for all destroy The Free Pass System in Xebraska. I also promise you that I will use every in- fluence I have for the enactment of a law mak- ing professional lobbying in the legislature a felony. The maintenance of a professional lobby at the state capitol leads to corruption and must be abolished. I favor the repeal of the present revenue law and the passage of a new law that will distribute equally and justly the burdens of tax- ation. There are many other measures thai will have to be coe ; red. I will not preti give an outline here. We uin '. - restore the &H The Free Pass Bribery System. state government and then we will address our- selves to the consideration of every important question. I want this campaign to be a living protest against present methods in state affairs. Against the present administration and its methods I am going to lead a revolt. I am going to insist that the business of the state shall be run as carefully and as judiciously as any man's private business. I call to the populists of the state to stand by me in this fight. I know of the sacrifices you have made. I know of the high and lofty patriotism that has moved you in other cam- paigns, and I appeal to you with confidence that you will help me. I call to every democrat In the state to re-inforce me in this fight to brine; back our state government. I need your help and I feel confident you will not withhold it. I call upon republicans to give me your help. I want you to help me in this fight be- cause our cause is common ground. Better far, that the people of the state, without regard to politics, join hands in this emergency to restore the state government, than tr march under a partisan flag and help win a partisan victory for partisan bosses. Better far, march in the vanguard of the The Free Pass Bribery System. 215 hosts of reform and help blaze the way for self- government again, than bear a flickering torch in the rear of the procession in an armv of ex- ploitation and rnin. Better far, be right than be wrong. Better far, be an American citizen than a partisan. The Government cf Oor Cities, The Free Puss Bribery System. 219 CHAPTER XXIII. THE GOVERNMENT OF OUR CITIES. The government of our cities seems to per- plex the most sanguine believers in our form of government. Our cities seem to be the weak places in our body politic. Corruption and a flagrant disregard of the people's rights char- acterizes the official conduct of our misgoverned cities. V\ T e continue to hope for better condi- tions, but I believe they will continue to grow worse as long as present methods obtain. There may be brief intervals of improvement, but the tide will soon recede again, and all that is bad will assert itself and have full swing. The remedy, in my judgment, can only be found in certain fundamental changes. We must lay the axe at the root of the evil. Before we can expect improvement we must fundamentally set ourselves right. In the first place, the curse of all cities is partisan politics. Partisan politcs is the child of the politician. The politician is a corporation 220 The Free Pass Bribery System. man. "With few exceptions he is a pass-holder. Pass-holders are the representatives of the rail- roads. The colorations profit by partisan poli- tics but the people do not. Partisanship, there- fore, is a weapon used by the corporations for their profit and it always is an injury to the people in city government. I have always be- lieved, that in city elections, men should be selected for officials who are known for their integrity and standing in the community, and not because they are members of any political party. We cannot have good city government when we do not vote for it. As long as people are partisans at city elections they will vote for parties and not good government and as long as this partisan spirit prevails, so long will we talk about better government for our cities, but not have it. As long as parti- sanship rules our cities so long will the govern- ment of our cities be sacrificed to state and na- tional politics. People generally do not realize it, but it is always the pass-holders and machine politicians or their satellites who raise the cry of party fealty at municipal elections. Pass- holders cry party fealty and keep alive this sentiment. They do this because they are the hired agents of the corporations and it pays The Free Pass Bribery System. 221 the corporations to have a strong partisan senti- ment among the people. These pass-holders tell us that Ave must be loyal to our party ticket so that we can carry the state or the nation in the approaching campaign. Analyze this and what does it mean ? It means that this party will carry the city election and then use the entire machinery of the city government to boost some one into office in the state or in the nation. For some unaccountable reason people have come to believe that to serve their party well they must be loyal to their party at city elections. They want to be regular and you will hear them boast how always they vote their ticket straight. ISTo more erroneous idea could enter the mind of even a partisan. We serve our party best when we serve our country, our state, and our city first. Behold the spectacle ! While valuable franchises are given away; while corporations elect public officials to serve them instead of the people; while pass-holding officials perpet- uate themselves in office year after year; while the indebtedness of our cities is piling up until taxation amounts to almost confiscation of our property; while corruption rules almost every department of the city, and while the moral 222 The Free Pass Bribery System. conditions that prevail are almost intolerable ; while these shameful conditions confront us in onr American cities, we find so-called respect- able Christian people, free American citizens, being hauled to the polls by ward bosses, and corporation pass-holders to again elect these bosses and pass-holders to office so that the peo- ple will be further robbed and plundered and demoralized. If in government there is such a thing as an unpardonable sin, this intolerable behavior on the part of free American citizens surely is that sin. In cities where two political parties are nearly evenly matched, there is a semblance of decency and orderly government, but where one party overwhelmes the other in numbers, the worst element in the city, the corporation tools, the pass-bribed politicians lead the host, and the so-called better element does nothing but carry a flickering torch in the rear of the procession. These conditions will never be changed as long as people listen to the siren voice of the pass-holders. The people may not realize it, but the truth is that the worst element in our cities is responsible for this partisan feeling among the better classes. People may resent the idea, but it is the truth nevertheless that the wholesome influence of the The Free Pass Bribery System. 223 good people of any city is not only weakened but nearly entirely destroyed because of parti- sanship ready made and handed down by the pass-holders and party bosses. The next fundamental weakness in our pres- ent methods of city government is the baneful influence of the corporations. I have about made up my mind that it is almost impossible, under present conditions, to control interested corporations in our cities. Just as long as pri- vate corporations can knock at our municipal doors and secure valuable franchises and do that which the city itself should do, just so long will these corporations, and not the people, govern our cities. This is not all. These public service corporations join hands with the rail- roads and this combination of corporate power is invulnerable so far as the people arc con- cerned. The people are absolutely shut out. In some cities the people believe they have something to do with the running of the gov- ernment of their cities. But this is an idle dream. Our cities are run by the corporations without any real interfeiv n e from the people. To control the government of our cities the c ir- porations must control the city officials. The • officials enter into a conspiracy with t' e cor- 2%lf. The Free Pass Bribery System. porations to defeat the people's will. This they are compelled to do in order to be elected. This has been notably shown in Philadelphia, in Milwaukee, in St. Louis and in other cities over the country where thorough investigations have been made. Say what you will, these public officials are controlled because they are bribed by the corporations. In most cases they are bribed with passes, sometimes by promises oi political reward, and sometimes with money. Money bribery, however, is not as often re- sorted to as other forms of bribery. The worst form of bribery in our cities is pass bribery. This is so because its influence is so insidious that people who will not acept money accept passes. But the work of bribery is just as effective as though money had been paid. The corporations therefore are able to control the government of our cities largely through the bribing influence of the free pass. I venture the assertion that in every city of any size all councilmen and mayors have passes in their pockets, not only from the railroads, but from the street cars. It also has been shown that they receive special favors from other public service corporations, such as rebates on the gas and water they consume. Say what you will, The Free Pass Bribery System. £25 you cannot get fair and impartial administra- tion that way. When these franchises are no longer grant- ed, then these public service corporations will no longer molest us in the administration of the affairs of our cities. Before, however, we can get rid entirely of the corporation influence the government must also own the railroads. As it is now, if a private corporation owns a gas plant, that corporation will want friendly members in the council ; if a private corpora- tion owns a water plant, that corporation will want to know how the mayor stands on certain questions ; if a private corporation owns a tele- phone franchise, it will want to know what kind of a charter the city is going to adopt; if a private corporation owns and operates a street car system, that corporation will inter- fere with the free expression of the will of the people on election day. All this is shameful. American cities by this time must be convinced that these private corporations and monopolies are all greater and stronger than the city itself, and that these corporations, and not the people, rule. And what is worse, these corporations do not stop at the doors of the city councils, but they go to the state legislatures and thera 226 The Free Pass Bribery System. dictate charaters and limit the powers of city officials. As I said above, in all cities of any size mayors and councilmen are favored with free passes for everything that costs money to the average citizen. That the railroads and public service corporations expect favors in return I need not stop to argue. I will simply state the conclusion that they expect favors in re- turn and that they get them. A prominent mag- azine writer recently told us how a coluncil- man from a certain city lobbied in the legisla- ture of his state for the passage of a bill, which would limit his own power as a councilman so that he could not legally compel a certain public service corporation to do what the people want- ed. 'Such loyalty commands respect. The only trouble with it is that it runs to the wrong party. He forgot his constituents, but de did not for- get the corporations with which he had made a bargain and sale of not only his vote but his conscience and his manhood. In the city of Lincoln at the present time we have two telephone systems. Personally I am opposed to this. There should be but one system in this city and the city should own that. I so expressed myself the other day to The Free Pass Bribery System. 227 a member of the council. I was told by the councilman that if the council had had the power to regulate the one system we had, the franchise would not have been granted to the other company. Upon investigation I find that the council is helpless and that it cannot regu- late telephone rates in this city. It is very apparent that some influence was at work in our own state legislature when this charter was passed. I wonder who exerted this influence? Whoever it was, I make the prediction that his pockets were full of passes, not only from the railroads, but from the street cars of this city. The pass-holder must go. The corporation agent must be marked. These influences must be driven out of our city politics before improve- ment will come. Our cities should own all of these public service corporations, and when that lime comes the blighting influence these corpor- ations exert in our cities will be a thing of the past. We hear a great deal said in our own city about the price of gas. I have been looking the matter up a little. In doing so I have been astounded at what is being done by cities of the oil world. I cannol give yon many sta- tistics. 