The Washington critic., 1886-12-20
THE RAILROAD ATTORNEY BILL.


1t is easy enough TO understand why
q member of Congress who is in receipt
of handsome retaining fees from SUBJ
sidized railroad company should be OPP
posed to the Beck bill, for, in case of
its passage as originally introduced, he
would either be compelled to resign his
seat and retire from Legislative life or
else terminate his professional engage
ments with the corporations, the two
being made incompatible in law, as
they certainly are in sound morals.
What puzzles us in this matter is
that any member who is not thus re.
tanned should antagonize 50 righteous
4 measure; though possibly there is
no opposition of that extraordinary
character. The mere fact that Sena-
tor or Representative is working to de.
feat the proposed legislation, creates
warrartable suspicion that If he is not
already in the service of the roads as
an attorney, he some day expects to
he; or is at least open TO solicitation.
If any other presumption were pos.
sible, 1t were preferable, for there is
nothing assuring or agreeable in the
thought that men who are sent to
Congress for the special purpose of
looking after the welfare of their con-
stituents and maintaining the honor of
the Government, should allow their
freedom of action to be handicapped
by questionable, If not demoralizing
Influences.
1t is within the range Of possibilities
that the attorney Of railroad might
go into the Senate or House and sup
port or oppose bill, according to the
company's Instructions, without doing
violence to his conscience. Legislation
so clearly unjust might be attempted
that he would be forced to vote against
1t in any event but 1t may be set down
as a rule that no man who is in the pay
of a corporation as its legal adviser can
so divest himself of this relation upon
the floors of Congress as not to be
BIASED in favor of his client upon all
questions involving his clients inter.
Csts.
II stands to reason that he Is not al
ways to be relied on as safe and honest
legislator from the very fact of his be-
ing piled so constantly with induce
ments not TO be.
The railroad corporations, especially
those which are clamoring against the
forfeiture Of vast land-grants they have
never earned, and the regulation OF in
terstate commerce by statute, naturally
want their agents in Congress, because
there is no other way in which they
can counteract so successfully what
they are pleased to call unfriendly leg
islation. Their best agent is, of course,
paid attorney, not man who is hired
TO defeat a specific bill. but one who.
being in their employment, may be de-
pended upon to stand as much in the
way of the bin as possible,
Having au influential Senator or two,
or half dozen or dozen, as the case
may be, with big retainers in their
IOthSAe, tuNg Ndu pI'NihC lol All
ordinary contingencies without the
need Of lobby, and thus may the de,
munds Of the people for redress and
restitution be year after year ignoged,
What Senator Beck ia contending
for Is 10 render such scandalous impu-
tations upon the good name Of the
Senate impossible and to facilitate the
progress Of wholesome legislation. Is
itnot an unpleasantly suggestive cir.
cumstance, all the mye SO now that
the Cullom Reagan bill is forging to
the front, that he should encounter
such an artful and obstinate opposi.
si,ionY Were there no occasion for
the legislation he proposes, would
there be such sci determination &c
strangle II?
IL ANOTHER part Of this issue will bC
found the utteTances of many persons
on the Interstate Commerce bill
Some Of them evidently labor under
serious misapprehension concerning tht
long and short haul provision, The!
appear to SUPPOSE that II Is proposed L