The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1885-09-09
FREE PASSES AND PUBLIC MORALS

FREE HAOOEO AMI FOoAAC AONALo'
The morals of bribery are as well under
stood and as universally condemned those
of theft The laws of the earliest civilization
forbade bribery in its every form, and all,
cut of self-respect, should spurn the
slightest symptom of this vice, yet it exists
in the highest places and most dangerous
forms.
If each one of the voting citizens knew
how many of our Legislators and Congress
men had all the railroad passes he wanted,
and how many of our judges and county
officers were so supplied, he would see that
the fault lies with the voters as much as
with the officials. Judge Thomas BARLEY,
lately deceased, whilst one of the Supreme
Judges in Ohio, told the writer that nearly
all the Judges in the State had full line of
railroad "passes" that they had asked
for them, but that the free tickets were sent
One of the officials of the Pennsylvania Com
pany said that of all the passes they
had issued to judges and legislators, only
one had been returned, and that one
by Judge Sample, of Coshocton, O., man of
Roman virtues, who would have been
Quaestor among them had he lived in their
time. The memory of this transaction is
preserved the longer because of the dry hu-
NOR in his letter returning the pass: Il re-
turn the enclosed you so kindly send
me, presuming goa, are not a,cqrc thu, I
hare Just becs, elected J,sEgc Of this District
Court" The whole transaction of freely
thrusting these passes upon our officials by
the railroad companies, and of their accept
ance on the other hand, is Of that sly nature
that is of itself unmanly and demoralizing.
The lame excuses that the participants must
invent to quiet conscience could not satisfy
the dullest boy in a Sunday-school. "My
company directs me to do, or to offer, this
bribing; it is their business, not mine" The
legislator and judge will conclude that as he
did not solicit this pass he will make
free use of it, all the same, and not allow it
to influence HIM in his official calling. 1t is
bride. nevertheless, so offered, and, if
accepted, the terms are well understood by
both the parties, and that completes any and
all contracts. If the receiver accepts and
profits by the pass and then refuses to per-
form his part of the implied contract, he
accepts a worse position from moral stand
poin:.
The class most hungry for such favors is
said to be county Officials-not as humble
mendicants, but clamorous as if for sort of
inalienable right, almost saying: Il can do
you favOrs if you favor me, and can do you
harm if l am not favored" Passes given to
the press and to shippers are upon differ
ent basis. They are not public func-
tiOnaries, nor charged with any sort of
judiciary trust. There is always quid pro
quO in the favors to the press, paid back in
pen, ink and paper often in excess of the
benefit derived from such passes.
A telegraph frank is said to be worth on
an average of $500 year to each recipient.
They are charity reserved for Congressman
and such high functionaries as can serve or
most annoy the telegraph company. Gov
ernor DennisOn, when Postmaster General,
recommended to Congress the establishment
of postal telegraph department, and said
that he found nine-tenths of the Congress
men had telegraph numbers on annual cards,
and that with such backing the President
and his Cabinet did not like to press the sub
jeet. The use of free passes to our law
makers and judiciary is bold bribery of hide
Gus proportions. 1t coTupts the very source of
all our rights under the Constitution. 1t is
subversive of morality and good government.
1t has no defenders and no defense. Laws
can not control it for it controls the law.
The remedy is only where most remedies
must come from-through the ballot. If
every voter should see 10 ii that each candi-
date publicly promises never to solicit, ac-
cept or use pass this evil will at once be
suppressed, and higher plane of public
morals attained.