3ne city will suffice. What is dona %28 The Free Pass Bribery System. in this one city is done in many others, and it will serve as a fair example of what may be done. The city of Manchester, England, has owned its gas works since the year 1817. The profits which have accrued to the city, since that time, from this source, amount to more than $12,000,000. The rate charged is sixty cents per thousand cubic feet. I read that last year the city of Manchester received a net profit of over one million dollars from this one source. What is true of the gas proposition in most of these foreign cities, is also true of street car, water works, and other public utilities. In some of these cities in England the following is a list of the most popular objects of municipal ownership : Dwellings for the working classes, tramways, gas works, electric lighting and power plants, markets, telephones, baths and washhouses, refuse and sewer disposals, ceme- teries, work (Jepartments, etc. And let me say, these plants are not promoted and sustained by money raised from taxation. They are not onlj elf-supporting, but, in addition, throw large earnings into the public treasuries, and in fact reduce general taxation instead of in- creasing it as many suppose. By the cities owning and operating these franchises, the The Free Pass Bribery System. 229 cities not only get rid of the blighting and de- bauching influences of private corporations, but also supply the people these necessities of life cheaper and increase the revenues of the cities and decrease taxation. Why our American cities have so long submitted to these extortions from private corporations and these debauching influences in our municipal life, I cannot under- stand. Before we can hope to solve the prob- lem of city government we must correct this fundamental error in the government of our cities. The people of our cities must begin to sep- arate the sheep from the goats. This is a peo- ple's government, and n»t a government by the corporations. If, however, the people continue to permit the corporations to govern our cities, they must not complain if the corporations debauch our city governments. I know of no other way of handling this question than to make an open warfare upon all of the wrong doings of the corporations and drive them out of politics. They have their rights and in these rights they should be protected. These rights, however, are property rights, and as such are as sacred as the rights of any citizen living in the cities. Political rights do not belong to cor- 230 The Free Pass Bribery System. porations. They belong to human beings, and the corporations have no right to intrude on this sacred ground. The corporations must be driven out of politics and I lay it down as a fundamental principal that it cannot be done as long as pass-holders are elected to office and are permitted to control our city politics. This is the case at the present time. Let every citi- zen in our cities shout it from house to house, from ward to ward, and from city to city that all pass-holders and corporation agents must be driven from our city politics. Editorials From The Independent The following Editorials bearing upon the Rail- road Question are taken from The Independent, of which Mr. Berge is Editor and Publisher. They appeared in The Independent between the months of April and September, 1905. The Free Pass Bribery System. 238 CHAPTER XXIV. EDITORIALS FROM THE INDEPENDENT. CUT OUT THE PASS-HOLDERS. The Independent believes that the destruc- tion of The Free Pass System is the first prac- tical step toward railroad regulation in Ne- braska. So long as the leaders in politics ride free, the products of the people will pay ex- tortionate rates. To destroy The Free Pass System there must be a stringent anti-pass law. Before an anti- pass law can be enacted there must be selected and elected an anti-pass legislature. Before there can be an anti-pass legislature the pass-holding politicians and railroad politi- cal agents must be cut out of the nominating conventions. The free pass is the price the railroads pay for the control of our politics. It is useless for the newspapers and the people to discuss freight- rate and tax reform so long as our politics and state government remain in the control of the 23Jf. The Free Pass Bribery System. railroad rate-makers and of the railroad tax- shirkers. The railroad corporations in posses- sion of the inner strongholds of politics are guarded on the outside by the free pass squad. To rout this outside guard is the first duty of the freight-robbed and tax-cheated public. The passholders can be cut down and their pull on the politics and government of the state cut loose by cutting them out of the next county, district and state conventions. The starting point for this work is in the ward and precinct caucuses. The passholders can be crowded out of the caucuses by the freightpayers and tax- payers. The passholders can be kept out of the county conventions. With the county con- ventions untrammeled by railroad dictation, district, legislative, judicial, congressional and state conventions can be manned with honest, earnest and effective men, who will nominate legislators, judges, congressmen and state offi- cers, free from the free pass influence. But the ward caucus is the field where the first fight must be won by the people, or their whole cause is lost. If the passholders control the caucuses they will control the conventions, the nominations, and the government that fol- lows. When the old-time passholders at Lincoln, The Free Pass Bribery System. 235 York, Seward, Grand Island, Hastings, Fre- mont, Hebron, Falls City, Beatrice and other such cities are elected as delegates to the county conventions, that means that their influence will control the nominations, and that these lo- calities will send railroad tools to the legislature. Railroad tools in the legislature means no rate-reduction law, no anti-pass law, no revenue law that will compel railroad property to pay its just proportion of taxes, and no laws of any character except such as are consented to by the railroad corporations. Railroad power in the legislature, in the state house, and in con- gress starts when the foxy old passholder starts from his home to the political caucus. If the voter in each town will start for the caucus at the same time, he can crowd the pass- holders out; and right at this point, where the pass holder is crowded out and kept away from the county convention, is where the people will begin to bring Representative government back to this state. CHOOSING A CONGRESSMAN The important duty of choosing a member of the house of representatives from the First Congressional District of Nebraska, to succeed 236 The Free Pass Bribery System. Mr. Burkett, confronts the freight-payers of that district. For many years the freight- payers of that district have shirked their duty. They have not seemed to apprehend that they had any duty to perform or any part in the selection of the congressional representative. The holders of free passes, acting under in- structions from the railroad managers, have taken it upon themselves to select congressmen, leaving the producers and consumers nothing to do but pay the extortionate freight bills. Of late the freightp avers of the district have been showing an unusual interest in na- tional legislation. The action of President Roosevelt has caused the whole country to look toward Washington for some practical rail- road regulation. The President has done a service to the whole people in his demand for a square deal law. Rut of what avail is all this, if the freightpayers continue to send pass- holders to the congressional conventions, and if through these passholders the railroads are able t) select the congressman? The railroad-procured congressman will smile patronizingly on the freightpayers, and will advertise his consent to tbe square deal demand of President Roosevelc; but the public The Free Pass Bribery System. 231 may depend upon it that the railroad-procured congressman will do, when the tug-of-war comes at Washington, not what the President of the United States wants done, hut what the Presi- dent of the railroad wants done. The duty of the voters of the First Con- gressional District is plain. They should or- ganize among themselves at once, strike down the passholders in every part of the district, capture the local caucuses, control the county conventions, control the district conventions, and nominate the congressional candidate out- side of the passholder's organization, — and with- out any suggestions or dictation from them. The voters of the First Congressional Dis- trict have already endorsed what the President has recommended, a square deal on railroad rates, and now let them suit their actions to their words. Give the President and his square deal doctrine a chance by sending him a square man from the First Congressional District., Most of the candidates now offering themselves are bound hand-and-foot by the shackles of the railroad pass machine. Tha only way to defeat the corporations is to defn.t their man. The passholder, wherever you find him, whether a delegate or a candidate in the 238 The Free Pass Bribery System. congressional convention, is a railroad man. This pass machine is at work now in every part of the First District. The slates are heing made out and the delegates agreed on in every ward and precinct. If the passholders control the selection of delegates from the wards and precincts, thev will have the people whipped to a finish even before the convention meets. Leave the passholders at home. The people can defeat the railroad plan only by defeating the man who has its bribe in his pocket and who is under agreement to serve its purposes. If the people in the First Congressional Dis- trict ever expect to stand for their rights, now is the time. It would not be a square deal from the people here, but an insult to tJ»e Presi- dent v to send him a shuffling trimmer with railroad passes in his pocket. There will never be an effective interstate commerce law until the freight payers are plucky enough and en- ergetic enough to shut the passholders out of the congressional conventions and out of congress. PASSES, POVERTY, AND POLITiCIANS. When the South Omaha packing house sirike of last year was settled, one of the strike breakers lot out of work was Mose Jackson, y The Free Pass Bribery System. 239 colored man. Leaving his family at Omaha, I19 went to Kansas City, where he obtained em- ployment as a butcher, sending a part of his wages each week to his family. One Monday afternoon in the early part of January he re- ceived a telegram informing him that his wife was dangerously sick. He must come on the first train if he would see her before she died. He had no money for the railroad fare to Omaha, for he had already remitted to his fam- ily his surplus earnings for the previous week. Would his employer trust him for a week's wages in advance. ~No. He had no friends in Kansas City. He had only acquaintances, and they were limited to those of his own race, each of them as poor as himself. There was no one to whom he could appeal, and yet ho had one noble trait in his character, he loved his wife. With the one thought in his mind that he must see her, lie mounted the ''blind baggage" as the Omaha train pulled out with the thermometer down to twenty below. The next morning about six o'clock two traveling men discovered him huddled up in a heap, like a dumb animal, nearly dead from the cold. The traveling men — God reward the traveling men for their many kind deeds! — took him 2JiO The Free Pass Bribery System. into the warm sleeper. They gave him some- thing hot to drink. They held his frozen hands in their warm palms. They wrapped his numb feet in warm bandages. When he recovered consciousness and was able to talk, he broke out into piteous sobs. Was the train late ? And would he reach Omaha in time to see his wife while she was yet alive? The traveling men assured him that the train was on time. They procured a warm breakfast for him and tended him with as much care as if his skin had been white. As the train pulled into Omaha he thanked them warmly for one of the very few kindnesses which he had received in all his lifetime and hurried away to his dying wife. - On that same train, where the moneyless black man rode the "blind baggage" with the thermometer at twenty below, and where the traveling men and the common people had paid their fare, were several politicians who were able to pay, but who did not pay, either for their fare on the train or for their beds in the Pullman car. RETURN THE PASSES. If the state officers charged with the duty of assessing railroad property in Nebraska want The Free Pass Bribery System. 