Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1883-02-16

On6 Member Secures $500 For
His Vote on the Cap
itOl Steal.
The Sudden Somersaults of
Certain Opponents Ex-
planned.
The Same Influence Secures
Supporters For Bo-
gus Claims.
The Railroad Bill in the House
and It's Chances Of
Success.
Equalislng tho Tsxss on Railroad
Property.
Special Correspondence 10 Tas DRE.

~fNN'' ~~hN'fo'd'hSo W Ahh bkAs
LINCOLN, February 15.-The ospi-
tol appropriation Is game for that
class OF patriots who are In this legis-
lature for the sole purpose of gather.
Ing spoils and plunder. They came
here with the deliberate intent of
liuipg their pockets with greenbacks
in the senatorial deal and they were
sorely disappointed. There were sew
eral barrels in sight when the mill
opened, but such a racket was raised
over the Infamous scheme that the
barrel-holders did not dare to tap
them. This was desperately provok.
ing, but they had to grin and bear it.
At last they have struck smother
lead--in fact
SEVERAL OF THEM,
and they are making sun while the
hay shines. A prominent attorney
from north county who Is here on
business, while walking with Lin
coin merchant on the, principal thor
oughfare yesterday, passed a member
of the house who ssluted the mer-
chant by shouting, "Good morning
how are you2" "Good morning; very
well, thank you, but no sooner had
the honorable member passed beyond
hearing, the merchant exclaimed with
bitter scorn: "The damned scoundrel;
we had to pay him $500 for his vote
on our capitol appropriation" 1t Is
an open secret that several thousand
dollars of corruption money have been
distributed where 1t will do the most
good to carry this appropriation. 1t
Is an outrage that q community should
thus be bled by
A SET OF PERJuRED LEECHEs,
and 1t Is a sad commentary on public
morals that honest members who are
30 largely in the majority should allow
such jobbery to be carried on under
their noses, and even assist the rogues,
who are in open market with their
votes, other through confidential
shareholders or by making bets upon
the passage Of bills.
Now that the senate has passed the
railroad bill reported by the senate
committee oonHidsrabIe interest is
manifested about It's passage by the
house. So far oil meritorious railroad
bills in the house have been choked
off by Speaker Humphreys packed
committee, but there Is
A LIMIT TO ENDURANCE,
and the house is now In a frame of
mind to resent this imposition by pas.
sing the senate bill. There will
doubtless bs some amendments offered,
and there should be an effort made to
make the freight schedules that were
In force on the 1st of Jsnuafy, 1883,
part of the bill. In other words, the
schedules should be procured and at
tached to the bill, or better still, the
legislature whould revise these
schedules with the 20 per cent reduc.
tion, and have the correct rates pub-
lished officially. OF course it ia still a
mooted question whether the legis-
lature can delegate the power
to revise the rate 1t has
established by law, to any commits
sion. AS might have been expected,
there Is to be desperate effort by the
railroad attorneys to beat every bill
that proposes
TO TAX DEPOT BUILDINGS
and grounds, machine shops and other
local improvements by local assessors
instead of pooling these improvements
with the road bod and rolling stock.
Mr.. Bierbower, who is to lead in the
onslaught, says he proposes to enlist
all the granger members In opposition
to the proposed change on the ground
that 1t would deprive them Of their
share of taxable property. This gag
worked well four years ago, but It
will hardly dupe the western grangers
now. Under the pooling law of 1879
all tho depot buildings, shops and
millions of improvements were pooled
by the mile and the aggregate was
less than it was the year before, when
these improvements paid local taxes.
The depot buildings and grounds on
the U. p, for instance, were thrown
In at $1O0 each, when Omaha alone
paid 5000, 900 for the depot grounds
donated to the U. p. But even If they
had been properly assessed the pool.
Ing system is robbery, because II