H E 
 
 1905 
 L-3 
 
 yC-NRLF 
 
 B 3 ?L,i ^c^ 
 
Railway Regulation 
 
 ^. State and ^ 
 
 1 Interstate I 
 
 — 4^ — 
 
 Robert M, La Follette 
 
 RAILWAY REGULATION . . Robert M. La Follette 
 LA FOLLETTE OF WISCONSIN . . Emerson Hou^h 
 THE STORY OF GOV. LA FOLLETTE . Lincoln Steffens 
 
 WISCONSIN PRIMARY ELECTION LAW 
 WISCONSIN R. R. RATE COMMISSION LAW 
 
 PRIOE 2S OENXS 
 
Railway Regulation 
 
 state and Interstate 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE 
 
 RAILWAY REGULATION - - - Robert M. La Follbttb 
 LA FOLLETTE OF WISCONSIN - - - - Emerson Hough 
 THE STORY OF GOV. LA FOLLETTE - Lincoln Stbffens 
 Appendix— WISCONSIN PRIMARY ELECTION LAW 
 
 WISCONSIN R. R. RATE COMMISSION LAW 
 
 Published by 
 
 THE SLAYTON LYCEUM BUREAU 
 
 Steinway Hall, Chicago 
 
 Copyright, 1905 
 

 CantwedC Printing towpany^'Sla^diflbn. Wis. 
 
Robert M. LaFollette 
 
RAILWAY REGULATION 
 
 By ROBEiRT M. LA FOLLETTE. 
 
 STATE CONTROL OF RAILWAY SERVICES AND RATES. 
 
 To meet and wisely discharge the responsibility of regulat- 
 ing commerce, state and interstate, to bring railways back and ^ 
 hold them to their legitimate business as common carriers, is 
 the most important work in the government of this republic 
 for this generation of man. 
 
 If the great railway corporations of the country are using 
 their unlimited power without abusing it, if they are trans- 
 porting the commerce of the country at reasonable rates, with 
 fairness to the general public, with a just regard to the rights 
 of individuals, and without favoritism to places and persons, 
 then they might justly regard government control and regu- 
 lation as "unnecessary and meddlesome interference.'* 
 
 If, however, the public is suffering serious wrong, if there * 
 are far-reaching abuses in the transportation of its commerce, 
 if the railway companies are not only carrying the commerce of 
 the country but controlling the commerce of the country, deter- 
 mining where it shall be massed, where the markets shall be 
 located, and their control; if they are discriminating in favor 
 of the large shipper, creating and fostering industrial and 
 commercial monopoly, then there rests upon the several state 
 legislatures and upon congress an obligation to act, and to act 
 at once, with all the determination and patriotism commensu- 
 rate with the duty to preserve government itself. 
 
 Capital and labor, wherever employed in the creation of 
 wealth,— whether in mining, or in manufacturing, or in agri- 
 culture,— in short, material production, in every field of human 
 activity, is absolutely dependent upon transportation. 
 
 It is not more vital to production, upon a basis attaining to •» 
 the upbuilding of any community or section of the country, 
 that lines of transportation should be established than that, 
 when established, the sevice, shall be adequate, just in rate. 
 
 Copyright, 1905, by Robert M. La Follette. 
 
 ivi20:5G59 
 
4 . Bait way Regulation 
 
 and free from discrimination. That business, town or section 
 which is denied the opportunity to move its products to mar- 
 kets at fair rates and upon an even footing with a competing 
 business, town or section, must inevitably suffer great loss, and, 
 in the end, be forced out of the unequal contest. Therefore, 
 the general growth and prosperity of every community, the 
 interests of producer and consumer alike, depend upon these 
 three factors in transportation: the service must be adequate; 
 it must be reasonable in cost ; it must be impartially rendered 
 with respect to each individual and every business, town or 
 ^ section. 
 
 The founders of this republic recognized the importance of 
 establishing lines of transportation and of insuring a basis of 
 equality for each community in its exchange of products with 
 every other. They ordained that commerce between the states 
 should be free and untrammeled. The state, as well as the 
 nation, aided in the construction of roads and canals, and since 
 1800 the federal government has supported by taxation a sys- 
 tem of river and harbor improvements upon which there has 
 been expended more than one hundred and seventy-five millions 
 of dollars in the last seven years alone. Added to this, nearly 
 one-half of the states invested large sums of money in the con- 
 struction of railroads, and town and county aid in the several 
 states throughout the country, aggregating many hundred mil- 
 lions of dollars, was contributed for like purposes, while state 
 and national governments granted out of the public lands 
 enough, in aid of railroad construction, to equal in area the 
 states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin. 
 All that has been invested by towns, counties and states in roads 
 and turnpikes, all that has been expended in building locks and 
 dams and canals and in broadening and deepening rivers and 
 "^harbors by the federal government for more than a century, 
 together with the vast sums of money donated by municipalities 
 and states, and the lands granted by state and national govern- 
 ments for the construction of railroads, which are now a part 
 of the great systems of the country,— has been paid out of the 
 public purse and carved out of the public domain. Every 
 dollar of the money and every acre of the land was the prop- 
 erty of the people, and, independent of all else, each citizen, 
 however humble, ought of right to stand upon an equal footing 
 
Robert M. La Follette 5 
 
 with every other citizen respecting transportation. Further- 
 more, the state creates the railway corporation and bestows upon 
 it special powers and special privileges without which it could 
 not establish and maintain its lines or build up its business. 
 
 The^ state invested the transportation company with one of ~^ 
 
 the greatest powers which the state possesses,— the right to take ■ ' 
 private property without the consent of the owner. This grant 
 of power is made, not as a matter of favor to the corporation, 
 but the better to enable it to discharge its duties to the public. 
 It can be justified upon no other ground. As stated by the 
 United States supreme court: 
 
 ' ' The state would have no power to grant the right of appro- 
 priation unless the use to which the land was to be put was a 
 public one. Taking land for railroad purposes is a taking for 
 a public purpose, and the fact that it is taken for a public pur- 
 pose is the sole justification for taking it at all." 
 
 The grant of these powers and privileges to the railroad and 
 corporation in itself establishes the character of the transporta- 
 tion business, and identifies it as a function of government. It 
 would be obnoxious to every just principle upon which govern- 
 ment is founded to charter railway companies, give them the 
 right of eminent domain, authorize the bonding of towns and 
 counties, and grant to them large areas of the public lands, if 
 they were to be permitted to conduct a business so established 
 upon any other basis than that of absolute and exact justice 
 to each individual and to every interest. The only principle 
 upon which government can grant such powers and privileges, 
 and bestow public aid upon railroad corporations, is that they 
 are maintaining public highways over which they must serve 
 the public efficiently, reasonably and impartially. To require 
 full and exact performance of this public duty from the rail- 
 way corporations is not only the absolute right, but it is the 
 bounden duty of both state and national governments. 
 
 Under our form of government, federal and state, a division 
 of powers and responsibilities with respect to transportation 
 and the protection of the commerce of the people, was fixed by 
 constitutional limitation. Commerce is either state commerce 
 or interstate commerce. A shipment originating and ending 
 within a state is state commerce, or state transportation. With 
 
6 Railway Regulation 
 
 respect to such a shipment the national government can exer- 
 cise no authority or control whatever. Commerce of this char- 
 acter is purely a subject of domestic concern for the state. If 
 the shipper is to be protected in his right to an efficient ser- 
 vice at a reasonable rate, without discrimination in any respect, 
 it must be by state government alone. 
 
 On the other hand, a shipment originating in one state and 
 ending in another state is, throughout its whole course, inter- 
 state commerce. This is true with respect to the shipment from 
 the time it begins to move from the point of origin until it 
 reaches its destination. With respect to such a shipment the 
 state has no authority and can afford the shipper no relief 
 from any injustice suffered because of the failure of the railway 
 company to discharge properly its public duty. Such redress 
 must come from the federal government, to which the state has 
 delegated its right to ''regulate commerce . . . among the sev- 
 eral states." 
 
 For more than a generation of time it has been the settled 
 law of this country that the state, through its legislature, may 
 control railway services and railway rates as to state com- 
 merce, and that the national government, through congress, may 
 control railway services and railway rates with respect to in- 
 terstate commerce. 
 
 In recognition of this right, several of the states have estab- 
 lished such commissions for the control of railway services and 
 rates within the state. With a view of protecting the public 
 in all its transportation extending beyond the borders of the 
 state, congress enacted the Interstate Commerce Law in 1881^ 
 
 Any review or consideration of government regulation of 
 railway transportation must deal with state and federal regu- 
 lation, in a measure, independently. The states were years in 
 advance of the nation in moving for a control of railway serv- 
 ices and railway rates. As Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Min- 
 nesota led in broadly asserting the right of the state legislature 
 to control transportation rates and services, a consideration of 
 the results attained in these states is important and necessary 
 to an intelligent understanding of the whole subject. 
 
 In the early 70 's these states enacted legislation for the 
 regulation of railroad transportation. The legislation was then 
 
Robert M. La Follette 7 
 
 designated, and will for all time be known as "Granger Legis- 
 lation. ' ' The granger statutes were at that time and have ever 
 since been violently denounced as radical, revolutionary, and 
 a hindrance to the development and prosperity of the country. 
 And yet the granger legislation in those four states of the Old 
 Northwest was simply a protest of a conservative and law- 
 abiding people in the name of the law, against a railroad man- 
 agement which violated the rights of individuals without pre- 
 tense of excuse or justification. Mr. A. B. Stickney, president 
 of the Chicago Great Western Railroad, in his work on ''The 
 Railway Problem" thus presents some of the causes leading up 
 to the granger legislation: 
 
 **It will not be difficult when the conditions existing at the 
 beginning of granger agitation come to be examined, to see 
 that railway traffic was then being conducted in such a manner 
 as to destroy a portion of the value of the property of large 
 numbers of individuals, and the whole value of the property 
 of certain other classes. Startling as the bald statement must 
 naturally be, those conditions were then admitted to exist, and 
 continue now, to a more limited extent. ... As soon as they 
 came to realize by sad experience the enormous power which 
 discrimination in the matter of rates conferred upon the man- 
 agers of railways (who, after all, are but human) in respect 
 to the private business of individuals, it could not be expected 
 that a free people would tamely submit to it. . . . This unre- 
 stricted power to discriminate in the matter of rates lodged in 
 the hands of one man, the manager of say five thousand miles 
 of railway; the power through malice, ignorance, or stupidity, 
 to decree which out of say a thousand cities and villages located 
 on his lines should prosper and which should not; which indi- 
 vidual out of say ten thousand merchants doing business in 
 those cities and villages should make a profit or a loss. . . . 
 Such enormous power over the fortunes of so many should never 
 be lodged in the hands of any one human being." 
 
 Speaking further on this subject, and of the attitude of rail- 
 road presidents and managers, in opposition to control, Presi- 
 dent Stickney says: 
 
 ''The companies at first denied that they were common car- 
 reirs or subject to the duties or restrictions imposed upon such 
 carriers by the common law. Upon these premises, and as they 
 supposed in the interests of their companies, the managers 
 claimed the right to charge such rates for transporting private 
 persons and property as they deemed for the best interests of 
 their respective companies, regardless of their reasonableness 
 or equality. 
 
8 Railway Regulation 
 
 "They claimed and exercised the right to grant monopolies 
 in business to favored individuals and firms— for example, one 
 man or firm would be granted the exclusive privilege of buying 
 all the wheat or corn, or selling all the fuel, wood and coal; 
 by exercise of their power to discriminate in regard to rates and 
 combinations, they were enabled to enforce these grants of ex- 
 clusive privileges with a certainty never before pertaining to 
 such grants. 
 
 "They assumed the right to dictate to communities in what 
 market town they would sell their produce and buy their sup- 
 plies. Thus, a community located forty miles distant from St. 
 Paul and four hundred miles distant from Chicago was com- 
 pelled to trade in Chicago, so as to give the railway the long 
 haul, and in order to force this dictation they did not hesitate 
 to make the rate for forty miles as much as, or more than for 
 four hundred miles. 
 
 "They believed they had the right so to make their schedule 
 of rates as to determine which of the villages on their line 
 should become centers of trade beyond their local territory. 
 
 ' ' They also varied their schedules in such a way that they dis- 
 criminated in regard to rates between individual merchants, 
 manufacturers, miners, and other business men, so as practi- 
 cally to determine which should become prosperous and wealthy 
 and which should not. 
 
 "This class of discrimination was all the more pernicious 
 because done in secret." 
 
 The granger statutes were far from perfect, especially in 
 respect to provisions for their enforcement. But they were 
 essentially correct in principle and reasonable in their terms, 
 so far as the railroads were concerned, and in so far as they 
 sought to regulate services and rates between the public and the 
 public service corporations. They were in no sense "an un- 
 warranted and irrational interference with the laws of trade 
 and economic conditions." They simply applied a principle 
 as old as the common law. They were enacted with the pur- 
 pose of enforcing just and equitable rates to individuals and 
 communities. They expressed in legislation an effort to escape 
 from that arbitrary and tyrannical control on the part of com- 
 mon carriers so frankly described by President Stickney in the 
 foregoing quotation. 
 
 This was the first great struggle between the railroads and 
 the public to determine which should be master. It was a bat- 
 tle royal, and established as the law of this country the right 
 
Eobert M. La Follette 9 
 
 of the people through legislation to regulate transportation 
 charges upon the railroads of the land. 
 
 The ability with which the railroads conducted their oppo- 
 sition to the granger legislation is interesting and instructive 
 at this time. It was an indication of their sincerity and a 
 measure of the value of their representations with respect to the 
 disaster to the railway business and the industrial interests of 
 the country, which they assert is certain to follow the legislation 
 now proposed in some of the states for state regulation, an<i in 
 congress for an enlargement of the powers of the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission, as demanded by the people, and sug- 
 gested by the president in his recent message to congress. 
 
 Upon the enactment of the granger laws, harrowing aceoiuits 
 of "Railroad Costruction at a Standstill/' of the "Collapse of 
 Railroad Business," the "Spoliation and Ruin of Railway 
 Property" and the "Checking of All Development in the 
 Granger States" were published and re-published as tiie dire 
 and awful consequences following as a logical result of that 
 legislation. 
 
 Already the railway lobby assembled at Washington and in 
 the different states is, at the present time, uttering the same 
 warning cry of distress, through such papers and periodicals 
 as reflect the will of railway managers. This is designed to 
 admonish all men and all interests of the train of evils sure 
 to result, should the railroads be disturbed at this time in cheir 
 authority to dictate to the people the terms on which its busi- 
 ness shall be transacted with them. 
 
 From the enactment of the law in Wisconsin until its repeal, 
 two years later, when the railroads regained control of the 
 legislature, and long after, the highest talent which money 
 could command was employed in assailing the Wisconsin law, 
 and the laws passed in Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota, as well, 
 and in misrepresentnig the effect of the legislation upon rail- 
 way and all other business within the state. Reports as to the 
 financial condition of the roads were suppressed or destroyed, 
 and the corporations caused to be published broadcast that not 
 only had their business fallen off, but that they had been 
 obliged to suspend all construction and improvements, and that 
 even maintenance of existing lines was threatened, while the 
 
10 Railway Regulation 
 
 railroad business, and all other business dependent upon it, was 
 prostrate and languishing in consequence of the legislation 
 which ''violated all the laws of trade." 
 
 Even economic writers of eminence and fairness of purpose, 
 accepting the railroad figures then put forth and the railroad 
 conditions then reported by the companies, were misled into 
 partisan and violent denunciation of granger legislation. In all 
 of the criticism and attack made at the time, and since, it 
 seems almost incredible that no independent investigation 
 should have been made by any of the writers dealing with this 
 subject. This is especially true of those whose criticisms should 
 have been based upon thoroughgoing and critical study, in con- 
 formity with the character of the work then and afterwards 
 turned out by them as authors and writers upon economic sub- 
 jects. Strangely enough, it is manifest that their argument 
 was based upon false premises furnished, and misleading state- 
 ments published by the interested railroad authorities. In so 
 far as my research extends, I have been unable to find that any 
 one of them ever made an independent, critical analysis of the 
 facts involved. 
 
 Notwithstanding all that has been written and the authorities 
 which may be quoted to the contrary, I venture here to de- 
 clare that, in so far as the granger laws were enforced in either 
 of the four states, they were helpful and not harmful to the in- 
 terests of the state and of its citizens and of the railway com- 
 panies as well. 
 
 In answer to the claim that "railway construction at once 
 came to a standstill and all work on projected lines at once 
 ceased," I submit the following comparison of the railroad 
 mileage in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota,— the 
 granger states,— with Michigan, Indiana, Missouri and Ne- 
 braska, four states which had reached about the same stage of 
 development as the granger states, which were similarly situ- 
 ated as to population and general industrial conditions, and 
 which lay wholly outside the field of, and were not affected by, 
 the so-called granger legislation. These states are selected for 
 comparison and consideration only after reaching the conclu- 
 sion that the conditions prevailing in each at the time were 
 such as to render the comparison just and fair. In order, how- 
 
Robert M. La Follette 
 
 11 
 
 ever, to broaden and verify the comparison, I have included as 
 another group the Middle Atlantic states, namely: New York, 
 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and West Vir- 
 ginia; also the Southern states, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ten- 
 nessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Missis- 
 sippi; and finally broadened that comparison to include rail- 
 road mileage of all the states of the Union for the years 1871, 
 1S72, 1875 and 1880. The figures were obtained from the va- 
 rious state reports and from Poor's Manual. 
 
 Number of Miles of Railroad. 
 
 Years 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Michigan 
 Indiana 
 Missouri 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Middle 
 
 Atlantic 
 
 States 
 
 Southern 
 States 
 
 United 
 
 States 
 
 1871 
 1873 
 1875 
 1880 
 
 1,72.5 
 2,360 
 2,566 
 3,130 
 
 12,401 
 
 .•4,627 
 15,515 
 19,428 
 
 9,168 
 10,932 
 11,381 
 14,396 
 
 12,030 
 13,643 
 14,455 
 15,949 
 
 12,013 
 12,977 
 13,287 
 14,908 
 
 60,293 
 70,278 
 74,096 
 93,671 
 
 The Wisconsin law was enacted in the early part of 1874 
 and repealed in 1876. The other granger laws were enacted,— 
 Minnesota in 1871 ; Illinois in 1873, and Iowa in 1874. By 1875 
 it may fairly be assumed that the effect of these laws was most 
 pronounced in all of the granger states. The figures presented 
 show that Wisconsin and the other granger states held their 
 own in railroad construction as compared with the four sur- 
 rounding Northwestern states, the Middle Atlantic states, the 
 Southern states, and the total railroad mileage of the United 
 States. Indeed, the granger states did better than the others. 
 They show a greater increase than the neighboring states, with 
 which they may certainly very properly be compared. They 
 also show a greater increase than both the Middle and South- 
 em states, and a relatively greater increase than the country 
 as a whole. If we take the mileage for 1873, the year which 
 immediately preceded the legislation in Wisconsin, and compare 
 it with the railroad mileage in 1875, the last year of the granger 
 period in Wisconsin, we will find the following per cent, of 
 increase: Wisconsin alone, 9 per cent.; the four granger 
 
12 
 
 Railway Regulation 
 
 states, including Wisconsin, 6.1 per cent.; the four adjoining 
 states, 4.1 per cent. ; the Atlantic states, 5.9 per cent. ; South- 
 ern states, 2.4 per cent. ; and the United States, as a whole, 5.5 
 per cent. 
 
 It was charged that the railroad industry was prostrated by 
 this legislation. Examine the railroad earnings for these years. 
 I am not able to procure data for the gross earnings of the rail- 
 roads in Minnesota or Nebraska covering this period of time. 
 For this reason those states are omitted in this comparison, the 
 figures for which were also obtained from the various state 
 reports and from Poor's Manual. 
 
 Total Gross Earnings in 1871-73-75 and 1880. 
 
 Years 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Michigan 
 Indiana 
 Missouri 
 
 Middle 
 
 Atlantic 
 
 States 
 
 Souttiern 
 States 
 
 United 
 
 States 
 
 1871 
 1878 
 
 1875 
 1880 
 
 $54,994,114 
 
 70,027,777 
 69,621,065 
 86,954,346 
 
 $44,4.33,246 
 59,106,865 
 54,731,069 
 79,038,920 
 
 $147,130,494 
 194,052,302 
 175,677,418 
 199,003,718 
 
 $41,772,102 
 53,696,409 
 50,399,227 
 48,317,754 
 
 $403,329,208 
 526,419,935 
 503,065,505 
 615,401,931 
 
 This table discloses additional matter of great importance 
 to this discussion. We find that the gross earnings decreased 
 in the granger states during the period covered by the granger 
 legislation,— that is, from 1873 to and including 1875 (the 
 time when the Wisconsin law was in force). 
 
 For the three granger states, however, this was in the trifling 
 amount of four hundred and six thousand dollars. For the 
 three granger states, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, the decrease 
 did not exceed one-half of one per cent. For the adjoining 
 states the decrease for exactly the same period of time amounted 
 to four million, three hundred and seventy-five thousand, seven 
 hundred and ninety-six dollars, or to 7.5 per cent. The Middle 
 states show a decrease in gross earnings of 9.5 per cent.; the 
 Southern states, 6.1 per cent. ; the whole country, 4.4 per cent. 
 
 If the granger legislation was responsible for this condition 
 of things, then its operation was singular indeed. In the states 
 where granger legislation had been enacted, there was no ap- 
 preciable decline in gross earnings. 
 
Robert M. La Follette 13 
 
 In other states, where no such laws were in force, the decline 
 in gross earnings was great; in fact, the shrinkage was from 
 ten to twenty times as great as in the granger states. 
 
 The showing on net earnings is equally significant. For the 
 three granger states from '73 to '75, there was a substantial 
 increase. In the adjoining states, however, there was a decline 
 in net earnings amounting to three per cent. 
 
 Whatever depression existed in the granger states during 
 this period was not due to legislation, but to the financial crisis 
 and panic of 1873. The financial distress which followed was 
 very severe; in fact, the depression was the greatest in the 
 history of the country. It began with a panic in the money 
 and stock markets and spread to every operation in finance and 
 commerce. The depression which followed continued in most 
 branches of business until the end of 1878. 
 
 AAThen all of the facts in the case are thus brought to light, 
 when we examine it from every side, the granger legislation 
 takes on a different aspect from that in which it has been made 
 to appear for the last thirty years. The granger laws neither 
 stopped railroad building nor reduced railroad earnings. Had 
 the railroads met this legislation in the spirit in which it was 
 enacted, discontinued their discriminations and adjusted their 
 rates to the new basis, their revenues would have been increased 
 under the law. Instead, they made it their special business, 
 and employed others, to attack the grangers and granger legis- 
 lation violently and persistently year after year. They made 
 the granger legislation responsible for every misfortune that 
 befell the roads. They made it serve as a shield for their own 
 mistakes and shortcomings. Although their invectives have be- 
 come well-worn and stale, they are still employed against the 
 law designed to control railway transportation. 
 
 Securing control of the legislature in 1876, as before stated, 
 the railroad companies repealed the Wisconsin law. They 
 enacted in this state "a statute providing for one railroad com- 
 missioner, with very limited functions," as stated by Professor 
 Emery Johnson in his recent work on '* American Railway 
 Transportation. ' ' 
 
 The same campaign in Minnesota resulted in a repeal of her 
 law a year after its passage, and the adoption of a law instead 
 
14 Railway Beg illation 
 
 providing for only one commissioner with little more than su- 
 pervisory power. In Minnesota this law remained in force for 
 a decade, when a stronger law was enacted. 
 
 Iowa's law continued in force until 1878, when a commis- 
 sion was created with limited powers. This statute was again 
 superseded in 1888 by her present law, establishing a commis- 
 sion with power to prescribe rates. 
 
 The Illinois statute of 1871 prescribed maximum rates and 
 fares, prohibiting discriminations and establishing a commission 
 to supervise railways and assist in enforcing the laws for their 
 regulation. In 1873 the law was adopted in Illinois making it 
 the duty of the commission to prescribe a schedule of reason- 
 able maximum rates for the transportation of passengers and 
 freight. 
 
 It will thus be observed that Iowa and Illinois not only main- 
 tained the ground gained by the granger legislation, but ex- 
 tended it and fortified it from time to time, while Wisconsin 
 again came under the dominion of the railway companies. 
 In these three states, lying side by side, the opportunity is 
 therefore presented to apply the tests of comparison to the 
 two systems, namely, where the states have assumed and exer- 
 cised authority in regulating rates, and where rates are fixed 
 by the railroads without state control. A critical study of these 
 two systems has been of material aid in clearly defining the 
 issue with respect to this important question of Wisconsin. 
 
 For years it has been known in a general way that the people 
 of this state were at a great disadvantage. Session after session 
 attempts have been made to again secure legislation for railway 
 control and regulation. The railroads have, however, been 
 strong enough to defeat all such measures. Two years ago the 
 results of painstaking investigation of transportation charges 
 in Wisconsin, in comparison with the rates fixed by the state 
 commissions of Iowa and Illinois, were presented and discussed 
 in the executive message at the opening of the legislature. This 
 was the first time in more than a quarter of a century that the 
 subject had been treated in executive message. Later in the 
 session a special message reviewed the entire rate situation in 
 Wisconsin, IlUnois and Iowa, and recommended the enactment 
 of a law creating a commission, with authority to control serv- 
 ices and rates. 
 
Robert M. La Follette 15 
 
 In any comparison with Illinois and Iowa rates it can be 
 taken as conclusive that the transportation charges in Illinois 
 and Iowa are high enough to give the railroad companies at 
 least a reasonable profit upon the railroad business in each of 
 those states. If the rates afforded the railroads less than a 
 reasonable profit, they would at once appeal to the courts to 
 increase the rates. It is the settled law that neither the legis- 
 lature nor a commission created by it, with power to fix rates, 
 can compel a railway company to accept less than a reasonably 
 profitable rate. Therefore by acquiescing in the commission 
 rate in Iowa and Illinois without appealing to the courts, the 
 railroads admit the rates to be high enough in those states. 
 
 The facts submitted to the Wisconsin legislature demonstrated 
 that the producers and consumers of this state were paying 
 freight charges at that time ranging on the average from twenty 
 to nearly seventy per cent, in excess of the rates paid by Illi- 
 nois and Iowa for identically the same service. 
 
 A bill was introduced, providing for the creation of a com- 
 mission with power to regulate railway service. The methods 
 employed by the railways in opposition to this legislation are 
 not without interest. The attorneys of the railroad and their 
 lobby agents in opposing this bill before the legislative commit- 
 tee, asserted that there was no discrimination in freight charges 
 against the people of this state, as compared with those of the 
 adjoining states. They declared that freight rates in Wiscon- 
 sin were just and reasonable; that there was no favoritism 
 shown shippers, and denied the payment of rebates. The legis- 
 lative lobby was reinforced by many large shippers brought to 
 the capitol upon free transportation, furnished by the railway 
 companies. Some of these shippers came willingly, because 
 they were the recipients of rebates and transportation favors 
 denied to the public. Some small shippers who favored state 
 control of railway rates came to oppose the bill before the 
 legislative committee, as they informed me, because they did not 
 dare refuse, when called upon by the railway companies. In 
 either case, their presence was the strongest proof of the power 
 which the railroads exercise wherever they have absolute con- 
 trol of transportation. This opposition of the large shippers, 
 joined with that of the regular railway lobby, employing its 
 
16 Railway Regulation 
 
 usual methods, secured the defeat of the commission bill in the 
 legislature of 1903. 
 
 The people of the state were too much interested and too thor- 
 oughly aroused to permit the matter to be disposed of in any- 
 such manner. The control of railway services and railway rates 
 became the paramount issue. The corporations were alarmed, 
 and although they had declared their rates to be just and rea- 
 sonable when before the legislature of 1903, in the midst of the 
 campaign which followed they reduced Wisconsin rates from 
 time to time upon such commodities as would best serve in the 
 exigencies of the campaign. Instead of mollifying the people 
 of the state, however, this action upon their part simply fur- 
 nished evidence of the fact that they had been for years im- 
 posing excessive rates upon Wisconsin traffic. 
 
 An investigation of the differences existing at the present 
 time between rates in Iowa and Illinois and rates in Wisconsin 
 establishes the following: 
 /" The average Wisconsin rates on merchandise are nearly thirty 
 per cent, higher than in Iowa for the same service. The ave- 
 rage rates upon grain in Wisconsin are over thirty per cent, 
 higher than in Iowa and Illinois for like services. The average 
 rates on live stock are nearly twenty-four per cent, higher than 
 j in Iowa and Illinois for identically the same service. If fur- 
 ther testimony were required to show the necessity of protection 
 in any state against rate-making on the part of the railroads 
 without state control, it is furnished by the records which the 
 railroads themselves issue to their stockholders respecting their 
 earnings in Wisconsin. 
 
 The net earnings of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- 
 way Company are Eleven Hundred and Nine Dollars per mile 
 greater upon its Wisconsin mileage than for the other states 
 through which its lines extend. The net earnings upon this 
 road in Wisconsin in 1904 were equal to six per cent, on a 
 valuation of one Hundred and Ten Million, Two Hundred 
 and Sixteen Thousand Dollars on its entire mileage in the 
 state. 
 
 Under Wisconsin's new law for taxing railroads, the Tax 
 Commission, acting as a state board of assessment but a few 
 months ago, assessed the value of this company's road in Wis- 
 
Robert M. La Follette 17 
 
 consin at Seventy Million, Two Hundred Thousand Dollars. 
 The represenfatives of the railway company appeared before the 
 commission, and protested against this assessment as too high, 
 yet they levy a transportation tax upon Wisconsin people 
 which produces a six per cent, income upon a valuation of the 
 same property of about Forty Million Dollars in excess of the 
 valuation fixed by the Tax Commission. 
 
 The Chicago & Northwestern [Railway Company reports 
 Eleven Hundred and Thirty-eight Dollars higher net earnings 
 for every mile of road in Wisconsin than it reports per mile 
 upon its road in the other states through which its lines extend. 
 The net earnings of the Northwestern upon its total mileage in 
 this state amounts to six per cent, on One Hundred and Twelve 
 Million, Twenty-three Thousand, Three Hundred and Sixteen 
 Dollars. The recent assessment of this road in Wisconsin by 
 the Tax Commission fixes its value at Seventy-one Million, Five 
 Hundred Thousand Dollars, or Forty Million, Five Hundred 
 Twenty-three Thousand, Three Hundred Sixteen Dollars less 
 than the amount upon which the company compels the people of 
 Wisconsin to pay six per cent, annual income. And yet the Chi- 
 cago & Northwestern, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, and 
 other leading roads of Wisconsin have joined in a suit to set 
 aside the assessment of their property as excessive. 
 
 At a very early period in the history of the state the rail- 
 roads had secured the enactment of a law by the provisions of 
 which they paid in lieu of all taxes a license fee upon their 
 gross earnings. This law required a sworn statement to be 
 filed by each railroad company of their gross earnings in Wis- 
 consin for the year. Upon this amount so filed, they were re- 
 quired by the terms of the law to pay a four per cent, license 
 fee. For some time doubts had been entertained as to whether 
 the railway companies were reporting for taxation the full 
 amount of their gross earnings. An investigation of the rail- 
 way companies' books and accounts was therefore instituted. 
 This investigation disclosed that the railroad companies had 
 been systematically paying rebates to favored shippers for years. 
 The sums so paid, in violation of the federal statutes, were very 
 large, amounting in the aggregate to several millions of dollars. 
 It is therefore established beyond dispute by the investiga- 
 
 2 
 
18 Railway Regulation 
 
 gations which have been made respecting rates, rebates, dis- 
 criminations and inequalities: 
 
 That Wisconsin rates are higher than rates charged under 
 substantially similar conditions in the neighboring states of 
 Iowa and Illinois. 
 
 That rates charged in Wisconsin on the whole yield a net 
 income to Wisconsin railroads greatly above the amount re- 
 quired for operating expenses, maintenance of property, and a 
 fair profit on the cost of the roads. 
 
 That the railway companies are guilty of gross discrimina- 
 tions between persons and places in this state. 
 
 If any question can be definitely settled the people of Wis- 
 consin in the last election declared for the establishment of a 
 commission to control railway services and railway rates on 
 state commerce. 
 
 The discussion of this issue was demanded in every part of 
 the state. It was thoroughly understood and passed upon in 
 Senate and Assembly districts, and the Wisconsin legislature 
 of 1905, obeying the instructions of their constituents, will write 
 upon the statute books a law for a mandatory commission. 
 
 The same conditions which prevail in Wisconsin with respect 
 to excessive transportation charges and discriminations in serv- 
 ice, both as to individuals and places, prevail in every other 
 state in the Union, where the railway companies control, and 
 each state owes it to the citizen to secure an efficient and im- 
 partial service at reasonable rates upon all state commerce. 
 