2J+1 the Nebraska people to believe that they are acting on the square in the matter, why do they continue to hold and to use the free passes furnished to them, their families and their friends, by the railroad corporations, who are resisting honest taxation? Tree passes are special privileges given by the railroads to procure special privileges in return. So long as there was no pretense on the part of the state board to assess railroad property on any other basis than that suggested by the railroad managers, the state officials could justify themselves on at least one point. They were square with the railroad managers. They had received a special privilege and they had given special privileges in return. But now with all this flourish of pretensions com- ing through the daily press from the state house, that the board is about to make an actually fair assessment of railroad property, wouldn't it seem more like the real thing if the member of the assessing board would return at least their own passes ? If there is an understanding between the railroads and the passholders — and the pub- lic believes there is — and if the free pass is the consideration in this secret understanding, 21/2 The Free Pass Bribery System. then how can the state officers deny the secret contract and still retain the consideration? The free pass in the pocket of the official is a sign to the people that he is in some way a betrayer of their interests. Do the same offi- cials want the Nebraska people to understand that it is their intention to retain the passes, to use ihem for all they are worth, and then betray the railroad officials who have issued them? The Nebraska people want no betrayal. They want no crooked game either between the officials and themselves, or between the officials and the railroads. The people want a square deal. They want the railroad property assessed on the basis of what it is actually worth, no more, and no less. The members of the assess- ing board have had several years now in which to think out and formulate a plan for the fair assessment of railroad property. And yet there seems to be no plan except to toss the question from one proposition to another, from one basis to another, from one official to an- other, in that same indefinite and dodging way in which the legislative members flimflammed the rate question only a few weeks ago. "When the people find out that the members of the a 3- The Free Pass Bribery System. 21+3 sessing board have returned their free passes they will begin to believe that there is no secret contract for special privileges to the railroads and that the board is actually sincere in its ef- forts to make an honest assessment of the Ne- braska railroads. REGULATE THE LOE3Y. Lobbyists can only be suppressed by being treated as law-breakers when they transgress certain bounds. Governor Folk of Missouri discovered their bounds and curbed the opera- tions of the lobby by vigorous action. Like the corporations they represent, the lobbyists can be regulated until such time as the railways become the property of the government and public utilities in cities the property of the municipalities. Then the occupation of the lobbyist will be gone. During the recent session of the Nebraska legislature the lobbyists plied their calling with unexpected boldness and effrontery. Their suc- cess in thwarting all legislation really designed to curb the interests they represented is notor- ious. This success was attained by means no better and no worse than those used in other years, but the shame of it was more '; 2Jjb The Free Pass Bribery System. felt by honest I^ebraskans. They realized thai the influence of the lobby had reasserted itseli i:i a state which gave much power to the initial impetus of the reform movement. To see Ne- braska retrace its steps, even temporarily, while in a neighboring state the operations of a con- scienceless lobby were being suppressed, was rightly regarded as a moral catastrophe. Lobbyists are men of no party and of all parties. They serve their masters with the sole conviction that money is more valuable than any principle. As a general rule they are men whose candidacy for the legislature would be regarded as a grotesque joke and yet they are permitted to control legislation. A typical railway lobby is formed of men with whom the higher officials of the road would be loth to associate. As a rule the lobby is a rank offshot of a railway company's legal department. The general solicitor of such a railway would no more think of associating with one of his hireling lobbyists than he would of turning bandit. The lobby is shepherded by some one removed a second or a third degree from the chief officer of the department to which it is attached. The chief officer protects his reputation by avoiding socially the men The Free Pass Bribery System. 2^5 who serve his purpose in politics. But to be thus despised in nowise impairs the genial dis- position of the lobbyist. He is a hail fellow whenever it is necessary, but this "skillful con- triver of all harms" is paid to meet every man in his humor and to win his vote by money, passes or intimidation and by even more de- grading methods of bribery or coercion. To permit these men to operate unchecked will bring disgrace upon any state. More and more the people of the country are beginning to understand this and the time is not far off when the lobbyist will have the same whole- some fear of the law as that now entertained by the burglar or highwayman. THROW THE PIRATES OVERBOARD. The Independent, in its crusade against The Free Pass System, wants to be understood as making no apologies for pass-holding popu- lists and democrats. We believe that the pass- holders ought to be cut out of the political con- ventions, and that means all political conven- tions of all political parties. The passholder is a procured and bribed man, no matter whether he realizes it or not, and no matter what party he belongs to, and as such he has SSJ/6 The Free Pass Bribery System. no moral or political right to sit as a dele- gate in a convention which pretends to repre- sent the people. The pass in the man's pocket ij a sign that in some secret way he serves and represents the corporations. And being a secret representative of the corporations, he can not he trusted as an open representative of the peo- ple, for the political issue is directly between the people and the railroads. If the officers and crew of a ship at sea should find themselves suddenly overpowered, the ship seized and in the control of a band of pirates, these officers would not waste time in disputing as to the course of the ship, the time she was making, the value of her cargo or what port she would finally reach. The only ques- tion for them would be, "How can we regain control of the ship ?" Once again in control, the officers could regulate the course and the speed of the ship, fix its destination and dis- pose of its cargo. But what use is it for men to discuss what ought to be done with some- thing over which they have no control ? The first thing is to get control. !No other question is worth considering un- til that is accomplished. Why talk of tax rates and freight rates and elevator trusts and The Free Pass Bribery System. 8J/.7 money trusts, if we have no power over the government which has these matters in charge. If the pirates are in control of the ship, the first thing to do is to overpower the pirates. If the pirates will not surrender, then throw them overboard. And by the way, does anyone know of any passholder who is surrendering his free trans- portation or rescinding the old contract between himself and the railroad corporations ? The passholders will never surrender until they are overpowered and compelled to by some superior force. We must throw them overboard from all the political parties. We must get control of the politics. Any of the political parties, without free passes, will give us better state government than any one of the political parties with free passes. Any government from any party of the people will be better than govern- ment by railroads. Whatever we have in mind to do, let us first cut out the passholders and get control of the ship. HOW THE RAILROADS TAX THE PEOPLE. The people of Boston threw the tea over- board because they wanted to protect against axation without representation. All civilized 2Jj8 The Free Pass Bribery System. people guard with jealousy the right to tax, for the power to tax means power to govern. In this new revenue law the question of the power to tax is raised into an issue of more importance than is generally understood by Ne- braska people. The railroads of the state, which, through their control of the state board, have been able for many years to fix the tax rate on their own property, have never until now bc-en able to dictate also the tax rate on the property of the people. By the old method, the people elected assessors to assess their property, leaving the state board to assess the railroad property. But now, under this new law, the township assessors are appointed and organized into a county assessing machine, under the con- trol of the county assessor; and the county assessors are organized into a still more power- ful machine under the control of the state board ; and the state board, being an official machine, is under the control of the railroads. And so the power to tax the people has passed into the hands of the railroad corporations. * Under the new revenue law the state board has power to review and to raise the tax and to summarily remove from office without a hearing any or all of the local assessors. Should The Free Pass Bribery System. 2^9 the state board see fit to do so, it can, for it has the power, remove from office everyone of the hundreds of local assessors and abso- lutely dictate the entire taxing system. It can increase, according to its own will, the taxes on every home and one every horse, ox, cow, sheep or pig. If this state board of five men were really selected by the people, and if the board under these conditions was absolutely' respon- sible to the people, then the people, if they wanted to, could oppress the railroads, could have their own property taxed low and the railroad property taxed high. But if, as is actually the case, this board of five at the state house is really selected by the railroads, with this tax question in view, and if, as is the fact, they are under the controlling influence of the railroads, then, with this taxing power all in their own hands, the railroad corporations can shift a pari of their tax burden upon the peo- ple, and there is no power lr any citizen or citizens to check their unbridled sway. Is this right? Will any fair man maintain that this centralization of the taxing power is just and safe? Especially is il v . view of the ten times greater direct tax burden put upon the people by means f 260 The Free Pass Bribery System. rates. And especially is it unsafe in view of the malign influence exerted by the railroads over this taxing board and over the whole gov- ernment machinery of the state. In the cen- tralization of power, the danger is always to the people rather than to the corporations. There is no danger to the corporations, and there never will be when the people have the control. As a mass, the people want to be just and they want their officials and courts and assessing boards to be just to all corpora- tions and corporation property. But it is when the people distrust their officials, when they have good reason to believe that a sinister in- fluence is between them and their public ser- vants, when they are baffled year after year and elbowed away from the control of their government — it is then, and not till then, that the people, striking out blindly in self-defense, are apt to barm the corporations and themselves at the same time. What do the Nebraska people see when they look for the taxing power in their state gov- ernment ? They see five men at the State House meeting as an assessment board, meeting and adjourning day after day and week after week, advertising always through the newspaper re- The Free Pass Bribery System. &5 1 ports the honest intentions of each individual member, advertising the particular plan of this member and that member of the board, advertis- ing many different plans — but having no cer- tain or central plan for the assessment of rail- road property, although the question has been pending as a business proposition before the state government for a quarter of a century. It is not injustice nor partisan abuse of the board to say that long ago it should have adopted a definite plan and one that would bear the closest scrutiny. Why does it shuffle the ques- tion from one member of the board to the other, from one meeting time to another, from one year to the other, holding the question of rail- road assessment always in suspense, nagging and fretting the people, who have come at last to believe that all this shuffling is intended finally to shuffle upon the people several hun- dred thousand dollars of the '"tax burden that the corporations ought to bear. And the rail- road attorneys confidently believe that the peo- ple will bear the burden without ever finding out their predicament. If the free rides which the board members and their thousands of political friends receive were being paid for in cash by the people, the 252 The Free Pass Bribery System. railroads would have reason to be jealous, and to distrust the board on the tax question. If on the other hand these thousands of annual passes are given out on the sly by the railroads, and if this official taxing board is a part of this free pass machine, the people have a right to be jealous and to distrust the board, and they do distrust it. The present revenue law looks very much like a new railroad machine. If these various railroad political machines that dovetail into each other to form the Nebraska state gov- ernment continue to multiply, the people of Nebraska will soon have as little of representa- tive government as had the people of Massa- chusetts when they threw the tea into Boston harbor. LET DEMOCRATS BEWARE. The Independent has called upon the re- publican aspirants for congressional honors to reject free pass delegates. Now that the demo- cratic congressional convention for the First District has been called The Independent re- news its warning. This publication is merely voicing the demand of the people when it in- sists that the railways be refused any part in The Free Pass Bribery System. 