St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-11
RAILWAY ABUSES.
Scalpers to Be Driven Out of Existence
and the City by Having Commits
sions Out Off.
Prospects for a General Remodeling Of
the Passenger Business of North
western. Lines
Statement of the Stock Traffic of the
Northern Pacific Railroad
for 1885.
Business of the Canadian Pacific and
Building 1t Has Done This
Year--NOteS.
scaIpers and Commissions.

ScalPers and Commissions.
The reply of General Passenger Agent
Littell of the Minnesota & Northwestern
road to the joint letter of the general pas
senger agents of the association roads, in
the opinion of the railroad officials, in the
tone it was given was hardly expected by
the general passenger agents. Mr.. Littell
in his reply said that the Minnesota &
Northwestern stands on the principle that
ii S. is the amount the railroad companies
are to receive for transporting passenger
to Chicago it will sell its tickets for that
price and give the public the full benefit of
the cut rather than compel the public to
pay SIS and give the broker the other So,
which leaves no chance for a suspicion that
an officer of the company is silent partner
in scalping office. 1t has been the Gus
tom in St. Paul for ticket agents of the diff
ferent companies to secure all the ScalperS
possible to work in their favor, the greater
the number the more money in their
pockets. The ticket agent in number of
instances has been working against his COM
pany in giving revenue to the scalper which
legitimately belonged to the company he
worked for. But he was looking after his
own gains, not those of the company, and
OIL all tickets sold by the scalper to points
east the ticket agent over whose road the
passenger went, invariably received por-
ton OF the commission on the ticket from
the broker. This being the case the ticket
agent really worked with the scalper and
between them they demoralized rates. But
the scalpers are net dead yet nor will they
be until commissions are abolished ON east
bound tickets from Chicago.
THE EASTERN TRUNK LINES
still pay commissions to authorized ticket
agents Of other companies these commits
sions ranging from So to IS. Many of the
tickets from Chicago to Eastern points are
held by brokers in st. Paul, and, when they
sell passenger through, they can claim
the commission. The Eastern trunk lines
will not pay them. but it is very easy
matter for the brokers to give the railway
ticket agent the number of the ticket and
have him collect the amount due by giving
him half the amount. These commissions
are really tax upon the public
which is illegal in its nature. The railways
have no legitimate use for scalpers. IT, in
the past and at present, their interference
has been tolerated, it was and is because of
the willingness of some roads to resort to
irregular methods of getting business, COM
polling others to do the same. They are
the brigands Of the passenger business.
However much the general passenger
agents have in the past desired to get rid of
the scalpers, they could not of themselves
accomplish their desires, and it would
have been foolishness for them to have
tried.
A ticket scalper is person who sells
tickets below the price at which they are
purchased of the roads through the regular
channels. He calls himself ticket broker,
term which he is in some respects hon
estly entitled to, and which speaks volumes
as to the corrupt and dishonest methods
which have prevailed in the passenger de-
partmentS of number of railroads. Last
year the association of scalpers did a bust
nesssof near $35. 600, 900. The great majority
of railway officials would like to see this
useless expense cut off. Running railways
is like managing a manufacturing estab-
lishment, and no leaks can be permitted if
profits are to be made. No one pretends to
deny that the abuses of all kinds connected
with railways
SHOULD BE WIPED OUT,
and the great abuses in the passenger line
are scalpers and paying commissions. The
practice of paying ticket commissions is
deep-seatcd and will not be rooted out with
out a struggle. That it is all evil of the
first magnitude cannot be doubted, and
railway managers have made several at
tempts to wipe it out, but in vain, because
all would not join in the effort. A local
agent, whose duties are onerous, would be
satisfied with his salary if he understood
the penalty for grasping after forbidden
perquisites. While freight and passenger
rates have been cut down, skilled labor is
more plenty, and why should the railways
continue to pay $4,000 900 every year in
commissions, when an increase of SO, 900, coo
in agents salaries would enable them to
dispense with the commissions entirely?
Why not adopt differential rates and thus
obviate one of the causes Of the commissions
and thus give the public the benefit? 1t
would be strange if abuses had not crept
into the railway service. This is no rehec-
ton upon present officers, for they are not
responsible for the wrong methods. All
the same, change should be brought about
and the evils cured, even at the expense of
some hard work, more hard feeling and
considerable bitterness. And if the attempt
now being made by the general passenger
agents of St. Paul, to drive two evils out of
the railway passenger business proves sue
cessful, it will mark one of the most impor-
tant events ever accomplished in railroad
ing. 1t will, as General Passenger Agent
Carpenter of the Milwaukee & st. Paul
road says. introduce an era in railroad traffic
service which will be the harbinger of bet
ter times among railways than has ever
been known since competition was first in
augurated.