 I believe there would have been a much more insistent and 
 determined demand for state regulation if the railroad compa- 
 nies had not succeeded in breaking down and nullifying the in- 
 terstate commerce law. There has been on the part of the cor- 
 porations a studied effort to work into the public mind a belief 
 that the subject was too complicated and intricate for legisla- 
 tion ; that the relation of transportation to the business interests 
 of the country were so involved, complex and delicate that pub- 
 lic officials, representing the state or national government, could 
 not be trusted to approach it, much less be clothed with author- 
 ity respecting its regulation. The traffic departments of railway 
 systems have been surrounded with vagueness and mystery. 
 In deference to the insistence here and there manifesting itself 
 
Robert M. La Follette 19 
 
 for some relief, there comes from time to time a clever intimation 
 that tribunals might be created to "hear complaints and make 
 suggestions. ' ' But even legislation so limited, it has been urged, 
 should be deferred for further and more matured considera- 
 tion lest the great interests might be prejudiced and incalucu- 
 lable harm result. 
 
 The fact that favoritism, partiality and discrimmations with 
 respect to communities, cities, industries and individuals is 
 ruining business and retarding development and growth locally 
 in many sections of every state, the fact that rates are con- 
 tinually advanced, that capitalization of many railway corpora- 
 tions is undergoing marked inflation from time to time, and 
 that, in consequence, the people's business is suffering and 
 many individuals being crowded out, seems to weigh for very 
 little. The fact that the railroads are becoming associated 
 with great business interests inconsistent with rendering im- 
 partial service to the general public, and are the most potent 
 factors in building up trusts and monopolies menacing to re- 
 publican institutions, counts for nothing against this specious 
 plea for non-interference. 
 
 It is further urged by those seeking delay that the subject 
 is one which should be uniformly treated, that the state should 
 wait on congress and congress should wait on the states. It 
 is time that the country awakened from its lethargy. Uni- 
 formity in legislation respecting the control of railway services 
 and railway rates would be very desirable. So would uniform '. 
 divorce laws, uniform banking and insurance laws, and uni- \ 
 formity upon many lines of legislation. But because consti- \ 
 tutional limitations bar the way for speedy and prompt legis- 
 lation, uniform in character, it does not lessen the obligation 
 of state government to deal with existing evils in the best way \ 
 possible according to the powers which it possesses. I believe 
 that it will be a decided gain and a truly progressive step in 
 the practical solution of the problem for a regulation of state 
 and interstate commerce if the state proceeds to do that which 
 is clearly within its power. If each state will establish a just 
 and equitable regulation of rates and railway service as applied 
 to state commerce, it will greatly simplify this subject, bring- 
 ing it home to each community and making it a part of th» 
 
20 Railway Regulation 
 
 thought of the people of each state. The duty of regulation 
 and the specific method to be employed will be more easily and 
 definitely understood. 
 
 The development of all the state's resources, the diversifica- 
 tion and interdependence of its industry, and the ready 
 and free exchange of its commodities with an even, well 
 distributed growth in towns and centers of population are all 
 natural objects of special care on the part of a state railway 
 commission. It is true that the boundaries of a state are not 
 the boundaries of its commerce, although there are always nat- 
 ural tendencies to commercial centers within the state. While 
 it is also true in a qualified sense, as contended by the railroad 
 advocates of non-interference, that they are interested in the 
 development of the resources of the state in order to increase 
 their business, it is likewise true that their interests are far 
 from identical with those of the state. It is of the highest im- 
 portance to the state that there should be many thrifty towns 
 and cities of moderate size well distributed over it. It best 
 serves the interest of the railway company that the products 
 of the state should be carried by the long haul to remote mar- 
 kets. And it should always be remembered that the railways 
 make artificial and arbitrary regulations with respect to where 
 trade and commerce shall center, and that such regulations are 
 made, not with a view to the best development of every part 
 of the state upon the broadest, social and economic grounds, 
 but, instead, that wliich will make the best financial showing 
 to place before the board of directors at the end of the year. 
 The same reasons which may be urged for the better protec- 
 tion of domestic interests in other respects through state gov- 
 ernment hold good for the state control of railway transporta- 
 tion. Independent of the large field of local work for state 
 commissions, their establishment might be urged as one of 
 the best expedients for securing early, definite and satisfactory 
 action on the part of congress for proper control of interstate 
 commerce. The proposed question, perhaps, could be presented 
 in more concrete form as a state rather than as a national 
 issue, and when once the issue has been clearly defined with 
 respect to the one, it is easily carried over and applied with 
 respect to the other. Definite, specific results in legislation at 
 
Robert M. La Follette 21 
 
 the state capital will bring like results at the national capital. 
 Prompt action is needed in every state where legislation is 
 either wholly wanting or weak in character. Neither should 
 there be any relaxation of effort to secure effective regulation 
 of interstate commerce. The granger agitation of the Old 
 Northwest states was followed by the determined effort to se- 
 cure national legislation. Today there is a demand for state 
 and national action to bring public service corporations within 
 reasonable control. Organization should be made in every state 
 for co-ordinate action of this important problem. There must 
 be no delay with respect to either. Action means advancement 
 in the right direction. A grave situation confronts the people, 
 calling for wise and enlightened consideration, but calling for 
 action promptly. 
 
 Certain fundamental principles are established. The right 
 of the state to act is clear. Comparisons in rates between states 
 where the railroads control on the one hand and where the 
 state controls on the other, show conclusively that government 
 regulation gives decided advantage to the people of those states 
 having commissions, even where the laws are far from perfect, 
 or where the railroads have come to exercise some influence 
 over the action of the commission. The experience in every 
 state where legislation has been secured, or where an attempt 
 has been made to secure it, has been helpful in every other 
 state, and in the nation as well. 
 
 Some very important questions with respect to the scope of 
 a state law and of the powers with which a state commission 
 should be invested have been well and definitely settled by 
 experience. 
 
 An investigation of the laws of the states which have been 
 successful in creating effective commissions for the control of 
 transportation, offers valuable suggestions and conclusions as 
 to the powers and duties with which they should be vested for 
 the highest services in the public interest. 
 
 The following are some of the more important provisions 
 which the result of my research led me recently to recommend 
 much more at length to the consideration of the Wisconsin 
 legislature, in their work of framing a law for the state. 
 
 A reasonably good service is quite as important as a rea- 
 
22 Railway Regulation 
 
 sonable cost of service. I believe a commission should be in- 
 vested with power to enforce adequate and efficient service for 
 the patrons of railroads, always taking into consideration the 
 circumstances and conditions with respect to the towns, cities 
 and sections of the state concerned. In furtherance of this 
 provision, the commission should have authority to require, in 
 the interests of the traveling public, whenever the action of the 
 corporation makes it necessary, proper station accommoda- 
 tions, adequate train service and reasonable connections with 
 other lines. They should be empowered to require the fur- 
 nishing of cars for the reasonable accommodation of shippers, 
 to the end that they may not suffer unnecessary delay and loss 
 in reaching market. The commission should have power to 
 require reasonable facilities for ascertaining the weight of 
 loaded cars, thus preventing overcharge and delays m settle- 
 ment of claims. They should, in short, be able in all important 
 matters to insure protection to the public from the tyranny and 
 abuse of power on the part of the transportation company. 
 
 State commissions should have full authority to establish 
 rates and issue orders carrying them into immediate effect. If 
 the commission has power to fix maximum rates only, the rail- 
 way companies can still unjustly discriminate between ship- 
 pers by making special rates below the maximum rates. A 
 slight variation is sufficient to ultimately consolidate business 
 in the hands of the favored shippers. If the rate made by the 
 commission does not go into effect at once upon the order of 
 the commission the railroad company can destroy the value of 
 the rate making power by litigation which* would indefinitely 
 postpone the establishment of a rate once made. 
 
 While the commission should doubtless be empowered to pro- 
 mulgate entire schedules of rates, they should have discretion 
 in the exercise of this right, thus enabling the commission to 
 afford relief where it is most urgently needed, and to proceed 
 with greater conservatism and caution than would be the case 
 if they were required within a definitely prescribed time to 
 establish rates covering all classifications and all schedules. 
 Some latitude in the exercise of this power will enable the com- 
 mission to make such rates as will be maintained by the courts, 
 should appeal be prosecuted by the railway companies to test 
 the same. 
 
Robert M. La Follette 23 
 
 I am strongly of the opinion that while it should be the duty 
 of the commission to investigate all complaints, their action 
 should not be made to wait upon the filing of the complaint. 
 The great body of the people, who, in the aggregate, suffer 
 the burdens and wrongs of excessive transportation charges, 
 cannot appear before the commission and make complaints. 
 The consumers of coal and merchandise and special commodi- 
 ties are the ones who really pay the freight. They do not deal 
 directly with the railroads and do not pay freight to the rail- 
 way company at all. The dealer who sells to the consumer 
 pays the freight in the first instance, but charges the same 
 over against his customer. The man who buys lumber, fuel, 
 furnishings, clothing and other supplies, is the man who has 
 great cause for complaint. He, however, cannot make com- 
 plaint. He never knows how much of the cost price of any ar- 
 ticle purchased is an excessive freight charge. To limit the 
 action of any commission to cases where complaint is made, is 
 to practically destroy the value of railway regulation at all for 
 the great body of the people. 
 
 The commission should be clothed with power to enforce 
 publicity in respect to all matters pertaining to the public in- 
 terest. Invested with this power necessity for prosecution 
 would much less frequently arise. Full knowledge on the part 
 of the commission respecting the earnings and expenses in the 
 operation of railroads is essential, is a basis of rate-making. 
 No rates established by the commission can be maintained in 
 the courts, if attacked, excepting such rates are reasonable and 
 just to the railway companies. To determine this it is of pri- 
 mary importance that the commission should be in possession 
 of all information in detail pertaining to the capital invested, 
 the cost of operation and maintenance. 
 
 One of the most important duties of a commission should be 
 to protect the public from the wrongs inflicted upon it by 
 over-capitalization on the part of the corporation. The state 
 should know the value of its railroad properties and it should 
 be unlawful for railroad companies to issue stocks and bonds 
 without first having established, to the satisfaction of the com- 
 mission, or other authority representing the state, that there is 
 full value back of every dollar of the obligation represented 
 
24 Railway Regulation 
 
 by stock and bond issue. The people should np longer be re- 
 quired to pay transportation charges upon an enormous over- 
 capitalization of the transportation companies which it charters 
 to do business. 
 
 However perfect any state law for the regulation and control 
 of commerce, it will fail unless it be strongly enforced. Hence 
 its success in operation will depend entirely upon the commis- 
 sion charged with its administration. The method of selecting 
 the commissioners, therefore, becomes of the highest impor- 
 tance. Upon this subject there is wide difference of opinion. 
 The result of my own investigation and reflection leads me to 
 the opinion that there are exceptional reasons why men better 
 qualified for the special duties required of commissioners can 
 better be secured by appointment than by election. The work 
 of the commission in fixing rates must stand or fall, as it 
 meets the tests which will be applied in a court of appeals, 
 where such work is very certain to be tested. To be sustained, 
 rates must be just and reasonable to the railway corporations. 
 In fixing the rate, therefore, if the commission is to do justice 
 to the public, it must reduce the rate as much as possible and 
 still make it fairly and justly remunerative and profitable to 
 the railway companies. This requires a technical and expert 
 knowledge of traffic conditions, and of the cost of railway con- 
 struction, maintenance and transportation. Wherever test is 
 made in court of the work of the commission, they will find 
 themselves confronted by the ablest traffic experts in the employ 
 of the great railway companies. They should be able to meet 
 them in so far as possible. 
 
 The selection of men having such qualifications can be more 
 certainly made by appointment than by popular election, in the 
 midst of partisan feeling and excitement due to a political 
 campaign. Indeed, it might very easily transpire that one 
 wholly unqualified, either as to the possession of training and 
 experience, or the qualities of mind to acquire expertness in 
 this important work, but with popular elements of character 
 and experience in campaigning, would be the more likely to 
 secure election than one whose experience and talent had fitted 
 him especially for this line of work. 
 
 Upon the necessity of establishing a commission to protect 
 
Robert M. La Follette 25 
 
 the interests of the people of each state, there would seem to 
 be no need of argument. The conditions themselves existing 
 in the states where the control is wholly in the hands of the 
 railway companies, and the benefits realized in any state which 
 has taken any steps whatever for such regulation, would seem 
 to be conclusive. Every commonwealth must sooner or later 
 enact such legislation. It will be resisted by the corporations. 
 The widespread interest manifested throughout the country 
 warrants the belief that every state with weak or imperfect 
 statutes upon the subject, and such states as have no statutes 
 at all, will ere long adopt such legislation as will establish a 
 control of railway service and railway rates. 
 
 INTERSTATE COMMERCE. 
 
 THE CONTROL OF RAILWAY SERVICE AND RAILWAY RATES. 
 
 Railway managers, with rare exceptions, agree that the pub- 
 lic should have no voice in regulating railway services or rail- 
 way rates. Not all high railroad officials have the same bold- 
 ness to declare their positions that Mr. Milton H. Smith, presi- 
 dent of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, disclosed 
 in testifying, upon an investigation into rates on his line of 
 road, conducted by the Interstate Commerce Commission. This 
 testimony was given in a proceeding before the commission 
 prior to the Supreme Court decisions which deprived the com- 
 mission of all authority to determine as to the reasonableness 
 of the rates : 
 
 ' ' Commission : We exercise no authority over your road un- 
 til it has been determined by investigation that the rate is an 
 unreasonable one. Your objection comes to this, that there 
 ought to be no authority anywhere which has power to inquire 
 whether the rate on the Louisville & Nashville railroad is rea- 
 sonable or unreasonable? . . . 
 
 "Mr. Smith: That is my position. 
 
 * # * 
 
 ** Commission: Now let us go back to our question. That is 
 the foundation of it all. Here are these two points connected 
 by your line of road and by no other line. You say that the 
 government ought to leave you and the shipper who resides 
 at those places free to contract. Now, that shipper is obliged 
 to pay whatever you charore? 
 
 \ 
 
26 Railway Begnlation 
 
 "Mr. Smith: No. 
 
 ' ' Commission : What could he do ? 
 
 ''Mr. Smith: He could walk; he can do as he did before 
 he had a railroad and as thousands now do who have not 
 railroads. ' ' 
 
 Of course we can ''walk." If all were compelled to "walk" 
 it would at least put an end to favoritism and place each indi- 
 vidual on an equality with every other. But that is not what 
 President Smith proposes. He, and all other railway presi- 
 dents allow Mr. Rockefeller to "ride" while his competitor in 
 business must pay for himself and enough more to help pay 
 for Rockefeller's ride. Whenever any shipper complains, he 
 is told to pay the charge or walk. 
 
 In whatever way other railway managers have veiled their 
 designs by greater diplomacy and finer phrasing, they have, 
 with a sole regard to their own gain, given to every community 
 in the country good service or bad, with discrimination or oth- 
 erwise, at as high rates as they desired to make, and the only 
 alternative offered to the public has been, and still is, to pay 
 up or "walk." 
 
 THE RESULTS OF A PAY OR 
 
 Under the system a few men have grown very rich, a few 
 cities have been made very great commercial centers. But 
 equality of opportunity has been destroyed for the individual 
 or the independent business enterprise, and, in thousands of 
 communities, the natural advantages for growth have been 
 nullified, development arbitrarily dwrafed, and all commercial 
 activities limited to mere local distribution. 
 
 There would be no Standard Oil monopoly today, no meat 
 monopoly, no coal monopoly, no grain monopoly, no great com- 
 binations filling the entire industrial field, and destroying all 
 industrial independence and freedom, no artificial restrictions 
 upon the upbuilding of cities and towns in every state sacri- 
 ficed to the making of great markets at railway terminals,— in 
 short, there would not have been imposed upon the American 
 people a system which presents to this generation the gravest 
 problem that has confronted democracy, if,— 
 
 (1) the federal government, in the exercise of its lawful au- 
 thority, had, for the last thirty years, fully discharged its duty 
 
Robert M. La Follette 27 
 
 to the people who maintain it, by controlling railway services 
 and railway rates on all interstate commerce, and, 
 
 (2) if each state government, in the exercise of its authority, 
 had likewise fully discharged its duty to the people who main- 
 tain it, by controlling railway services and railway rates on all 
 state commerce. 
 
 The control of transportation lines with power to regulate 
 the service and the rate is the control of the industrial and 
 commercial life of the people of any community or any country. 
 
 It is well to recall again fundamental propositions in consid- 
 ering the regulation and control of interstate commerce. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the United States has held that: 
 
 ''The business of a public carrier is of a public nature, and 
 in performing it the carrier is also performing, to a certain 
 extent, a function of government." 
 
 Government may conduct the transportation business itself 
 as it does in carrying the mails, and limited quantities of mer- 
 chandise carried through the mails. The business may also be 
 conducted by corporations such as the railway companies char- 
 tered by state government and authorized to engage in trans- 
 portation as public carriers. But the investment of private 
 funds in the construction of railways and the conduct of the 
 business by private corporations in no wise changes its char- 
 acter. It is still a public service and a function of govern- 
 ment. As declared by the same court: 
 
 "It has never been considered a matter of any importance 
 that the road was built by the agency of a private corporation. 
 No matter who is the agent, the function performed is that of 
 the state. Though the ownership is private, the use is public." 
 
 The government has a duty to perform in the regulation 
 and control of railway transportation, because the service is a 
 public service and essentially a function of government. But 
 there are other reasons. 
 
 The railway corporation is a natural monopoly. Its lines 
 once established in a given territory naturally excludes other 
 capital from investment in a field which it covers. People liv- 
 ing along its line, and in the country tributary to it, must 
 market their products and receive their supplies over its road. 
 They have no choice. The government had empowered the 
 railway company to take their land on which it has built its 
 
28 Railway Regulation 
 
 road. They must accept their services, or they must ''walk." 
 The government has placed the corporation in a position 
 where, uncontrolled, it can tyrannize over individuals and en- 
 tire communities. It is therefore bound to protect them 
 against any wrong or injustice at the hands of its creatures. 
 Nay, more, the government is under obligation to see to it that 
 the corporation performs its full duty to all persons and al] 
 places, efficiently, impartially and upon reasonable terms. The 
 government cannot divest itself of this responsibility. One of 
 the ablest of the United States Supreme Court judges, speaking 
 for that court, said: 
 
 ''But a superintending power over the highways and the 
 charges imposed upon the public for their use, have always 
 remained in the government. This is not only its indefeasible 
 right, but it is necessary for the protection of the people against 
 extortion and abuse." 
 
 STRUGGLE TO SECURE LAW. 
 
 The duty which the state owes to protect the commerce of 
 the state, the federal government owes to protect the com- 
 merce of the country. 
 
 It required a ten-year struggle to enact the interstate com- 
 merce law. So powerful and effective was the railway oppo- 
 sition in congress, the measure was defeated session after ses- 
 sion. When finally enacted in 1887, it created a commission 
 of five men, to be appointed by the president with the consent 
 of the senate. In this act it is declared that all transportation 
 charges shall be reasonable and just and that every unjust 
 and unreasonable charge is prohibited and unlawful; that the 
 commission created by it is authorized and required to exe- 
 cute and enforce all the provisions of the act; that it shall in- 
 vestigate, inquire into, report and order a discontinuance of 
 all violations of the law; that it shall execute the law by peti- 
 tion to the court to enforce its orders, and that the court shall 
 enforce all lawful orders made by the commission. 
 
 When enacted, it was believed by congress, and throughout 
 the whole country, that the law invested the commission with 
 authority to "supervise rates, and to issue orders and decrees 
 with respect to what a rate should be." When it became ap- 
 
Robert M. La Follette 29 
 
 parent that the enactment of the law could no longer be post- 
 poned, the railroads were ready with ingenious suggestions for 
 amendment to weaken and destroy its efficiency and lay the 
 foundation for its overthrow in the courts. 
 
 ITS PURPOSE DEFEATED. 
 
 Under the persistent attack of the railways, the authority 
 of the commission was narrowed by a line of decisions which 
 the court rendered from time to time. Finally, by 1897, a 
 majority of the Supreme Court had decided that the law was 
 not all what congress declared it to be. By judicial decision 
 the commission was deprived of all power to supervise rates, 
 or to issue orders or decrees with respect to what a rate should 
 be, and transformed into a body merely authorized to hear 
 complaints, take testimony and make recommendations. 
 
 In its report for 1897, the commission says : 
 
 "As now construed by the Supreme Court, the carrier is 
 given the right to establish and charge these rates independent 
 of the judgment of the commission, and independent of the 
 action and judgment of any court or other tribunal; the right 
 to establish, demand and receive unreasonable and unjust 
 charges is not prohibited; and that in respect to the charges 
 which may be demanded and received for any transportation 
 service, the carriers are made the judges in their own cases as 
 to what is reasonable and just." 
 
 Thus, all that the people, through congress, had been strug- 
 gling to secure since 1877, all that they believed they had se- 
 cured through the enactment of the interstate commerce law 
 in 1887, had been practically swept aside. The victory attained 
 by the people in congress had been changed into defeat by the 
 railroads in the federal courts. The people were just where 
 they had started twenty years before. 
 
 appeatj of commission to congress. 
 
 For years the Interstate Commerce Commission has laid be- 
 fore congress all the facts : the systematic increase in rates ; the 
 gross injustice in discriminations; the utter helplessness of the 
 commission to afford relief. In its annual report to congress, 
 December, 1897, the commission reviewed the Supreme Court 
 
30 Railway Regulation 
 
 decisions and made it clear that there was no power left in the 
 law to protect interstate commerce. It urged in that report 
 the necessary amendments upon the attention of congress, and 
 this has been repeated in extended discussion and reinforced 
 with recommendations in each annual report for the last seven 
 years. 
 
 In 1898 the commission reported to congress that there was 
 
 "no power, in the judgment of the commission, or in the 
 judgment of the court, to restrain a railroad company from 
 demanding and receiving unreasonable and unjust charges." 
 
 They said further: 
 
 "The power of fixing and establishing reasonable rates or 
 charges in advance is the only practical legal remedy for ex- 
 tortion and unreasonable and unjust charges." 
 
 Again, in 1899, congress having failed to act, the commission 
 said: 
 
 "Every consideration of private justice and public welfare 
 demands that the railway rates shall be reasonable, uniform to 
 all shippers, and equitable between all communities. Until 
 needful legislation is supplied that demand must remain un- 
 satisfied. ' ' 
 
 Again, in January, 1900, the commission urged action, and, 
 among other things, said: 
 
 "The request of the commission for needful amendments 
 have been supported by petitions and memorials from agricul- 
 tural, manufacturing and commercial interests throughout the 
 country, yet not a line of the statute has been changed, and 
 none of the burdensome conditions which call for relief have 
 been removed or modified. ... It is sufficient to say that the 
 existing situation and the developments of the past year render 
 more imperative than ever before the necessity for speedy and 
 suitable legislation. We, therefore, renew the recommenda- 
 tions heretofore made, and earnestly urge their consideration 
 and adoption." 
 
 Every effort to pass a bill embodying the recommendation 
 of the commission to afford relief to the overtaxed commerce 
 of the country having failed, the commission, in its next annual 
 report to congress of 1901, said: 
 
 "The reasons for urging these amendments have been care- 
 fully explained and repetition of the arguments at this time 
 can hardly be expected. . . . Knowledge of the present condi- 
 tions and tendencies increases rather than lessens the necessity 
 for le^J-islative action upon the lines already indicated, and in 
 
Robert M. La Follette 31 
 
 such other directions as will furnish an adequate and workable 
 statute for the regulation of commerce among the several 
 states. ' ' 
 
 This important legislation having failed again in 1902, the 
 commission once more appealed to congress. Referring to the 
 defect in the law, the commission, in this report, says : 
 
 "That this imperfection is curable is equally conceded. The 
 fullest power of correction is vested in the congress, and the 
 exercise of that power is demanded by the highest considera- 
 tions of public welfare. . . . The sense of the wrongs and in- 
 justice which cannot be prevented in the present state of the 
 law, as well as the duty enjoined by the act itself, impels the 
 commission to reaffirm its recommendations for the reasons so 
 often and so fully set forth in previous reports and before the 
 congressional committees. Moreover, in view of the rapid dis- 
 appearance of railway competition and the maintenance of 
 rates established by combination, attended as they are by sub- 
 stantial advances in the charges on many articles of household 
 necessity, the commission regards this matter as increasingly 
 grave and desires to emphasize its convictions that the safe- 
 guards required for the protection of the public will not be pro- 
 vided until the regulating statute is thoroughly revised." 
 
 RE-INFORCED BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. 
 
 Recognizing the right of the federal government to regulate 
 and control interstate transportation, and the wrongs and in- 
 justice which could not be prevented without further legisla- 
 tion, President Roosevelt, in his first message to congress, with 
 respect to the interstate commerce law, said: 
 
 "The act should be amended. The railway is a public ser- 
 vant. Its rates should be just to, and open to all shippers 
 alike. The government should see to it that this is so, and 
 should provide a speedy, inexpensive and effective remedy to 
 that end." 
 
 February 9, 1903, an act relating to the payment of prefer- 
 ential rates was approved. It contained nothing, however, 
 which could in any way aid the commission in affording protec- 
 tion against unreasonable and extravagant rates. The com- 
 merce of the country was still subject to the levying of a trans- 
 portation tax as heavy and burdensome as the railroad compa- 
 nies were pleased to impose. Representative business men, 
 shippers and producers, were petitioning congress and appear- 
 
32 Railway Eegulation 
 
 ing before committees, with testimony and argument, to rein- 
 force their prayers for relief. December, 1903, in its annual 
 report, the commission again made a strong appeal for legis- 
 lation which would clothe them with authority to establish a rea- 
 sonable rate. Referring to the act of February 13, 1903, it 
 said: 
 
 "It has added nothing whatever to the power of the com- 
 mission to correct a tariff rate which is unreasonably high or 
 which operates with discriminating effect. It greatly aids the 
 observance of tariff charges, but affords no remedy for those 
 who are injured by such charges either when they are exces- 
 sive, or when they are inadequately adjusted. . . . This is the 
 point to which the attention of congress has heen called. This 
 is the defect in the regidating statute which demands correc- 
 tion. In previous reports this question has been frequently 
 and fully discussed. We have commented at length upon the 
 weakness and inadequacy of the law as its provisions have been 
 construed by our courts. We have carefully pointed out the 
 amendments which we deemed essential, and explained in de- 
 tail the reasons for our recommendations. We are unable to 
 add anything of value to the presentation heretofore made. 
 Our duty in this regard has heen performed.' ' 
 
 For seven long years this broken-down statute has been be- 
 fore congressional committees, where, day after day, arguments 
 and appeals have been made in vain to secure action to repair, 
 in some measure, its defects. 
 
 As the law was weakened and the efficiency of the commis- 
 sion impaired by judicial decisions from time to time, leaving 
 the interstate transportation of the country without regulation, 
 railway rates became higher, railway abuses began to multiply, 
 and protests and complaints came from all quarters of the 
 country, and from all classes of industry. Within a year or 
 two railroad consolidation became marked. The railroad busi- 
 ness of the country was literally honeycombed with discrimi- 
 nations in the form of rebates, and transportation charges were 
 everywhere generally advanced. 
 
 ENORMOUS INCREASE IN RATES. 
 
 The Industrial Commission, in its report submitted to con- 
 gress December, 1901, after a careful investigation of the sub- 
 ject, said : 
 
Robert M. La Follette 33 
 
 ''Summarized, we conclude that the advance in the pub- 
 lished freight rates upon all the railroads of the country is 
 probably not less than twenty-five per cent." 
 
 Powerless to restrain the railroads from imposing higher 
 rates, powerless to prevent discrimination in shipping charges 
 and facilities to favored interests and localities, the commission 
 could only, year after year, set forth, in its annual report to 
 congress, the gravity of the situation, and the urgent need of 
 legislation for the protection of the commerce of the country. 
 In its latest published report, it is made very clear that rates 
 have generally advanced in all sections of the country. 
 
 The coal rates, the iron schedules, the rates upon grain and 
 its products, lumber, live stock and its products, are generally 
 higher than four years ago,— the increases upon coal rates alone 
 amounting to very much more than twenty-five million dollars 
 per year. 
 
 The Interstate Commerce Commission has shown that the 
 average rate per each ton of freight— not per ton, per mile- 
 was about 12% cents higher in the spring of 1904 than in 1899. 
 When the increase was applied to the traffic of 1903, it was 
 found that it meant an increase in gross earnings, from this 
 source alone, of over $155,000,000. From this cause alone, the 
 gross earnings from the freight traffic in 1903 was thus over 13 
 per cent, greater than would otherwise have been the case. 
 The gross earnings from freight traffic were $424,282,871 
 greater in 1903 than in 1899. Of this amount $155,000,000, 
 or about 36 per cent., were derived from increases in the rates. 
 
 INCREASED TRAFFIC AND IMPROVED EFFICIENCY CHEAPENS COST OF 
 
 TRANSPORTING. 
 
 No one will question the soundness of the proposition that as » 
 the volume of traffic increases and the efficiency of transporting 
 is developed and improved, the cost is greatly reduced, and 
 rates should fall proportionately. But, instead, rates have 
 steadily advanced, adding greatly to the increased cost of liv- 
 ing, wrongfully imposing burdens, upon the great body of con- 
 sumers throughout the country. 
 
 The volume of traffic has greatly increased since 1896. 
 3 
 
34 Railway Regulation 
 
 In 1897 the tons of freight carried one mile per mile of road 
 amounted to 519,079. In 1902 it stood 793,351. The increase 
 thus amounts to 274,272, or about 52 per cent. 
 
 The facilities for handling were greatly improved, increasing 
 the number of tons carried in each car, and the number of 
 loaded cars in each train, as well as the capacity of engines for 
 moving larger loads. Roadbeds and tracks have likewise been 
 improved, and all of the elements of cost in transporting 
 freight greatly reduced. At the same time the cost of these 
 improvements has, as a rule, been charged to operating ex- 
 penses, and paid for in the increased rates by the people. 
 
 In 1897 it required 1,647 cars to carry 1,000,000 tons of 
 freight. In 1903 it required only 1,268 cars to carry 1,000,000 
 tons of freight. 
 
 In 1897 each locomotive carried 36,362 tons of freight. In 
 1903 each locomotive carried 51,265 tons of freight. 
 
 In 1897 the average number of tons per freight train mile 
 amounted to 204.62. In 1902 it amounted to 296.47. Here, 
 then, we have an increase in the efficiency of the road to han- 
 dle freight that is equal to about 42 j>ev. cent. 
 
 With the increase in the volume of traffic the profits of han- 
 dling the same will be relatively very much larger, even though 
 there is no improvement in the facilities of transportation. 
 But where the facilities have all undergone the marked im- 
 provement above noted the profits are, of course, enormously in- 
 creased. This proves to be the case with the railway compa- 
 nies during recent years. 
 
 For the whole country gross earnings and net earnings per 
 mile were as follows: 
 
 The gross earnings per mile were $6,122 in 1897, and $8,265 
 in 1902, an increase for the period that amounted to $2,503 
 per mile, or to 40.9 per cent. 
 
 The net earnings per mile amounted to $2,016 in 1897, 
 and to $3,084 in 1902, an increase of $1,032 per mile, or 46 
 per cent. 
 
 The net earnings per mile in 1897 were equal to 6 per cent, 
 on $33,600. The net earnings per mile in 1902 were equal to 
 6 per cent, on $50,800. 
 
 We have, then, an increase in the volume of the traffic 
 
Robert M. La Follette 35 
 
 amounting to 52 per cent., an increase in the efficiency of the 
 road to handle all the traffic equal to 42 per cent., with a re- 
 sulting increase in gross earnings for the period amounting to 
 40.9 per cent, per mile of road, and of the net earnings amount- 
 ing to 46 per cent. Add to this the fact that the net earnings 
 per mile on all the railroads of the country equaled 6 per cent, 
 on a capitalization of $33,600 for the year 1897, while the net 
 earnings per mile by 1902 had amounted to such a figure as 
 would equal 6 per cent, on $50,800 per mile, and we have a 
 result, the significance of which can escape no intelligent man. 
 
 Observe, now, what is definitely shown with respect to ad- 
 vancing rates. 
 
 The approximate average rate per ton per mile was 7.24 
 mills in 1899, and 7.57 mills in 1902. 
 
 The average revenue per freight train mile was $1.63 in 
 1897, and $1.79 in 1899, while in 1902 it amounted to $2.44. 
 
 EARNINGS OF INDIVIDUALS INCREASED BUT SLIGHTLY. 
 