253 the selectio/i of those who shall represent Ne- braska in congress. As usual the railways will attempt to gain control in that quarter which promises the best prospect of success, but they will not therefore take any chances that might result in the election of a congressman wholly free from their influence. It is the duty of the First District demo- crats to adopt a firm and pronounced attitude against railway dictation and against the free pass system of bribery. If they send to their convention men who are free of the railway taint, men who will refuse to forget their patriot- ism and the obligation they are under to a bribe- ridden state, they will deserve to win. On the other hand if the republicans fail in their duty they will deserve to lose, and The Independent feels safe, when it considers the notable revolu- tion in sentiment among men of all parties, in predicting that partisanship will be lost sight of on election day and the candidate who stands for the wishes of the people as against the wishes of the railways, who desires to become the First Di trict's representative in congress that he m.'.v uphold the hand of the President in the fight for railway regulation, will triumph nt the pools and will gain a victory as glorious 25Jf The Free Pass Bribery System. to Nebraska as the victory against Standard Oil was glorious to the people of Kansas. The democrats must make their position clear immediately so that there may be no mis- understanding at the primaries. It will be too late when the convention is called to order to eliminate the men who ride on passes. Those men may be in control or may hold the bal- ance of power between contending candidates when the convention meets. From now until the convention, therefore, every avenue by which railway representatives or bribed pass holders may slip into the convention should be guarded and every democrat in the First District should constitute himself a sentinel to bar the way of those who seek to betray the people. PASS HOLDERS DODGING TO DECEIVE PUBLIC. In their convention held at Falls City last week to nominate a congressman to fill the unexpired term made vacant by the election of Mr. Eurkett to the senate, the republicans passed the following resolution: "We favor legislation that will prohibit the giving of free transportation to all public offi- cials and that will prohibit officials receiving and using the same, believing that the pass sy?- The Free Pass Bribery System. 255 tern 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 reso- lution 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 because 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 con- vention of politicians playing the game of poli- tics ? 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 conscientiously are opposed to the free pass evil, lint 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 because they thought it was good politics. No class of men in politics is more clan- 256 The Free Pass Bribery System. gerous 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. xTo one, however, can believe that delegates are sincere when their own individual conduct is out of harmony with public sentiment. 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 t:> 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 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. What a spectacle it is to see a convention of free pass holders condemning free passes and favoring a law to abolish them ! AVhat a spec- tacle it is to see a convention of delegates de- The Free Pass Bribery System. 251 manding 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 ef- fective 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 ex- cluded from nominating conventions. But the resolution passed by this congres- sional 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 ruijp much deeper than the meaning of that resolution. 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, legis- latures, judges, state officers, and thereby the people have been betrayed, sold out and robbed of millions of dollars. The wring done by the boodlcrs of St. Louis is in ificant compnred to the wrong done by The Free Pass > c in nearly every state in the Uni l. But the evil does net end villi the 258 The Free Pass Bribery System. 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 neighbors ride free ? Why should the rich man ride free and the poor man pay ? The state gives the railways 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 dis- crimination. It is even a greater wrong to permit passenger discrimination. Why did not the republicans in their congressional conven- tion pass a resolution that meant something ? We can find the answer in the convention it- self. There were too many pass-holding dele- gates in that convention. Let a movement be inaugurated at once that wil shut out for all time from all conventions all pass-holding dele- gates. POWER OF POPULAR ANTAGONISM. The popular victories achieved in Wiscon- sin, Kansas and Missouri, in Chicago and Phila- delphia, are teaching a golden lesson. They show that wherever public sentiment has been The Free Pass Bribery System. 259 aroused against railway or corporation tyranny the people have made substantial progress in their contests to free themselves from extortion and injustice. It is a lesson that will inspire the people with hope. It will convince them that the rail- ways and corporations are not invulnerable, that their grip on legislative bodies can be loosened, and that their most skilfully con- trived plans can be latterly defeated. There are those who fear the trusts have grown too power- ful to be restrained and controlled, and this timidity leads them to believe that all antagon- ism by the people is doomed to failure. Were the people generally to adopt such a view the trusts would indeed become invlunerable, but indifference is everywhere giving way to a spirit of resolute opposition. Inspired by the recent success of popular movements against corpora- tion rule the lukewarm and pessimistic have joined the ranks of reform and will hereafter fight its battle with confidence and determina- tion. 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." 260 The Free Pass Bribery System. The resoluteness, nay actual ferocity, with which the citizens began their fight on the United Gas Improvement company, was a rev- elation to the country. Some were inclined to think that the Quakers had taken their stand too late. Others held that at best the fight would be tedious and discouraging. Even the citizens themselves shared in this latter belief. They beheld mighty powers of greed and cor' ruption 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 Improvement 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 Im- provement 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 ex- pect an easy triumph, but suddenly the gas com- pany 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 con- tract. The Free Pass Bribery System. 231 At first the people were a Lit 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 re- newals of its contracts. The gas officials dis- covered that the Philadelphia agitation was ex- tending to the other cities in which they trans- acted 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 surrendered. The Philadelphia episode is a lesson which the people of this country should take to heart. It discloses the fact that the great corporations are vlunerable on the side of their self-interest. As long as they can deceive a majority of the people all is well with them, but once they find a united public sentiment arrayed in op- 262 The Free Pass Bribery System. position to their designs they begin to under- stand that the power which created them can destroy them. PLANS TO DESTROY THE LOBBY. The extensive power wielded by railways and corporations through paid lobbyists to in- fluence legislation has aroused much interest in the remedies which have been suggested for the evil. In Wisconsin Governor La Follette is anxious to secure a law that will prohibit lobby- ists from working in secret and requiring them to state their views at open hearings before legislative committees. In Missouri Governor Folk treated the lobbyists much as a police judge sometimes treats a tramp whom he orders out of town because he has made himself a pub- lic nuisance. In Ohio Governor Herrick, when accepting a re-nomination at the hands of the republican convention, said: "In Ohio today, and in all the states, there is a growing evil which gravely threatens to destroy the freedom of action which is the most important concern of the representatives of the people in the legislative department of the gov- ernment. I refer to the professional lobby. The people of Ohio in the making of their laws are' entitled to the best judgment of all their The Free Pass Bribery System. 263 representatives in the general assembly as well as that of their chief executive and they are entitled to this judgment free and untrammled by any opportunities from special interests. I care not what the purpose of the lobbyists may be nor whether their object be good or bad it is subversive of the basic principles upon which American institutions are founded to permit a few men to dictate or control legisla- tion and to put their judgment as to what is best for the people against that of the repre- sentatives of the people elected for the sole pur- pose of registering their will." If the present form of representative govern- ment is to remain unchanged it will be neces- sary either to keep the lobbyists away from the legislators or the legislators away from the lobbyists. Governor La Follette's law is de- signed to hold the lobbyists at a respectful dis- tance. But it might be even more productive of good results to shut up the legislators as we now isolate grand juries. The necessity for such disciplinary laws, however, indicates the weaknesses that exist in out present form of representative government. The power of making laws is transferred from the people to a selected few. The attention of the corporation lobby is constantly devoted to in- £6-4 The Free Pass Bribery System. fluencing these men. The lobby is alert, watch- ful and untiring. Its organization is most ef- fective and the lobbyists are paid not to be in- different On the other hand the public is divided. Many are indifferent because their information, obtained through the daily press, is inadequate. And even when the people un- derstand clearly what is doing at their state capitols they realize that their only weapon of defense is the right of petition. The most certain method of overcoming these defects would be the application of the initiative and referendum. The state of Ore- gon has applied the system with excellent re- sults. A petition of five per cent of the voters is sufficient to force a popular referendum upon any act of the legislature. A petition of eight per cent is sufficient to propose a new measure and if a majority of the people vote for it, the measure becomes a law. The people of Oregon exercise the right to veto the acts of their representatives and, also, to pass laws independently of their representa- tives. If such a check were applied in all the states the corporations would find lobbies of little or no use. The most serious defects of popular government would disappear, and i^ The Free Pass Bribery System. 