Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-13
THE PASS TO PUBLIC OFFICIALS
MUST GO.

| LIE TdOO ~ fUBLLC OFEICLALt
MUST GO.
The newspaper man pays for every mile h,
| rides on the railways. He may have the privil.
| eye OF paying the bill in Advertising lust as ht
| pays for dry goods or groceries, but he gives
| value Tor what he receives in a legitimate way.
Yet you find well-meaning people who are ready
70 charge that the press is absolutely bought up
| with free passes. Sometimes a member of the
legislature is caught with free pass in his vest
| pocket; His constituents suspect him at once,
6ecaase they consider that this pass increases
| his obligations to the corporations against
which they expect him to exert himself.
Ho vsrS comes nsy,d the h OF Texas
sling running night and day and the compli-
ments OF the giant nicely deposited in his vest
| pocket. he gives Goliath thunder on Saturday
and starts out early the next day on free passes
IN the coaches and over the roads of corporations
which he has SO soundly abused. How does At
He does not pay for it in advertising. He does
not pay for it by voting in the interest of the
corporations, as the representatives are charged
Win d0Ing. He has free passes and he uses
them. There is no doubt of that. 1t is true that
he has not brought suits against some of the
railroad companies. But It does not appear
free passes. OF course this is not
the most liberal view to take of
claim that it is not at all wrong for the attor-
ney- general, whose duty It is to keep the cor
Porations straight, to carry complete deck of
dc adhead passes; but it is q little difficult to
understand why some people are so willing to
suspect that the newspaper man and the mem
per OF the legislature are bribed because they
rave railroad passes, and viii consider dead
heading on the railroads all right in the man
and the ohicial VINO keeps his voice raised con-
tinually aga INST the roads, their metho ds and
their managements.-LD Dallas News.
If anything we're needed to arouse the
public mind to the need of law forbid
ding public servants from accepting
railroad passes, it is supplied in the use
which has been made of pass issued by
the Central road to Attorney &C eneral
Hogg.
1t is nothing to the purpose that the
railroads of the state have been in the
habit of sending passes, unsolicited, to
state officials, as well as to other public
servants, and that, until now, these
passes have been regarded as mere court
estes to official position. The letter of
Col. Faulkner and the comments of anti
railroad commission newspapers will be
accepted as proof that under the guise |
of courtesy to official position the roads
have been seeking to influence oficiaI
action.
Nothing that can hereafter be urged
by the roads or their organs will remove
the popular impression thus created, that
The railroad pass was intended as a
Dribe. This impression cannot rebound
to the credit of those who have accepted
Iuch favors and who have not by any ut
teranee or action incurred the criticism
IT enmity of railroads or their organs.
The people Will readily recall the fact
hat the lands which were the subject of
% much discussion between Mr.. Hail and
dr. Hogg belonged to the Central road
md that it was the Central road which
allied public attention to Mr..
1ogg's pass, while preserving silence as
o the pass of Mr.. Hall, who is also a
andidate for governor, and who also
avors railroad commission, and also
Thile preserving silence as to the pass of
If. Wheeler, another candidate for GOV
rnor. The people will bear these things
4 mind and wonder if only Mr.. Hogg's
ass was intended to be a bride while the |
Their passes were mere courtesiss. s
Another question the people will ask is
bis: If these passes have not been I
ourtesies, as popularity supposed, but +
re brides, as it now appears, what !
as been the return made by the a
ublic officials to the roads? Col. !
letter and the echoes of q
lie railroad organs have sharpened the t
sue in this campaign and placed the \
Dads IN the attitude Of an interest SEN ]
rate and apart from other interests. ]
MS is most unfortunate, and IL the pub G
, mind becomes inflamed it will be due b
rgely to the railroad pass question in r.
cted into the campaign by Col. Faulk- y
If. fl
AS courtesies, the people have a
lerated the railroad pass to pub
officials. AS brides, the peo- II
e will not tolerate railroad passes to q
bile officials. The Dallas News is CON- II
rned TO know how Mr.. Hogg, a COM b
ssion advocate, has paid for his pass L
3 people are concerned to know how II
1er state officials, who are anti.com- d,
ssionists, have paid for their passes. 81
rhe pass to the public of1oiaI must go, 70
W that it is psraded as something de- "a
!nding a return service from the official "
the railroads. Fl