 Whenever the public complains that rates are unjustly in- 
 creased, we are at once told in sweeping, though somewhat 
 indefinite way that the advances have been made to meet in- 
 creased expenses and higher wages paid to employes. The 
 corporations well understand the public regard for all the men 
 employed in this hazardous calling, and that such an explana- 
 tion will go a long way to quiet criticism. 
 
 It is true that material is somewhat higher. It is likewise 
 true that the companies are paying higher wages or rather 
 higher salaries. The total wages paid by the roads of late 
 years have increased, owing mostly to the increase in the num- 
 ber of men employed to handle the traffic or business. But 
 the total wages per mile of road from 1897 to 1902 did not 
 increase over 32 per cent., which is a much lower ratio of in- 
 crease than the increase in both gross and net earnings. 
 
 The average daily rate of wages per each person also in- 
 creased, but in this case the increases were comparatively 
 small, except for the officers of the road, for whom substantial 
 increases may be noted. The average increase per person, 
 outside of the officers, does not exceed five per cent. This in 
 plain from the following table: 
 
36 
 
 Railway Regulation 
 
 Average per cent, of increase in wages on all the railroads in 
 the United States from 1897 to 1902 ^ inclusive: 
 
 Classification 
 
 General officers 
 
 Other officers 
 
 Gen. office clerks (no in- 
 crease)... 
 
 Station agents 
 
 Other station men 
 
 Enginenien 
 
 Firemen 
 
 Conductors 
 
 Other trainmen 
 
 Machinists 
 
 Carpenters 
 
 Per 
 
 Cent. 
 
 17.08 
 9.37 
 
 4.04 
 .61 
 
 5.20 
 7.31 
 4.56 
 7.36 
 5.82 
 3.48 
 
 Classification 
 
 Other shopmen 
 
 Section foreman, 
 
 Other trackmen 
 
 Switch tenders, crossing 
 
 tenders and watchmen... 
 Telegraph operators and 
 
 dispatchers 
 
 Employes — acct. floating 
 
 equipment 
 
 All other employes and 
 
 laborers 
 
 Per 
 Cent. 
 
 4.09 
 1.17 
 7.75 
 
 2.90 
 
 5.78 
 7.52 
 4.26 
 
 It will be seen from the foregoing table that the increase in 
 wages means, — outside of high salaried officials and a small 
 addition ranging from one per cent, to seven per cent, in the 
 wages of all other employes, — simply a larger total amount 
 paid out as wages owing to the employment of a larger num- 
 ber of men to handle the great increase in the volume of the 
 traffic. 
 
 RATES WILL GO HIGHER. 
 
 No student of the railway problem can fail to comprehend 
 the deep significance of the power which unrestricted control 
 of transportation enables railways to exert upon the industrial 
 and commercial life of the people of every state in the Union. 
 
 The railroads are not only able to maintain their present 
 high rates, but can at their pleasure continue to advance them 
 until the charge is as high as the traffic will bear. Unless con- 
 trolled, this is what they will do. It is but little more than two 
 months since the Interstate Commerce Commission was called 
 to Chicago to hear protests of shippers against having forced 
 upon them, under cover of a uniform bill of lading, an increase 
 in freight rates which would have amounted to more than a 
 quarter of a million dollars at one stroke. There is now no 
 competition to restrict railroads in any degree. Consolidation 
 
Robert M. La Follette 37 
 
 has completely destroyed all competition in rate-making. While 
 competition was never effective as a regulator of rates, it for- 
 merly had some restraining influences. Often it has reduced 
 rates. In other cases it has prevented rates from becoming 
 extortionate. This was more particularly true of lines be- 
 tween great traffic centers. For the greater number of inter- 
 mediate stations on independent lines, there could be no direct 
 competition whatever. 
 
 In more recent years railway managers had been working to 
 eliminate competition even before the new plan of consolida- 
 tion was devised. They were quick to discover that railroads 
 are monopolies, and that competition between them differed 
 from competion in other lines of business. The advantages of 
 maintaining rates were seen, and the roads early made con- 
 tracts for a division of the traffic, or for the earnings between 
 competitive points. This was called pooling. In 1887 pooling 
 was prohibited by the interstate commerce law. An effort to 
 evade the interstate commerce law was then made by the roads 
 entering into traffic agreements. These, also, were declared 
 illegal by the Supreme Court in 1897. 
 
 CAPTURE OF THE HIGHWAYS OF COMMERCE. 
 
 We come now to the great master stroke for the absolute 
 control of the highways of commerce and trade by the consoli- 
 dation of the railroads of the country under what is called the 
 ''community of interest" plan. Under this plan practically the 
 entire vital railroad mileage of the country has passed under 
 the control of six groups of financiers, each group, in large 
 measure, controlled by one man. The effect upon railway in- 
 terests and the public has been tremendous. 
 
 In order to convey some idea of the enormous combinations 
 which have been formed in the railroad world and of the un- 
 limited power thereby centered in the hands of a few indi- 
 viduals, the following statement is submitted. The figures in 
 this case have mostly been taken from Moody's Manual of 
 Corporations. 
 
38 
 
 RaUiimy Regulation 
 The Six Great Groups. 
 
 Classification 
 
 Number of 
 
 roadB 
 embraced 
 
 Mileage of 
 each 
 group 
 
 Capitalization 
 
 of 
 
 each group 
 
 Vanderbilt group 
 
 132 
 
 280 
 
 225 
 
 109 
 
 85 
 
 91 
 
 21,888 
 19,300 
 47,206 
 28,157 
 22,943 
 25,092 
 
 $1,169,196,132 
 
 Pennsylvania group 
 
 1,822,402,235 
 
 Morgan-Hill group 
 
 2,265,116,359 
 
 Gould- Rockefeller group 
 
 1,368,877,540 
 
 Harriman-Kuehn-Loeb group 
 
 Moore-Leeds group 
 
 1,321,243,711 
 l,059,2c0,939 
 
 Total 
 
 922 
 250 
 
 164,586 
 13,721 
 
 $9,006,086,916 
 
 Allied Systems 
 
 380,277,000 
 
 Total under control 
 
 1172 
 
 178,307 
 
 $9,386,363,916 
 
 
 
 The disclosures of this statement are positively startling. 
 Nearly ninety per cent, of the total railroad mileage, represent- 
 ing, in fact, almost all of the principal commercial highways 
 of the country, are controlled by six sets of financiers with an 
 identity of interests, which, in effect, makes a single control. 
 Need we marvel that the present rates are not only unreason- 
 ably high, but that they are being advanced from time to time ? 
 From time to time the rates go up whenever this bold and 
 powerful tax-gatherer chooses to increase the levy. 
 
 The logical results of this consolidation must be obvious to 
 all. The entire country has been partitioned and apportioned 
 between these great railway groups. It is indeed a great 
 conquest. Each group dominates its own territory. With 
 agreements as to classifications, rates and division of traffic, 
 the railway business has ceased to be a competitive business. 
 The railway business of this country has become a monopoly 
 in fact. This monopoly controls transportation and transporta- 
 tion charges on interstate commerce and upon state commerce, 
 excepting where states have provided for state control. 
 
 It was claimed for this consolidation that it would reduce 
 expenditures, increase efficiency and in every way aid the eco- 
 nomics of railway traffic. It was affirmed that this was the 
 only purpose of consolidation. Whenever investigations con- 
 ducted by the Interstate Commerce Commission touched this 
 system at any point, railway managers were loud in their pro- 
 testations that the public would share in the benefits arising 
 
Rohert M. La Follette 39 
 
 from the changes which were only administrative in their char- 
 acter and with manifestations of indignation, from time to 
 time, they resented any implication that such consolidation 
 was for the purpose of ''extortion" and "abuse." The in- 
 sincerity of these expressions are exposed. 
 
 HOW THEY LEVY TRIBUTE. 
 
 In their last volume of published reports, the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission records the following: 
 
 ''One of the most significant things in recent railway opera- 
 tions is the steady advance in the cost of transportation of 
 freight by rail. A few years ago the impression was general 
 that freight rates could not and would not be advanced. Rail- 
 way traffic officials frequently affirmed this in testimony. When 
 the commission had under consideration certain consolidations 
 of railway property, the eminent gentlemen who brought them 
 about, stated, under oath, that the purpose was not to advance 
 but rather to reduce rates. Recent history belies this pre- 
 diction. ' ' 
 
 Of these advances the Interstate Commerce Commission 
 says: 
 
 "The rates upon these commodities which constitute the 
 bulk of interstate traffic have been advanced in nearly all sec- 
 tions. . . . What the total amount of increase from all these 
 causes has been cannot be said with any degree of certainty. 
 The advances have usually been small as applied to a single ton 
 or a single hundred pounds, and it is difficult to form any ade- 
 quate comprehension of their tremendous significance in the 
 aggregate. The increase of but ten cents per ton in the coal 
 rates in the entire country would mean more than twenty-five 
 million dollars annually, and the actual advance has been 
 much more than this. ..." 
 
 When the rates on lines in different systems go up in exactly 
 the same amount at exactly the same time, it smacks pretty 
 strongly of conspiracy. Respecting these unjustifiable advances, 
 the commission makes the following observation: 
 
 "They have been, almost without exception, the result of 
 concerted action. ... It is idle to say that where such condi- 
 tion exists, where, for example, every one of the numerous 
 lines transporting grain from Chicago, St. Louis and kin- 
 dred points to the Atlantic seaboard, advance their rates upon 
 the same day and by precisely the same amount, there has been 
 no understanding between companies." 
 
40 Railway Regulation 
 
 After noting the wide range and extent of these advances, 
 and the heavy burdens which they everywhere impose upon 
 the producers and consumers of the country, the commission 
 says further: 
 
 "The freight rate has been properly termed a tax imposed 
 for the benefit of the carrier rendering the service. The effect 
 of this advance has been to enormously increase the tax laid 
 upon the general body of producers and consumers for the 
 benefit of that species of property which renders the service." 
 
 It is evident that this great railway combine is using its 
 enormous powers unsparingly, not only over roads and traffic 
 conditions, but over industrial conditions generally. 
 
 RAILWAY COMBINATION REACHING OUT. 
 
 Consider what they have done. By consolidation nine hun- 
 dred and twenty-two different roads and nearly half a hundred 
 different railway systems have been merged into six greater 
 systems, reaching out with their network of lines into the re- 
 motest sections of the lands. Their interests are now joined. 
 Their action is harmonious. Their purpose is a common one. 
 They direct the movements of commerce and trade. They de- 
 termine where its lines shall converge. They make the great 
 commercial centers. 
 
 But why should consolidation stop with the consolidation of 
 railway lines? Why should control stop with the control of 
 transportation? Why not control great industries? Why not 
 control markets, and fix prices to consumers? Consolidation 
 and control of transportation systems is the base on which to 
 build up a greater system. Observe its progress. Observe 
 the identity in interest and ownership which is beginning to 
 appear between the Standard oil, steel, coal, meat and other 
 monopolies and the great railway systems of the country. 
 
 With the railway systems commanding all the highways, the 
 alliance was an inevitable one. The railways consolidated into 
 big groups, favored big shippers with millions in rebates, ex- 
 acted in higher charges from rivals and from the consumers at 
 large. The consolidation was breeding its own kind. The 
 masters of the highways were entering the industrial fields. 
 They owned the coal trust; they were taking on iron and steel. 
 
Robert M. La FolleUe 41 
 
 The captains of industry, controlling pipe lines and transports, 
 were hungering for a share in the highways to market. For 
 long years they have been partners in the criminal violation of 
 the statutory and common law. The field was enlarging. The 
 country was entering upon a new era of expansion. The con- 
 sumers" were multiplying. If the railways were to control the 
 highways, the alliance was inevitable. The trusts were com- 
 ing in under the system. 
 
 RxilLWAY CONSOLIDATION AND MONOPOLY. 
 
 The motives which promoted consolidation of the railways of 
 the country into six great groups, operates with powerful effect 
 in concentrating shipments in a few hands, with a view to large 
 traffic transactions. A rate slightly to the advantage of one 
 company must ultimately give the favored concerns all of the 
 business. 
 
 As an abstract economic proposition it may be true that in- 
 creased profits in the hands of a few shippers may allow larger 
 development than under conditions where the business is di- 
 vided, but it is certainly harmful to any community from 
 social or economic consideration. Wealth may be more rap- 
 idly accumulated when one individual or a combination of 
 individuals secure a monopoly of the business of any town or 
 city, but the thrift and prosperity of every community de- 
 pend upon a general, even though moderate succcess coming to 
 the largest possible number. The railroad prefers to deal with 
 large shippers, and it encourages centralization in business. It 
 has a contempt for the small dealer. It cannot see the indi- 
 vidual. It is looking for tonnage. Big deals in traffic appeal 
 to it. It creates and nourishes trusts and combinations. 
 
 I invite attention to some examples of the methods employed 
 by the railroads to consolidate shipping resulting in the crea- 
 tion of monopolies. These facts have been obtained from offi- 
 cial reports and other reliable publications. 
 
 ANTHRACITE COAL MONOPOLY. 
 
 The second most important product of the earth is coal. The 
 supply is severely limited. There is absolutely nothing to take 
 
42 Railimy RegulaUon 
 
 its place for the purpose of fuel and power in the world. The 
 entire wood supply could last but a very short time. The an- 
 thracite or hard coal of the United States is limited to 484 
 square miles. The Industrial Commission reported that nine- 
 tenths of the entire supply has passed from the hands of pri- 
 vate owners into the posssession of eight railway companies 
 which act together in restricting the output and keeping up 
 the price. The lines of these eight railways furnish the only 
 available means for transporting anthracite coal to market. 
 In pursuit of a settled policy these railroad companies have 
 forced private owners to sell their coal mines for half their 
 value. This was accomplished by increasing the freight rates 
 and by refusing cars to carry coal for private owners when- 
 ever such owners could not be brought to terms by the estab- 
 lishment of exorbitant transportation rates. 
 
 To prevent the consummation of this iniquity, the people of 
 Pennsylvania, in 1873, adopted a constitutional provision to 
 prohibit common carriers from mining or manufacturing arti- 
 cles for transportation over their lines, or from buying lands, 
 excepting such as should be required for the operation of the 
 railroad. In defiance of this provision of the constitution, 
 these railroads pursued their settled policy of forcing the mine 
 owners to sell their lands to the companies, and of acquiring 
 such lands solely for mining purposes, and of conducting min- 
 ing operations throughout the Pennsylvania coal fields, not 
 only in anthracite, but in bituminous coal as well. 
 
 After acquiring the monopoly of the anthracite coal fields, 
 owning the coal and owning the railroads over which the coal 
 is transported to market, they fixed, and have ever since main- 
 tained, the freight rates at an exorbitant figure in order to 
 make the consumers throughout the country pay dividends on 
 the over-capitalization of both the railroads and the coal mines. 
 Freight rates today on anthracite coal are three times as high 
 as on bituminous coal. 
 
 This coal trust bears harder, even, upon the unfortunate and 
 helpless laborer that mines the product at the wage level of a 
 generation ago than upon the consumers, who are just begin- 
 ning to feel the burden of its increasing oppression. Its utter in- 
 difference and contempt for constituional and statutory law 
 
Robert M. La Follette 43 
 
 and for public opinion should awaken in the people of this 
 country the spirit that framed the declaration of independence 
 and founded the government in which the will of the people 
 should be supreme. 
 
 MONOPOLY IN GRAIN BUYING. 
 
 That the railroads manipulate elevator combinations, con- 
 trolling the grain market, has been well understood for many 
 years. From time to time conclusive evidence of the existence 
 of such combinations have been obtained. Effort has been 
 made to weaken the force of such testimony, and special ex- 
 cuses have been offered in particular instances in attempts to 
 break the effect of such evidence. 
 
 The United States exports annually enormous quantities of 
 grain, but, says Judge Prouty of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission : ' ' One can count upon his fingers the concerns 
 which bring the bulk of it to the American seaboard." 
 
 Grain upon the Chicago market is handled by half a dozen 
 concerns. It is brought from the fields to Chicago by as few 
 men. One company buys upon one line of railroad. Nobody 
 else can buy there. Another, upon another line. One com- 
 pany alone does the buying on each road. The methods of dis- 
 crimination adopted by the railroads are: (1) barefaced 
 cash money payments; (2) elevator commissions; (3) excessive 
 car mileage similar to the discrimniations in the packing house 
 products; (4) sometimes a shipper will pay the full interstate 
 rate in consideration that he shall receive preferential rates 
 on traffic within the different states. 
 
 Mr. A. B. Stickney, president of the Chicago Great West- 
 ern Railway, is authority for this statement respecting the 
 granting of favors to the large grain dealers: "If all who 
 have offended against the law were convicted, there would not 
 be jails enough in the United States to hold them." 
 
 The importance of a very slight rebate in the grain business 
 is seen when the margin of profit is known. A representative 
 of Armour & Co. testified before the Industrial Commission 
 that the difference of one-sixteenth of a cent per bushel will 
 determine where the grain will go. 
 
44 Railway Regulation 
 
 The Industrial Commission reports that the terminal grain 
 elevators at Chicago are owned by comparatively few men or 
 firms. It says further that the owners of the large public 
 elevators also engage in buying and selling grain. These large 
 grain elevator companies also own practically all of the ele- 
 vators along the lines and at the terminals of each railway 
 system. 
 
 The weight of the testimony taken by the Industrial Com- 
 mission shows that the grain business is substantially in the 
 hands of five large dealers operating over eight western 
 railroads. They are: 
 
 Rock Island R. R., Charles Councilman ; Northwestern R. R., 
 Bartlett, Fraser Co., and Peavy Elevator Co. ; C, B. & Q. R. R., 
 and the C, M. & St. P. R. R., Armour & Co. ; Santa Fe R. R., 
 M. Richardson; Union Pacific R. R., and others, Peavy Ele- 
 vator Co. 
 
 In a investigation prosecuted by the Interstate Commerce 
 Commision, they found and reported in 1902 that the monopoly 
 of grain buying is conferred by the railroad companies on some 
 particular party with the excuse that it is the effect of competi- 
 tion. Respecting this the commission says: 
 
 "While the investigations of the committee have not fully 
 covered this aspect of the case as yet, it is a matter of common 
 information, and we know from repeated complaint received, 
 that some one firm or some one individual purchases substan- 
 tially all of the grain which is handled by a given line of rail- 
 way, and the claim is made, and the inference is almost a nec- 
 essary one, that this firm or individual must receive concessions 
 which enables him to underbid other buyers in the same mar- 
 ket." 
 
 They say further in conclusion upon this subject: 
 
 "At the present time grain and grain products move from 
 points of origin to the seaboard generally upon secret rates. 
 This is entirely true of that portion which is exported, and, in 
 the main, true of domestic traffic." 
 
 Under this system the producer of grain is compelled to sell 
 his product in a market where prices are fixed, not by the law 
 of supply and demand, but by the arbitrary will of the favored 
 elevator company, which, in combination with and through the 
 favoritism of the railway company, is in a position to dictate 
 market prices. 
 
Eolert M. La Follette 45 
 
 For reasons best known to the railway managers, they like- 
 wise discriminate against the milling interests of thi^ country 
 and carry grain for export at a rate which is operating to de- 
 stroy the milling business of the country. Formerly, the mill- 
 ing was done here and the product mostly exported in the 
 finished form. The grain trust appealed to the railroads. 
 Immediately rates were readjusted. 
 
 "In 1900, the aggregate of flour exported was 96 per cent, 
 of the entire export of wheat; in 1901, it had dropped from 
 96 per cent, to 55 per cent., owing to the discrimination 
 practiced. ' ' 
 
 April 10 ,1902, it was stated before the Interstate Commerce 
 Committee of the House of Representatives, by Mr. Eckhardt, 
 representing the Chicago Board of Trade: 
 
 "That it is unfair and unjust to the great industries of this 
 country to compel us to pay a tariff rate of 171/2 cents a hun- 
 dred on flour from Chicago, for instance, and, at the same time, 
 to carry wheat on a secret cut rate of from eight to ten cents 
 per hunder pounds. It practically means confiscation of so 
 much milling property." 
 
 It was further stated that the milling capacity of this coun- 
 try is sufficient to grind up all the wheat produced in the 
 country in five months. "With the railrods, masters of rate- 
 making, the milling property located in thirty-three different 
 states of the country, is to stand idle, while the railways and 
 large elevator companies in combination work out some division 
 respecting traffic, profitable alike to both. 
 
 RAILV^AYS PROMOTE MEAT TRUST. 
 
 The meat monopoly of today had its origin in the "Evener 
 Combination," which was organized in 1873. The "Evener 
 Combination" was formed upon an agreement made between 
 the ''Big Four," consisting of Armour & Co., Swift & Co., Nel- 
 son Morris & Co., and Hammond & Co., and the three great 
 traffic lines running from Chicago to New York. These roads, 
 the Pennsylvania, New York Central, and Erie, agreed to 
 charge $115 for each carload of cattle shipped over their lines 
 from Chicago to New York, and to allow "certain shippers" 
 in Chicago $15 of this amount on each carload of cattle so 
 shipped. 
 
46 Railway Regulation 
 
 The result was the destruction of the St. Louis cattle mar- 
 ket, which before that time had been in a very prosperous con- 
 dition, and the concentration of the trade in Chicago, where it 
 has since remained. Says the report of the committee ap- 
 pointed by congress to investigate this industry in 1900: 
 
 ''The inevitable e:ffect of this combination which gave a pre- 
 mium of $15 a car upon all cattle shipped Chicago east 
 was to concentrate the marketing of all western cattle at 
 Chicago. ' ' 
 
 During the five years between 1873 and 1878, the business 
 of the "Big Four" grew so rapidly that at the end of that 
 period they had practically monopolized the entire cattle busi- 
 ness. The "Evener Combination" terminated in 1878-9. 
 
 When the "Evener Combination" disappeared, the ''Dressed 
 Beef Combination" took its place. This combination was or- 
 ganized to control the market on beef products, forcing down 
 the price of live stock purchased from the producer, and forc- 
 ing up the price of the meat product sold to the consumer. 
 While this organization originally comprised but four of the 
 great packing houses of Chicago engaged in purchasing and 
 slaughtering beeves, they broadened and extended the combi- 
 nation so that the markets on all meat products have been 
 brought into subjection and control. The congressional com- 
 mittee, investigating this subject in 1890, after a protracted 
 session in St. Louis and Chicago, stated in their report: 
 
 "So far has the centralizing process continued, that, for all 
 practical purposes, the market of Chicago dominates absolutely 
 the price of beef cattle in the whole country. Kansas City, St. 
 Louis, Omaha, Cincinnati and Pittsburg are subsidiary to the 
 Chicago market, and their prices are regulated and fixed by 
 the great market on the lake." 
 
 They say further: 
 
 "We have no hesitation in stating as our conclusion from 
 all the facts, that a combination exists between the principal 
 dressed beef and packing houses which controls the markets 
 and fixes the price of beef cattle in their own interest." 
 
 They found that this combination had been formed: (1) to 
 fix the price of beef to purchasers and consumers so as to keep 
 up the price in their interests; (2) not to interfere with each 
 other in certain markets and localities in the sale of their meats ; 
 (3) to act together in supplying meat to public institutions at 
 
Robert M. La Follette 47 
 
 Washington, the bids for the contracts being made by one com- 
 pany and the meat supplied by each of the packers in turn. 
 How was this accomplished? 
 
 Aided by the railroad companies this great combination has 
 been able to crush out opposition in every quarter of the coun- 
 try. There is no such thing as a free and open competitive 
 market in which the farmer can sell a pound of beef or pork 
 or mutton on the hoof. His prices are made for him arbi- 
 trarily by this combine. There is no butcher shop in the 
 United States in which a consumer can purchase a pound of 
 beef, excepting at the price controlled by the meat trust. The 
 testimony of one of the strongest concerns in the combination, 
 written down in the congressional report, frankly admits "that 
 they combined to fix the price of beef to the purchaser and 
 consumer so as to keep up the cost in their own interest." 
 
 This all-powerful monopoly of the meat business of the coun- 
 try could never have obtained so much as a footing, except for 
 the arrangements which it effected with the railroads at the 
 time of its organization. 
 
 The report of this important investigation says further: 
 
 ''An unjust and indefensible discrimination by the railroads 
 against the shippers of live cattle is made in the interests of the 
 combine. This is the spirit and controlling idea of the great 
 monopolies which dominate the country. ... No one factor 
 has been more potent in affecting an entire revolution in the 
 methods of marketing the meat supply of the United States 
 than railway transportation." 
 
 As an instance of the way in which the railroads assist the 
 packers' combine, the committee cites the foUowin: 
 
 "A man by the name of Schwabe, who was engaged in the 
 butcher business in Freeland, Pennsylvania, was in the habit 
 of killing some cattle to supply his own trade. Armour & Co. 
 learned of this and sent a telegram to their agent, H. P. Lacey, 
 which read as follows: 
 "H. P. Lacey, Freeland, Pennsylvania. 
 
 "Cannot allow Schwabe to continue killing live stock. ^ If 
 he will not stop, make other arrangements, and make prices 
 so as you can get his trade. 
 
 (Signed) Armour & Co. 
 
 Schwabe refused. From this time on he could buy no meat 
 from Armour & Co., and could not get any cars from the Erie 
 
48 Railway Regulation 
 
 railroad to ship his cattle from Buffalo, but was compelled to 
 ship on the Delaware & Lackawanna, a route not so direct. In 
 other words, he was boycotted by Armour & Co., through the 
 Erie Railroad Co. as their agent. 
 
 As a necessary result of the concentration at Chicago of the 
 cattle trade by railroad discrimination, there was established at 
 that place the Union Stock Yards, with a capitalization of 
 $4,400,000. These yards were used as another means to dis- 
 criminate against independent packers doing business east of 
 Chicago. Exorbitant prices were charged these men for the 
 feeding and watering of their cattle. The withdrawal of the 
 palace cattle cars east of Chicago helped along this discrimi- 
 nation. These palace cattle cars are so arranged with racks 
 and other appliances that the cattle can be fed and watered 
 without being unloaded. These cars have been regarded with 
 great favor by shippers and have added much to the value of 
 meat when butchered. The Trunk Line railroads allowed % 
 of a cent per mile on each one of these cars each way as rent 
 for the use of the cars. 
 
 Refrigerator cars, carrying dressed beef and owned by the 
 ''packers' combine," are allowed % of a cent per mile each 
 way between Chicago and New York. Looking more closely 
 into the question of refrigerator cars, we find them to be the 
 worst form of discrimination. By an investigation made in 
 1899, it appeared that, on a single line of road, refrigerator 
 cars, owned by three firms, earned $72,945.95 in nine months. 
 An investigation in 1890 disclosed the fact that 250 private 
 stock ears, costing $156,500, earned in two years a net revenue 
 of $171,532.20. 
 
 The private car arrangement, while a great convenience in 
 promoting discrimination, is also a powerful factor in aid of 
 establishing monopoly. The Armour interests in Chicago have 
 an absolute monopoly of the refrigerator business in the ship- 
 ments of fruit between that city and California. 
 
 The investigation of the Interstate Commerce Commission 
 at Chicago October 10th, 1904, paid special attention to the 
 fruit trust, which is controlled by the Armour interests. Evi- 
 dence was offered to prove that Armour & Co. have practically 
 a monopoly in the handling of fruit and other products that 
 require the use of refrigerator cars. This concern, with the 
 
Robert M. La Follette 49 
 
 co-operation of the railroads, was able to compel commission 
 merchants, fruit growers and all others engaged in the indus- 
 try, to pay an assessment of from twenty-five to seventy dollars 
 a car for the privelege of shipping fruit and vegetables in such 
 cars. The penalty of refusal to comply with this demand was 
 an embargo on all shipments and forced retirement from the 
 business. 
 
 It was shown that all of Tennesse's products are barred from 
 Chicago by a prohibitive icing charge of seventy dollars per 
 car, while Georgia ships twice as much fruit in a car at one-half 
 the tarifp rate, and twenty-five per cent, less in icing charges. 
 
 The railroads give rebates to the dressed beef men, which 
 they refuse to shippers of cattle, even though they ship by 
 the train-load. January, 1902, the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission said in its report to congress, respecting the relations 
 existing between the great packing houses and the railroads, 
 the following: 
 
 ''That the leading traffic officials of many of our principal 
 railway lines,— men occupying high positions and charged with 
 the most important duties, should deliberately violate the stat- 
 ute law of the land, and, in some cases, agree with each other 
 to do so ; that it should be thought by them necessary to destroy 
 vouchers and so to manipulate bookkeeping as to obliterate evi- 
 dence of the transactions; that hundreds of thousands of dol- 
 lars should be paid in unlawful rebates to the few great pack- 
 ing houses; that the business of railroad transportation, the 
 most important but one in the country today, paying the high- 
 est salaries, and holding out to young men the greatest in- 
 ducements, should, to such an extent, be conducted in open 
 disregard of law, must be surprising and offensive to all right- 
 minded persons." 
 
 Concerning these concessions, whether by rates or rebates, 
 the commission says later in its report: 
 
 "The effect is to give these large packers an enormous ad- 
 vantage over other similar competitors, who ar^ located at other 
 intermediate points. Already these competitors have, in the 
 main, ceased to exist. We find in these disclosures a pregnant 
 illustration of the manner in which secret concessions are tend- 
 ing to build up great trusts and monopolies at the expense of 
 the small, independent operator." 
 
 I have passed by the Standard Oil, which must ever stand 
 as the type and model of the whole monster brood, some of 
 which are above outlined. With the aid of the railroads, it 
 4 
 
50 Railway Regulation 
 
 destroyed thousands of independent business enterprises, de- 
 stroyed prosperous, thrifty communities and towns, happy 
 homes, and individual hopes. But its hideous story is known 
 in every household. 
 
 GOVERNMENT CONTROL VITAL. 
 
 No power other than the government itself is equal to that 
 of these industrial combinations always in close association and 
 often identified in interest with railroad and transportation 
 companies. Their tremendous political influence is shown by 
 the mere recital of the history of the interstate commerce act, 
 and by an examination of the records of congress for the last 
 seven years. Which has had the stronger hold upon state and 
 national legislation during the last twenty years, the corpora- 
 tions or the people? Whose interests have been the more 
 safely guarded? Where is the power lodged which has for 
 seven years been strong enough to bar national legislation, de- 
 signed to enlarge the powers of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission? It is not necessary to charge venality anywhere, but 
 that the public service corporations have been steadily under- 
 mining representative government in national, state and muni- 
 cipal legislation, no thoughtful man can question. They come 
 between the people, and the chosen representatives of the 
 people. 
 
 I would in no wise disparage either the rights or the inter- 
 ests of the railroad side of this legislation. The question is one 
 of very great magnitude. The amount of property involved is 
 very large. The owners of railroads, and the holders of rail- 
 road securities must be protected in all of their rights. They 
 must not be wronged in any way. They are entitled to such 
 remuneration as will enable them to maintain their roads in 
 perfect condition, pay the best of wages to employes, meet all 
 other expenses incident to operation, and in addition thereto 
 enough more to make a reasonable profit upon every dollar in- 
 vested in the business. To preserve all of these rights, they 
 are entitled to the strongest protection which the law can afford. 
 
 But the public, each community, and every individual, has 
 rights equally precious. Upon the railway companies render- 
 ing an adequate and impartial service at reasonable rates, all 
 
Robert M. La Follette 51 
 
 general prosperity is dependent. Deprived of either, every 
 community is checked and limited in its growth; every busi- 
 ness of whatever nature must languish and fail. The denial 
 of an impartial service at reasonable rates, is the denial of 
 equal opportunity, the denial of a square deal. 
 
 RATE MUST BE MADE BY AN IMPARTIAL AUTHORITY. 
 
 In the long struggle to secure some legislation, the friends 
 of the measure have been content to ask little, and they have 
 received nothing. But through all of the years of waiting and 
 disappointment, of ruin to individuals and demoralization to 
 the business of many communities, public sentiment has been 
 gathering force. It is all powerful when once aroused. Unless 
 I mistake the temper of the American people, they will de- 
 mand the full measure of their rights. They will not halt or 
 stop or compromise until that demand is fully satisfied. The 
 abuse of the rate-making power lies at the foundation of the 
 transportation problem. Through this the traffic can be con- 
 trolled and centralized at railway terminals, business consoli- 
 dated and combinations established. Remedial legislation, there- 
 fore, to be effective, must strike at the root of the evil. It 
 must place the rate-making power where it will be used fairly 
 and justly to all concerned. The public has long permitted 
 itself to be treated as though its interests were of small con- 
 sideration. The miner, the manufacturer, the farmer, turn out 
 the products which constitute the traffic of the country. They, 
 and the consumers, are vitally interested in everything pertain- 
 ing to the transportation of these products. The railroad cor- 
 poration is chartered through the favor of the state, to engage 
 in the transportation business, nothing else. It was created, 
 and given its special powers and privileges to promote the gen- 
 eral prosperity of all. It has not been vested with authority 
 to decree that one shipper or city shall grow rich and great at 
 the expense of another. It is preposterous that the corpora- 
 tion, which is merely a carrier, not the producer or consumer 
 of the product carried, should be permitted to stand in rela- 
 tion to that product as though its interests were the sole in- 
 terests to be considered. The carrier should not be permitted 
 to say where the product shall be marketed. If it has au- 
 
52 Railway Regulation 
 
 thority to dictate rates, it can make it impossible for the pro- 
 ducer to choose his own market. It can so arrange its sched- 
 ule of rates, it can so conduct its service, as to force produce, 
 merchandise and manufactures to the market which it chooses 
 to build up. 
 