265 a democratic form of government is to be pre- served these defects must be removed. WHAT THE RAILWAYS ARE PLOTTING. The senate committee on interstate com- merce, in its several weeks of pretended inves- tigation, brought forth and flourished before the country much idle talk from railroad officials and favored shippers in reference to rate regu- lation. This talk of rate regulation is brought out partly for the purpose of preventing any sort of real rate regulation by congress, and partly to attract and hold the attention of the people to the one question of regulation, so that they will lose sight of the other part, and the vastly more important part of the rate question — rate reduction. The people want regulation of interstate rates, to be sure; they want secret rebates and all forms of discrimination abolished, but more than anything else the freight-paying pub- lic wants rate reduction. Nebraska people, for example, according to the net profit reports of the Nebraska and Iowa railroads, are paying over $7,000,000 more annually for their rail- road service than the same number of people with the same railroad mileage would pay in £66 The Free Pass Bribery System. Iowa. This $7,000,000 annual extortion is the burden that is pressing most heavily upon Ne- braska people. To remove discrimination mere- ly adjusts the difference between shippers and shipping points. It removes the injustice as between shippers, but does not remove the greater injustice which extortion puts upon the whole public. Students of the rate question must bear in mind that rate regulation is one thing, and rate reduction another of much more importance. To regulate rates as between ship- pers, so that each will have the same equal chance in business competition, is rendering justice between the shippers, but is no relief whatever to the freight-robbed public which must bear the whole burden of rate extortion after the discrimination has been adjusted be- tween the shippers. The shippers want regu- lation. The public wants reduction. The whole trend of discussion which the senate committee has brought out has been to the effect that if the secret rebates between shippers and the discrimination between ship- ping points could be abolished, the whole rate question would be solved. Behind all this ma- nipulation of the rate question the railroad hand is plainly visible. This is the view of th' The Free Pass Bribery System. £67 case which the railroad managers are trying to impress upon the public mind. If they can persuade the public to see the railroad ques- tion in that light they can easily arrange with congress for a law that will appear to abolish discriminations between the shippers but the public will continue to bear its burden of ex- tortion, which in Nebraska amounts to over $7 per capita annually. Not regulation alone, but regulation and reduction, is the battle cry that must be shouted from neighbor to neighbor, from twn to town, and from state to state. PERIL IN PASS, NOT IN PARTY. The Lincoln State Journal a few days ago found much fault with The Independent's criti- cism of the First ISTebraska District republican convention's anti-pass resolution. The Journal said: "If there is one thing above another the republican party prides itself upon, it is loyalty t:> public sentiment. Politicians are not moulders of public sentiment. 'What do you want V is thd question asked of their constituents, and when the people have spoken with considerable unanimity the politicians are willing and anx £68 The Free Pass Bribery System. ious to obey. It doesn't sound well for The Independent to impugn the motives of the con- vention as a whole, because they may have been a few sordid ones in the company." It is almost impossible to discuss any pub- lic question but that some one wants to inject into it partisan politics and partisan bias and prejudice. "When the editor of The Independ- ent wrote his criticism of that anti-pass reso- lution he never thought of the republican party or any other political party. He had his mind upon the pass evil, and was simply pointing out where the resolution did not strike at the heart of the evil; that it was the product of a con- vention of pass holders, and that the right kind of a resolution upon that question could not come, and never would come, from that kind of a convention ; that the only way to get relief for the people from railroad rule and railroad extortion was to leave all pass holders at home and send to conventions only delegates free from railroad influence. The Independent would have made the same criticism of that resolution if a populist or a democratic convention had passed it. It is the resolution The Independent finds fault with. The Free Pass Bribery System. 269 Ix is the pass evil The Independent wants to see destroyed. For thirty years this state has been in the grip of railroads and no political party has been loyal enough to the people to wrest from them control of the state govern- ment. Year after year tax shirking and freight and passenger extortion have gone on. The people have been robbed of millions, and during all that time the politicians of all political parties have been doing just what the First District Convention did — making the people believe that the politicians had responded to public sentiment, when, as a matter of fact, they had done nothing of the kind. The question whether the people of this state shall continue to be robbed and governed by railroad tools has become an issue bigger than any political party. The time has come when the people refuse longer to be tricked by the politicians. The people believe that pass holders are not their representatives, but the representatives of the railroads, and that under no circumstances will pass holders ever faith- fully respond to the people's will. The people are not partisan when they believe this. A democratic or populist pass-holding convention is just as bad as a republican pass-holding con- vention. In every convention there are dele- 270 The Free Pass Bribery System. gates who are not railroad tools and who honest- ly try to act for the welfare of the people. But the trouble is that in Nebraska, where the rail- roads are absolutely in control, this class of delegates is always in the minority, and there- fore helpless to accomplish anything. There were delegates in the Falls City re- publican congressional convention who went to that convention without passes, and who were not railroad men, but they were in the minority. The resolution passed therefore is a railroad resolution — not the resolution of the people of this congressional district. It is a resolution that doesn't mean anything, and was passed by a convention dominated by the railroads because it was good politics to pass some kind of an anti-pass resolution. The Independent says this, not because it likes to say so, or because it was a republican convention that passed the resolution, but because these things are true. The people are tired of mere lip-service, such as always can be heard in party conventions. What the people demand from their delegates is an" honest effort to bring about relief from railroad domination in this state. So that there L nay be no misunderstanding about this reso- lution, it is here reproduced again: The Free Pass Bribery System. 271 "Resolved, that we favor legislation that will prohibit the giving of free transportation to all public officials, and that will prohibit officials from receiving and using the same, be- lieving that The Pass System is an evil, a burden upon the transportation companies and against public interest." The Independent wishes to propound three questions to the State Journal: First — Is the Journal in favor of prohibit- ing free transportation to public officials only, or does it want the entire Free Pass System destroyed ? Second— The convention at Palls City com- mended the President for his stand against freight discrimination. Is the Journal opposed to freight discrimination, but in favor of pas- senger discrimination ? If the Journal is also opposed to passenger discrimination must it not join The Independent in criticising that resolution and insisting that it include not only public officials, but that the entire system be destroyed ? Third — The Journal says the republican party always responds to public sentiment. The Independent regrets very much that any partisan question has been raised in connection with the discussion of this question. But inasmuch as 272 The Free Pass Bribery System. the question has been raised, The Independent wishes to remind the Journal that the repub- lican party was in control of the legislature during its recent session. It had an overwhelm- ing majority in both houses of the legislature. The editor of this paper drew up an anti-pass bill and had a republican introduce it in the house. It met an ignominious defeat. Several other anti-pass bills were drawn and introduced by republican members, but all met instant death. Bills of various kinds to regulate and con- trol railroads came before that legislature, but the railroad lobbyists were in control and every one of these bills was defeated. From over the entire state came a vigorous demand for legislation that would give relief to the people, but the legislature not only failed to respond, but spurned with contempt the people's will and the people's wishes. The Independent will say to the credit of the Journal that during that entire session it was with the people in demanding legislation along these lines, but oven the Journal's best efforts could not elicit any response from that railroad-controlled legislature. The people are coming to believe that no convention of pass The Free Pass Bribery System. £7-3 holders, no matter what the party name may- be, will ever do the people's will. A conven- tion of pass holders always responds to rail- road will. The Independent challenges the Journal to answer any one of the foregoing questions. Upon all three of these questions will not the Journal be compelled to agree with The Inde- pendent, and therefore join The Independent ia voicing a criticism of the anti-pass resolu- tion rather than criticise The Independent for pointing out the real defects of that resolution ? The Journal has done much good work re- cently in helping to arouse the public upon the railroad question. The Independent wishes to compliment the Journal upon its manly stand upon these important questions, and this article is not written in any spirit of criticism, but only with a desire to point out the real evil in connection with the giving of free passes. The Independent believes in government ownership of railroads. Railroad domination and freight and passenger discrimination and extortion will not entirely cease as long as the railroads are in private hands. The people must own the railroads, but The Independent believes that until the people can own these 27 Jf The Free Pass Bribery System. public highways that they must regulate and control them. As long as The Free Pass Brib- ery System remains it is utterly impossible for the people to get hold of the machinery of their government. But the whole system must be destroyed not a part of it only. When once the pass evil is struck down and we can get representatives in all branches of government who are free from railroad influence, we can then better control the railroads, and we will then make more rapid headway towards govern- ment ownership. v TOO STRENUOUS AT WHITEWASHING. "When history impartially records the acts of President Roosevelt's administration it will be forced to mix some black coloring with the whitewash the chief executive has applied to the officials of the Santa Fe railway and the Colorado Fuel & Iron company, and more par- ticularly to Paul Morton, Secretary of the Navy. In the process of clearing Paul Morton the President found it necessary to prevent any prosecution that would involve the officials of either company. Messrs. Judson and Harmon, the special at- torneys employed to investigate the case, re- The Free Pass Bribery System. 275 ported that without question rebates had been granted in violation of law and recommended such proceedings as would make possible the taking of testimony to fix the guilt. The reply of the Attorney General to their suggestion is absurd. He opposes the bringing of contempt proceedings because the evidence contains noth- ing to connect any officer of the Santa Pe with the violation of law. Inasmuch as Messrs. Jud- son and Harmon proposed proceedings that would have developed such evidence, the At- torney General's refusal to comply with the re- quest of the special counsel must be set down to bias. Moreover, the Attorney General's reply contains a ridiculous implication. If there was no doubt that the law had been violated, a fact admitted by the Attorney General, then there was do doubt that some person or persons vio- lated the law. And yet his reply seems to in- dicate that although the law was violated there was no evidence to prove anybody responsible and that therefore proceedings to secure such evidence was unnecessary. The President himself protests too much. He gives Paul Morton an honorable discharge in the most fulsome terms and yet Paul Morton admitted that the Santa Pe under his regim< 216 The Free Pass Bribery System. had granted rebates to the Colorado Fuel & Iron company. In his letter to the retiring Secre- tary of the ISTavy the President takes the same position as Attorney General Moody. He de- clares that "proceedings against individual of- ficers/' in other cases, "must depend in each instance on whether testimony is obtained show- ing that such individual officer has either by act of connivance been personally guilty in the matter." This sounds well, but if in each in- stance the Attorney General is to block pro- ceedings that will secure adequate testimony against the individual official, all prosecutions against the railways will be futile. _>The President followed a similar course in dealing with the Bowen-Loomis controversy. Bowen was expelled from the diplomatic ser- vice because in the President's opinion he had spied on his superior officer and had made charges he could not sustain. But