St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-09-08
PASSENGER RATES.
A General Manager Gives the ''GI0be"
Some of the Reasons for
Decentralization.
The System of Paying for Advertising With
1,000Mile Tickets Pernicious.
Especial Telegram to the Globe. |

regular fare. 1t is said that traffic mana
ger Of Council Bluffs line remarked Friday
that il rates did not firm up before
to-day an open cut would be declared. Pas
senger rates to Kansas City, ST.. Paul and the
east are in about the same condition. So
general is the Generalization that railway
circles are exceedingly alarmed and man
ayers are neryously awaiting an outbreak
which is liable to occur at any time. Awell-
known general manager to-day impaired to
GLOBE reporter rather startling informa-
ton outlining the facts that he believes to be
at the bottom of the passenger rate trouble.
Railroad managers, said he, shave for
some time been at loss to know why pas
senger rate agreements are not carried out.
Compacts of the strongest kind will be signed
and penalties without number will be pro-
scribed for the violatOrs, but yet rates cannot
be maintained. We have wondered why
such should be the condition of things, and
lately have been devoting every effort TO
discover the cause. Recently, you remem-
ber one of the trunk liEes was
alleged to have paid for advertising with
an enormous quantity of +,000-mile tickets,
which We're made transferable and good IN
til used. These were said to have been
sold by the man who did the advertising to
scalpers at low figure, and they, in turn,
offered them at a rate materially lower than
tariff. This gave me an idea and | set on
foot a rigid investigation, but 1 found that
the practice was carried to an extent that
was simply appalling. So many roads have
been in the habit of doing this and scapling
shops are so stocked with these tickets
that there is not a passenger agent
in Chicago to-day who can
make his own rate to any competitive point
The former has been taken out of their
hands entirely, and the scalpers control the
rate making privilege. To such magnitude
has this pernicious practice grown that pas
| senger agreements are practically dead let
ter, and 1 have become convinced that this is
the prime cause of the present extensive de-
moralizatiOn. The system is certainly the
most absurd l ever heard of, and why it has
been allowed to grow to such
proportions is more than l can
tell. An advertising solicitor asks $50
! cash for an advertisement. The advertising
! TEN is in vogue offers instead of the cash
from seven to fifteen mileage books contain
] ing 1000 miles of coupons. The average is
| about ten books for a $50 advertisement.
/ These at 255c per mile would be worth
/ S25 each, or $3.50 for the ten.
! The solicitor will sell the books
! to scalpers for about S12 apiece,
and they will sell to the public for SIS or
! $50 what the railroad asks SD for. To make
everything straight on the company's books
$3.50 worth Of advertising will be charged up
and in the other columns will be entered
$3.50 worth of 1000-mie tickets. Both are
fictitious, the company makes no money by
the transaction and the tickets go on the
market to demoralize rates and indirectly
sacrifice hundreds and thousands of dollars
worth of revenue.
1T was this practice which disrupted the
| Council Bluffs passenger pool and which has
| led to a Threatened war between that point
and Chicago. One road stocked the market
with milage tickets topay for advertising and
rates could not be maintained. Scalpine
Offices in Chicago, Rock Island
Council Bluffs, Omaha and other uterine
diate points were literally flooded with these
tickets, which brokers were selling at a little
over one-half the regular rate. The broker,
were ticketing all the business. One othel
line essayed to counteract the effort by issu
ing special class of duplicates, with which
they paid for their advertising, but they were
so sick of it that they gathered their ticket.
in as fast as they could. Nothing could b.
done to compete with the free mileage tickets
and the pool dissolved. The above named roa(
is still paying its advertising bills in the same
way and the scalpers are making the rates
between Chicago and Council Bluffs, anC
this has not only effected through rates bu
local as well. A passenger wishing to 90 t.
Rock Island is sold mileage ticket and
broker at that point takes it. B,
this means he has saved 81 or more OF
ticket to Rock Island. He doe.
it by buying an advertising mileage ticket o
scalper. Brokers are growing rich becaus
this practice, while the railroads are sacrifc
ing revenue every day which properly be
longs to them. A fair sample of what tn
mileage tickets are doing is found in De
Moines. Two years ago there were but two
brokers in that place. Now there are 81,
and all them making money. The regula
rate TO Des Moines is S10.45. By purchasin!
a mileage ticket of a scalper the journey vii
cost from SO to $3.50. The brokers at Chi
cago and Des Meines are making a forum
out of it, while the railroads are losing tn
business. If the railroad issuing the ticket
was realizing profit in the deal it woult
not be so Objectionable, but the tickets ar
counted for just one-fifth their actual valu
when given IN for advertising. This make
the practice absolutely without reason an
why a general agent can be so foolish is to-
deep for me to fathom.
aside from the actual loss to the roads
providing the business is conducted souarely
another feature is presented. The tempta
ton to the employees who make the contrac
and deliver the tickets is too great for mos
men to resist. The opportunities to make al
over issue, to receive commissions 70
crooked work, and in other ways beat tn
company, are practically submitted. Tn
very nature of the practice necessitates grea
looseness in the matter of checking the mile
age ticket accounts, and no road whic
adopts this system of paying for its adv, rti
ing pretends to watch the transactions care
fully. The conductors are instructed to as
no questions when the tickets are presented
and as consequence no suspicion
looking mileage tickets are reporte
to headquarters. There seems t
be a sort of taeit understanding tia
any apparent irregularity must be winked at
so the employees directly connected with thu
transaction have full latitude to all that dis
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