 RAILWAY COMPANY DISQUALIFIED. 
 
 The making of the rate is a matter of deep concern to more 
 than one party to a traffic transaction. True, the railway com- 
 pany has large interests involved. This very fact unfits it to 
 he the sole judge in making rates. Rates made by the railway 
 company are made by a party prejudiced in its own interests 
 and therefore certain to be unjust to the public. It is disquali- 
 fied and should be barred. It is entitled to be heard; all of 
 its interests must be fully and fairly weighed in regulating its 
 services and fixing their value to the public. But its interests 
 are not paramount to those of the public. The producer and 
 consumer are likewise entitled to be heard as well as the rail- 
 way company, and it is then the duty of the government, stand- 
 ing between, to determine impartially the rights of the railway 
 company and the rights of the public. 
 
 In all of the hearings before congressional committees those 
 opposed to enlarging the powers of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission seem to believe that there is something sacred 
 about a railway rate; that it would be a veritable sacrilege for 
 any one outside of the railroad management to lay a hand upon 
 a freight schedule. Any critical investigation of railway 
 tariffs, and the advances made in rates from time to time, will 
 convince the student that rate-making is more frequently con- 
 trolled by the financial management than the traffic depart- 
 ment of the road. But I am free to admit that rate-making 
 requires technical, expert knowledge and experience. The 
 railroads are able to secure the services of men fitted to make 
 rates. Surely this great government, with all of its wealth 
 and power, with all that it has involved in protecting the in- 
 terests of the citizen, can employ equally competent men. 
 And the people of this country, who pay to the railroad com- 
 panies annually nearly three times as much as it costs to main- 
 tain government, are determined that the rates shall be made 
 by some one who will make them fairly and justly. 
 
Robert M. La FoUette 53 
 
 NO HALF-WAY MEASURE WILL SETTLE ANYTHING. 
 
 The right of the government to act has long been settled by 
 the highest authority. 
 
 The necessity for the government to act on its own account 
 is too plain for argument. 
 
 The duty of the government to act for the protection of the 
 citizen in every town and hamlet of the country is everywhere 
 manifest. 
 
 No half-way measure will serve. No law full of ambiguities, 
 to be wrought out into court decisions, repeating the sickening 
 experiences suffered with the interstate commerce law, will set- 
 tle anything. The people of this country are not to be tricked 
 or cajoled or baffled for another quarter of a century. They 
 are coming to have a very clear understanding of their rights. 
 They are manifesting an exercise of independent judgment in 
 the matter of nominations and elections never before witnessed 
 since the organization of political parties. They will not be 
 trifled with. They will secure legislators, state and national, 
 who will serve them. 
 
 The same obligation rests upon the federal government with 
 respect to interstate commerce, and the state government with 
 respect to state commerce. They must act independently. 
 Neither can afford to wait for the other. If one fails to meet 
 the full measure of its duty to the citizen, that must not be 
 made an excuse for the other. 
 
 The federal government is great and powerful. It can se- 
 cure the services of competent men. It can employ as many as 
 may be required to protect the interests of the business and 
 the people of the country. The present commission, composed 
 of able and experienced men, should be clothed with authority 
 to supervise services and establish rates. If it is necessary to 
 divide the country into districts and increase the commisssion, 
 placing each district under the control of a given number of 
 commissioners, it should be done. 
 
 THE POWERS OF THE COMMISSION. 
 
 The commission should have power to correct a rate or estab- 
 lish a rate upon its own motion. Its order establishing a rate 
 
54 RoAlway RegiilaUon 
 
 should at once carry the rate into effect, to continue until such 
 time as the commission shall otherwise order, or the court of 
 appeals otherwise determine, if an appeal should be taken. 
 
 While it would afford some relief to large shippers, and to 
 special lines of traffic between large commercial centers to limit 
 the action on the part of the commission to cases where com- 
 plaint is made, it would afford little or no relief at all to the 
 great body of the people of the country composing the small 
 shippers and the consumers. They pay in the end the great 
 proportion of all freights. The manufacturer advancing the 
 freight charges it to his jobber, the jobber charges it over to 
 the retail merchant, and the retail merchant passes it on to the 
 consumer. Excepting as the manufacturer or jobber or mer- 
 chant is interested in a reduction to secure an equality of rates 
 with competitors, they have no interest in the freight charge 
 whatever, and if rates are equitable as between them and their 
 rivals in business, it is of little or no consequence to them that 
 the rate is a high rate. It is from the shippers that we so 
 often hear that the amount of the rate is not so important as 
 the equality and stability of rates. Of course, the amount of 
 the rate does not greatly concern the shipper. 
 
 THE CONSUMER ENTITLED TO PROTECTION. 
 
 It is of consequence to the consumer. The great body of the 
 people of this country never pay a freight bill to a railway 
 company direct. They are nevertheless the ones who pay the 
 amounts which make up the enormous receipts of the railway 
 companies. They pay the freight when they buy lumber and 
 coal and other supplies. The steadily advancing freight charge 
 is a matter of vital importance to them in the ever increasing 
 expense of living. It falls upon the consumer more heavily 
 than any one else in the country. They are in no position, 
 however, to file complaints with the commission, first, because 
 upon each article the overcharge stands by itself and is not 
 sufficient in amount to warrant the expense necessary to enter 
 upon such a contest, and, further, because the consumers have 
 no knowledge of the amount of the overcharge. The lumber 
 or coal or merchandise comes to them at a round cost price, and 
 they have no information upon which to separate excessive 
 
Robert M. La Follette 55 
 
 freight charges from the total cost. As to them, then, no law 
 which limits relief to cases of complaint only, will be of any 
 benefit whatever. If any one is to be protected, surely it should 
 be those to whom the reduction would be a matter of some im- 
 portance in the domestic economy which they must practice in 
 all things. No legislation which leaves them out would be just. 
 The consumer has waited long and patiently. The legislation 
 which is to stand for any time must be broad enough in its 
 terms to cover him as well as the shipper. 
 
 NO COMPROMISE. 
 
 It is not necessary to say that the undertaking is too great. 
 No other duty which the government owes to the people and 
 this country is more important than that pertaining to a con- 
 trol of transportation, and if it were necessary for the govern- 
 ment to install a government official in the traffic department 
 of every important railway office in the United States, it should 
 meet and discharge the responsibility. 
 
 It is time for determined, concentrated effort on the part of 
 all the people of this country. They can easily control if they 
 will but move, and move all together. They have a brave, able 
 and progressive friend in President Roosevelt. He has de- 
 clared for them. He cannot be misled. He will not comprom- 
 ise. At the beginning of this congress he said in his message: 
 
 '*The government must, in an increasing degree, supervise 
 and regulate the work of the railways in interstate commerce; 
 and such increased supervision is the only alternative to an 
 increase of the present evils on the one hand, or a still more 
 radical policy on the other. In my judgment, the most im- 
 portant legislative act now needed as regards the regulation of 
 corporations is this act to confer on the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission the power to revise rates and regulations, the re- 
 vised rates to at once go into effect and stay in effect unless, 
 and until, the Court of Heview reverses it." 
 
 No utterance made by a president in many years has called 
 for higher courage or carried hope to so many struggling busi- 
 ness interests in the smaller cities and towns of the country. 
 Thoughtful men everywhere are strengthened for the great 
 contest which is coming on. 
 
56 Railway Regulation 
 
 MUST CONTROL RAILROADS, OR RAILROADS AND TRUSTS WILL 
 CONTROL COUNTRY. 
 
 In conclusion, then, let it be remembered that the plan de- 
 veloped and consummated in building up the anthracite coal 
 trust, the grain trust and the meat trust is indicative of the 
 power of the railroads in combinations. There is not an im- 
 portant trust in the United States which does not have the 
 assistance of the railroads in destroying its competitors in busi- 
 ness. The limitation and control of these public service cor- 
 porations within their legitimate field as comman carriers is of 
 primary importance in the practical solution of the trust prob- 
 lem which confronts the people of this country. It is manifest 
 that any trust legislation to be effective must go hand in hand 
 with a control over railway rates by the federal government 
 on interstate commerce, through an enlargement of the powers 
 of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and a like control of 
 railway rates on state commerce by each of the states through 
 a state commission. Added to this, the railroad companies 
 must be prohibited from using the extraordinry powers con- 
 ferred upon them by the state for any other purpose than con- 
 ducting effieciently and impartially the transportation business 
 for which they were organized. 
 
 When we consider the magnitude of the railroad question 
 and the industrial question, and their combined influence upon 
 industrial and political independence, it becomes apparent that 
 it is impossible to overstate or exaggerate the dangers with 
 which we are menaced. These great combinations of wealth, 
 owning most of the natural produce of the earth, controlling 
 what they do not own, created and nourished by the railways 
 and in combination with them, are already making their pow- 
 erful influence felt in municipal, state, and national legisla- 
 tion. More than all other national questions with which we 
 have to deal should this question be placed above party con- 
 sideration. The sentiment of the American people is unani- 
 mous that it should be solved, not in any spirit of blind, irra- 
 tional prejudice, but with an enlightened public policy that 
 employs all the power lodged in state and federal government 
 against the wrongful usurpation of the rights of the people. 
 
LA FOLLETTE OF WISCONSIN. 
 
 INTIMATE STUDY OF ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING FIGURES 
 BEFORE THE AMERICAN PUBLIC. 
 
 By EMERSON HOUGH. 
 
 America needs a man. Never in all her history so much as 
 now has she needed a man. Within twenty-five years this need 
 will be the more imperative. Within twenty-five years, at the 
 present pace of matters in America, there will be seen in this 
 country, as in another, streets red with blood, and will be 
 heard arising with another meaning the cry, "There is no 
 czar ! ' ' 
 
 This is not to say that America has not a man for the four 
 years next to come. A magnificent opportunity has been ac- 
 corded Theodore Roosevelt. The people have trusted him. They 
 will require of him results. If he shall lay down his office at 
 the end of four years, showing explanations and not results, 
 he will retire from office one of the most execrated men that 
 ever sat in the White House. So great is the need today of an 
 actual man in America, so swift will be the ultimate rebellion 
 of the American people, patient until now under the worse 
 than reckless individual exploitation of their resources, patient 
 even in the reckless dilution of their blood, patient even under 
 the continuous treachery of both the great political parties who 
 have rendered themselves masters and not servants of the 
 American people. 
 
 This sounds like sensationalism. It will sound less so twenty- 
 five years from now, perhaps even four years from now. As- 
 suredly the people of America will demand Magna Charta 
 back again. Assuredly there will arise for them the man they 
 need. Whether he be governor, senator, president, is of no 
 consequence. He may be greater than either or all. 
 
 Copyright, 1905, by The Chicago Review Company. 
 Published by permission. 
 
58 Lta Follette of Wisconsin 
 
 This man whom America needs may perhaps be a young man 
 today, just coming out of the school of letters or into the school 
 of life. He may perhaps be one of the four figures now under 
 the pubdic eye; four men who have something more than an 
 oppportunity of political success. One of these may prove a 
 great American. 
 
 We have President Roosevelt, with the shackles off, as 
 America hopes; a man with honesty and courage and zeal, a 
 man somewhat handicapped by himself, and somewhat further 
 handicapped in his knowledge of American life by the fact 
 that he started in the middle of the ladder, and has actually 
 but a theoretical knowledge of much of the strenuous life of 
 which he writes and talks. Theodore Roosevelt does not know 
 all of America. We never yet have had a president who did. 
 It seems a brutal thing to say of a man who has done so much 
 that he has much more to do; that the people will inexorably 
 exact much more from him than political success; that they 
 will eventually humble him with the vastness of the responsi- 
 bility cast upon him— the greatest responsibility, the greatest 
 duty ever placed upon any president of the United States. 
 The Revolution— the war of the Rebellion— what are these when 
 it comes to a question of Magna Charta? It has nearly come 
 to that in America today. 
 
 Then there is Folk of Missouri, a good man. Whether he 
 is a great man no one knows. He is untried in office. No one 
 knows whether or not he will prove a good servant of the 
 people. 
 
 There is Deneen of Illinois. He is thought to be a good man. 
 He too is practically untried in office. It is not yet known 
 whether he will prove a politician or an American. It is not 
 yet known whether he will attempt to be a master of the people 
 or their representative and servant, as the coming great Ameri- 
 can must be. 
 
 Then there is La Follette of Wisconsin, the champion of 
 W^isconsin, three times its governor, now its senator. La Fol- 
 lete for the presidency after a time? It is irrelevant and im- 
 material to ask it. The question is not upon Roosevelt or La 
 Follette or any other man for the presidency or any other spe- 
 cific office. The question is that of America's need for Magna 
 
Emerson Hough 59 
 
 Charta again, and her need for a man. The chair at the White 
 House is not necessarily the greatest place in America. 
 
 What about La Follette of Wisconsin, a fighter with the 
 soldier left out, a man who knows American life from the bot- 
 tom round of the ladder up, and who now proposes deliberately 
 to learn every section of America? He is a man without a 
 party behind him. He has a state behind him instead of a 
 party. Since his message went out this month of January he 
 has had more than a state behind him, and more than a place 
 on the side track of the United States senate, that great aggre- 
 gation of corporation agents. 
 
 ; La Follette has come up from the ranks. He has done it by 
 personal courage, by intense concentration, by indomitable will. 
 He fought a clean fight in a hundred unknown battles in con- 
 gress. He fought his best friends there and at home when they 
 came to him with propositions tainted with unclean politics, 
 the usual politics, the customary thing, to buy and sell and 
 trade in votes, and lie and steal. He took his chance of politi- 
 cal damnation, because he would not corrupt himself or at- 
 tempt to subbom a judge of the bench in his own statc!\ To 
 do this he had to practically resign from his own party and to 
 alienate that party's most powerful figure in his state. Of 
 this fight the public knows little, but it was La Follette 's great- 
 est. It was fought outside of the lime light, for the sake of 
 conviction, and not for the sake of advertising. La Follette 
 won that fight and came back into the political arena saddened, 
 embittered, but greater than he has been before. He realized 
 th)en that the court of appeal was not his own self righteous- 
 ness or his own ambition, but the people, in whom the power of 
 this government is vested; who have never alienated that 
 power from themselves, and who will never allow it to be taken 
 from them in this country. 
 
 They call La Follette a great republican. ^Vhat folly ! They 
 call him presidential timber. What unspeakable folly. La 
 'Follette is not a great republican, but a great democrat. He 
 knows that the democracy of America is largely in the rank 
 and file of the republican party today ; that the South, profess- 
 edly democratic, is practically only so by reason of the race 
 question, and that the principles of aristocracy and not of wide 
 
60 La Follette of Wisconsin 
 
 democracy prevail by tradition and necessity in the South 
 rather than in the North. La Follette 's real party has no 
 name. To give it his name would be to stultify it. For him, 
 or for some one else if he shall prove indifferent or faithless, 
 there is a growing party of an actual democracy, a party of 
 popular intelligence and resolution. At present Robert M. La 
 Follette is leader of that party in the state of Wisconsin. 
 
 He could have had no better battle field, so he himself ad- 
 mits. The state of Wisconsin has a large foreign population, 
 but it is a good sort of population. Just before the close of 
 the first half of the last century all Europe was in a state of 
 revolution. The best and most independent minds of the op- 
 pressed peoples of Europe evaded that oppression by emigrat- 
 ing to America. That sort of emigration was quite different 
 from the present hopeless and apathetic masses which are 
 shipped to us now in cargoes at so much a head. The Ger- 
 mans of Wisconsin— for it was just at this time of discontent 
 in Europe, as Governor La Follette points out, that Wisconsin 
 threw open her arms to the world as a state— were tired of mon- 
 archies and of oppression. They were revolutionists, thinkers. 
 They were ready to listen to the doctrines of a popular gov- 
 ernment. They were ready to rebel at oppression of any kind. 
 Their children are as ready today. It was here, in large meas- 
 ure, that La Follette found his support. That support did not 
 need in Wisconsin— will not need in America, the name of any 
 party. Call them what you like, republicans or democrats, 
 or yellow dogs, or half breeds, they are the men who in Wiscon- 
 sin and elsewhere will eventually rebuke that democratic party 
 which has betrayed them, that republican party which has per- 
 haps even more betrayed them, since it has the greater oppor- 
 tunity for such betrayal. 
 
 Today the La Follette idea and La Follette himself are be- 
 fore the public. Let us remember that this is not a question 
 of the senatorship or presidency. The career of Mr. Bryan is 
 proof enough of the yearning of America for a Warwick, even 
 a misguided one. It was the unplaced Warwick vote of America 
 which last fall rebuked the plutocracy, the moneyocracy, the 
 aristocracy, which under the name of the democratic party 
 sought last fall to elect a president. The immensity of the 
 
Emerson Hough 61 
 
 republican majority was called a tribute. It was not such. It 
 was a rebuke to the democratic party, so-called. It was no less a 
 warning to the republican party, so-called. What was called 
 a great republican victory was perhaps one of the smallest re- 
 publican victories ever gained. The margin of safety of the 
 republican party was perhaps never smaller than it is today. 
 This seems folly or sensationalism. It will seem less so twenty- 
 five years from today, possibly four years from today. What 
 America needs and is going to have is a man! 
 
 Again let us insist that even the presidency may be too small 
 for this man. In some ways the chair at the White House is 
 a small one. There are plenty bigger. The question is sim- 
 ply. Who is the man, and what is he? Not a socialist; not an 
 anarchist. Simply an American, simply a man who remembers 
 that under our pledge to ourselves and to the world we are a 
 republic and must always remain so. 
 
 Review, then, the list of possibilities before the public. De- 
 cide for yourself, and upon such knowledge as you may obtain 
 from unbiased study of actual facts, what manner of man and 
 what manner of platform are apt to attain prominence in the 
 near future. Or, leave out the question of the man altogether 
 and take up that of the idea for which he stands. Forget La 
 Follette, and remember the Wisconsin idea, which is something 
 new in American politics and progress. 
 
 The Wisconsin idea is that of the truthful printed page and 
 the logical public speech. Its purpose is an educated voter; 
 its intent is to put the power in the hands of the intelligent 
 and educated voter. That is Americanism. There is much 
 hope in that idea. Perhaps that idea may preserve Magna 
 Charta for the American people, and not make it necessary for 
 them to take it back again. Under this idea Theodore Roose- 
 velt and Robert M. La Follette are brothers, twin brothers. 
 Roosevelt, let us hope, is not a republican, but a democrat in 
 the true sense, as he personally insists he is, and as he now has 
 opportunity to prove. La Follette is not a republican, but a 
 democrat. Moreover, he has been building an intelligent de- 
 mocracy. He has been making public the truth regarding gov- 
 ernment and misgovernment. That is the Wisconsin idea. Such 
 has been the life, and such will be the life of the exponent of 
 the Wisconsin idea. 
 
62 La Follette of Wisconsin 
 
 Is La Follette a politician? Yes, a good one. Is he honest? 
 Ask those who have fought with him. Is he in earnest? Ask 
 his friends. Is he a game fighter? Ask his enemies. 
 
 La Follette has never yet quit a fight. He has never yet 
 taken the weaker part. Offered a seat in the United States 
 senate he said: ''Yes; if, first I must be assured that I have 
 this legislature with me on my railroad commission law. Other- 
 wise I stay right here. ' ' He has never been bought. He has sac- 
 rificed his personal future and that of his family for the sake 
 of the fight. He is a poor man today. His office as governor 
 cost him $3,000 a year as a luxury. He went on the platform 
 and lectured to make up that $3,000. One of the ablest trial 
 lawyers in the state, he abandoned a lucrative law practice 
 and for three terms as governor has pleaded before no su- 
 preme court but that of the people. He has personally com- 
 piled lists which teach him the political belief of practically 
 every voter in the state of Wisconsin. He reaches his voters 
 with pamphlets and with speeches. In his speeches he resorts 
 to no cheap anecdote to hold his crowd. He can talk three 
 hours to a packed audience, using no wit, no humor, nothing 
 but logic, and handling such questions as ad valorem taxes and 
 differential rates— and he can hold his audience. He can write 
 a pamphlet on unjust railroad discrimination which carries its 
 conviction on each page. He has no campaign fund. The 
 other faction of the republican party has the money and the 
 press. When he has needed money to go on with the fight and 
 to spread his literature among the voters he has gone on the 
 platform and lectured to earn it. He was never blest with 
 fortune. He did not begin at the middle of the ladder. His 
 whole life has been fight, fight, fight all the way through. A 
 marvel of concentration and continuity of purpose, he has never 
 been driven away from his idea; he has never consented to 
 plead before any political court saving the supreme court of 
 the American people. That is the La Follette idea, and that is 
 the reason that the question of the presidency of the United 
 States is a trivial one in regard to this man. 
 
 How much of his battle has La Follette won? Only a part, 
 and yet a great deal. Setting aside his recent election to the 
 senate, he won his more important battle of the governorship. 
 
Emerson Hough 63 
 
 The fight still remains to control the legislature, upon whose 
 vote, of course, depends the victory of the rate-making railroad 
 commission which is the stern and fixed ambition of La Follette 
 for his state, which he would rather have than a seat in the 
 senate. Back of that he has already won his fight for the ad 
 valorem tax of railroad properties. He won it by educating a 
 public, every voter of which can tell you more about ad val- 
 orem taxes than you know yourself. 
 
 Is this all that La Follette has done after his endeavor? No. 
 His fame rests upon an accomplishment greater than that of 
 senatorial office, greater than his election to the governor's 
 chair for the third time. 
 
 The great La Follette victory— the great American victory— 
 the beginning of the great American victory, was the primary 
 election law of Wisconsin. The establishment of the Australian 
 ballot for the primaries was something bigger than Theodore 
 Roosevelt has ever done, bigger than any act of Folk or Deneen 
 or Bryan. It is all very well for reformers to wail aloud, or 
 for reformers to protest and promise generalities, but after all 
 the man with a remedy is the practical one and the one most 
 to be desired. La Follette found a remedy. 
 
 The reasoning was simple. ''After all," said he to himself, 
 **this is perhaps America. Perhaps, after all, the country does 
 not actually belong to these monopolies which are killing 
 America. Perhaps, after all, this is a republic, this fraction 
 of America which might have been. Perhaps, after all, the 
 people are the masters and not the slaves. Therefore, let the 
 people elect their servants and not have one set of masters 
 elect for them another and succeeding set of masters. Let the 
 people and not the system, the machine, nominate their own 
 servants. ' ' 
 
 That was a simple and great thing. It is the greatest thing 
 done in America for very many years. It is far greater than 
 the taking of a city. If we be forced to comparisons, it is far 
 greater than the taking of San Juan hill. It was done after a 
 far harder fight than that of San Juan, against greater odds. 
 
 The man who won that fight is not to be denied. His weapons 
 are irresistible. Tired of bosses, he went to the actual boss. 
 That is the Wisconsin idea— that the voter is the actual boss. 
 
( 
 
 64 Jja FoUette of WiscoTisin 
 
 Watch that idea travel, once it gets beyond the confines of the 
 state of Wisconsin. It is the greatest idea of today. It is the 
 idea which declares Theodore Roosevelt and Robert M. La Fol- 
 lette and Joseph W. Folk and Albert B. Cummins and Charles 
 S. Deneen and every other figure deserving the attention of 
 the republic today to be great democrats and not great republi- 
 cans, great men and not great politicians; great Americans, 
 great servants and not petty masters so-called. Woe be to the 
 man of these who shall fall out of that classification! 
 
 No man is coming forward more swiftly today than this 
 same La Follette of Wisconsin, who in two days has changed 
 the attitude of the railroads and of the senate and of the inter- 
 state commerce commission. This man is a fighter, and he will 
 not quit. The railroads know that, and the senate will learn 
 it. How, then, about La Follette as a personality? 
 
 As a man. La Follette has been much misrepresented. The 
 republican press of Wisconsin has been practically owned by 
 the so-called stalwart wing of that party. La Follette has been 
 obliged to resort to the circular instead of the newspaper for 
 advertising. It has been hard to get the truth about him. 
 Moreover, the man himself is an actor. His best friends do not 
 claim to know him, though they love him and are faithful to 
 him. The La Follette lieutenants are not political henchmen 
 but personal devotees. What, therefore, is to be said about 
 this man of strange personality, who came up from the ranks 
 himself, and who has always gone back to the ranks when he 
 needed aid and counsel? What about Robert M. La Follette, 
 the man? I feel in a position to speak with a certain confi- 
 dence on this point. 
 
 I first saw Robert M. La Follette twenty-five years ago, at 
 the State University of Iowa, on the occasion of an interstate 
 oratorical contest. La Follette had won the contest in his own 
 state, and was now to meet the chosen speakers of the surrounds 
 ing states. His oration, as I remember perfectly, was a study 
 of that strange Shakesperean character, lago, that impersona- 
 tion of crafty, slinking, covert evil. Personally, I was not 
 obliged to remember La Follette of Wisconsin or his oration, 
 but the singular fact remains that out of all those speakers who 
 appeared before us that night. La Follette of Wisconsin, as we 
 
Emerson Hough 65 
 
 called him then, remains alone and absolutely distinct! I do 
 not remember the name of a single speaker of all the others 
 who competed in those dear, absurd old college days, twenty- 
 five years ago. Might this be because La FoUette was the win- 
 ner of the contest ? Not necessarily, for, though I cannot recall 
 the personality of one of the others, I can see plainly today— 
 just as perhaps many others who were there can see today— 
 the slim, straight figure of the man from Wisconsin. He did 
 not seem short in stature, though now I know he w£is. He 
 leaned just slightly forward, in confidence, in enthusiasm. His 
 hair— "pompadour," we called it then, in college phrase- 
 stood like a mane over his forehead. ^As he jerked his head 
 forward in gesticulation this mane would half fall forward and 
 then go back into place, elastic. He had a good jaw, as we 
 who were then interested in football noticed. , 
 
 As to his oration, it was a matter of thought and careful 
 study, of logic and conviction. There was no humor about it. 
 He had briefed the case of lago from all known records. He 
 showed the facts about lago, and we listened. The man from 
 Wisconsin actually pursued lago. At last lago himself van- 
 ished, slipping away, merged into the shadows, no longer to 
 be feared! 
 
 It was simple, easy. It won. 
 
 Now I personally remember that oration and that man today. 
 I cannot truthfully say that I remember any portion of any 
 other college oration that I ever heard. I have never been 
 hired, or paid, or chartered to remember La FoUette or lago, 
 yet I have done so. This is a mere incident, but it is an inci- 
 dent of considerable interest; for that was twenty-five years 
 ago, and until the present week I have not seen La FoUette or 
 his oration on lago since. 
 
 After the time that we babes and sucklings came out of col- 
 lege, the years resumed their steady progress. Personally I 
 forgot lago and La FoUette. One day I heard, in a sort of 
 trance, that La FoUette had gone to congress. This pained me 
 at the time, as I could not see how it happened that he had 
 gone to congress and not myself. Bread and butter again 
 troubled, and again I forgot La FoUette of Wisconsin. He 
 himself was still pursuing lago in congress— still briefing Iago» 
 6 
 
66 La Follette of WiscoTisin 
 
 Shakespeare never killed lago. La Follette returned to Wis- 
 consin. There was his old antagonist in another form! Did 
 La Follette rush into print at that time ? No. For seven years 
 he worked on his primary election law. He did it as a lawyer. 
 He examined every discoverable precedent, case, decision and 
 parallel measure to be found in the United States. Then he 
 went to the people with his brief, just as he did at Iowa City. 
 He won. Exit lago again into the shades of night! 
 
 Meantime— to make this matter more clear : and one may give 
 assurance that the personal equation is in negligable quantity — 
 there had happened, out in the state of Iowa, a little paltry, 
 common tragedy. It was a railroad tragedy. It was one of 
 many thousands which happened then, which have happened 
 more frequently since, which have multiplid so rapidly of late 
 that today the president of the United States is setting apart 
 as a special duty of congress their investigation. It was not a 
 death— something rather worse than that. It was a little, un- 
 noticed, common tragedy— the tragedy of discriminating rail- 
 road rates. 
 
 I do not mind saying that it was my own dear old father 
 who was involved, so that I know aU the facts. It was very 
 simple. Given a grain and lumber business in a small town, 
 and a railroad which gave one competitor in that line of busi- 
 ness a cut rate on all lumber shipped west of the Mississippi 
 river and all grain shipped east to the river; no argument re- 
 mains. The competitor with the cut rate forced his business 
 rival to the wall. That tragedy, with many others similar, is 
 before the American congress today. For myself, though I 
 cannot see what the railroads would lose by letting congress 
 regulate their rates, neither can I see what the railroads gained 
 by this discriminating rate back there in Iowa twenty-five years 
 ago. The amount of grain and lumber shipped east and west 
 was precisely the same, only one firm did the shipping instead 
 of two. One family went down instead of two surviving. I 
 do not see what the railroad gained. 
 
 Today that question is before congress for answer. Today 
 La Follette of Wisconsin, with his oration on lagoism, carefuUy 
 briefed for seven years, is ready to ask, what did the railroad 
 gain? Am I interested in that? Was your family? 
 
Emerson Hough 67 
 
 So now, after twenty-five years, during which Robert M. La 
 Follette had been briefing lago and I had been briefing bread 
 and butter, I met La Follette of Wisconsin, neither as a friend 
 nor as an enemy, and not for the purpose of what is known as 
 an interview. I went to him as any of us might go, as a plain 
 American, telling him that I despised a politician above all cre- 
 ated things, and that as a citizen of America I was simply 
 looking for a man. 
 
 One would have recognized La Follette from the college mem- 
 ory, though one had not seen him since. His figure now ap- 
 peared to be shorter. He had grown stockier. The "pompa- 
 dour'' still endured, shot now with gray, beaten down just a 
 little, but still elastic. 
 
 As a boy I had thought the La Follette eyes were dark and 
 piercing. All politicians, at least in the press reports, like to 
 have "dark and piercing eyes," and a "tall, commanding fig- 
 ure." La Follette has neither. His eyes are blue or blue- 
 gray— the best fighting eyes in the world, as they are the best 
 for the management of any weapon. La Follette, who has 
 never had time for sportsmanship, with short practice, made 
 the best revolver score at Camp Douglas, military week, last 
 year. The La Follette eye is small, like that of any fighting 
 animal. A spaniel has a large luminous eye, which you can 
 knock off with a stick. The bull terrier is differently con- 
 structed. Had La Follette been of the spaniel type, docile, 
 licking the hand that smote him, his eye might have been off 
 and out long ago. [Back under a bony brow, narrowed to a slit 
 in a fight, like that of a pugilist, the little blue La Follette eye 
 is that of a courageous, faithful and fearless bull terrier. * As 
 to this, a friend of his unwittingly gave a perfect illustration. 
 
 "Bob La Follette," said he, "is like a dog which has been 
 left in charge of his master's coat— nice dog, been friendly to 
 everybody. Pretty soon the fellows sitting around think there 
 may be a bottle or something in the fellow's coat, and they 
 want it. They go up to the coat, but the dog puts his paw on 
 it. 'Nice dog,' they say, and he wags his tail—always a pleas- 
 ant sort of dog anyhow— but they don't get the coat. Then 
 they try to take it away by force. That's where the fight 
 begins. ' ' 
 
68 La Follette of WiscoTisin 
 
 The La Follette jaw fits the rest of his face. His chin and 
 mouth are those of the speaker, of the actor if you please. 
 What shall I say, who saw it for the first time in twenty-five 
 years? As to the expression of this face, worn by twenty-five 
 years of uphill fighting, what shall I call it? They say he has 
 the face of a Jesuit. Yes. But it is the face of Lallemand, 
 Jesuit burned at the stake for his convictions, and smiling in 
 the flames! It is the face of a Jesuit, but let us believe his 
 church is the catholic one of humanity. He will go to the 
 stake for it. 
 
 La Follette of Wisconsin is human, and therefore has a 
 stomach, and that stomach suffers under mental tragedy, as 
 all of us know. The La Follette stomach went to pieces four- 
 teen years ago and again eight years ago. Senator Sawyer, his 
 former friend and later political enemy, was responsible for 
 that. Then the La Follette will came into play. He briefed 
 his stomach. He read everything he could find in the records 
 about stomachs— ever case, every decision. He won. 
 