even the President is forced to admit that Loomis acted ''indiscreetly" when he became financially in- terested in the business of the asphalt trust. Inasmuch, as the dispute between the asphalt trust and Venezuela was the most important business which our representative in that coun- try was called upon to deal with the public will The Free Pass Bribery System. #77 regard the acts of Secretary Loomis as worse than mere indiscretion and will agree that the President would have done well to discipline both Bowen and Loomis. FIGHT ON PASSES MAKES PROGRESS. Agitation against the free pass is having its effect. Those who have opposed the giving and receiving of free transportation cannot but be cheered by the progress which has been made toward the absolute extinction of the practice. Governor Hanly of Indiana has announced that he intends to make the acceptance of passes so distasteful that an honest man will not wish to accept one and a dishonest man will not dare. It is only a few weeks ago tha+ the Ohio democrats condemned the practice, and Governor Herrick, who was renominated by !he republicans of that state, declared that the bribery of officials by means of the free pass must cease. President Roosevelt gave the movement greal momentum when he decided t i decline all offer3 of free transportation. Charles J. Bonaparte a few days after his appointment as Secretary of the Navy, an- nounced that by reason of the public position he occupied he felt unable to avail himself of 878 The Free Pass Bribery System. free passes. He "declined the courtesy with thanks," indicating either that he misunder- stood the significance of the pass given to a public official or that he wished to avoid the harsh but truth-telling word "bribe." It is probable the Secretary had not con- sidered the subject deeply, but he saw that the only honorable course open to a member of the President's cabinet was to follow the example of his chief. If the pass were a mere courtesy there would be no sense in refusing to accept it "by reason of public office." It is because the pass is a bribe th-at the public official is morally bound to reject it. While there has been substantial progress against the system of free transportation, the system will never be destroyed until public sen- timent condemns not only the pass given to the public official, but the pass given to the private citizen. When a majority of the people appre- cate the fact that the free pass gives the pri- vate citizen an unfair advantage over his neigh- bor, that it takes the money out of one man's pocket and puts it in another man's pocket v.ithout any compensation, that it taxes one i of passengers for the benefit of anothei class of passengers, and that it makes passenger The Free Pass Bribery System. 219 rates correspondingly higher for the class that does not receive free transportation favors, the system will be dealt its death blow. Until that time comes the agitation against the pass as a bribe to public officials, while it will have an excellent effect in leading up to the conclusion which is so much to be desired, will not be de- cisive. The victory over The Free Pass System can only be won when the people determine to make every form of pass illegal and to punish by criminal prosecutions all who give or accept passes. • f POLITICS AND PUBLIC OWNERSHIP. Secret agreements to rob the city, violations of ordinances by councilmen, contracts awarded without competitive bids or to others than the lowest bidder, have been unearthed by Mayor Weaver and his reform associates in Philadel- phia. It has been shown that Insurance Com- missioner I. W. Durham, leader of the repub- lican organization, is a partner in the McXichol firm of city contractors, and that James P. McNichol, now state senator, was represented by his wife in the firm while he was in the city council. It was inevitable that the reform move- 280 The Free Pass Bribery System. ment in Philadelphia should lead to the dis- covery of "wholesale "graft." The citizens of Philadelphia have known for years that their public officials and councilmen have been rob- bing the city treasury, but an effort was re- quired to start an investigation, and the Quaker city folk were seemingly indisposed until quite recently to turn on the searchlight. If James Dalrymple of Glasgow could tarry in Philadelphia for six months he would learn many things about private ownership that would lead him to believe municipal ownership pre- ferable even in politician-ridden American cities.' He would discover so much of "graft" in connection with private ownership that mu- nicipal ownership, even though it were mixed with politics, would seem to him, as it now seems to an increasingly large number of Ameri- aens, the only wise solution. With private ownership the American peo- ple expect to be robbed. They realize that their common councils are packed with the hirelings of public utility corporations. With public ownership there would be occasional "grafters," but there would exist no private corporations seeking to elect subservient council- men and public officials. The moral tone of The Free Pass Bribery System. 2S1 city councils would improve as soou as the private corporations disappeared. It is true that the dishonest politician, who desires office for the plunder it affords, would still he in the field, but he would have no great financial interests back of him to control pri- maries, corrupt the press and colonize voters. Lacking such backers, his chances of election would be immensely decreased. Moreover, the people would take greater interest in pro- tecting their property under municipal owner- ship. At present they realize that to constantly wage war against private corporations in the hope of obtaining better service and lower rates is futile. But with public utilities in their con- trol they could easily set matters straight as soon as they detected corruption. The dis- honest official could no longer take refuge un- der the sheltering wing of a private corpora- tion. He would find himself dealing almost single-handed with an aroused citizenry and would quickly capitulate. Politics under mu- nicipal ownership would play an insignificant part as compared with the part played by poli- tics under private ownership. But in deciding to establish municipal ownership, the people will sooner or later arm 282 The Free Pass Bribery System. themselves with a mighty weapon against cor- ruption. By the initiative, referendum and recall they will be able to guard their interests more effectively. If they wish to introduce new legislation, to veto unwise legislation or get rid of a dishonest public servant, they can act with swift and sure effectiveness. GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP COMING. It is well for the people of the United States that they have declared in no uncertain terms for government regulation of railways. Government regulation of a satisfactory char- acter they will never obtain, but it seems cer- tain at this time that government ownership is to be established only after government regu- lation has been tried and found wanting. Not that government regulation is to bring the people absolutely no relief. In the beginning the people will probably feel much encouraged by the good accomplished. When the Interstate Commerce Commission was instituted it fixed rates in a number of instances and the railways acquiesced, but soon the powers of the commission were tested and it was found that it merely had the right to The Free Pass Bribery System. 2SS propose a rate. But even this power had a corrective effect for a number of years and is still not wholly useless. The same kind of evolution will probably be observed when a railway commission is given the power to fix maximum and minimum rates. At first the rulings of the commission will be obeyed. Then clever methods of evasion will be discovered. Some of these will be failures and others will succeed. In the long run, how- ever, the great railway trust will shake off government control and will control the gov- ernment. In those days the power of money will be demonstrated more plainly than ever. Concentrated wealth will be wielded with greater effect in national elections. It has been possible in the past to place in the presi- dential chair men who have not been elected, and it will be not impossible in the future. The railways will employ every plan that cun- ning can devise and money can execute to con- trol the rate-making commission. In the gigan- tic struggle that will follow, the triumphs will not always be on the side of the trusts, but the conditions produced will become insufferable and government ownership will be the result. It has been argued that popular govern- 2SJf. TJie Free Pass Bribery System. raent must be deemed a failure if it cannot control the corporations it has created. But here the word control is evidently used in the sense of regulate. As a matter of fact the pie can and will control the railways, but this will be achieved only by public ownership. ' nd when the people own the railways the prob- m of regulating private corporations will be try simplified. The evolution which is now going on in the siness world will give possession of the rail- «.ys to three or four financial interests. At ■ present time less than a dozen financial in- terests own three-fourths of the railways in he United States. When the number has liminished to three or four the time will be ripe for government ownership and the task of acquiring the roads will not be as stupendous as many people now imagine. The statement that the government will be required to pay $10,000,000,000 or $12,000,000,000 for the railways of the country is apt to dismay the ordinary men. But when the government buys it will not pay a cent for the water in the stocks. Moreover, it will acquire the roads gradually. At first the trunk lines will be ac- quired and the profit made by the government The Free Pass Bribery System. 285 will be used to buy the local and connecting lines. While not abating a jot in their demand for government regulation, the people should realize that it is little more than a means to an end. It will, no doubt, correct some abuses and remove some discriminations. If regula- tion could be made to work satisfactorily gov- ernment ownership would not be necessary. But there is little faith among the reform ele- ment in this country that the nation will bo able to stop short of government ownership. The date at which government ownership will become an accomplished fact will depend largely upon the measure of success attained by govern- ment regulation. PARTY BIAS BARS WAY TO REFORM IN CITIES. "This injection of paltry politics at this time is unfortunate. It would be treason to a holy cause to involve it in partisan politics. It makes no difference what happens, what parties or what organizations fall as the result of their participation in municipal wrongs and crimes of the past. Let them fall. ' 'They must fall and be dethroned before the work in hand can be completed impartially and honestly and the affairs of the people placed il&Q The Free Pass Bribery System. on a firm and secure foundation for the future. I will consider no politics until this work is done. This is not a contest over a sheriff and coroner and I shall not permit it to be reduced to such a lame and impotent conclusion if I can help it. Therefore, I speak now and thus strongly in order that the true friends of mu- nicipal regeneration and honest government may be on their guard against such subtle or mis- leading efforts as would divert the issue, be- tray the cause and possibly save for further evil the parent source of 'all our woes.' " Thus spoke Mayor Weaver of Philadelphia Inst week to the politicians of that city. This reform mayor was prompted to give expression to these ringing words because twenty-one poli- ticians of that city addressed a letter to Sheriff Miles, chairman of the Republican City Com- mittee, urging the committee to reform the republican party. For years the corporations, through the poli- ticians, have been controlling the government in that historic city. In Philadelphia, as well as in many other cities of the country, there has been a conspiracy between the corporations and the politicians to defeat popular govern- ment. It succeeded there. The people had absolutely nothing to say about the govern- The Free Pass Bribery System. 281 ment of the city. The corporations were run- ning it. The people cried for relief, but in vain. Their appeals fell upon deaf ears. Most of the officials in control of the city government were traitors to the people. The name of Benedict Arnold has been written down in history as a traitor to his country, and justly so, but Benedict Arnold was no more guilty of treason to his country than the present day candidate or public official who pretends to be in sympathy with the righteous cause of the people, while in secret he makes his bar- gain and sale with the corporations. Philadelphia had in her city council for years a band of traitors. The people could get no relief. The corporations nominated the can- didates. By an appeal to partisanship the people were persuaded to elect them. The city is republican. The corporations controlled the republican party. The democrats had no chance of election because they also were too partisan. No candidate would risk his political destiny on higher ground than partisanship. Reform under such condi- tions is absolutely impossible through the poli- ticians. What was the remedy? An aroused public 2S8 The Free Pass Bribery System. sentiment bigger than any politicial party. There never is any other remedy. The peo- ple themselves must act. This they did in Phlia delphia. Partisanship there has faded away be fore the vision of every true man. The peo- ple and the mayor are just now engaged in a death struggle for the municipal regeneration of that city. The struggle is taking place on hallowed ground. The dust of Revolutionary patriots lies sleeping within the gates of the city. The spirit of these heroic dead gives inspiration to the people. One would think that there would not L« a single discordant note. One would think that the partisan with his selfish purpose would not intrude. But our expectations are rudely shattered. Here come twenty-one politicians with a scheme to convert this righteous public sentiment into partisan advantage. It reminds one of ghouls in a graveyard, or at a railroad wreck. No wonder that Mayor Weaver promptly kicked them ont as intruders on sacred ground. All honor to Mayor Weaver for the position he has taken. The American people love an honest and courageous man whenever they find him and they take off their hats to the mayor The Free Pass Bribery System. 289 of Philadelphia in his fight to purify that wicked city. POWER TO FIX RATES IS NECESSARY FOR GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF RAILWAYS. The Independent is in receipt of several communications asking for a clear cut state- ment of the real issue in the present railroad agitation. Several of these cominunicatii compliment The Independent on its clear pre- sentation of the pass question. Many readers have told us that they never understood and never fully appreciated the real evil and harm done by passes until the subject was discussed in The Independent. One of our correspondents asks for cur views on the evils of discrimination in freight rates, and also whether the agitation now on is simply to clothe the Interstate Com- merce Commission with power to prevent dis- crimination, or, whether it is intended that the Commission shall also have power to fix and control freight rates. Rebates, like free passes, are wrong for two reasons. In the first place, rebates have the effect of bribing those who receive these favors. The small shipper never receives rebates.® Dis- crimination always runs against him and in 290 The Free Pass Bribery System. favor of the larger shippers. Generally speak- ing, large shippers are not unfriendly to the railroads. They are the friends of the rail- roads. They do not favor any agitation look- ing to a reduction in freight rates. They al- ready have the reduction. These large shippers therefore, when any agitation is on for a re- duction in freight rates, are either bribed into silence or else they become the open defenders of the railroads. In Wisconsin two years ago, when Governor La Follette was battling for a railroad commission with power to control rates in that state, the large shippers of the state joined the railroads to defeat La Follette's bill. In other words, the large shippers were bribed by the rebates they were receiving, some to remain silent and others to become active and able defenders of the railroads. And why did they do this ? They did it because of the rebates they were receiving; they did it be- cause of the discrimination in their favor and against the smaller shippers. If this is not bribery, The Independent would like to know what the true definition is ? In the second place, rebate giving is wrong because it is unjust discrimination. There is no reason why one man in business should have The Free Pass Bribery System. 291 an advantage over his competitor by receiving these secret rebates. The government should see to it that the railroads treat all freight shippers alike, just as much as though the government owned the railroads. When one class of shippers pays lower than the current rates the railroads must make up the deficiency from the smaller shippers, which means higher freight rates for the people at large. If no rebates were given, freight rates could be re- duced considerably from what they are now, and the railroads still make as much money as they are making now. So much for rebates and discrimination. There is, however, a greater and far more im- portant question before the American people rhan simply the prevention of receiving and giving of rebates. The people want the Inter- state Commerce Commission to have power, not only to prevent discrimination in rates, but to fix and control rates. The railroads are main- taining literary bureaus all over the country and are telling the people that the Interstate Commerce Commission should not be clothed with the power to control rates. They concede that rebate giving should be stopped, and that the Interstate Commerce Commission should JJ2 Tlic Free Pass Bribery System. be invested with power to correct this evil, but they contend that to go farther would be dan- gerous to both the railroads and the people. The reader will observe that there is a vast difference between the Interstate Commerce Commission having power to simply prevent discrimination and the power to control and fix rates. The Independent maintains that if no free passes were given in passenger transportation, and if no rebates were given in freight rates, both freight and passenger rates could be con- siderably reduced and the railroads still make just as much money as now. It must be re- membered, however, that the railroads on their own motion will not reduce either freight or passenger rates, even if all free passes and dis- crimination in freight rates are stopped. The government must be clothed with power to con- trol and fix rates, and when it has that power is can then reduce rates to where they belong. If after free passes and rebates are abolished, rates are not to be lowered, then the people have no interest of any kind in the agitation that is now going on. In that case the preven- tion of rebates is simply a battle between ship- oers and between cities, lias it ever occurred The Free Pass Bribery System. 293 to the leader that the question of rebates is largely a battle between different shippers and between different cities ? Has it ever occurred to the reader that large shippers never agitate a reduction in freight rates ? All these ship- pers want is a rate as good as their competitors receive. Boards of Trade in cities, generally speaking, are battling with the railroads, not for a reduction of rates, but for an equaliza- tion of rates between cities and between com- petitors. The reader must bear in mind that there is a vast distinction between discrimina- tion in rates and extortion in rates. We want to get rid of discrimination, it is true, but we also want to get rid of extortion in rates. Be- fore we will get rid of extortion in rates, both passenger and freight, the government must, have power to say what are reasonable rates and make the railroads obey any order that the government makes. "While shippers and Boards of Trade are battling for the abolition of rebates, let the people arouse themselves and battle for a reduction of rates. Better still, let the people battle for government ownership. THE REAL OPTIMIST. At the present time the press of the country teems with tales of corruption, dishonesty and injustice in business and in politics. The worst 29£ Tlie Free Pass Bribery System. stories are of commercial dishonesty which emanates from the greed for money and the luxury and social distinction which it brings. But it is a superficial view which discovers pessimism in the exposures and complaints of these evils. For the press is also fruitful in remedies for them, and the burden of its con- tention is that they must be applied. This indi- cates a spirit of hopeful and courageous opti- mism ; courageous in exposing the wrongs which are committed mainly by the strong and the great, and hopeful in pertinaceously pressing remedies for them. Another ground for optimism is the keen apprehension by the public or its representa- tives of prevailing evil and the great ability with which both wrongs and remedies are pre- sented. In the universal chorus of condemna- tion there is no note of despair. That fact holds the true American spirit, and which will be the saving grace of the nation. When, therefore, The Independent uncovers bad men and bad measures it is for the primary and preliminary purpose of helping to put good men and good measures in their place. This i-- the highest optimism. The work of the greatest champion of purity. The Free Fass Bribery System. 295 equity and good will toward men was as much destructive as it was constructive. He lashed the money-changers out of the temple, while he healed the sick and fed the hungry. With unsparing invective he shamed and sought to destroy the presumptuous ascendancy and the selfish vices of the rich and the hypocrisy of self-satisfied Phariseeism. But lie pressed in their stead a new dispensation, the equality of individual rights, the value of a man and the universal brotherhood of men. BLINDFOLDING GOOD MEN. One of the most pernicious effects of the free pass system is that it blindfolds good men. Herein lies its greatest evil to the community and its greatest value to the railway. The upright man who would spurn a money bribe with hot resentment does not hesitate to accept a pass, which is dollars and cents to the railway. What the lobbyist cannot gain by gold he frequently accomplishes by a judicious distribution of passes. Should the man who seeks or is offered a pass fail to receive it he would pay his fare and the railway would ob- tain its due compensation in money. Of late, prominent railway officials have 296 The Free Pass Bribery System. declared that they are eager to be rid of the free pass system, but the sincerity of the state- ment may well be questioned. Undoubtedly the railway official gives many passes he would be glad to refuse. It is one of tk<3 inevitable results of the system, but the men who own and control the railways of the country bear it with equanimity. They realize that the commercial value of a pass is frequently more to them than it? equivalent in money. Sometimes it has a value in exchange for votes when money is powerless. If the secrets of legislative halls could be revealed in their true light it would be found that the balance of power is frequently held by men who would refuse a money bribe, but who make a practice of riding on passes. Can it be fairly doubted that such men will be influ- enced in favor of the railways when the time comes to cast their votes ? In this and in other states legislation planned to grant some special privilege to the railways has been enacted by means of such balance of power. The pass sys- tem abolished, that balance of power would shift to the side of right and justice. The power of the pass over such men is in- sidious because they are often unconscious of Th e Free Pass Bribery System, 29 1 the extent to which they have been influenced. Invariably they are found voting for the meas- ures supported by the railways. When they are called upon by their constituents to explain their votes they are astonished, because, being blinded by the iniquity into which they have fallen, they have failed to understand both the atrocity of the bill and the opposition of the people. As long as the railways can use the pass system to such advantage they will be loth to see it destroyed. They will consent to be "held up" by the political highwayman, by the boss, the ward-heeler and the influential citizen of greedy instincts rather than surrender the power of controlling votes by means of passes. From this point of view it is not difficult to appreciate the perennial potency of the pass and to understand why it is that the system can never be crushed out of existence save by radical legislation. THE AWAKENING. There are those who confront the great problems of the day with timid hearts, fearing the forces of error and forgetting that the 208 The Free Pass Bribery System. Master said: "Know the truth and it shall make you free." It is natural that those who see immense difficulties in the way of eliminating the ills that beset the body politic should be troubled in mind lest the power of corruption prove too strong to be dethroned. The advocates of spe- cial privilege have taken advantage of this faint- heartedness to encourage the people in the be- lief that reforms are impossible of attainment. One of the chief arguments against municipal ownership is that the intrusion of politics will prove disastrous. Although it is now well un- derstood in this country that municipal owner- ship has been successful in England, we are warned that different results must be expected in the United States. This is an indictment that the people cannot afford to accept as the truth, and the most hopeful sign of the times is that they are apparently determined to prove its falsity. The individual should remember thai hu- man happiness is not assured by social reforms. Under the best forms of government, when the people are freest and all share fairly in the general prosperity, the individual may be mis- erable. As only the desire to know the truth The Free Pass Bribery System. 