 He has not eaten meat for four years, makes his diet largely 
 of nuts and grains and milk, and yet today is the picture of an 
 athlete! fHe exercises regularly each day, eats cautiously, sys- 
 tematicalTy, drinks temperately and treats himself as a fight- 
 ing machine. His arm today is as hard as nails, his eye bright 
 and keen, his nervous vigor so tremendous that he will wear 
 out man after man in a long session of work. He is the most 
 Japanese-like, the most scientific fighter in politics today, and 
 the one with least of the grand-stand about him. He looks 
 upon himself simply as a machine for the accomplishment of 
 ideas— of ideas which we will not call ambitions but purposes. 
 
 I told Governor La FolUette that I remembered him and had 
 done so for twenty-five years. This brought out a nice artifi- 
 cial, political smile. Then I told him about lago, and he smiled 
 a real smile, a human one. Then I told him about the little 
 tragedy which happened out in Iowa twenty-five years ago— 
 something in his own line as I thought. Unawares I went 
 under his guard. The man's eyes filled with tears. His lip 
 quivered. The secret of much of his succcess was out! He 
 has the magnetism of understanding and sympathy, and mag- 
 netism backed by will and purpose and honesty can do much, 
 can do all. 
 
Emerson Hough 69 
 
 Such are some of the reasons why they cannot beat La Fol- 
 lette of Wisconsin. Understanding and sympathy and actual 
 knowledge of his people, a sincere conviction, a tremendous 
 concentration of purpose, a clean personal life— these things 
 are so much greater than the common, arrogant power that 
 goes with money and corruption in politics that the progress 
 of La Follete of Wisconsin has been a thing foregone and 
 assured. 
 
 But they had called the man an orator, an actor, a pretender, I 
 a Jesuit. It remained to sting this strange exterior and to 
 change the result. "La Follette," I said, ''because of that lit- 
 tle tragedy out in Iowa I am not a congressman or a governor, 
 but a newspaper man. I have one brutal question to ask, 
 which any American has the right to ask: Who has won this 
 victory,Governor La Follette or the people of Wisconsin, Sena- 
 tor La Follette or the people of Wisconsin? Are you fighting 
 for La Follette or for Wisconsin? For yourself or for the 
 people? Are you a politician, or are you a real man?" 
 
 After all, brutality is sometimes efficient! I shall not for- 
 get the expression which came upon his face. It could not 
 have been done by artifice or by accident. The man is sin- 
 cere. He is real. His ambition is not a personal ambition 
 but a great purpose. It is something bigger and better. It is 
 manhood. It is bigness. How many men did you ever see 
 who put any sort of string upon the acceptance of a seat in 
 the senate of the United States? When the news of the La 
 Follette conditional terms came out I for one saw confirmation 
 of the answer he gave to that frank and brutal question which 
 any American has the right to ask of any political officer, but 
 which few Americans do ask. The answer and the later con- 
 firmation are the base of a great hope that America will find a 
 man. La Follette of Wisconsin is not working for himself, 
 but for an idea, a principle, a purpose. 
 
 This nomination for the senate came to him ^inee that day. 
 He accepted it only on the condition that the Wisconsin idea 
 shall win at home. That is not politics. 
 
 La Follette of Wisconsin is honest. He is a zealot, a zealot 
 of understanding and sympathy. He has been tortured before 
 now. He wiU go to the stake if need be. 
 
70 La Follette of Wisconsin 
 
 Does the past of La Follette of Wisconsin, does the character 
 of this strange man, fit him to be what is called presidential 
 timber? How unspeakably cheap a question! The great ques- 
 tion is simply whether or not America is to have a man. We 
 can always have a president. 
 
 f In or out of office, in the senate or afterward, in yet higher 
 (office or otherwise. La Follette of Wisconsin is too great and 
 Igame and good a man not to be heard of in public. His idea 
 of teaching the people the truth, and then of leaving the issue 
 with the people is too sane and too sound and revolutionary an 
 idea not to attain swift prominence. Under monopoly lies un- 
 Ijust discrimination in transportation charges. Back of those 
 ; unjust charges are large political figures. But back of these 
 figures, these office holders, is the secret Australian ballot, at 
 the beginning, at the primaries, at the caucus. That is the 
 Wisconsin La Follette idea. 
 
 It it a great and valid idea. Watch it travel, watch it run, 
 watch it perform. It will win or preserve Magna Charta for 
 America. 
 
 Elect Robert M. La Follete president of the United States? 
 It is immaterial. As to that, whether he be governor or sena- 
 tor, it is the present determined purpose of his life to go upon 
 the platform before the people in his own state and elsewhere. 
 There lies his great future. He has briefed many things be- 
 sides Shakespeare. He is very close to the people whom he 
 addresses, and therein lies his strength. Above all, he knows 
 the great power of the women of America. 
 
 Your own wife is a far better politician, a far better social 
 economist than yourself, no matter who you may be. No 
 politician can fool her, and that almost any sort of a politician 
 may fool you is something that you may easily prove by exam- 
 ining the records. The woman of the house knows that it costs 
 forty per cent more to live in America than it did ten years 
 ago. You cannot fool her in regard to that for a moment, nor 
 explain it away from her mind. She knows that something is 
 wrong. It takes but a very poor sort of La Follette to show 
 her that monopoly is at the base of that, and discrimination 
 under monopoly, and corruption under both. That doctrine 
 wins. It may mean the ruin of the present republican party, 
 
Emerson Hough 71 
 
 which for twenty years has been faithless to the trust reposed 
 in it, which for twenty years has been permitting the ruin and 
 oppression of the American people. Go before the women of 
 America and ask them what they care for presidents, for the 
 republican party, for the democratic party. They will tell 
 you that what they want is one man in whom they can believe, 
 one honest man who can take off that forty per cent. Granted 
 that, the people will take care of the party. It is time now for 
 a trading of the names of the two great parties of America, if ^ 
 not for the organization of a party of actual honesty and actual ■ 
 accomplishment; a party which briefs its case, its doctrines,/ 
 and then goes before the people ; a party which looks upon its- 
 chosen officials as servants and not its masters. That is th 
 La Follette idea. 
 
 For these reasons— which will be more obvious twenty-five 
 years from now, or four years from now, than they are today, 
 America needs a man; and for these reasons La Follette of 
 Wisconsin is entitled to prominence in the popular considera- 
 tion of available material. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt, minus Roosevelt, would always have 
 been a big man. Even plus himself he has his chance today. 
 He has his chance to make that subtraction. He has his op- 
 portunity to go to the stake for his conviction, and the people 
 will love him for it. That love is worth more than the ballots 
 which elected him to office. The captains and the kings depart. 
 They are forgotten. But the people cherish forever their great 
 m:en, their humble men. 
 
 Folk of Missouri, plus experience, may be a big man. He 
 has his chance to make that addition. 
 
 Bryan of Nebraska, minus free silver, would be a big man. 
 It would embarrass him to make the subtraction. 
 
 Deneen of Illinois, plus experience, may perhaps grow, may 
 perhaps forget to be a politician. 
 
 La Follette of Wisconsin, plus a permanently reconstructed 
 stomach, is a big man. He will go to the stake if need be. He 
 will not quit. And the Wisconsin idea will grow. 
 
THE STORY OF GOVERNOR LA FOLLETTE. 
 
 WISCONSIN A STATE WHERE THE PEOPLE HAVE RESTORED REPREl- 
 SENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 By LINCOLN STEFFENS. 
 
 The story of the state of Wisconsin is the story of Governor 
 La Follette. He is the head of the state. Not many governors 
 are that. Most governors are simply ''safe men" set up as 
 figureheads by the System, which is the actual government that 
 is growing up in the United States in place of the "govern- 
 ment of the people, by the people, and for the people, which 
 shall not perish from the earth." The System, as we have 
 found it, is a reorganization of the political and financial pow- 
 ers of the state which, for boodle of one sort or another, the 
 leading politicians of both parties conduct the government in 
 the interest of those leading businesses which seek special privi- 
 leges and pay for them with bribes and the "moral" support 
 of graft. And a ' ' safe man " is a man who takes his ease, hon- 
 ors and orderes, lets the boss reign, and makes no trouble for 
 the System. 
 
 There is trouble in Wisconsin. Bounded on the east by 
 Lake Michigan, on the north by Lake Superior, on the west by 
 the Mississippi River, Wisconsin is a convenient, rich and beau- 
 tiful state. New England lumbermen stripped fortunes of for- 
 est off of it, and, uncovering a fat soil watered by a thousand 
 lakes and streams, settlers poured in from Northwestern Eu- 
 rope and made this new Northwest ripen into dairy farms and 
 counties of golden wheat. From the beginning Wisconsin has 
 paid, nor is there now any material depression or financial dis- 
 tress in the state. Yet there is trouble in Wisconsin. What is 
 the matter? I asked a few hundred people out there to ex- 
 
 Copyright, 1904, by The S. S. McClure Co., all rights reserved. 
 Published by permission. 
 
74 The Story of Governor La Follette 
 
 plain it, and though some of them smiled and others frowned, 
 all gave substantially one answer: ''La Folletteism. " They 
 blame one man. 
 
 THE STORY OF 
 
 Robert Marion La Follette was born on a farm in Dane 
 county, "Wisconsin, June 1.4th, 1855. His father was a Ken- 
 tucky ^fed French Huguenot; his mother was Scotch-Irish. 
 When the boy was eight months old the father died, leaving 
 the mother and four children, and, at the age of fourteen, 
 ''Little Bob," as his followers still call him, became the head 
 of the family. He worked the farm until he was nineteen 
 years old, then sold it and moved the family to Madison, the 
 county seat and capital of the state. If, with this humble start, 
 La Follette had gone into business, his talents might have made 
 him a captain of industry ; and then, no matter how he won it, 
 his success would have made him an inspiration for youth. But 
 he made a mistake. He entered the state university with the 
 class of 79. Even so, he might have got over his college educa- 
 tion, but his father's French blood (perhaps) stirred to senti- 
 ment and the boy thrilled for glory. He had a bent for ora- 
 tory. In those days debates ranked in the western colleges 
 where football does now, and "Bob" La Follette won, in his 
 senior year, all the oratorical contests, home, state, and inter- 
 state. His interstate oration was on lago, and his round actor 's 
 head was turned to the stage, till John McCullough advised 
 him that his short stature was against that career. Also, he 
 says, his debts chained him to the earth. He had to go to work, 
 and he went to work in a law office. In five months he was ad- 
 mitted to the bar, and in February, 1880, he opened an office 
 and began to practice. A year or so later the young lawyer 
 was running for an office. 
 
 r ' ' They ' ' say in Wisconsin that La Follette is ambitious ; that 
 /he cannot be happy in private life; that, an actor born, he 
 has to be on the stage. I should say that a man who can move 
 men, as La Follette can, would seek a career where he could 
 enjoy the visible effect of his eloquence. But suppose "they" 
 are right and the man is vain;— I don't care. Do you? I have 
 
Lincoln Steffens 75 
 
 noticed that a public official who steals, or, like Lieutenant- 
 Governor Lee, of Missouri, betrays bis constituents, may pro- 
 pose to be governor, without being accused of ambition. 
 * ' They ' ' seem to think a boodler 's aspirations are natural. He 
 may have a hundred notorious vices; they do not matter. But 
 a ''reformer," a man who wants to serve his people, he must 
 be a white-robed, spotless angel, or "they" will whisper that 
 he is— what? A thief 1 Oh, no; that is nothing; but that he 
 is ambitious. This is the System at work. It was the System 
 in Missouri that, after spending in vain thousands of dollars 
 to "get something on Folk," passed about the damning rumor 
 that he was ambitious. And so in Wisconsin, "they" will take 
 you into a back room and warn you that La Follette is ambi- 
 tious. I asked if he was dishonest. Oh dear, no. Not that. 
 Not a man in the state, not the bitterest foe of his that I saw, 
 questioned La Follette 's personal integrity. So 1 answered that 
 we wanted men of ambition ; that if we could get men to serve 
 us in public life, not for graft, not for money, but for ambi- 
 tion's sake, we should make a great step forward. 
 
 Mr. La Follette has ambition. He confessed as much to me, 
 but he is after a job, not an office; Governor La Follette 's am- 
 bition is higher and harder to achieve than any office in the 
 land. 
 
 A POLITICIAN AND HIS FIRST OFFICE. 
 
 ] The first office he sought was that of district attorney of Dane 
 county,^aii'd7 "though his enemies declare that the man is a radi- 
 cal and was from the start a radical, I gathered from this same 
 source that his only idea at this time was to "pose" before 
 juries "and win cases." Mr. La Follette married in this year 
 (a classmate) and he says he thought of the small but regular 
 salary of the district attorney. However this may be, he won j 
 the office and he won his cases, so he earned his salaryf Dia I 
 trict Attorney La Follette made an excellent record. That is ) 
 freely admitted, but my attention was called to the manner of ' 
 his entrance into politics, as proof of another charge that is 
 made against him in Wisconsin. "They" say that La Follette 
 is a politician. 
 
 "They" say in Missouri that Folk is a politician. "They" 
 
76 The Story of Governor La Follette 
 
 say in Illinois that Deneen is a politician. "They" say in the 
 United States that President Roosevelt is a politicitn. "They" 
 are right. These men are politicians. But what of it? We 
 have blamed our politicians so long for the corruption of our 
 politics that they themselves seem to have been convinced that 
 a politician is necessarily and inherently bad. He isn't, of 
 course. Only a bad politician is bad, and we have been discov- 
 ering in our studies of graft that a bad business man is worse. 
 To succeed in reform, a man has to understand politics and 
 play the game, or the bad business man will catch him and 
 then, what will he be? He will be an "impracticable re- 
 former," and that, we all know, is awful. 
 
 RUNNING AROUND THE RING. 
 
 Bob" La Follette is a politician. > Irish, as well as French, 
 he was born a master of the game and he did indeed prove his 
 genius in that first campaign. Single-handed, he beat the Sys- 
 tem. Not that he realized then that there was such a thing. All 
 the young candidate knew when he began was that E. W. Keyes, 
 the postmaster at Madison, was the republican state boss, and, 
 of course, absolute master of Dane county, where he lived. 
 , La Follette was a republican, but he had no claim of machine 
 service to the office he wanted, and he felt that Boss Keyes 
 and Philip L. Spooner, the local leader, would be against him, 
 so he went to work quietly] He made an issue: La Follette 
 always has an issue. It had been the practice of district at- 
 torneys to have assistants at the county's expense, and La Fol- 
 lette promised, if elected, to do all his own work. i_With this 
 promise he and his friends canvassed the county, house by 
 house, farm by farm, and, partly because they were busy by 
 day, partly because they ,had to proceed secretly, much of this 
 politics was done at night. The scandal of such "underhand 
 methods" is an offense to this day to the men who were beaten 
 by them. Mr. "Phil" Spooner (the Senators' brother) speaks 
 with contempt of La Follette 's "night riders." He says the 
 La Follette workers went about on horseback after dark and 
 that he used to hear them gallop up to their leader's house 
 late at night. Of course he knows now that they were coming 
 
Lincoln Steffens 77 
 
 to report and plot, but lie didn't know it then. And Boss 
 Keyes, who is still postmaster at Madison, told me that he had 
 no inkling of the conspiracy till the convention turned up with 
 the delegates nearly all instructed for La Follette for district 
 attorney. Then it was too late to do anything. 
 
 Boss Keyes thought this showed another defect in the char- 
 acter of La Follette. "They" say in Wisconsin that the gov- 
 ernor is ''selfish, dictatorial, and will not consult." ''They" 
 said that about Folk in Missouri, when he refused to appoint 
 assistants dictated by Boss Butler. Wall Street said it about 
 Roosevelt when he refused to counsel with Morgan upon the 
 advisability of bringing the Northern Securities case, but the 
 west likes that in Roosevelt. The west said it about Parker when 
 he sent his gold telegram to the democratic national convention, 
 but the east likes that in Parker. There must be something 
 back of this charge, and a boss should be able to explain it. 
 Boss Keyes cleared it up for me. . He said that at the time 
 "Bob" was running for district attorney, "a few of us here 
 were— well, we were managing the party and we were usually 
 consulted about— about things generally. But La Follette, he 
 went ahead on his own hook, and never said a word to— well, 
 to me or any of us." So it's not a matter of dictation, but of 
 who dictates, and what. In the case of La Follette, his dic- 
 tatorial selfishness consisted in this, that he "saw" the people^ 
 of the county and the delegates, not "us," not the System. \ 
 No wonder he was elected. What is more, he was re-elected; 
 he kept his promises, and, the second time he ran, La Follette 
 was the only republican elected on the county ticket. 
 
 During the two terms of District Attorney La Follette, im- 
 portant changes were occurring in the Wisconsin state system 
 beyond his ken. Boss Keyes was deposed and Philetus Sawyer 
 became the head of the state, This does not mean that Sawyer 
 was elected governor; we have nothing to do with governors 
 yet. Sawyer was a United States senator. ; While Keyes was 
 boss, the head of the state was in the postoffice at Madison, 
 and it represented, not the people, but the big business inter- 
 ests of the state, principally lumber and the railways, which 
 worked well together and with Keyes.^ There were several 
 scandals during this "good fellow's" iong reign, but big busi- 
 
78 The Story of Governor La Follette 
 
 ness had no complaint to make against him. The big graft in 
 the Northwestern state, however, was lumber, and the typical 
 way of getting hold of it wholesale, was for the United States 
 to make to the state grants which the state passed on to rail- 
 way companies to help ''develop the resources of the state. '* 
 [Railroad men were in lumber companies, just as lumber men 
 were in the railway companies, so the railway companies sold 
 cheap to the lumber companies, which cleared the land — for the 
 settlers. This was business, and while it was necessary to ' ' take 
 care" of the legislature, the original source of business was the 
 congress, and that was the place for the head of the System. 
 Keyes had wished to go to the senate, but Sawyer thought he 
 might as well go himself. He had gone, and now, when Keyes 
 was willing to take the second seat, the business men decided 
 that, since it was all a matter of business, they might as well 
 take it out of politics. _Thus Senator Sawyer became boss, and, 
 since he was a lumberman, it was no more than fair that the 
 other seat should go to the railroads. So the big business men 
 got together and they bought the junior United States senator- 
 ship for the Honorable John C. Spooner.] 
 
 At Marinette, Wisconsin, lives today a rich old lumberman, 
 Isaac Stephenson. He was associated for years with Senator 
 Sawyer and the other enemies of the republic in Wisconsin, 
 and he left them because they balked an ambition of his. Hav- 
 ing gone over, however, he began to see things as they are, and 
 no man today is more concerned over the dangers to business 
 of the commercial corruption of government than this veteran 
 who confesses that he spent a quarter of a million in politics. 
 
 Once he and Senator Sawyer were comparing notes on the 
 cost to them of United States senatorships. 
 
 "Isaac," said Sawyer, "how much did you put in to get the 
 legislature for Spooner that time?" 
 
 "It cost me about twenty-two thousand, Philetus. How 
 much did you put in?" 
 
 "Why," said Sawyer, surprised, "it cost me thirty thousand. 
 I thought it cost you thirty. 
 
Lincoln Stejfens 79 
 
 "No, it cost me thirty thousand to get it for you when you 
 ran. ' ' 
 
 Friends of mine who are friends of Senator Spooner in 
 Washington, besought me, when they heard I was going to Wis- 
 consin, to "remember that Spooner is a most useful man in 
 the senate," and I know and shall not forget that. Able, de- 
 liberate, resourceful, wise, I believe Senator Spooner comes 
 about as near as any man we have in that august chamber today 
 to statesmanship, and I understand he loathes many of the 
 practices of politics. But the question to ask about a repre- 
 sentative is, what does he represent? 
 
 Senator Spooner, at home, represented the railroads of his 
 state. He served a term, in the Wisconsin assembly, and he 
 served the railroads thereri After that he served them as a 
 lobbyist. I do not mean that he went to Madison now and 
 then to make arguments for his client. Mr. Spooner spent 
 the session there. Nor do I mean to say that he paid bribes 
 to legislators ; there are honest lobbyists. ^ But I do say that Mr. 
 Spooner peddled passes, and any railroad man or any grafter 
 will tell you that this is a cheap but most effective form of 
 legislative corruption.] United States Senator Spooner, then, 
 is a product, a flower, perhaps, but none the less he is a growth 
 out of the System, the System which is fighting Governor 
 La Follette. 
 
 The System was fighting La Follete 'way back in those days, 
 but the young orator did not know it. He was running for 
 congress. So far as I can make out, he was seeking only more 
 glory for his French blood and a wider field to shine in, but 
 he went after his French satisfaction in a Scotch-Irish fashion. 
 Boss Keyes told me about it. Keyes had been reduced to the 
 control of his congressional district, and, as he said, "We had 
 it arranged to nominate another man. The place did not be- 
 long to Dane county. It was another county's turn, but Bob 
 didn 't consult us. ' ' Bob was consulting his constituents again, 
 and his night riders were out. The System heard of it earlier 
 than in the district attorney campaign, and Keyes and Phil 
 Spooner and the other leaders were angry. Keyes did want to 
 rule that congressional district; it was all he had, and Phil 
 Spooner (who was now the head of the street railway system 
 
80 The Story of Governor La Follette 
 
 of Madison) sensed the danger in this self-reliant young 
 candidate. 
 
 "What's this I hear about you being a candidate for Con- 
 gress?" he said to La Follette one day. ''Don't you know no- 
 body can go to congress without our approval? You're a 
 fool." 
 
 ^ But La Follette 's men were working, and they carried all ex- 
 cept three caucuses (primaries that are something like town 
 meetings) against the ring. The ring bolted, but the people 
 elected him; the people sent La Follette to congress at the 
 same time they elected the legislators that sent John C. Spooner 
 to the United States senate. \ 
 
 THE SYSTEM AT WASHINGTON. 
 
 When La Follette had been in Washington a few weeks, 
 Senator Sawyer found him out and became "like a father" to 
 him. "Our boy" he called him, for La Follette was the 
 "youngest member." The genial old lumberman took him 
 about and introduced him to the heads of departments and 
 finally, one day, asked him what committee he would like to go 
 on. La Follette said he would prefer some committee where 
 his practice in the law might make him useful, and Sawyer 
 though "Public Lands" would about do. He would "fix it." 
 Thus the System was coming after him, but it held back ; there 
 must have been a second thought. For the speaker put La 
 Follette not on "Public Lands," but on "Indian Affairs." 
 
 The governor today will tell you with a relish that he was 
 so green then that he began to "read up on Indians"; he read 
 especially Boston literature on the subject, and he thought of 
 the speeches he could make on Indian wrongs and rights. But 
 there was no chance for an orator. The committee worked 
 and "our boy" read bills. Most of these bills were hard read- 
 ing and didn't mean much when read. But by and by one 
 came along that was "so full of holes that," as the governor 
 says, "even I could see through it." It provided for a sale of 
 pine on the Menominee reservation in Wisconsin. Mr. La Fol- 
 lette took it to the (Cleveland's) Commissioner of Indian Af- 
 fairs, and this official said he thought it " a little the worst bill 
 
Lincoln Steffens 81 
 
 of the kind that I have ever seen. Where did it come from ? ' ' 
 They looked and they saw that it had been introduced by the 
 member from Oshkosh (Sawyer's home district). None the 
 less, Mr. La Follette wanted a report and the commissioner 
 said he could have one if he would sit down and write for it. 
 The report so riddled the bill that it lay dead in the com- 
 mittee. One day the congressman who introduced it asked 
 about it. 
 
 ''Bob, why don't you report my billT' he asked. 
 
 "Bill," said Bob, "did you write that bill?" 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "It's a steal." 
 
 "Let it die then. Don't report it. I introduced it because 
 Sawyer asked me to. He introduced it in the senate and it is 
 through their committee." 
 
 Sawyer never mentioned the bill, and the incident was 
 dropped with the bill. Some time after, however, a similar 
 incident occurred, and this time Sawyer did mention it. The 
 Indian Affairs committee was having read, at the rate of two 
 hours a day, a long bill to open the big Sioux Indian reserva- 
 tion in Dakota, by selling some eleven million acres right 
 through the center. It was said to be a measure most impor- 
 tant to South Dakota, and no one objected to anything till the 
 clerk droned out a provision to ratify an agreement between 
 the Indians and certain railroads about a right of way and some 
 most liberal grants of land for terminal town sites. La Fol- 
 lette interrupted and he began to talk about United States 
 statutes which provided not so generously, yet amply, for land 
 grants to railways, when a congressman from a neighboring 
 state leaned over and said: 
 
 Bob, don 't you see that those are your home corporations 1 ' ' 
 
 Bob said he saw, and he was willing to grant aU the land 
 needed for railway purposes, but none for town site schemes. 
 When the committee rose, and La Follette returned to his seat 
 in the house, a page told him Senator Sawyer wanted to see 
 him. He went out and the senator talked to him for an hour 
 in a most fatherly way, with not a word concerning the Sioux 
 bill till they were about to separate. Then, quite by the way, 
 he said: 
 6 
 
82 The Story of Governor La Follette 
 
 ''Oh, say, when that Sioux Injun bill comes up there's a lit- 
 tle provision in it for our folks which I wish you would look 
 after." 
 
 La Follette said the bill was up then, that they had reached 
 the "little provision for our folks," and that he was oppos- 
 ing it. 
 
 "Why, is that so?" said Sawyer. "Let's sit down and—" 
 they had another hour, on town sites. It was no use, however. 
 La Follette wouldn't "consult." Sawyer gave up reasoning 
 with him, but he didn't give up "the little provision." Politi- 
 cal force was applied, but not by the senior senator. The Sys- 
 tem had other agents for such work. 
 
 HENRY c. Payne's part in the system. 
 
 T'" Henry C. Payne arrived on the scene. Payne was chairman 
 of the republican state central committee of Wisconsin, and we 
 have seen in other states what the legislative functions of that 
 office are. ] Payne reached Washington forty-eight hours after 
 La Follette 's balk, and he went at him hard. All sorts of 
 influence were brought to bear, and when La Follette held out, 
 Payne became so angry that he expressed himself— and the 
 spirit of the System— in public. To a group in the Ebbitt 
 House he said: 
 
 "La Follette is a damned fool. If he thinks he can buck a 
 railroad with five thousand miles of continuous line, he'll find 
 he's mistaken. We'll take care of him when the time comes." 
 
 The state machine fought the congressman in his own dis- 
 trict, and so did Keyes and the "old regency" at Madison, but 
 La Follette, the politician, had insisted upon a congressman's 
 patronage, all of it, and he had used it to strengthen himself 
 at home.fL^ Follette served three terms in congress, and when 
 he was defeated in^I8^90, for the fourth, he went down with 
 the whole party in Wisconsin. This complete overthrow of the 
 republicans was due to two causes, the McKinley tariff (which 
 La Follette on the Ways and Means Committee helped to 
 frame) and a piece of state school legislation which angered 
 the foreign and Catholic voters. We need not go into this, 
 and the democratic administration which resulted bears only 
 indirectly on our story. 
 
Lincoln Steffens 83 
 
 ^ One of the great grafts of Wisconsin (and of many another 
 state) was the public funds in the keeping of the state treas- 
 urer. The republicans, for years, had deposited these moneys 
 in banks that stood in with the System, and the treasurer 
 shared with these institutions the interest and profits. He, in 
 turn, "divided up" with the campaign fund and the party 
 leaders.^ The democrats were pledged to break up this prac- 
 tice and sue the ex-treasurers. Now these treasurers were not 
 all "good" for the money, and when the suits were brought, 
 as they were in earnest, the treasurers' bondsmen were the real 
 defendants. 1 Chief among these was Senator Sawyer, the boss 
 who had chosen the treasurers and backed them and the prac- 
 tice for years. Sawyer was alarmed. It was estimated that 
 there had been $30,000 a year in the graft alone, and the attor- 
 ney-general was going back twenty years, and his suits were 
 for the recovery of all the back interest] Several hundred 
 thousand dollars were at stake. And the judge before whom 
 the cases were to be tried was Robert J. Siebecker, brother-in- 
 law and former law partner of Robert M. La Follette. 
 
 One day in September, 1891, La Follette received from Saw- 
 yer a letter asking for a meeting in the Plankington Hotel, 
 Milwaukee. The letter had been folded first with the letter 
 head on, then this was cut off and the sheet refolded; and, as 
 if secrecy was important, the answer suggested by Sawyer was 
 to be the one word "yes" by wire. La Follette wired ''yes," 
 and the two men met. There are two accounts of what oc- 
 curred. La Follette said Sawyer began the interview with the 
 remark that "nobody knows that I'm to meet you today"; he 
 spoke of the treasury case and pulled out and held before the 
 young lawyer a thick roll of bills. Sawyer's subsequent ex- 
 planation was that he proposed only to retain La Follette, who, 
 however, insists that Sawyer offered him a cash bribe for his 
 influence with Judge Siebecker. 
 
 Since Sawyer is dead now, we would better not try to decide 
 between the two men on this particular case, but there is no 
 doubt of one general truth : that Philetus Sawyer was the typi- 
 cal captain of industry in politics; he debauched the politics 
 of his state with money. Old Boss Keyes was bad enough, but 
 his methods were political— patronage, deals, etc., and he made 
 
84 The Story of Governor La Follette 
 
 the government represent special interests. But when the mil- 
 lionaire lumberman took charge, he came with money; with 
 money he beat Keyes; and money, his and his friends', was 
 the power in the politics of his regime... 
 
 His known methods caused no great scandal so long as they 
 were confined to conventions and the legislature, but the courts 
 of Wisconsin had the confidence of the state, and the approach 
 of money to them made people angry. And the story was out. 
 La Follette, after consultation with his friends, told Judge Sie- 
 becker what had happened, and the judge declined to hear the 
 case. His withdrawal aroused curiosity and rather sensational 
 conjectures. Sawyer denied one of these, and his account 
 seeming to call for a statement from La follette, the young 
 lawyer told his story. Sawyer denied it and everybody took 
 sides. The cases were tried, the state won, but the republican 
 legislature, pledged though it was to recover in full, com- 
 promised. So the System saved its boss. 
 
 But the System had raised up an enemy worthy of all its 
 power. La Follette was against it. "They" say in Wisconsin 
 that he is against the railroads, that he "hates" corporate 
 wealth. It is true the bitterest fights he has led have been for 
 so-called anti-railroad lavvS, but "they" forget that his original 
 quarrel was with Sawyer and that, if hatred was his impulse, 
 it probably grew out of the treasury case ' ' insult. ' ' My under- 
 standing of the state of mind is that before that incident. La 
 Follette thought only of continuing his congressional career. 
 After it, he was for anything to break up the old Sawyer ma- 
 chine. Anyhow, he told me that, after the Sawyer meeting, 
 he made up his mind to stay home and break up the System 
 in Wisconsin. And La Follette did not originate all that legis- 
 lation. Wisconsin is one of the four original granger states. 
 There seems to have been always some discontent with the abuse 
 of the power of the railways, their corrupting influence, and 
 their escape from just taxation. So far as I can make out, 
 however, some of the modern measures labeled La Folletteism, 
 sprang from the head of a certain lean, clean Vermont farmer, 
 who came to the legislature from Knapp, Wisconsin. I went to 
 Knapp. It was a long way around for me, but it paid, for 
 now I can say that I know A. R. Hall. He is a man. I have 
 
Lincoln Steffens 85 
 
 seen in my day some seventeen men, real men, and none of 
 them is simpler, truer, braver than this ' ex-leader of the Wis- 
 consin assembly; none thinks he is more of a failure and none 
 is more of a success. 
 
 When La Follette began his open fight against the System 
 in 1894, he took up the issues of inequalities in taxation, ma- 
 chine politics and primary elections. 
 
 In 1894 La Follette carried his issues to the state convention 
 with a candidate for governor. Nils P. Haugen, a Norse-Ameri- 
 can who had served in congress and as a state railroad com- 
 missioner. La Follette and his followers turned up with one- 
 third of the delegates. The regulars, or "Stalwarts," as they 
 afterwards were called, were divided, but Sawyer, declaring it 
 was anybody to beat La Follette, managed a combination on 
 W. H. Upham, a lumberman, and Haugen was beaten. Hall 
 was there, by the way, with an anti-pass plank, and Hall also 
 was beaten. 
 
 APPEALING TO THE VOTERS DIRECT. 
 
 The contest served only to draw a line between the La Fol- 
 lette '"Halfbreeds" and the ''Stalwarts," and both factions 
 went to work on their organizations. Upham was elected, and 
 the Stalwarts, who had been living on federal patronage, now 
 had the state. They rebuilt their state machine.! La Follette, 
 with no patronage, continued to organize, and his method was 
 that which he had applied so successfully in his early independ- 
 ent fights for district attorney and congressman. He went 
 straight to the voters. 
 