299 and abide by it in matters of personal conduct can bring haj)piness to the individual, so only the desire to know the truth and abide by it in matters of state can secure those reforms which make the pursuit of happiness possible. In the middle west so much has already been accomplished for reform that the opponents of railway and trust domination are no longer dispirited by the croakings of the professional pessimist. They look to the future w T ith the sun in their eyes, dazzled, perhaps, by the brightness of their vision, but certain that the triumphs of tomorrow will far surpass those of today. Inspired, therefore, by the evidences of progress about them they take up as a refrain the words of the poet who sang, "I doubt not through the ages one increasing- purpose runs, and the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns." And so if the ways are dark and the obstacles seem many and insuperable here in Nebraska, where the railways have so long been dominant in politics, the citizen need only turn his gaze upon neighboring states to find re- newed hope and encouragement. If the people are not always able to destroy enthroned wrong quickly it is not because they are corrupt or 800 The Free Pass Bribery System. daunted by the strength of the enemy they are called upon to assail, but rather because the true remedies for present evils can only be discovered by patient research and constant dis- cussion. And when the seekers after the truth know the truth they may feel certain that it will make them free. It was in such a confident spirit that our revolutionary forefathers carried on the agitation against taxation without rep- resentation and won their independence. The headway which has been made against the railways in Wisconsin, grafters in Missouri, Standard Oil in Kansas, and the antagonists of municipal ownership in Chicago, should serve to convince the people that they will yet obtain such legislation as will take the railways and corporations out of politics. The spirit of independence is still strong in the hearts of the American people. For some years it slumbered amid the platitudes of partisanship while the trusts were growing into gianthood. It required grave crisis to awaken this spirit from its sleep, but none can doubt that the awakening has come. It is abso- lutely essential that the citizens of every com- monwealth should believe that the right shall prevail. It is upon this principle tliat_all sue- The Free Pass Bribery System. 302 cessful agitation is founded^ and it is only bv confidence in the power of truth to achieve what the Master has promised that state or na- tion can be freed from the joke of the un- righteous. George W. Berge. A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH (By William M. Morning) The Free Pass Bribery System. George W. Berge. George W. Berge, the author of this book, needs no introduction to the people. They know who he is and what he stands for. They know that when he enters a fight he stays with it until the end, and that he never enlists in a. fight unless he believes in the righteousness of his cause. And yet perhaps it is fitting that one who has been associated with him intimately in the practice of law almost con- tinuously for the last twelve years should say a few words in regard to Mr. Berge and lay before the readers some of the simple details of his life, which the general public would be interested in knowing. George W. Berge is a self-made man. He was born on a farm near the City of Peoria, Illinois. His parents are natives of Germany, who came to this country poor, but possessing those elements of industry, honesty and frugality which makes success inevitable. His parents still live upon a farm near Mendota, Illinois, where they have reared their family, and where S06 The Free Pass Bribery System. by hard work and good management, they have accumulated enough property to be in com- fortable and easy circumstances. The subject of this sketch spent his boyhood upon the farm and toiled in the fields in sum- mer, and attended the district school in win/ ter, the same as most country boys in his neigh- borhood. Later he attended the normal schools at Valparaiso, Ind., and at Dixon, 111., and fitted himself for teaching school. He taught school a number of years, and incidently began the study of law. After studying law in the office of S. H. Bethea, now United States Dis- trict Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and also in the office of J. W. Watts, who was at that time dean of the law faculty at Dixon, Mr. Berge was admitted to the bar before the appellate court at Ottawa in the spring of 1890. He then located at Lin- coln, Nebraska, where he has ever since re- sided. When he came to Lincoln he was penni- less and without acquaintances west of the Mississippi River. He took desk room with one of the established firms of the city, but found fees so slow in coming in that he was obliged to fall back upon his old occupation of school teaching to provide the funds neces- The Free Pass Bribery System. 301 sary to pay expenses until he could establish himself in his law practice. He was employed to teach the College View school, and taught there for six months. "Uncle Jake" Wolfe was a member of the school board, and the relation of school trustee and teacher ripened into a warm personal friendship between "Uncle Jake" and Mr. Berge, which has been strength- ened with the passing years. With his exchequer thus meagerly re- plenished he again took up the practice of law in the City of Lincoln. Since that time he has enjoyed a lucrative and growing practice, and is now the head of the law firm of Berge, Morning & Ledwith. Mr. Berge is an able lawyer, who refuses to take a case unless he believes his client is in the right, and then he throws his whole heart and soul into his client's cause, and regardless of whether fees come in or whether they do not, he never ceases to fight for his client until he has either won his case, or until the final judgment of the court ter- minates the litigation. Some remarkable cases might be mentioned showing this characteristic of Mr. Berge. The writer is personally fa- miliar with a number of cases in which Mr. Berge has worked for clients for years with- S08 The Free Pass Bribery System. out pay and in addition thereto has advanced his own expenses in order that his clients' rights might receive proper and deserved vindication. When once he enlists himself in any cause the matter of compensation becomes of secondary consideration. His aim and ambition is to win his clients' case. Another rather unusual characteristic of Mr. Berge as a lawyer is the fact that very often clients come to him with what they con- ceive to be good cases, and upon thorough in- vestigation of the cases, if he concludes that they are not well founded in fact or in law, he declines to take them. Mr. Berge believes not only that lawyers should decline to accept cases in which they know their clients are wrong, but that no conscientious lawyer can do good work for a client unless he believes that his client is right. ; As a man Mr. Berge possesses a charactei which is without blemish. He has not a single bad habit. He is pure minded and chaste in his thoughts and language. His home life is ideal. He idealizes his wife and child. He is a typical high grade American citizen, simple and plain, and yet dignified and self-respecting, loving his home, loving purety, and insisting The Free Pass Bribery System. SO 9 upon justice and fair play in all the relations of life, both public and private. He is a man of correct standards and lofty ideals. He is thoroughly honest and absolutely fearless. He is an orator of rare ability. Mr. Berge cast his first vote in Nebraska for Hon. John Powers for governor, and since that time he has been an active worker in the r eform movement in this state, and has affiliated with the Peoples Independent Party. In 1894 he was elected county judge of Lancaster County, but was prevented by litigation from enjoying the office, as the suit was not decided in his favor in the Supreme Court until the term of office had expired. It might be of interest in this connection to note as an index to Mr. Berge's character that although he would have been entitled to the salary of the office, which the court finally held he had been unlawfully kept out of, he refused to claim the salary, because he had rendered no services to the public, and as the county had paid the salary once he felt tfhat it would be unjust to require it to be paid a second time. In 1900 he was the fusion nominee for Congress in the First Congressional District, and although defeated, he ran ahead of his S10 The Free Pass Bribery System. ticket, especially in Lancaster County, where he received the highest vote of any candidate on the ticket. This fact testifies to the esteem in which Mr. Berge is held by his neighbors. In 1904 he was the fusion candidate for governor of Nebraska, and made, perhaps, the most memorable campaign in the history of the state. Though his supporters at the opening of the campaign were discouraged, and without hope, it was not long until his splendid oratory and irresistible earnestness and enthusiasm had converted a campaign, which at first promised nothing but hopeless defeat, into one which toward the end seemed to promise certain vic- tory. Although he was defeated, an examina- tion of the returns showed that nothing but the overwhelming Roosevelt landslide saved his op- ponent from a crushing defeat. For instance: Roosevelt's plurality in Nebraska was over 86,000, while Mr. Berge was defeated by less than 10,000. In Douglas County Roosevelt's plurality was over 9,000, while Mr. Berge car- ried it by over 2,000, showing a change in favor of Mr. Berge in that one county alone of over 11,000 votes. In the whole state he ran over 30,000 votes ahead of his ticket. The keynote of his campaign was government owner- The Free Pass Bribery System. 311 ship of railroads, and until that time strict control. He deno unced T he_Free Pass System as a bribery system w hich has taken the control of the state government out of the hands of the__peop.le- He denounced the professional lobby in the severest terms. He gave the rail- roads to understand that the past evil must be driven out of public life. Since the close of that campaign he has purchased and is now editor and proprietor of The Nebraska Inde- pendent. He is conducting it as an independent weekly paper, and is making it one of the strongest champions of the people in the entire country. The purpose of this book is to lay before the people of this country, and especially Ne- braska, the evils of The Free Pass System, and to endeavor to arouse such a concerted move- ment on the part of all the political parties of this state as to insure the utter blotting out and eradication of The Free Pass System from our politics. "While he discusses principally con- ditions in Nebraska, the same will apply in most of the other states. It is to be hoped that Mr. Berge in the magnificient fight which he is now waging against this evil will receive the loyal support of all good citizens regardless 812 The Free Pass Bribery System. of party. It is not a party matter. It is an evil which exists in all parties, and it should be treated as a non-partisan evil and the citi- zens of this state and of all the states should unite in removing this far reaching evil from their public life. Then they will have a fair opportunity of exercising influence in their party councils. So long as this pass evil exists it will control to a greater or less extent all political parties and especially the dominant party of any given state, and the result will be railroad government with all its attendant svils. This book was written by Mr. Berge under great difficulties. He is a very busy man. Not only is he the editor of The Independent and obliged to give a great part of his time to that work, but he is also an active and very busy lawyer, and in addition to that he is called upon to make a great many public addresses requiring research and preparation, and yet in the midst of all this work he felt it his duty to prepare this book, and he has done so since the close of the campaign of 1904, at such odd times as he could find in the midst of his other numerous and pressing duties and labors. It is to be hoped that those interested in solving The Free Pass Bribery System. SIS this railroad question will read this book and hand it to others to be read in order that the public may become thoroughly enlightened upon this question, and that, as a result, a strong united public sentiment may grow up and ultimately crystallize into a movement which will blot this evil from our public life for all time to come. WILLIAM M. 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