 "They" say in Wisconsin that La Follette is a demagogue, 
 and if it is demagogy to go' thus straight to the voters, then 
 "they" are right. But then Folk is a demagogue and so are 
 all thorough-going reformers. [^La Follette from the beginning 
 has asked, not the bosses, but the people for what he wanted, 
 and after 1894 he simply broadened his field and redoubled his 
 efforts. He circularized the state, he made speeches every, 
 chance he got, and if the test of demagogy is the tone and style 
 of a man's speeches, La Follette is the opposite of a dema- 
 gogue. Capable of fierce invective, his oratory is impersonal; 
 
86 The Story of Governor La FoUette 
 
 passionate and emotional himself, his speeches are temperate. 
 Some of them are so loaded with facts and such closely knit 
 arguments, that they demand careful reading, and their effect 
 is traced to his delivery, which is forceful, emphatic and fasci- 
 nating. His earnestness carries the conviction of sincerity, and 
 the conviction of his honesty of purpose he has planted all over 
 the state by his Halfbreed methods.^ 
 
 What were the methods of the Sawyer-Pajme-Spooner repub- 
 licans? In 1896 the next governor of Wisconsin had to be 
 chosen. The republicans could not run Governor Upham again. 
 As often happens to "safe men," the System had used him up; 
 his appointments had built up the machine, his approval had 
 sealed the compromise of the treasury cases. Some one else 
 must run. To pick out his successor, the Stalwart leaders held 
 a meeting at St. Louis, where they were attending a national 
 convention, and they chose for governor Edward W. Scofield. 
 There was no' demagogy about that. 
 
 LA POLLETTE BEATEN WITH MONEY. 
 
 La Follette wished to run himself; he hoped to run and win 
 while Sawyer lived, and he was holding meetings, too. But his 
 meetings were held all over the state, with voters and delegates, 
 and he was making headway. Lest he might fall short, how- 
 ever. La Follette made a political bargain. He confesses it, 
 and calls it a political sin, but he thinks the retribution which 
 came swift and hard was expiation. He made a deal with Emil 
 Baensch, by which both should canvass the state for delegates, 
 with the understanding that whichever of the two should de- 
 velop the greatest strength was to have both delegations. La 
 Follette says he came into convention with enough delegates of 
 his own to nominate him, and Baensch had 75 or so besides. 
 The convention adjourned over night without nominating and 
 the next morning La Follette was beaten. ' He had lost some 
 of his own delegates, and Baensch 's went to Scofield.] 
 LLa Follette 's lost delegates were bought. How the Baensch 
 delegates were secured_,' I don't know, but Baensch was not a 
 man to sell for money. It was reported to La Follette during 
 the night that Baensch was going over, and La Follette wrestled 
 
Lincoln Steffens 87 
 
 with and thought he had won him back, till the morning bal- 
 loting showed. As for the rest, the facts are ample to 
 make plain the methods of the old ring. Sawyer was there; 
 and there was a "barrel." I saw men who saw money on a 
 table in the room in the Pfister Hotel, where delegates went in 
 and out, and newspaper men present at the time told me the 
 story in great detail. But there is better evidence than this. 
 Men to whom bribes were offered reported to their leader that 
 night. The first warning came from Captain John T. Rice, of 
 Racine, who (as Governor La Follette recalls) said: "I have 
 been with the old crowd all my life and I thought I knew the 
 worst, but they have no right to ask me to do what they did 
 tonight. I won't tell you who, but the head of the whole busi- 
 ness asked me to name my price for turning over the Union 
 Grove delegation from you to Scofield." There are many such 
 personal statements, some of them giving prices— cash, and fed- 
 eral and state offices— and some giving the names of the bribery 
 agents. The Halfbreed leaders tried to catch the bribers with 
 witnesses, but failed, and at midnight Charles F. Pfister, a Mil- 
 waukee Stalwart leader, called on La Follette, who repeated to 
 me what he said: 
 
 ''La Follette, we've got you beaten. We've got your dele- 
 gates. It won't do you any good to squeal, and if you'll be- 
 have yourself we'll take care of you." 
 
 So La Follette had to go on with his fight. He would not 
 "behave." iHis followers wanted him to lead an independent 
 movement for governor; he wouldn't do that, but he made up 
 his mind to lead a movement for reform within the party, and 
 his experience with corrupted delegates set him to thinking 
 about methods of nomination. The System loomed large with 
 the growth of corporate wealth, the power of huge consolida- 
 tions over the individual and the unscrupulous use of both 
 money and powerV' Democracy was passing, and yet the peo- 
 ple were sound. Their delegates at home were representatives, 
 but shipped on passes to Milwaukee, treated, "entertained" 
 and bribed, they ceased to represent. The most important re- 
 form was to get the nomination back among the voters them- 
 selves. Thus La Follette, out of his own experience, took up 
 this issue— direct primary nominations by the Australian 
 ballot. J 
 
88 The Story of Governor La Follette 
 
 STALWARTS TAKE LA FOLLETTE 'S PLATFORM. 
 
 During the next two years La Follette made a propaganda 
 with this issue and railroad taxation, the taxation of other cor- 
 porations — express and sleeping car companies which paid 
 nothing— and the evils of a corrupt machine that stood for cor- 
 rupting capital. He sent out circulars and literature, some of 
 it the careful writings of scientific authors, but, most effective 
 of all, were the speeches he made at the county fairs. When 
 the time for the next republican state convention came around 
 in 1898, he held a conference with some thirty of his leaders 
 in Milwaukee, and he urged a campaign for their platform 
 alone, with no candidate. The others insisted that La Follette 
 run, and they were right in principle. As the event proved, 
 the Stalwarts were not afraid of a platform, if they could be 
 in office to make and carry out the laws. La Follette ran for 
 the nomination and was beaten— by the same methods that 
 were employed against him in '96; cost (insider's estimate), 
 $8,000. Scofield was renominated. 
 
 But the La FoUette-Hall platform was adopted— anti-pass, 
 , corporation taxation, primary election reform, and all. "They" 
 ^ say now in Wisconsin that La Follette is too practical ; that he 
 , has adopted machine methods, etc. Ibiriag- 1896, 1897 and 
 - 1898 they were saying he was an impracticable reformer, and 
 I yet here they were adopting his impracticable theories. And 
 [they enacted some of these reforms. The agitation (for La Fol- 
 llette is indeed an "agitator") made necessary some compliance 
 with public demand and platform promises, so Hall got his 
 anti-pass law at last; a commission to investigate taxation was 
 appointed, and there was some other good legislation. Yet, as 
 Mr. Hall says, "In effect, that platform was repudiated." The 
 railway commission reported that the larger companies, the 
 Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and the Northwestern, respec- 
 tively, did not pay their proportionate share of the taxes, and 
 a bill was introduced by Hall to raise the assessment. It passed 
 the house, but the senate had and has a "combine" like the 
 senates of Missouri and Illinois, and the combine beat the bill. 
 The failures of the legislature left all questions open and La 
 Follette and his followers continued their agitation. Mean- 
 
Lincoln Steffens \ 89 
 
 while Senator Sawyer died, and when the next governmental 
 election (1900) approached, all hope of beating La Follette was 
 gone. The Stalwarts began to come to him with offers of sup- 
 port. One of the first to surrender was J. W. Babcock, con- 
 gresman and national politician. Others followed, but not John 
 C. Spooner, Payne and Pfister, not yet. They brought out 
 for the nomination John M. WhiJ:ehead, a state senator with a 
 clean reputation and a good record. But in May (1900) La 
 Fojlette announced his candidacy on a ringing platform, and 
 he went campaigning down into the strongest Stalwart counties. 
 He carried enough of them to take the heart out of the old ring. 
 All other candidates withdrew and Senator Spooner, who is a 
 timid man, wrote a letter which, in view of his subsequent 
 stand for re-election, is a remarkable document; it declared 
 that he was unalterably determined not to run again for the 
 senate. La Follette was nominated unanimously, and his own 
 platform was adopted. The victory was complete. Though 
 the implacable Stalwarts supported the democratic candidate, 
 La Follette was elected by 102,000 plurality. 
 
 VICTORY, THE BEGINNING OF WAR. 
 
 Victory for reform is often defeat, and this triumph of La 
 Follette, apparently so complete, was but the beginning of the 
 greatest fight of all in Wisconsin, the fight that is being waged 
 out there now. Governor La Follette was inaugurated Janu- 
 ary 7, 1901. The legislature was overwhelmingly republican 
 and apparently there was perfect harmony in the party. The 
 governor believed there was. The Stalwart-Halfbreed lines 
 were not sharply drawn. The Halfbreeds counted a majority, 
 especially in the house, and A. E. Hall was the "logical" can- 
 didate for speaker. It was understood that he coveted the 
 honor, but he proposed and it was decided that, in the interest 
 of peace and fair play, a Stalwart should take the chair. The 
 governor says that the first sign he had of trouble was in the 
 newspapers, which, the day after the organization of the legis- 
 lature, reported that the Stalwarts controlled and that there 
 would be no primary election or tax legislation. The governor, 
 undaunted, sent in a firm message calling for the performance 
 
90 The Story of Governor La FoUetU 
 
 of all campaign promises, and bills to carry out campaign 
 pledges were introduced under the direction of the La Follette 
 leaders, Hall and Judge E. Ray Stevens, the author of the 
 primary election bill. These developed the opposition. There 
 were two (alternative) railway tax bills; others to tax corpora- 
 tions ; and, later, a primary election bill— nothing that was not 
 promised by a harmonious party, yet the outcry was startling 
 and the fight that followed was furious. Why? 
 
 LA FOLLETTE AND THE RAILROADS. 
 
 I have seen enough of the System to believe that that is the 
 way it works. I believe just such opposition, with just such 
 cries of ''boss," ''dictator," etc., will arise against Folk when 
 he is governor, and possibly against Deneen. And I believe 
 they will find their legislatures organized and corrupted 
 against them. But in the case of La Follette there was a "mis- 
 understanding." In the year (1900) when everything was La 
 Follette, Congressman Babcock, Postmaster-General Payne and 
 others sought to bring together the great ruling special 
 interests and the ine^atable governor. Governor La Follette 
 said, like President Roosevelt, that he would represent the cor- 
 porations of his state, just as he would represent all other in- 
 terests and persons ; but no more. He would be ' ' fair. ' ' Well, 
 that was ' ' all we want, ' ' they said, and the way seemed smooth. 
 It was like the incident in St. Louis where Folk told the bood- 
 lers he would "do his duty," and the boodlers answered, "Of 
 course, old man." 
 
 But some railroad men say La Follette promised in writing 
 to consult with them before bringing in railroad bills; there 
 was a certain famous letter written in the spring of 1900 to 
 Thomas H. Gill, an old friend of the governor, who is counsel 
 to the Wisconsin Central Railroad; this letter put the gov- 
 ernor on record. EveryT\^here I went I heard of this docu- 
 ment, and though the noise of it had resounded through the 
 state for four years, it had never been produced. Here it is: 
 
 Madison, Wis., May 12th, 1900. 
 Dear Tom : 
 
 You have been my personal and political friend for twenty 
 years. Should I become a candidate for the nomination for 
 
Lincoln Steffens 91 
 
 governor, I want your continued support, if you can consist- 
 ently accord it to me. But you are the attorney for the Wis- 
 consin Central R. R. Co., and I am not willing that you should 
 be placed in any position where you could be subjected to any 
 criticism or embarrassment with your employers on my ac- 
 count. For this reason, I desire to state to you in so far as 
 I am able my position in relation to the question of railway 
 taxation, which has now become one of public interest, and is 
 likely to so continue until rightly settled. This I can do in a 
 very few words. 
 
 Railroad corporations should pay neither more nor less than 
 a justly proportionate share of taxes with the other taxable 
 property of the state. If I were in a position to pass officially 
 upon a bill to change existing law, it would be my first care 
 to know whether the rate therein proposed was just in propor- 
 tion to the property of other corporations and individuals as 
 then taxed, or as therein proposed to be taxed. The deter- 
 mination of that question would be controlling. If such rate 
 was less than the justly proportionate share which should be 
 borne by the railroads, then I should favor increasing it to 
 make it justly proportionate. If the proposed rate was more 
 than the justly proportionate share, in comparison with the 
 property of other corporations, and of individuals taxed under 
 the law, then I should favor decreasing to make it justly pro- 
 portionate. 
 
 In other words, I would favor equal and exact justice to 
 each individual and to every interest, yielding neither to clamor 
 on the one hand, nor being swerved from the straight course 
 by any interest upon the other. This position, I am sure, is 
 the only one which could commend itself to you, and cannot 
 be criticised by any legitimate business honestly managed. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 The Mr. Gill to whom this letter was addressed is one of the 
 most enlightened and fair-minded corporation lawyers that I 
 ever met, even in the west, where corporation men also are en- 
 lightened. He convinced me that he and the other railroad 
 men really did expect more consideration than the governor 
 gave them, and so there may have been a genuine misunder- 
 standing. But after what I have seen in Chicago, St. Louis 
 and Pittsburg, and in Missouri and Illinois and the United 
 States, I am almost persuaded that no honest official in power 
 can meet the expectations of great corporations; they have 
 been spoiled, like bad American children, and are ever ready to 
 resort to corruption and force. That was their recourse now. 
 
92 The Story of Governor La Follette 
 
 Governor La Follette says he learned afterward that during 
 the campaign the old, corrupt ring went about in the legis- 
 lative districts, picking and ''fixing" legislators, and that the 
 plan was to discredit him with defeat by organizing the legis- 
 lature against him. However this may be, it is certain that 
 when his bills were under way, there was a rush to the lobby 
 at Madison. The regular lobbyists were reinforced with spe- 
 cial agents; local Stalwart leaders were sent for and federal 
 office holders; United States senators hurried home, and con- 
 gressmen and boodle, federal patronage, force and vice were 
 employed to defeat bills promised in the platform. Here is a 
 statement by Irvine L. Lenroot, now the speaker of the assem- 
 bly. He says: 
 
 OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE LOBBY. 
 
 "From the first day of the session the lobbyists were on the 
 ground in force, offering courtesies and entertainments of 
 various kinds to the members. Bribery is a hard word, a 
 charge, which never should be made unless it can be substan- 
 tiated. The writer has no personal knowledge of money being 
 actually offered or received for votes against the bill. It was, 
 however, generally understood in the assembly that any mem- 
 ber favoring the bill could better his financial condition if he 
 was willing to vote against it. Members were approached by 
 representatives of the companies and offered lucrative posi- 
 tions. This may not have been done with any idea of influ- 
 encing votes. The reader will draw his own conclusions. It 
 was a matter of common knowledge that railroad mileage could 
 be procured if a member was 'right.' Railroad lands could be 
 purchased very cheaply by members of the legislature. It was 
 said if a member got into a poker game with a lobbyist, the 
 member was sure to win. Members opposed to Governor La 
 Follette were urged to vote against the bill, because he wanted 
 it to pass. A prominent member stated that he did not dare to 
 vote for the bill, because he was at the mercy of the railroad 
 companies, and he was afraid they would ruin his business by 
 advancing his rates, if he voted for it." 
 
 I went to Superior and saw Mr. Lenroot, and he told me 
 
Lincoln Steffens 93 
 
 that one of the ''members approached by representatives of 
 the companies and offered positions," was himself. He gave 
 his bribery stories in detail, and enabled me to run down and 
 verify others; but the sentence that interested me most in his 
 statement was the last. The member who did not dare vote 
 for the railway tax bill, lest the railways raise the freight on 
 his goods and ruin his business, confessed to Governor La Fol- 
 lette and others. Another member stated that in return for his 
 treason to his constituents, a railroad quoted him a rate that 
 would give him an advantage over his competitors. 
 
 Well, these methods succeeded. The policy of the adminis- 
 tration was not carried out. Some good bills passed, but the 
 session was a failure. Not content with this triumph, how- 
 ever, the System went to work to beat La Follette, and to ac- 
 complish this end. La Follette 's methods were adopted, or, 
 rather, adapted. A systematic appeal was to be made to public 
 opinion. A meeting of the leading Stalwarts was held in the 
 eleventh story of an office building in Milwaukee, and a perma- 
 nent republican league of the state of Wisconsin was organized. 
 This became known as the ''Eleventh Story League." A 
 manifesto was put out "viewing with alarm the encroach- 
 ments of the executive upon the legislative branch of the gov- 
 ernment," etc., etc. (The encroachments of boodle business 
 upon all branches of the government is all right.) An army 
 of canvassers was dispatched over the state to interview per- 
 sonally every voter in the state and leave with him books and 
 pamphlets. Now this was democratic and fair, but that 
 league did one thing which is enough alone to condemn the 
 whole movement. It corrupted part of the country press. 
 This is not hearsay. The charge was made at the time these 
 papers swung suddenly around, and the league said it did not 
 bribe the editors; it "paid for space for league editorial mat- 
 ter, and for copies of the paper to be circulated." This is 
 bribery, as any newspaper man knows. But there was also 
 what even the league business man would call bribery; news- 
 paper men all over the state told me about direct purchase— 
 and cheap, too. It is sickening, but, for final evidence, I saw 
 affidavits, published in Wisconsin, by newspaper men, who were 
 approached with offers which they refused, and by others who 
 
94 The Story of Governor La Follette 
 
 sold out, then threw up their contracts and returned the bribes, 
 for shame or other reasons. 
 
 These "democratic" methods failed. When the time arrived 
 for the next republican state convention, the Stalwarts found 
 that the people had sent up delegates instructed for La Follette, 
 and he was nominated for a second term. What could the 
 Stalwarts do? They weren't even "regular" now. La Fol- 
 lette had the party, they had only the federal patronage and 
 the Big Business System. But the System had resources. 
 Wherever a municipal reform movement has hewed to the 
 line, the leaders of it, like Folk and the Chicago reformers, have 
 seen the forces of corruption retire from one party to the other 
 and from the city to the state. This Wisconsin movement for 
 state reform now had a similar experience. The Wisconsin 
 System, driven out of the republican, went over to the demo- 
 cratic party; that had not been reformed; beaten out of power 
 in the state, it retreated to the towns; they had not been re- 
 formed. 
 
 THE SYSTEM IN THE TOWNS. 
 
 ' The System in many of the Wisconsin municipalities was 
 intact. There had been no serious municipal reform move- 
 ments anywhere, and the citizens of Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Green 
 Bay, etc., were prettty well satisfied, and they are still, ap- 
 parently. "We're nothing like Minneapolis, St. Louis, and the 
 rest," they told me with American complacency. Green Bay 
 was exactly like Minneapolis; we know it because the wretched 
 little place has been exposed since. And Marinette and Osh- 
 kosh, unexposed, are said by insiders to be "just like Green 
 Bay." As for Milwaukee, that is St. Louis over again. 
 
 District Attorney Bennett has had grand juries at work 
 in Milwaukee since 1901, and he has some 42 persons indicted— 
 12 aldermen, 10 supervisors, 9 other officials, 1 state senator, 
 and 10 citizens; four convictions and three pleas of guilty. 
 The grafting so far exposed is petty, but the evidence in hand 
 indicates a highly perfected boodle system. The republicans 
 had the county, the democrats the city, and both the council 
 and the board of supervisors had combines which grafted on 
 contracts, public institutions, franchises, and other business 
 
Lincoln Steffens 95 
 
 privileges. The corrupt connection of business and politics 
 was shown; the informants were merchants and contractors, 
 mostly small men, who confessed to bribery. The biggest caught 
 so far is Colonel Pabst, the brewer, who paid a check for $1,500 
 for leave to break a building law. But all signs point higher 
 than beer, to more "legitimate" political business. As in Chi- 
 cago, a bank is the center of this graft, and public utility com- 
 panies are back of it. The politicians in the boards of man- 
 agement, now or formerly, show that. It is a bi-partizan sys- 
 tem all through. Henry C. Payne, while chairman of the re- 
 publican state central committee, and E. C. Wall (the man 
 the "Wisconsin democracy offered the national democratic con- 
 vention for president of the United States), while chairman of 
 the democratic state central committee, engineered a consolida- 
 tion of Milwaukee street railway and electric lighting compa- 
 panies, and, when the job was done, Payne became manager of 
 the street railway. Wall of the light comapny. But this was 
 "business." There was no scandal about it. 
 [ The great scandal of Milwaukee was the extension of street 
 railway franchises, and the men who put that through were 
 Charles F. Pfister, the Stalwart republican boss, and David S. 
 Rose, the Stalwart democratic mayor. Money was paid: the 
 extension was boodled through. The Milwaukee Sentinel re- 
 printed a paragraph saying Pfister, among others, did the brib- 
 ing, and thus it happened that the Stalwarts got that paper. 
 Pfister sued for libel, but when the editors (now on the Milwau- 
 kee Free Press) made answer that their defense would be proof 
 of the charge, the millionaire traction man bought the paper 
 and its evidence too. It is no more than fair to add— as Mil- 
 waukee newspaper men always do (with delight) —that the 
 paper had very little evidence, not nearly so much as Pfister 
 seemed to think it had. As for Mayor Eose, his friends de- 
 clare that he has told them, personally and convincingly, that 
 he got not one cent for his service. But that is not the point. 
 Mayor Rose fought to secure for special interests a concession 
 which sacrificed the common interests of the city. I am aware 
 that he defends the terms of the grants as fair, and they would 
 seem so in the east, but the west is intelligent on special privi- 
 leges, and Mayor Rose lost to Milwaukee the chance Chicago 
 seized to settle the public utility problem. Moreover, Rose knew 
 
96 The Story of Governor La Follette 
 
 that his council was corrupt before it was proven so; he told 
 two business men that they couldn't get a privilege they sought 
 honestly from him, without bribing aldermen. Yet he ridi- 
 culed as ''hot air" an investigation which nevertheless pro- 
 duced evidence enough to defeat at the polls, in a self-respect- 
 ing city, the head of an administration so besmirched. Mil- 
 waukee re-elected Rose; good citizens say they gave man the 
 benefit of the doubt— the man, not the city. 
 
 But this is not the only explanation. The System was on 
 trial with Mayor Rose in that election, and the System saved 
 its own. The republicans, with the Rose administration ex- 
 posed, had a chance to win, and they nominated a good man, 
 Mr. Guy D. Goff. Pfister, the Stalwart republican boss, seemed 
 to support Goff; certainly the young candidate had no suspi- 
 cion to the contrary. He has now, however. When the re- 
 turns came in showing that he was beaten, Mr. Goff hunted up 
 Mr. Pfister, and he found him. Mr. Goff, the republican can- 
 didate for mayor, found Charles F. Pfister, the Stalwart repub- 
 lican boss, rejoicing over the drinks with the elected democratic 
 mayor, David S. Rose. 
 
 BOTH RINGS AGAINST LA FOLLETTE. 
 
 I guess Mr. Goff knows that a bi-partizan System rules Mil- 
 waukee, and, by the same token. Governor La Follette knows 
 there is a bi-partizan System in Wisconsin. For when Gov- 
 ernor La Follette beat the Stalwarts in the republican state 
 convention of 1902, those same Stalwarts combined with the 
 democrats. Democrats told me that the republican Stalwarts 
 dictated the ''democratic" anti-La Follette platform and that 
 Pfister, the "republican" boss, named the "safe man" chosen 
 for the "democratic" candidate for governor to run against 
 La Follette— said David S. Rose. 
 
 "They" say in Wisconsin that La Follette is a democrat; 
 that "he appeals to democratic voters." He does. He admits 
 it, but he adds that it is indeed to the democratic voters that 
 he appeals— not to the democratic machine. And he gets demo- 
 cratic votes. "They" complain that he has split the republi- 
 can party; he has, and he has split the democratic party too. 
 When "they" united the two party rings of the bi-partizan 
 
Lincoln Steffens 97 
 
 System against La Follette in 1902, lie went out after the 
 voters of both parties, and those voters combined; they beat 
 Rose ,the two rings, and the System. The people of Wisconsin 
 re-elected La Follette, the "unsafe," and that is why the 
 trouble is so great in Wisconsin. The System there is down. 
 
 The defeat of Rose did not beat them. The Stalwarts still 
 had the senate, and they manned the l ^bby to beat the railroad 
 tax and the primary election bills. But Governor La Follette 
 outplayed them at the great game. He long had been study- 
 ing the scheme for a state commission to regulate railway 
 freight rates. It was logical. If their taxes were increased 
 the roads could take the difference out of the people by rais- 
 ing freight rates. Other states had such commissions, and in 
 some of them, notably Iowa and Illinois, the rates were lower 
 than in Wisconsin. Moreover, we all know that railroads give 
 secret rebates and otherwise discriminate in favor of individu- 
 als and localities. 
 
 When then, the battle lines were drawn on the old bills in the 
 legislature of 1903, the governor threw into the fight a brist- 
 ling message calling for a commission to regulate railway rates. 
 The effect was startling. '^Populism," "Socialism," "they" 
 cried, and they turned to rend this new bill. They let the tax 
 bill go through to fight this fresh menace to "business." They 
 held out against the primary election bill also, for, if that 
 passed they feared the people might keep La Follette in power 
 forever. Even that, however, they let pass finally, with an 
 amendment for a referendum. Concentrating upon the rate 
 commission bill, Big Business organized business men's mass 
 meetings throughout the state, and with the help of favored or 
 timid shippers, sent committees to Madison to protest to the 
 legislature. Thus this bill was beaten by Business and, with 
 the primary election referendum, is an issue in this year's 
 campaign. 
 
 * As I have tried to show, however, the fundamental issue lies 
 deeper. The people of Wisconsin understand this. The Stal- 
 warts dread the test at the polls. But what other appeal was 
 there? They knew one. When the republican state conven- 
 tion met this year, the Stalwarts bolted; whatever the result 
 might have been of a fight in the convention, they avoided it 
 and held a separate convention in another hall, hired in ad- 
 
 5 
 
98 The Story of Governor La Follette 
 
 vance. The Halfbreeds renominated La Follette ; the Stalwarts 
 put up another ticket. To the Stalwart convention came Post- 
 master-General Payne, United States Senators Spooner and 
 Quarles, Stalwart .congressmen and federal office holders — the 
 federal System. \ The broken state System was appealing to 
 the United States System, and the republican national conven- 
 tion at Chicago was to decide the case. And it did decide— for 
 the System. I attended that convention, and heard what was 
 said privately and honestly. The republicans who decided for 
 Payne-Spooner-Pfister-Babcock, etc., said ''La Follette isn't 
 really a republican anyhow." 
 
 Isn't he? That is a most important question. True, he is 
 very democratic essentially. He helped to draw the McKinley 
 tariff law and he is standing now on the national republican 
 platform; his democracy consists only in the belief that the 
 citizens elected to represent the people should represent the 
 people, not the corrupt special interests. Both parties should 
 be democratic in that sense. But they aren't. Too often we 
 have found both parties representing graft— big business graft. 
 The people, especially in the west, are waking to a realization 
 of this state of things and (taking a hint from the Big Graft- 
 ers) they are following leaders who see that the way to restore 
 government representative of the common interests of the city 
 or state, is to restore to public opinion the control of the domi- 
 nant party. The democrats of Missouri have made their party 
 democratic; the republicans of Illinois have made their party 
 democratic. The next to answer should be the people of Wis- 
 consin, The Stalwarts hope the courts will decide. They hope 
 their courts will uphold the decision of the national republican 
 party, that they, who represent all that is big and bad in busi- 
 ness and politics, are the regular ''republicans."- This isn't 
 •" right. The people of Wisconsin are not radicals ; they are law- 
 abiding, conservative, and fair. They will lay great store by 
 what their courts shall rule, but this is a question that should 
 be left wholly to the people themselves. And they are to be 
 trusted, for, no matter how men may differ about Governor La 
 Follette otherwise, his long, hard fight has developed citizen- 
 ship in Wisconsin— honest, reasonable, intelligent citizenship, 
 knd that is better than "business"; that is what business and 
 government are for — men. 
 
WISCONSIN PRIMARY ELECTION LAW 
 
 AN ACT to provide for party nominations by direct vote. 
 '^"£''l^t°'a^loU^Jl. "' ^'-<=<"^-. represented in Senate and Assembly. 
 
 S'S ™- - ^'^»e'M^o"n'^?^e^nt VS.V!f%£;^X^%S^ 
 
 I' Sf ZZ^ "P^™f^yv tl^e primary election provided for bv this act- 
 
 from a'^pHml^T^l'SnT'" ^ ^^"'"'^' "^ ""^ '"^'="™' ^^ distinguished 
 vembe?'""* """'"^ "November election," the general election held in No- 
 
 qu4me?t,eX?s"v^o7e^'"af oneM,'.i;jfpfal^^"*^^ "^ '-- ""»'" which all 
 This statute shall be liberally construed, so that the real win r.t th. 
 an°D?ovi,T/,"n°f't''vf„f ''^^* "^5' ^"^ informality or^faitoe to comply 'wUh 
 KScTng°'o/^1,e^Tii?ar?T"LrTi,ytS-thi'^%¥u7,"s^h1reT"^^^^ 
 e,eftfv"e^'^fe'c'ls SZ ."e^Tjlf.el?^''''''" ' «--"- a'.'J^?a''n'didates for 
 
 1. By a primary held in accordance with this act. or 
 utes. noniination papers, sigmed and filed as provided by existing stat- 
 
 nnr^"in=,^oHH^ Tif '^''^^^^^ ^°^ *^^ ^^^^ of United States senator shall be 
 ?ors?ate offices '"^''''^' P"°^^^^*^ ^^^^^^ fo^ the nomination of candidates 
 
 offi Je^'of^ sta?e^ snnJrin^^.^H^. ^? ^^^""'^^ elections to fill vacancies nor to the 
 
 o^?.^io + f supenntendent, to country and district superintendents of 
 
 schools, to town, village, and school district officers nor to judicial ^ffice?s 
 
 l^i*^''fr.ir^^''v!,J"'"^^!,^"lJ"^**^^« °f the peace in cities.^ ^^""^ 
 
 Primar es. When and Where Held.— Section 3. 1. The Sentember nri- 
 
 ^rst'Tuptd^v^f^^c;^ f' i^^ \%T^'^' P°"*"^ P^^^^s i^^aSh pr^cinS on'ihe 
 «on of fn P^PHdM^t^^T^t""' 1906. and biennially thereafter for the nomina- 
 
 2 Ar^v r.,.1^cv^^ ^.v.*'' ^.l ^'""^^^ ^°^^ ^t the next November election, 
 weeks b?fo?pThP^i^^tf.''. V"^"" l^\ September primary shall be held two 
 weeKs Detore the election for which such primary is held. 
 
 Notice of Primaries, How Given.— Section 4. 1. At least sixtv davs bp- 
 shall 'nrl.«S%?d holding such September primary, the ?ecre\a?y 'iTst^fe 
 shall prepare and transmit to each county, town, city and village clerk, a 
 
 ^nr^^Ll^^^^'l^'^'^J^^^'^^^'''^ *he offices for which candidates are to be 
 nominated, at such primary. 
 
 i-c^J'^y^^^u ^^^^}P^ of such notice, such county clerk, shall, not less than 
 
 ten days thereafter, publish so much thereof as may be applicable to his 
 
 county, once m each week for six consecutive weeks in at least two, and 
 
 countv ^^'^ "^^^' newspapers of general circulation published in said ' 
 
 3. Each town, village, and city clerk shall within ten days after the re- 
 ceipt or such notice cause notice of such primary to be posted in three pub- 
 lic places m each precinct in his town, city, or village; such notice shall 
 state the time when, and place where, the primary will be held in each 
 precmct therein, together with the offices for which candidates are to be 
 nominated. 
 
 4. In case of city elections, the city clerk shall cause one publication 
 ot such notice to be given, and shall also post such notice in three public 
 places in each election precinct therein, such publication and posting to be 
 not more than twenty and not less than ten days before such primary 
 election. 
 
 5. Each county clerk shall, on the first Tuesday of June, 1906, and bi- 
 ennially thereafter, transmit to the secretary of state the name and post- 
 offlce address of each town, city, and village clerk in his county. 
 
100 Wisconsin Primary Election Law 
 
 Nomination Papers, How Prepared and Signed.— Section 5. 1. The name 
 
 of no candidate shall be printed upon an official ballot used at any primary 
 unless at least thirty days prior to such primary a nomination paper shall 
 have been filed in his behalf as provided in this act in substantially the 
 following- form: . 
 
 I. the undersigned, a qualified elector of (the precmct of the 
 
 town of .) or (the precinct of the ward 
 
 of the city of ), county of and state of Wis- 
 consin, and a member of the party, hereby nominate 
 
 , who resides (at No on street, city of 
 
 ) or (in the town of ), in the county of 
 
 , as a candidate for the office of (here specify the office) 
 
 to be voted for at the primary to be held on the first Tues- 
 day of September, 19 , as representing the principle of said party, and 
 
 I further declare that I intend to support the candidate named herein. 
 
 Name of Signkk 
 
 (In Cities) 
 
 
 Street 
 
 No. 
 
 Date of Signing 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2. All nomination papers shall have substantially the above form writ- 
 ten or printed at the top thereof. No signatures shall be counted unless 
 they be upon sheets each having such form written or printed at the top 
 thereof. 
 
 3. Each signer of a nomination paper shall sign but one such paper 
 for the same office, and shall declare that he intends to support the candi- 
 date named therein; he shall add his residence, with street and number, 
 if any, and the date of signing. 
 
 4. For all nominations, except state officers, all signers of each sepa- 
 rate nomination paper shall reside in the same precinct. For state officers, 
 all signers on each separate nomination paper shall reside in the same 
 county. The affidavit of a qualified elector shall be appended to each such 
 nomination paper, stating that he is personally acquainted with all persons 
 who have signed the same, and that he knows them to be electors of that 
 precinct or county, as the nomination papers shall require; that he knows 
 that they signed the same with full knowledge of the contents thereof and 
 that their respective residences are stated therein and that each signer 
 signed the same on the date stated opposite his name, and that he, the 
 affiant, intends to support the candidate named therein. Such affidavit shall 
 not be made by the candidate, but each candidate shall file with the nomi- 
 nation paper, or papers, a declaration that he will qualify as such officer 
 if nominated and elected. 
 
 5. Such nomination papers shall be signed. — 
 
 (a) If for a state office by at least one per cent, of the voters of the 
 party of such candidate in at least each of six counties in the state, and 
 in the aggregate riot less than one per cent, of the total vote of his party 
 in the state. ^ - ^. 
 
 (b) If for a representative in congress, by at least two per cent, of the 
 voters of his party in at least one-tenth of the election precincts in each of 
 at least one -half of the counties of the congressional district, and in the 
 aggregate not less than two per cent, of the total vote of his party in such 
 district. 
 
 (c) If for an office representing less than a congressional district in 
 area, or a county office, by at least three per cent, of the party vote in at 
 least one-sixth of the election precincts of such district and in the aggre- 
 gate not less than three per cent, of the total vote of his party in such 
 district 
 
 The basis of percentage in each case shall be the vote of the party for 
 the presidential elector receiving the largest vote at the last preceding 
 presidential election. , , . , ^ ^, , ^ -,. , , 
 
 But any political organization which at the last preceding general elec- 
 tion was represented on the official ballot by either regular party candidates 
 or bv individual nominees only, may, upon complying with the provisions 
 of this act, have a separate primary election ticket as a political party, if 
 anv of its candidates or individual nominees received one per cent, of the 
 total vote cast at the last preceding general election in the state, or sub- 
 division thereof, in which the candidate seeks the nomination. 
 
 Nomination papers may also be filed for non-partisan candidates; such 
 papers shall contain at least two per cent, of the total vote cast at the last 
 
Wisconsin Primary Election Law 101 
 
 preceding general election in the state, or subdivision thereof, in which the 
 ^fjr^ ^^ a candidate, such signers to be distributed in each case as re- 
 quired by the provisions of this act. 
 
 .v,on°K'"^i'°," Papers, Where Filed— Section 6. All nomination papers 
 shall be filed as follows: ^ ^ 
 
 1. For state officers, United States senator, representatives in congress 
 and those members of senate and assembly whose districts comprise mora 
 than one county, m the office of the secretary of state 
 
 2 For officers to be voted for wholly within one county, in the office 
 of the county clerk of such county. '^•"">t; 
 
 3. For city officers, in the office of the city clerk 
 
 Publication of Names of Candidates.— Section 7. At least twentv-five 
 days before any primary preceding a general election, the secretary of 
 state shall transmit to each county clerk a certified list containing the 
 name and post pffice address of each person for whom nomination papers 
 have been filed m his office, and entitled to be voted for at such primary 
 together with a designation of the office for which he is a candidate and 
 the party or principle he represents. 
 
 Such clerk shall forthwith upon receipt thereof publish under the proner 
 party designation, the title of each office, the names and addresses of all 
 persons for whom nomination papers have been filed, giving the name and 
 address of each, the date of the primary, the hours during which the polls 
 will be opened, and that the primary will be held at the regular polling 
 places in each precinct. ^ ^ 
 
 It shall be the duty of the county clerk to publish such notice for three 
 consecutive weeks prior to said primary. 
 
 Such clerk shall also forthwith mail copies of such notice to each town 
 village, and city clerk of his county, who shall immediately post copies of 
 the same in at least three public places in each precinct in his town vil- 
 lage or city, designating therein the location of the polling booth in ' each 
 election precinct 
 
 Publication of Notices.— Section 8. Every publication required in this 
 act shall be made in at least two, and not to exceed four newspapers of 
 general circulation in such county or city, one of such newspapers shall rep- 
 resent the political party that cast the largest vote in such county or city 
 at the preceding general election, and one of such newspapers shall repre- 
 sent the political party that cast the next largest vote in such county or 
 city at the preceding general election. 
 
 In any case where the publication of a notice cannot be made, as here- 
 inbefore required, it may be made in any newspaper having a general cir- 
 culation in the county or city in which the notice is required to be pub- 
 lished. 
 
 Official Ballots.— Section 9. An official ballot shall be printed and pro- 
 vided for use at each voting precinct in the form provided herein and an- 
 nexed hereto. The names of all candidates for the respective offices, for 
 whom the nomination papers prescribed shall have been duly filed, shall 
 be printed thereon. 
 
 Preparation and Distribution of Ballots.— Section 10. 1. At least twenty 
 days before the September primary each county clerk shall prepare sample 
 official ballots, placing thereon, alphabetically, under the appropriate title of 
 each office and party designation, the names of all candidates to be voted 
 for in the precinct of his county, for whom nomination papers have been 
 filed. Such sample ballot shall be printed upon tinted or colored paper and 
 shall contain no blank endorsement or certificate. 
 
 2. Such clerk shall forthwith submit the ticket of each party to the 
 county chairman thereof and mail a copy to each candidate for whom 
 nomination papers have been filed with him as required by this act. to his 
 postoffice address, as given in such nomination paper, and he shall post a 
 copy of each sample ballot in a conspicuous place in his office. 
 
 3. On the tenth day before such primary the county clerk shall cor- 
 rect any errors or omissions in the ballot, cause the same to be printed and 
 distributed as required by law in the case of ballots for the general elec- 
 tion, except that the number of ballots to be furnished to each precinct 
 shall be twice the number of votes cast thereat in the last preceding gen- 
 eral election. 
 
 Expenses of Primary, How Paid. — Section 11. All ballots, blanks, and 
 other supplies to be used at any primary, and all expenses necessarily in- 
 curred in the preparation for or conducting such primary, shall be paid out 
 of the treasury of the city, county, or state, as the case may be, in the 
 same manner, with like effect, and by the same officers as in the case of 
 elections. 
 
 Conduct of Primaries — Manner of Voting. — Section 12. 1. The provisions 
 of chapter 5, statutes of 1898, shall be applicable to the conduct of pri- 
 maries where not otherwise provided. Section 47, statutes of 1898, is hereby 
 amended so that all election officers shall be chosen or appointed in the 
 manner therein provided, except that such choice shall be made In the 
 month of August instead of September, as therein now provided. 
 
102 Wisconsin Primary Election Lckw 
 
 2. The polls at primaries shall be open: 
 
 (a) In cities, from six o'clock in the morning until nine o'clock m the 
 ©vGnins" 
 
 (b) In all other precincts, from eight o'clock in the morning until eight 
 o'clock in the evening; 
 
 3. At all primaries there shall be an Australian ballot made up of the 
 several party* tickets herein provided for, all of which shall be securely 
 fastened together at the top and folded, provided that there shall be as 
 manv separate tickets as there are parties entitled to participate in said 
 primarv election. There shall also be attached a non-partisan ticket upon 
 which, 'under the appropriate title of each ofhce shall be printed the names 
 of all persons for whom nomination papers shall have been filed, as repuired 
 by this act, who are not designated on such nomination papers as candi- 
 dates of any political party, as defined by this act. The names of all can- 
 didates shall be arranged alphabetically according to surnames under the 
 appropriate title of the respective offices and under the proper party desig- 
 nation upon the party ticket or upon the non-partisan ticket as the case 
 may be. If any elector write upon his ticket the name of any person who 
 is a candidate for the same office upon some other ticket than that upon 
 which his name is so written, this ballot shall be counted for such person 
 onlv as a candidate of the party upon whose ticket his name is written, 
 and shall in no case be counted for such person as a candidate upon any 
 other ticket. In case the person is nominated upon more than one ticket, 
 he shall forthwith file with the proper officer, or officers in charge of the 
 preparation of the ballots, a written declaration indicating the party desig- 
 nation under which his name is to be printed on the official ballot. Ihe 
 ballots with the endorsements shall be in substantially the form heretofore 
 annexed, provided that ballots for any city primary may be varied as to 
 the title of the offices to be printed thereon, so as to conform to the law 
 under which each such primary is held. The provisions of section 51. stat- 
 utes of 1898, so far as applicable shall govern the preparation of the ballot. 
 After preparing his ballot, the elector shall detach the same from the re- 
 maining tickets and fold it so that its face will be concealed and th"e 
 printed endorsements and signatures or initials thereon seen. The remain- 
 ing tickets attached together shall be folded in like manner by the elector 
 who shall thereupon, without leaving the polling place, vote the marked 
 ballot forthwith, and deposit the remaining tickets in the separate ballot 
 box to be marked and designated as the blank ballot box. Immediately 
 after the canvass, the inspectors shall, without examination, destroy the 
 tickets deposited in the blank ballot box. 
 
 Vacancies, How Filled.— Section 13. Vacancies occurring after the hold- 
 ing of any primary shall be filled by the party committee of the city, dis- 
 trict, county or state as the case may be. ^ „ ^ 
 
 Voting and Registration at Primaries,— Sect4on 14. 1. No person shall be 
 entitled to vote at anv primary unless a qualified elector of the precmct 
 and duly registered therein, if registration thereat be required by law. 
 
 2. Every primary election day and the Monday next preceding it. 
 shall be registration days, where registration is required, on which the in- 
 spectors shall exercise the powers prescribed by sections 25 and 26. statutes 
 of 1898; but no person shall be registered on or after the day of holding the 
 primary without personally appearing before the inspectors. 
 
 3. The inspectors shall register any person who shall on any registra- 
 tion dav file an oath or affirmation to the effect that he is a qualified 
 elector in such precinct, or when they personally know him to be such. 
 
 4 Any person registered on either of said days as prescribed herein, 
 shall be entitled to vote at the succeeding election without other regis- 
 
 5. There shall be no other registration day or days for either a pri- 
 mary, a general or a city election, except that prescribed by section 27, of 
 the statutes of 1898. . , .^ . • ^ .v,5c 
 
 6. No voter shall be required to register under the provisions of this 
 act where registration is not now required by law. . ^ .. . 
 
 7 The inspectors shall be in session for the purpose of registration from 
 nine o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock in the evening, except that 
 on the dav of holding the primary they shall be in session from six o clock 
 in the morning until nine o'clock in the evening. No inspector or clerk 
 shall be paid to exceed three dollars as compensation for his services on 
 any registration, primary, general or city election day. 
 
 Chalienqes.— Section 15. The party committee of each precinct may ap- 
 Doint in writing over their signatures, two party agents or representatives, 
 with an alternate for each, who shall act as challengers for their respective 
 parties, and have the power prescribed by section 46, statutes of 1898. ine 
 right of any person to vote at a primary may be challenged upon the same 
 ground and his right to vote be determined in the same manner as at an 
 election. The chairman of each party committee of any precinct may rep- 
 resent his party at the polling booth during the canvass and return of the 
 vote at a primary, or he may appoint an agent or designate a member of 
 his committee for that purpose. 
 
Wisconsin Primary Election Law 103 
 
 Canvass of Votes. — Section 16. Canvass of votes cast shall, except as 
 herein otherwise provided, be made in the same manner and by the same 
 officers as the canvass of an election. The party chairman of the precinct 
 in a precinct canvass, of the county in a county canvass, of the state in a 
 state canvass, or some duly appointed agent to represent each party shall 
 be allowed to be present and observe the proceedings. 
 
 1. The precinct inspectors of election shall, on separate sheets, on 
 blanks to be provided for that purpose, make full and accurate returns of 
 the votes cast for each candidate, and shall within twenty-four hours cause 
 to be delivered one copy of such returns as to each political party, to the 
 county chairman of that party and also cause such returns to be delivered 
 to the county clerk, if a September primary, or to the chairman of the city 
 committee and city clerk if a city primary, provided always that such re- 
 turns shall be sent by registered mail where practicable. 
 
 2. The county canvass of the returns of the September primary shall be 
 made by the same officers and in the same manner provided in chapter 5, 
 statutes of 1898, for the canvass of the returns of a November election. 
 The canvassers shall meet and canvass such returns at ten o'clock on the 
 Friday following the September primary. Their returns shall contain the 
 whole number of votes cast for each candidate of each political party, and 
 a duplicate as to each political party shall be delivered to the county chair- 
 man of such party. 
 
 3. The canvassers shall also make an additional duplicate return in the 
 same form as provided in subdivision 2. showing the votes cast for each 
 candidate not voted for wholly within the limits of the county. The county 
 clerk shall forthwith send to the secretary of state by registered mail one 
 complete copy of all returns as to such candidates, and he shall likewise 
 send to the chairman of the state central committee of each party a duph- 
 cate copy of the returns last described relating to such candidates of each 
 such party. 
 
 State Board of Canvassers, How Constituted and Governed. — Section 17. 
 The board of canvassers provided for by section 93, statutes of 1898, to 
 canvass returns of a November election, shall constitute the state board of 
 canvassers of September primaries, and all the provisions of section 94 and 
 94b inclusive of said statutes relating to the canvass of the return of a 
 November election, shall, as far as applicable, apply to the canvass, re- 
 turn, and certification to the secretary of state of such primary. Such 
 board shall meet at the office of the secretary of state at 10 o'clock a. m. 
 on the third Tuesday of September next after the September primary. 
 
 Party Candidates.— Section IS. 1. The person receiving the greatest num- 
 ber of votes at a primarv as the candidate of a party for an office, shall 
 be the candidate of that party for such office, and his name as such candi- 
 date shall be placed on the official ballot at the following election. 
 
 2. As soon as a state canvass of a primary shall be certified to him, 
 the secretarv of state shall publish in the official state paper a certified 
 statement of the result of such primary as to candidates for state officers. 
 United States senators and representatives in congress, and any other can- 
 didate whose district extends beyond the limits of a single county, and shall 
 mail to the chairman of the state central committee of each party so mtich 
 of such certificate as relates to his party. ^ ^^ j. ■, 
 
 Secretary of State to Certify to County Clerks.— Section 19. 1. Not less 
 than fourteen days before any November election the secretary of state 
 shall certify to the county clerk of each county within which any of the 
 electors may vote for the candidates for such offices, the name and de- 
 scription of each person nominated for any such office as specified in tne 
 nomination papers. ,. . . .^ o. ^- oa 
 
 City Beard of Canvassers; Quorum; iVIeetmgs, When Held.— Section JO. 
 The canvass of the returns of a city primary shall be made by the mayor, 
 the citv clerk, and the treasurer of such city, any two of whom shall^ con- 
 stitute' a quorum. Such board of canvassers shall meet at eleven o clock 
 in the forenoon of the day following the city primary and canvass the vote 
 substantiallv as provided by sections 82 and 83. statutes of 1898. They shall 
 make and certifv duplicate returns as to the votes cast for the candidates 
 and forthwith certify and file one complete return with tne city clerk and 
 deliver so much of the other as relates to each party to the respective city 
 
 ^ ^S?"fl?'as applicable and not otherwise provided herein, the provisions of 
 this act shall applv to all city primaries, provided that the nomination papers 
 therefor shall be filed at least fifteen days, a list of candidate posted and 
 published at least ten days, and the official ballot printed at least four 
 days before the day for holding such primaries. . ,,^t«^ 
 
 Party Committees.— Section 21. 1. At the September primary each voter- 
 may write in the space left on his ticket for that purpose the names of not 
 to exceed three quahfied electors of the precinct for members of his party 
 precinct committee. The three having the highest number of votes shall 
 Constitute such committee, and the one having the largest vote shall be 
 chairman The official return made by the inspectors shall show the name 
 and address of each party committeeman chosen. 
 
104 Wisconsin Pt'imary Electioii Law 
 
 2. The party committee of each city and county and of each assembly- 
 district shall consist of the party chairman of each precinct in such city, 
 county, or district; the state senatorial district committee of the chair- 
 man of the assembly district committees in such senatorial district; the 
 congressional committees of the party chairman of the senatorial district 
 committees, wholly or partially, within such congressional district; the 
 state central committee as hereinafter provided. Each such committee 
 shall choose its officers by ballot excepting as herein provided. 
 
 3. Each committee and its officers shall have the powers usually exer- 
 cised bv such committees, and by the officers thereof, m so far as is con- 
 sistent with this act. The various officers and committees now m existence 
 shall exercise the powers and perform the duties herein prescribed until 
 their successors are chosen in accordance with this act. At all meetings 
 of said city, county and assembly district committees, each precinct chair- 
 man shall have one vote for every fifty votes, or major fraction thereof, 
 cast by his party in his precinct at the last general election, each such 
 chairman to have at least one vote, the vote at such general election to be 
 determined as provided in section 5 of this act. The duties of the P^^^y 
 precinct chairman, when he shall be unable to perform the same, shall be 
 performed by a member of his party precinct committee designated by 
 him. The duties of the chairman or secretary of any other committee may 
 be performed by members of such committee, selected by such chairman or 
 secretary. Any vacancy in any committee office shall be filled m the sarne 
 manner as that in which such officer was originally chosen, except that in 
 the case of a vacancy in the chairmanship of a precmct committee, the 
 committee shall elect one of its members to fill such vacancy. 
 
 Party Platform.— Section 22. The candidates for the variolis srate offices, 
 and for senate and assembly nominated by each political party at such 
 primary, shall meet at the capitol at twelve o'clock noon on the fourth 
 Tuesday of September after the date on which any primary is held pre- 
 liminary to any general election. They shall forthwith formulate the state 
 platform of their party. They shall thereupon proceed to elect a state 
 central committee of at least two members from each cong-ressional district 
 and a chairman of such committee, and perform such other business as 
 may properly be brought before such meeting. The platform of each party 
 shall be framed at such time that it shall be made public, not later than 
 six o'clock in the afternoon of the following day. , . ^i, 4.4 
 
 Miscellaneous Provisions.— Section 23. 1. In case of a tie vote, the tie 
 shall forthwith be determined by lot by the canvassers. 
 
 2. It shall be the duty of the secretary of state and attorney general, 
 on or before July 1st, 1905. to prepare all forms necessary to carry out the 
 provisions of this act. which forms shall be substantially followed in all 
 primaries held in pursuance hereof. Such forms shall be printed with 
 copies of this act for public use and distribution. Every day on which a 
 September primary shall be held shall be a legal holiday. 
 
 The Penal Provision.- Section 24. 1. Any person who shall offer, or 
 with knowledge of the same, permit any person to offer for his benefit any 
 bribe to a voter to induce him to sign any election paper to any person who 
 shall accept any such bribe or promise of gain of any kind m the nature 
 of a bribe as cosideration for signing the same, whether such bribe or 
 promise of gain in the nature of a bribe be offered or accepted before or 
 after such signing, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon trial and 
 conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor 
 more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail of 
 not less than ten days nor more than six months, or by both fine and im- 
 pnsonmen .^^^ declared an offense by the general laws of this state con- 
 cerning caucuses and elections shall also, in like case, be an offense in all 
 primaries and shall be punished in the same form and manner as therein 
 provided, and all the penalties and provisions of the law as to such cau- 
 cuses and elections, except as herein otherwise provided, sha apply in such 
 case with equal force, and to the same extent as though fully set forth m 
 
 3 Any person who shall forge any name of a signer or witness to a 
 nomination paper shall be deemed guilty of forgery, and on conviction pun- 
 ished accordingly. Any person who, being in possession of nomination 
 papers eXled^fo be filed under this act. or any act of the legislature 
 shall wrongfullv either suppress, neglect, or fail to cause the same to be 
 filed at the pr6per time in the proper office shall upon conviction, be pun- 
 ished bv imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed six months, or by a 
 fine not to exceed five hundred dollars, or by both such fine and imprison- 
 ment in the discretion of the court. or mv, • • t ^r^r.^ 
 
 General Election Laws to Apply.— Secnon 25. The provisions of the 
 statutes now in force in relation to the holding of elections, the solicitation 
 of voters at the polls, the challenging of voters the manner of conducting 
 elections of counting the ballots and making return thereof, and all other 
 
Wisconsin Primary Election Law 105 
 
 kindred subjects, shall apply to all primaries in so far as they are con- 
 sistent with this act, the intent of this act being to place the primary 
 under the regulation and protection of the laws now in force as to elections. 
 
 Submission of Act to Vote of People; When to Take Effect if Approved. — 
 Section 26. The question whether the foregoing provisions of this act 
 shall take effect and be in force shall be submitted to the people of this 
 state, in the manner provided by law for the submission of an amendment 
 to the constitution, at the next general election to be held in November, 1904. 
 
 If approved by a majority of the votes cast upon that question, it shall 
 go into effect and be in force from and after such ratification by the people; 
 otherwise it shall not take effect or be in force. Upon the ballot shall be 
 
 printed "Shall Chapter (insert on the ballot the number of chapter) 
 
 of the laws of 1903, entitled, "An act to provide for party nominations by 
 direct vote' be adopted?" 
 
 Conflicting Laws Repealed. — Section 27. All acts or parts of acts in- 
 consistent with or in conflict with the provisions of this act are hereby 
 repealed. 
 
 When to Take Effect. — Section 28. This act shall take effect and be in 
 force from and after its passage and publication subject to all provisions 
 herein contained for its submission to the people for their ratification or 
 rejection. 
 
 Approved May 23rd, 1903. 
 
 Published June 3, 1903. 
 
WISCONSIN R. R. RATE COMMISSION LAW 
 
 AN ACT to regulate railroads and other common carriers in this state, 
 create a board of railroad commissioners, fix their salaries, define their 
 duties, prevent the imposition of unreasonable rates, prevent unjust 
 discriminations, insure an adequate railway service, prescribe the mode 
 of procedure and the rules of evidence in relation thereto, prescribe 
 penalties for violations, and making an appropriation therefor. 
 
 The People of the State of Wisconsin, represented in Senate and Assem- 
 bly, do enact as follows: 
 
 Commission, How Created; Qualifications, etc. — Section 1. A railroad 
 
 commission is herebv created to be composed of three commissioners. Im- 
 mediately after the passage of this act the governor shall, by and with the 
 advice and consent of the senate, appoint such commissioners, but no com- 
 missioner so appointed shall be qualified to act until so confirmed. The 
 term of one such appointee shall terminate on the first Monday in Febru- 
 ary, 1909; the term of the second such appointee shall terminate on the 
 first Monday in February. 19H; and the term of the third such appointee 
 shall terminate on the first Monday in February. 1913. In January. 1909, 
 and biennially thereafter, there shall be appointed and confirmed, in the 
 same manner, one commissioner for the term of six years from the first 
 Mondav in February of such year. Each commissioner so appointed shall 
 hold his office until his successor is appointed and qualified. Any vacancy 
 shall be filled by appointment by the governor for the unexpired term, sub- 
 ject to confirmation by the senate, but any such appointment shall be in 
 full force until acted upon by the senate. 
 
 a. The said commissioners shall have the following qualifications: One 
 shall have a general knowledge of railroad law; each of the others shall 
 have a general understanding of matters relating to railroad transportation. 
 
 b. The governor mav at any time remove any commissioner for ineffi- 
 ciency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office. Before such removal he 
 shall give such commissioner a copy of the charges against him and shall 
 fix a time when he can be heard in his own defense, which shall not be 
 less than ten davs thereafter, and said hearing shall be open to the public. 
 If he shall be removed the governor shall file in the office of the secretary 
 of state a complete statement of all charges made against such commis- 
 sioner and his findings thereon with the record of the proceedings. 
 
 c. No person so appointed shall be pecuniarily interested in any railroad 
 in this state or elsewhere, and if any such commissioner shall voluntarily 
 become so interested, his office shall ipso facto become vacant; and if he 
 shall become so interested otherwise than voluntarily he shall within a 
 reasonable time divest himself of such interest; failing so to do, his office 
 shall become vacant. 
 
 d. No commissioner, nor the secretary, shall hold any other office or 
 position of profit, or pursue any other business or vocation, or serve on or 
 under any committee of any political party, but shall devote his entire time 
 to the duties of his offi-ce. 
 
 e. Before entering upon the duties of his office, each of said commis- 
 sioners shall take and subscribe the constitutional oath of office, and shall 
 in addition thereto swear (or affirm) that he is not pecuniarily interested in 
 anv railroad in this state or elsewhere, and that he holds no other office of 
 profit, nor any position under any political committee or party; which oath 
 or affirmation shall be filed in the office of the secretary of state. 
 
 f. Each of said commissioners shall receive an annual salary of five 
 thousand dollars, payable in the same manner as salaries of other state 
 officers are paid. , „ ...... ^ *. 
 
 g. The commissioners appointed under this act shall withm twenty 
 days after their appointment and confirmation meet at the state capitol 
 and organize bv electing one of their number chairman, who shall serve 
 until the second' Monday of February, 1907. On the second Monday of Feb- 
 ruary in each odd numbered year the commissioners shall meet at the 
 office of the commission and elect a chairman, who shall serve for two 
 years and until his successor is elected. A majority of said commissioners 
 shall constitute a quorum to transact business, and any vacancy shall not 
 impair the right of the remaining commissioners to exercise all the powers 
 of the commission. t t. ^ « 
 
 h Said commission may appoint a secretary at a salary of not more 
 than twenty-five hundred dollars per annum, and may appoint not more 
 than three clerks, two of whom shall receive an annual salary not exceed- 
 
Wisconsin R. R. Rate Commission Law 107 
 
 ing one thousand dollars each, and one of whom shall be an expert sten- 
 ographer and receive an annual salary not exceeding fifteen hundred dol- 
 lars, and may employ such other experts as may be necessary to perform 
 any service it may require of them, and shall fix their compensation. 
 
 i. The secretary shall take and subscribe to an oath similar to that of 
 the commissioners, and shall keep full and correct records of all transac- 
 tions and proceedings of the commission, and shall perform such other 
 duties as may be required by the commission. Any person ineligible to the 
 office of commissioner shall be ineligible to the office of secretary. 
 
 j. The commissioners shall be known collectively as "Railroad Com- 
 mission of Wisconsin," and in that name may sue and be sued. It 
 shall have a seal with the words "Railroad Commission of Wisconsin," and 
 such other design as the commission may prescribe engraved thereon, by 
 which it shall authenticate its proceedings and of which the courts shall 
 take judicial notice. 
 
 k. The commission shall keep its ofRce at the capitol, and shall be 
 provided by the superintendent of public property with suitable room or 
 rooms, necessary office furniture, supplies, stationery, books, periodicals, 
 maps, and all necessary expenses shall be audited and paid as other state 
 expenses are audited and paid. The commission may hold sessions at any 
 place other than the capitol when the convenience of the parties so re- 
 quires. The commissioners, secretary and clerks, and such experts as may 
 be employed, shall be entitled to receive from the state their actual neces- 
 sary expenses while traveling on the business of the commission. Such 
 expenditures to be sworn to by the person who incurred the expense and 
 approved by the chairm.an of the commission. 
 
 1. The commission shall have power to adopt and puolish rules to 
 govern its procedings and to regulate the mode and manner of all investi- 
 gations and hearings of railroads and other parties before it, and all hear- 
 ings shall be open to the public. 
 
 m. The commission may confer by correspondence, or by attending 
 conventions, or otherwise, with the railroad commissioners of other states, 
 and with the interstate commerce commission, on any matters relating to 
 railroads. 
 
 The Term "Railroad" Defined. — Section 2. The term "railroad" as used 
 herein shall mean and embrace all corporations, companies, individuals, 
 associations of individuals, their lessees, trustees or receivers (appointed 
 by any court whatsoever) that now, or may hereafter, own, operate, man- 
 age or control any railroad or part of a railroad as a common carrier in 
 this state, or cars, or other equipment used thereon, or bridges, terminals, 
 or side tracks, used in connection therewith, whether owned by such rail- 
 road or otherwise. The term "railroad" whenever used herein shall also 
 mean and embrace express companies, and all duties required of and penal- 
 ties imposed upon any railroad or any officer or agent thereof shall, in so 
 far as the same are applicable, be required of and im.posed upon express 
 companies and their ofiicers and agents, and the commission shall have 
 the power of supervision and control of express companies to the same ex- 
 tent as railroads. 
 
 a. The provisions of this act shall apply to the transportation of passen- 
 gers and projierty between points within this state, and to the receiving, 
 switching, delivering, storing and handling of such property, and to all 
 charges connected therewith, and shall apply to all railroad corporations. 
 express companies, car companies, sleeping car companies, freight and 
 freight line companies, and to all associations of persons, whether incorpo- 
 rated or otherwise, that .«hall do business as common carriers upon or over 
 any line of railroad within this state, and to any common carrier engaged 
 in the transportation of passengers and property wholly by rail or partly 
 by rail and partly by water. 
 
 b. This act shall not apply to street and electric railroads engaged 
 solely in the transportation of passengers within the limits of cities, nor 
 to logging or other private railroads not doing business as common carriers. 
 
 Service, Rates, etc.— Section 3. Every railroad is hereby required to 
 furnish reasonablv adequate service and facilities, and the charges made 
 for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passen- 
 gers or pror.ertv or for any service in connection therewith, or for the re- 
 ceiving, switching, delivering, storing or handling of such property, shall 
 be reasonable and just, and every unjust and unreasonable charge for such 
 service is prohibited and declared to be unlawful. , . ^ .q «i 
 
 Schedules.— Section 4. Every railroad shall print in plain type and hie 
 with the commission within a time to be fixed by the commission, sched- 
 ules which shall be open to public inspection, showing all rates, tares ana 
 charges for the transportation of passengers ard property and any_ service 
 in connection therewith, which it has established and which are m force 
 at the time between all points in this state upon its line, or any line con- 
 trolled or operated bv it, and the rates, fares and charges shown on the 
 schedules whioh are to take effect prior to January 1, 1906 shall riot ex- 
 ceed the rates, fares and charges shown on the schedules filed under the 
 provisions of section 35 of this act. The schedules printed as aforesaid 
 
108 Wisconsin E. B. Bate Commission Law 
 
 shall plainly state the places upon its line or any line controlled or oper- 
 ated by it in this state between which passengers and property will be 
 carried, and there shall be filed therewith the classification of freight in 
 force. Every railroad shall publish with and as a part of such schedules 
 all rules and regulation that in any manner affect the rates charged or to 
 be charged for the transportation of possengers or property, also its charges 
 for delay in loading or unloading cars, for track and car service or rental 
 and for demurrage, switching, terminal or transfer service, or for render- 
 ing any other service in connection with the transportation of persons or 
 property. Two copies of said schedules for the use of the public shall be 
 filed and kept in file in every depot, station and office of such railroad where 
 passengers or freight are received for transportation in such form and 
 place as to be accessible to the public and can be conveniently inspected. 
 When passengers or property are transported over connecting lines in this 
 state operated by more than one railroad, and the several railroads operat- 
 ing such lines establish joint rates, fares and charges, a schedule of joint 
 rates shall also in like manner be printed and filed with the commission 
 and in everj' depot, statiorr and office of such railroads where such passen- 
 gers or property are received for transportation. 
 
 a. No change shall thereafter be made in any schedule, including sched- 
 ule of joint rates, or in any classification, except upon ten days' notice to 
 the commission, and all such changes shall be plainly indicated upon ex- 
 isting schedules, or by filing new schedules in lieu thereof ten days prior 
 to the time the same are to lake effect; provided, that the commission, 
 upon application of any railroad, may prescribe a less time within which a 
 reduction may be made. Copies of all new schedules shall be filed as here- 
 inbefore provided in every depot, station and office of such railroad, ten 
 days prior to the time the same are to take effect unless the commission 
 shall prescribe a less time. 
 
 b. Whenever a change is made in any existing schedule, including sched- 
 ule of joint rates, a notice shall be posted by the railroad in a conspicuous 
 place in every depot, station and office, stating that changes have been 
 made in the schedules on file, specifying the class or commodity affected 
 and the date when the same will take effect. 
 
 c. It shall be unlawful for any railroad to charge, demand, collect or 
 receive a greater or less compensation for the transportation of passengers 
 or property or for any service in connection therewith than is specified in 
 such printed schedules, including schedules of joint rates, as may at the 
 time be in force, and the rates, fares and charges named therein shall be 
 the lawful rates, fares and charges until the same are changed as herein 
 provided. 
 
 d. The commission may prescribe such changes in the form in which 
 the schedules are issued by the railroad as may be found expedient. 
 
 Joint Rates. — Section 5. Whenever passengers or property are trans- 
 ported over two or more connecting lines of railroad between points in this 
 state, and the railroad companies have made joint rates for the transporta- 
 tion of the sam.e, such rates and all charges in connection therewith shall 
 be just and reasonable, and every unjust and unreasonable charge is pro- 
 hibited and declared to be unlawful; provided, that a less charge by each 
 of said railroads for its proportion of such joint I'ates than is made locally 
 between the same points on their respective lines shall not for that reason 
 be construed as a violation of the provisions of this act, nor render such 
 railroads liable to any of the penalties hereof. 
 
 Commodity Rates. — Section 6. Nothing in this act shall be construed to 
 prevent concentration, commodity, transit and other special contract rates, 
 but all such rates shall be open to all shippers for a like kind of traffic 
 under similar circumstances and conditions, and shall be subject to the 
 provisions of this act as to the nrinting and filing of the same: Provided, 
 all such rates shall be under the supervision and regulation of the com- 
 mission. 
 
 Classification.— Section 7. There shall be but one classification of freight 
 in the state which shall be uniform on all railroads. 
 
 Reduced Rates and Free Transportation. — Section 8. Nothing herein 
 shall prevent the cai-riage, storage or handling of freight free or at reduced 
 rates for the United States, the state, or any municipality thereof, or for 
 charitable purposes, or to and from fairs and expositions for exhibition 
 thereat, or household goods the property of railway employes; or the issu- 
 ance of mileage, commutation or excursion passengers' tickets, provided 
 that the same shall be obtainable by any person applying therefor without 
 discrimination, or of party tickets, provided that the same shall be obtain- 
 able by all persons applying therefor under like circumstances and condi- 
 tions. This act shall not be construed as preventing railroads from giving 
 free transportation or reduced rates therefor to any minister of the gospel, 
 officer or agents of incorporated colleges, regular agents of charitable socle- 
 ties, when traveling upon the business of the society only, destitute and 
 homeless persons, railroad officer, attorney, director, employe or members 
 of their families; or to prevent the exchange of passes with officers, attor- 
 neys or employes of other railroads and members of their families; provided. 
 
Wisconsin B. R. Bate Commission Law 109 
 
 that no person holding: any public ofRce or position under the laws of this 
 state shall be given free transportation or reduced rates not open to the 
 public. 
 
 a. Upon any shipment of live stock or other property of such nature as 
 to require the care of an attendant, the railroad may furnish to the ship- 
 per or some person or persons designated by him, free transportation for 
 such attendant, including return passage to the point at which the ship- 
 ment originated; provided, there shall be no discrimination in reference 
 thereto between such shippers, and the commission shall have power to pre- 
 scribe regulations in relation thereto. 
 
 Depots. — Section 9. It shall be the duty of every railroad to provide 
 and maintain adequate depots and depot buildings at its regular stations 
 for the accommodation of passengers, and said depot buildings shall be 
 kept clean, well lighted and warmed, for the comfort and accommodation 
 of the traveling public. All railroads shall keep and maintain adequate and 
 suitable freight depots, buildings, switches and side tracks for the receiv- 
 ing, handling and delivering of freight transported or to be transported by 
 such railroads; provided, that this shall not be construed as repealing any 
 existing law on the subject. 
 
 Distribution of Cars. — Section 10. Every railroad shall, when within its 
 power so to do, and upon reasonable notice, furnish suitable cars to any 
 and all persons who may apply therefor, for the transportation of any and 
 all kinds of freight in car load lots. In case of insufficiency of cars at 
 anv time to meet all requirements, such cars as are available shall be dis- 
 tributed among the several applicants therefor in proportion to their re- 
 spective im.mediate requirements without discrimination between shippers 
 or competitive or non-competitive places; provided, preference may be 
 given to shipments of Live stock and perishable property. 
 
 a. The commission shall have power to enforce reasonable regulations 
 for furnishing cars to shippers and switching the same, and for the loading 
 and unloading thereof, and the weighing of cars and freight offered for 
 shipment over .any line of railroad. 
 
 Interchange of Traffic— Section 11. All railroads shall afford all rea- 
 sonable and proper facilities for the interchange of traffic between their 
 respective lines, for forwarding and delivering passengers and property, and 
 shall transfer and deliver without unreasonable delay or discrimination any 
 freight or cars, loaded or empty, or any passengers destined to any point 
 on its own or any connecting lines; provided, that precedence over other 
 freight shall be given to live stock and perishable freight. 
 
 a. The commission shall have control over private tracks in so far 
 as the same are used by comman carriers, in connection with any rail- 
 road for the transportation of freight, in alj respects the same as though 
 such tracks were a part of the track of said railroad. 
 
 Complaints and Investigations.— Section 12. Upon complaint of any per- 
 son, firm, corporation or association, or of any mercantile, agricultural or 
 manufacturing society, or of any body politic or municipal organization, 
 that any of the rates, fares, charges or classifications, or any joint rate 
 or rates are in anv respect unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or that 
 any regulation or' practice whatsoever affecting the transportation of per- 
 sons or propertv. or any service in connection therewith, are in any respect 
 unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or that any service is inadequate, 
 the commission may notifv the railroad complained of that complamt has 
 been made, and ten davs after such notice has been given the commission 
 may proceed to investigate the same as hereinafter provided. Before pro- 
 ceeding to make such investigation the commission shall give the railroad 
 and the complainant ten davs' notice of the time and place when and where 
 such matters will be considered and determined, and said parties shall be 
 entitled to be heard and shall have process to enforce the attendance of 
 witnesses. If upon such investigation the rate or rates, fares, charges or 
 classifications, or any joint rate or rates or any regulation, practice or 
 service complained of shall be found to be unreasonable or unjustly dis- 
 criminatory, or the service shall be found to be inadequate, the commission 
 shall have power to fix and order substituted therefor such rate or rates, 
 fares, charges or classification as it shall have determined to be just and 
 reasonable and which shall be charged, imposed and followed m the future, 
 and shall also have power to make such orders respecting such reflation, 
 practice or service as it shall have determined to be reasonable and which 
 shall be observed and followed in the future. „^„^^o+^^t. 
 
 a The commission mav, when complaint is made of more than one rate or 
 charge, order separate hearings thereon, and may consider and determine 
 the several matters complained of separately, and at such times as it may 
 prescribe. No complaint shall at any time be dismissed because of the 
 absence of direct damage to the complainant. i,„^„^ ^„„ 
 
 b. ^^enever the commission shall beheve that any rate or charge may 
 be unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, and that an investigation relat- 
 ing thereto should be made, it may, upon its own motion, investigate the 
 same. Before making such investigation it shall present to the railroad 
 
110 Wisco7isin B. B. Bate Commission Law 
 
 a statement in writing setting forth the rate or charge to be investigated. 
 Thereafter, on ten days' notice to the railroad of the time and place of 
 such investigation, the commission ma^^ proceed to investigate such rate 
 or charge in the same manner and make like orders in respect thereto as 
 if such investigation had been made upon complaint. 
 
 c. This section shall be construed to permit any railroad to make com- 
 plaint with like effect as though made by any person, firm, corporation or 
 association, mercantile, agricultural or manufacturing society, body politic 
 or municipal organization. 
 
 Witnesses, Depositions, etc. — Section 13. Each of the commissioners, for 
 the purposes mentioned in this act, shall have power to administer oaths, 
 certify to official acts, issue subpoenas, compel the attendance of witnesses, 
 and the production of papers, way-bills, books, accounts, documents and 
 testimony. In case of disobedience on the part of any person or persons 
 to comply with any order of the commission or any commissioner or any 
 subpoena, or on the refusal of any witness to testify to any matter regard- 
 ing which he may be lawfully interrogated, it shall be the duty of the 
 circut court of any county, or the judge thereof, on application of a com- 
 missioner, to compel obedience by attachment proceedings for contempt, 
 as in the case of disobedience of the requirements of a subpoena issued 
 from, such court, or a refusal to testify therein. 
 
 a. Each witness who shall appear before the commission by its order 
 shall receive for his attendance the fees and mileage now provided for wit- 
 nesses in civil cases in courts of record, which shall be audited and paid 
 by the state in the same manner as other expenses are audited and paid, 
 upon the presentation of proper vouchres sworn to by such witnesses and 
 approved by the chairman of the comm.ission; provided, that no witness 
 subpoenaed at the instance of parties other than the commission shall be 
 entitled to compensation from the state for attendance or travel unless the 
 commission shall certify that his testimony was material to the matter in- 
 vestigated. 
 
 b. The comimission or any party may in any investigation cause the 
 depositions of witnesses residing within or without the state to be taken 
 in the manner prescribed by law for like depositions in civil actions in 
 circuit courts. 
 
 c. A full and complete record shall be kept of all proceedings had be- 
 fore the commission on asy investigation had under section 12 of this act, 
 and all testimony shall be taken down by the stenographer appointed by 
 the commission. Whenever any complaint is served upon the commission 
 under the provisions of section 16 of this act the commission shall, before 
 said action is reached for trial, cause a certified transcript of all proceed- 
 ings had and testimony taken upon such investigation to be filed with the 
 clerk of the circuit court of the county where the action is pending. A 
 transcribed copy of the evidence and proceedings, or any specific part 
 thereof, on any investigation, taken by the stenographer appointed by the 
 commission, being certified by such stenographer to be a true and correct 
 transcript in long hand of all the testimony on the investigation, or of a 
 particular witness, or of other specific part thereof, carefully compared by 
 him with his original notes, and to be a correct statement of the evidence 
 and proceedings had on such investigation so purportng to be taken and 
 transcribed, shall be received in evidence with the same effect as if such 
 reporter were present and testified to the facts so certified. A copy of 
 such transcript shall be furnished on demand, free of cost, to any party to 
 such investigation. 
 
 Substitution and Enforcement of Rates. — Section 14. Whenever, upon an 
 Investigation made under the provisions of this act, the commission shall 
 find any existing rate or rates, fares, charges or classifications, or any joint 
 rate or rates, or any regulation or practice whatsoever affecting the trans- 
 portation of persons or property, or any service in connection therewith, 
 are unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or any service is inadequate, 
 it shall determine and by order fix a reasonable rate, fare, charge, classi- 
 fication or joint rate to be imposed, observed and followed in the future in 
 lieu of that found to be unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, and it shall 
 determine and by order fix a reasonable regulatiun, practice or service to 
 be imposed, observed and followed in the future, in lieu of that found to 
 be unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or inadequate, as the case may 
 be, and it shall cause a certified copy of each such order to be delivered 
 to an officer or station agent of the railroad affected thereby, which order 
 shall of its own force take effect and become operative twenty days after 
 the service thereof. All railroads to which the order applies shall make 
 such changes in their schedule on file as may be necessary to make the 
 same conform to said order, and no change shall thereafter be made by 
 any railroad in any such rates, fares or charges, or in any joint rate or 
 rates, withoi^ the approval of the commission. Certified copies of all other 
 orders of the commission shall be delivered to the railroads affected thereby 
 in like manner, and the same shall take effect within such times there- 
 after as the commission shall prescribe. 
 
Wisconsin R. B. Bate Commission Law 111 
 
 a. The commission may at any time, upon notice to the railroad, and 
 after opportunity to be heard as provided in section 12, rescind, alter or 
 amend any order fixing any rate or rates, fares, charges or classification, 
 or any other order made by the commission, and certified copies of the 
 same shall be served and take effect as herein provided for original orders. 
 
 b. Whenever the rate ordered substituted by the commission shall be 
 a joint rate or charge, and the railroads party thereto shall fail to agiee 
 upon the apportionment thereof within twenty days after the service of 
 such order, the commission may, after a like hearing, issue, a supplemental 
 order declaring the apportionment of such joint rate or charge and the 
 same shall take effect of its own force as part of the original order. 
 
 Orders Reasonable. — Section 15. All rates, fares, charges, classifications 
 and joint rates fixed by the commission shall be in force and shall be 
 prima facie lawful, and all regulations, practices and service prescribed by 
 the commission shall be in force and shall be prima facie reasonable, until 
 finally found otherwise in an action brought for that purpose pursuant to 
 the provisions of section 16 of this act. 
 
 Complaints and Actions Against Substituted Rates. — Section 16. Any 
 railroad or other party in interest being dissatisfied with any order of the 
 commission fixing any rate or rates, fares, charges, classifications, joint 
 rate or rates, or any order fixing any regulations, practices or service, may 
 commence an action in the circuit court against the commission as de- 
 fendant to vacate and set aside any such order on the ground that the 
 rate or rates, fares, charges, classifications, joint rate or rates, fixed in 
 such order, is unlawful, or that any such regulation, practice or service, 
 fixed in such order, is unreasonable, in which action the complaint shall 
 be served with the summons. The commission shall serve and file its 
 answer to said complaint within ten days after the service thereof, where- 
 upon said action shall be at issue and stand ready for trial upon ten days' 
 notice by either party. All actions brought under this section shall have 
 precedence over any civil cause of a different nature pending in said court, 
 and the circuit court shall always be deemed open for the trial thereof and 
 the same same shall be tried and determined as other civil actions. 
 
 a. No injunction shall issue suspending or staying any order of the 
 commission except upon application to the circuit court or presiding judge 
 thereof, notice to the commission, and hearing. 
 
 b. If, upon the trial of such action, evidence shall be introduced by 
 the plaintiff which is found by the court to be different from that offered 
 upon the hearing before the commission, or additional thereto, the court 
 before proceeding to render judgment, unless the parties to such action 
 stipulate in writing to the contrary, shall transmit a copy of such evidence 
 to the commission, and shall stay further proceedings in said action for 
 fifteen days from the date of such transmission. Upon the receipt of such 
 evidence the commission shall consider the same, and may alter, modify, 
 amend or rescind its order relating to such rate or rates, fares, charges, 
 classification, joint rate or rates, regulation, practice or service complained 
 of in said action, and shall report its action thereon to said court within 
 ten days from the receipt of such evidence. 
 
 c. If the commission shall rescind its order complained of, the action 
 shall be dismissed; if it shall alter, modify or amend the same, such altered, 
 modified or amended order shall take the place of the original order com- 
 plained of. and judgment shall be rendered thereon, as though made by 
 the commission in the first instance. If the original order shall not be 
 rescinded or changed by the commission, judgment shall be rendered upon 
 such original order. 
 
 d. Either party to said action, within sixty days after service of a 
 copy of the order or judgment of the circuit court, may appeal to the su- 
 preme court. ^Tiere an appeal is taken the cause shall, on the return of 
 the papers to the supreme court, be immediately placed on the state cal- 
 endar of the then pending term, and shall be signed and brought to a hear- 
 ing in the same manner as other causes on the state calendar. 
 
 e. In all trials under this section the burden of proof shall be upon the 
 plaintiff to show by clear and satisfactory evidence that the order of the 
 commission complained of is unlawful, or unreasonable, as the case may be. 
 
 Rules of Evidence and Practice.— Section 17. In all actions and proceed- 
 ings in court arising under this act all processes shall be served, and the 
 practice and rules of evidence shall be the same as in civil actions, except 
 as otherwise herein provided. Every sheriff or other officer empowered to 
 execute civil processes shall execute any process issued under the pro- 
 visions of this act, and shall receive such compensation therefor as may be 
 prescribed by law for similar services. 
 
 a. No person shall be excused from testifying or from producing books 
 and papers in any proceedings based upon or growing out of any violation 
 of the provisions of this act on the ground or for the reason that the tes- 
 timony or evidence, documentary or otherwise, required of him may tend 
 to incriminate him or subject him to penalty or forfeiture, but no person 
 having so testified shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or for- 
 
112 Wisconsin R. R. Rate Commission Law 
 
 feiture for, or on account of, any transaction, matter or thing concerning 
 which he ma3^ have testified or produced any documentary evidence; pro- 
 vided, that no person so testifying shall be exempted from prosecution 
 or punishment for perjury in so testifying. 
 
 b. Upon application of any person the commission shall furnish certi- 
 fied copies, under the seal of the commission, of any order made by it, 
 which shall be prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein. 
 
 Inquiry, etc., by Commission.— Section 18. - The commission shall have 
 authority to inquire into the management of the business of all railroads, 
 and shall keep itself informed as to the manner and method in which the 
 same is conducted, and shall have the right to obtain from any railroad all 
 necessary information to enable the commission to perform the duties and 
 carry out the objects for which it was created. 
 
 a. The commission shall cause to be prepared suitable blanks for the 
 purposes designated in this act, which shall conform as nearly as practica- 
 ble to the forms prescribed by the interstate commerce commission, and 
 shall, when necessary, furnish such blanks to each railroad. Any rail- 
 road receiving from the commission any such blanks, shall cause the same 
 to be properly filled out so as to answer fully and correctly each question 
 therein propounded, and in case it is unable to answer any question it 
 shall give a good and sufficient reason for such failure; and such answer 
 shall be verified under oath by the proper officer of said railroad and re- 
 turned to the commission at its oflSce within the time fixed by the com- 
 mission. 
 
 b. The commission or any commissioner, or any person or persons em- 
 ployed bv the commission for that purpose, shall, upon demand, have the 
 right to inspect the books and papers of any railroad and to examine under 
 oath any officer, agent or employe of such railroad in relation to its busi- 
 ness and affairs; provided, that any person other than one of said com- 
 missioners who shall make such demand shall produce his authority to make 
 such inspection under the hand of the commissioner, or of the secretary, 
 and under the seal of said commission. 
 
 c. The commission may require, by order or subpoena, to be served on 
 any railroad, in the same m.anner that a summons is served in a civil ac- 
 tion in the circuit court, the production within this state, at such time 
 and place as it may designate, of any books, papers or accounts kept by 
 said railroad in any oflfice or place without the state of Wisconsin, or 
 verified copies in lieu thereof, if the commission shall so order, in order 
 that an examination thereof may be made by the commission or under its 
 direction. Anv railroad failing or refusing to comply with any such order 
 or subpoena shall, for each day it shall so fail or refuse, forfeit and pay 
 into the state treasury a sum of not less than one hundred dollars nor 
 more than one thousand dollars. 
 
 Contracts, etc., Filed.— Section 19. Every railroad whenever required by 
 the commission shall, within a time to be fixed by the commission, deliver 
 to the commission for its use copies of all contracts which relate to the 
 transportation of persons or property, or any service in connection there- 
 with, made or entered into by it with any other railroad company, car 
 company, equipment company, express or other transportation company, or 
 anv shipper or shippers, or other person or persons doing business with it. 
 
 a. Every railroad shall, on the first Monday in February in each year, 
 and oftener if required by the commission, file with the commission a veri- 
 fied list of all railroad tickets, passes and mileage t)ooks issued free or for 
 other than actual bona fide money consideration at full established rates 
 during the preceding year, together with the names of the recipients 
 thereof, the amounts received therefor and the reasons for issuing the 
 same. This provision shall not apply to the sale of tickets at reduced rates 
 open to the public, nor to tickets, passes or mileage books issued to per- 
 sons not residents of this state, nor to tickets, passes or mileage books 
 issued prior to the passage of this act. 
 
 Amounts Expended in Construction.— Section 20. The commission shall 
 ascertain, as early as practicable, the amount of money expended in the 
 construction and equipment of every railroad, the amount of money ex- 
 pended to procvire the right of way, also the amount of money it would 
 require to secure the right of way, reconstruct the roadbed, track, depots 
 and other facilities for transportation, and to replace all the physical prop- 
 erties belonging to the railroad. It shall ascertain the outstanding bonds, 
 debentures and indebtedness and the amounts respectively thereof, the 
 date when issued, to whom issued, to whom sold, the price paid in cash, 
 property or labor therefor, what disposition was made of the proceeds, by 
 whom the indebtedness is held, so far as ascertainable, the amount pur- 
 porting to be due thereon, the floating indebtedness of the railroad, the 
 credits due the railroad, other property on hand belonging to it, the judi- 
 cial or other sales of said road, its property or franchises, and the amounts 
 purporting to have been paid and in what manner paid therefor. The com- 
 mission shall also ascertain the gross and net income of the railroad from 
 all sources in detail; the amounts paid for salaries to the officers of the 
 
Wisconsin R. R. Rate Commission Law 113 
 
 road, and the wages paid to its employes and the maxmum hours of contin- 
 uous service required of each class. Whenever the information required by 
 This section is obtained, it shall be printed in the annual report of the com- 
 mission. In making such investigation the commission may avail itself of 
 any information in possession of the state board of assessments. 
 
 Interstate Rates. — Section 21. The commission shall have power, and it 
 is hereby made its duty, to investigate all freight rates on interstate traffic 
 on railroads in this state, and when the same are, in the opinion of the 
 commission, excessive or discriminatory or are levied or laid in violation of 
 the interstate commerce law, or in conflict with the rulings, orders or 
 regulations of the interstate commerce commission, the commission shall 
 present the facts to the railroad, with a request to make such changes as 
 the commission may advise, and if such changes are not made within a 
 reasonable time the commission shall apply by petition to the interstate 
 commerce commission for relief. All freight tariffs issued by any such 
 railroad relating to interstate traffic in this state shall be filed in the office 
 of the commission within thirty days after the passage and publication of 
 this act, and all such tariffs thereafter issued shall be filed with the com- 
 mission when issued. 
 
 Discrimination Prohibited. — Section 22. If any railroad, or any agent 
 or ofncer thereof, shall directly or indirectly, by any special rate, rebate, 
 drawback, or by means of false billing, false classification, false weighing, 
 or by any other device whatsoever, charge, demand, collect or receive from 
 any person, firm or corporation a greater or less compensation for any 
 service rendered or to be rendered by it for the transportation of persons 
 or property or for any service in connection therewith, than that prescribed 
 in the published tariffs then in force, or established as provided herein, or 
 than it charges, demands, collects or receives from any other person, firm 
 or corporation for a like and contemporaneous service, such railroad shall 
 be deemed guilty of unjust discrimination, which is hereby prohibited and 
 declared to be unlawful, and upon conviction thereof shall forfeit and pay 
 into the state treasury not less than one hundred dollars nor more than 
 ten thousand dollars for each offense; and any agent or officer so offend- 
 ing shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof 
 shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than one 
 hundred dollars for each offense. , 
 
 a. It shall be unlawful for any railroad to demand, charge, collect or 
 receive from any person, firm or corporation a less compensation for the 
 transportation of property or for any service rendered or to be rendered 
 by said railroad, in consideration of said person, firm or corporation fur- 
 nishing any part of the facilities incident thereto; provided, nothing herein 
 shall be construed as prohibiting any railroad from renting any facilities 
 incident to transportation and paying a reasonable rental therefor. 
 
 Preference Prohibited. — Section 23. If any railroad shall make or give 
 any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular per- 
 son, firm or corporation, or shall subject any particular person, firm or cor- 
 poration to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any 
 respect whatsoever, such railroad shall be deemed guilty of unjust dis- 
 crimination, which is hereby prohibited and declared unlawful. 
 
 Unlawful to Accept Rebates. — Section 24. It shall be unlawful for any 
 person, firm or corporation knowingly to accept or receive any rebate, con- 
 cession or discrimination in respect to transportation of any property wholly 
 within this state, or for any service in connection therewith, whereby any 
 such property shall, by any device whatsoever, be transported at a less rate 
 than that named in the published tariffs in force as provided herein, or 
 whereby any service or advantage is received other than is therein speci- 
 fied. Any person, firm or corporation violating the provisions of this sec- 
 tion shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof 
 shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than one 
 thousand dollars for each offense. , 
 
 Treble Damages. — Section 25. If any railroad shall do or cause to be 
 done or permit to be done any matter, act or thing in this act prohibited 
 or declared to be unlawful, or shall omit to do any act, matter or thing 
 required to be done by it, such railroad shall be liable to the person, firm 
 or corporation injured therebv in treble the amount of damages sustained 
 in consequence of such violation; provided, that any recovery as in this 
 section provided shall in no manner affect a recovery by the state of the 
 penaltv prescribed for suuch violation. 
 
 Penalty for Violations by Officers, Agents or Employes.— Section 26. 
 Any officer, agent or employe of any railroad who shall fail or wilfully 
 refuse to fill out and return any blanks as required by this act, or shall 
 fail or refuse to answer any questions therein propounded, or shall 
 knowingly or wilfully give a false answer to any such question, or shall 
 evade the answer to any such question, where the fact inquired of 
 is within his knowledge, or who shall, upon proper demand, fail 
 or wilfully refuse to exhibit to the commission or any commissioner, or 
 any person authorized to examine the same, any book, paper or account of 
 
114 Wisconsin E. B. Rate Cotnmission Law 
 
 such railroad, which is in his possession or under his control, shall be 
 deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be pun- 
 ished bv a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one 
 thousand dollars for each such offense; and a penalty of not less than five 
 hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars shall be recovered from 
 the railroad for each such offense when such oflScer, agent or employe acted 
 in obedience to the direction, instruction or request of such railroad or any- 
 general officer thereof. 
 
 General Penalty for Violations by Railroads.— Section 27. If any rail- 
 road shall violate any provision of this act, or shall do any act herem pro- 
 hibited, or shall fail or refuse to perform any duty enjoined upon it, for 
 which a penalty has not been provided, or shall fail, neglect or refuse to 
 obey anv lawful requirement or order made by the commission, or any 
 judgment or decree made by any court upon its application, for every such 
 violation, failure or refusal, such railroad shall forfeit and pay into the 
 state treasury a sum of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than 
 ten thousand dollars for each offense. In construing and enforcing the 
 provisions of this section, the act, omission or failure of any officer, agent 
 or other person acting for or employed by any railroad, acting within the 
 scope of his employment, shall in every case be deemed to be the act, 
 omission or failure of such railroad. 
 
 Emergency Rates. — Section 28. The commission shall have power, when 
 deemed by it necessarv to prevent injury to the business or interests of 
 the peoDle' or railroads of this state in consequence of interstate rate wars, 
 or in case of any other emergency to be judged of by the commission, to 
 temporarily alter, amend, or, v/ith the consent of the railroad company con- 
 cerned, suspend any existing passenger rates, freight rates, schedules and 
 orders on anv railroad or part of railroad in this state. Such rates so 
 made bv the commission shall apply on one or more of the railroads in this 
 state or any portion thereof as may be directed by the commission, and 
 shall take effect at such time and remain in force for such length of time 
 as may be prescribed by the commission. 
 
 Rates Not Specifically Designated.-Section 29. Whenever, after hear- 
 ing and investigation as pz'ovided by this act, the commission shall find 
 that anv charge, regulation or practice affecting the transportation ot 
 passengers or property, or any service in connection therewith, not herein- 
 before specifically designated, is unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, 
 it shall have the power to regulate the same as provided in sections 12 and 
 14 of this act. 
 
 Accidents. — Section 30. Every railroad shall, whenever an accident at- 
 tended with loss of hum.an life occurs within this state, upon its line of road 
 or on its depot grounds or yards, give immediate notice thereof to the com- 
 mission. In the event of any such accident, the commission, if it deem the 
 public interest requires it, shall cause an investigation to be made forth- 
 with, which investigation shall be held in the locality of the accident, un- 
 less for greater convenience of those concerned, it shall order such investi- 
 gation to be held at some other place, and said investigation may be ad- 
 journed fromx place to place as may be found necessary and convenient. 
 The commission shall seasonably notify an officer or station agent of the 
 companv of the time and place of the investigation. The cost of such in- 
 vestigation shall be certified by the chairman of the commission, and the 
 same shall be audited and paid by the state in the same manner as other 
 expenses are audited and paid. , , . 
 
 Inquiry Into Violations. — Section 31. The commission shall inquire Into 
 anv neglect or violation of the laws of this state by any railroad corporation 
 doing business therein, or by the officers, agents or employes thereof, or 
 by any person operating a railroad, and shall have the power, and it shall 
 be its duty, to enforce the provisions of this act as well as all other laws 
 relating to 'railroads and report all violations thereof to the attcrney gen- 
 eral' upon request of the commission it shall be the duty of the attorney 
 general or the district attorney of the proper county, to aid in any iiivesti- 
 °-ation hearing or trial had under the provisions of this act, and to institute 
 and prosecute all necessary actions or proceedings for the enforcement of 
 this act and of all other laws of this state relating to railroads and for the 
 punishment of all violations thereof. Any forfeiture or penalty herein pro- 
 vided shall be recovered and suit thereon shall be brought in the name of 
 the state of Wisconsin in the circuit court for Dane county. The commis- 
 sion shall have authority to employ counsel in any proceeding, investigation, 
 
 ^^mvestigations of Claims.— Section 32. All claims against any railroad 
 for loss of or damage to property from any cause, or for overcharge upon 
 anv shipments, or for anv other service, if not acted upon within ninety days 
 from the date of the filing of such claim with the railroad, may be investi- 
 gated bv the commission, in its discretion, and the results of such investi- 
 gation shall be embodied in a special report which shall be open to public 
 inspection and may be included in the next annual report of the com- 
 mission. 
 
Wisconsin B. B. Bate Commission Law 115 
 
 Technicality Not to Invalidate.— Section 33. A substantial compliance 
 with the requirements of this act shall be sufficient to give effect to all the 
 rules, orders, acts and regulations of the commission, and they shall not 
 be declared inoperative, illegal or void for any omission of a technical 
 nature in respect thereto. 
 
 Rights of Action Not Waived. — Section 34. This act shall not have the 
 effect to release or waive any right of action by the state or by any person 
 for any right, penalty or forfeiture which may have arisen or which may 
 hereafter arise under any law of this state; and all penalties and forfeit- 
 ures accruing under this act shall be cumulative and a suit for, and re- 
 covery of one, shall not be a bar to the recovery of any other penalty. 
 
 Present Schedule in Force. — Section 35. Until December 31st, 1905, unless 
 the commission shall otherwise order, after application and hearing as 
 hereinafter provided, it shall be unlawful for any railroad within this state 
 to demand, collect, or receive a greater compensation for the transportation 
 of property between points in this state than the charge fixed in the lowest 
 published schedule of rates for the same service between the same points, 
 in force on the 1st day of April, 1905. Every railroad in this state shall, 
 within thirty days after the passage and publication of this act, file in the 
 office of the commission copies of all schedules of rates, including joint 
 rates in force on its line or lines, between points within this state, on the 
 1st day of April, 1905, and all rates in force between such points at any 
 time subsequent to said date. Any railroad desiring to advance or discon- 
 tinue any such rate or rates may make application to the commission in 
 writing, stating the advance in or discontinuation of the rate or rates de- 
 sired, giving the reasons for such advance or discontinuation. Upon re- 
 ceiving such application, the commission shall fix a time and place for hear- 
 ing, and give such notice to interested parties as it shall deem proper and rea- 
 sonable. If, after such hearing and investigation, the commission shall find 
 that the change or discontinuation applied for is reasonable, fair and just, 
 it shall grant the application either in whole or in part. Any railroad being 
 dissatisfied with any order of the commission made under the provisions of 
 this section may commence an action against it in the circuit court in the 
 manner provided in section 16 of this act, which action shall be tried and 
 determined in the same manner as is provided in said section. 
 
 Office of Railroad Commissioner Abolished. — Section 36. All powers, 
 duties and privileges imposed and conferred upon the railroad commissioner 
 of this state under existing laws are hereby imposed and conferred upon 
 the commission created under the provisions of this act; provided, that the 
 power and duties conferred and imposed upon the railroad commissioner 
 by chapter 431 of the laws of 1903. and sections 1795a, 1796 and 1797 of the 
 statutes of 1898 shall continue to be exercised by him until the first Mon- 
 day in January, 1907. The present railroad commissioner, whose term com- 
 menced on the first Monday in January, 1905, shall continue in office until 
 the first Monday in January, 1907, at his present salary, on which date the 
 office is hereby abolished. 
 
 Inconsistent Laws Repealed. — Section 37. So much of section 128 of the 
 statutes of 1898 as provides for the election of a railroad commissioner, 
 also sections 1793 and 1803 of said statutes, and all other acts and parts of 
 acts conflicting with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed in so far 
 as they are inconsistent herewith. 
 
 Appropriation. — Section 38. A sum sufficient to carry out the provisions 
 of this act is hereby appropriated out of any money in the state treasury 
 not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 Section 39. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its 
 passage and publication. 
 
 Approved June 13, 1905. 
 
 Published June 15, 1905. 
 
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