Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-12-17
THE TICKET SCALPERs,
The Interstate Commission Want Laws
Restrain Ticket Brokerage.

The Interstate Commission Want Laws to
Restrain Ticket Brokerage.
The interstate commerce commission, in its
annual report to Congress, urges legislation to
restrain what the report calls the ''illegitimate
and reprehensible business Of ticket broker
age. The report says:
with the great increase Of railroads and the
competition existing among them for patron
age, ticket brokerage has become large bust
ness and very profitable to those engaged in it.
1t is carried on with the greatest amount of
boldness and success in the larger cities of the
country where the most eager competition
exists between railroads. few illustrations
will serve to show the extent to which the bust
ness has been carried.
From various reports received by the com
mission it appears that in New York city there
exist thirteen scalping offices. in which, includ-
ing prOprietOrs and clerks. abont thirty persons
are employed. at an estimated expense for
Office rent and clerk hire pf S20, GOO to S25 900
year. and with an estimated annual profit from
the business of $4,000 to 100000; that at
Chicago there are fifteen scalping Offices whose
combined annual expense for rent and clerk
natl there are nine seal ping offices, with an
annual expense for rent and clerk hire of about
$4,000. and that at Kansas City there are seven
scalping offices, with an estimated annual
1900. When it is considered that this bust
ness Is carried OH in nearly all the principal
cities of the country, and that the net profits
probably amount to four times the expenditure
for carrying 1t on, 1t Ia evident that the profits
from this illcgitimate business exceed the sum
OF a million dollars annually.
ITO railroad officials the report goes on to
say, the business serves as an invitation and an
excuse for dishonest practices. 1t is used as
cover, deceltful and transparent it is true, for
- 4 4 l..
OF compacts among competing roads to main
tain agreed schedules of rates. The public
morals are affected by the natural inference
that railroad officials are deficient in sense of
honor and integrity. and that if the railroad
code of ethics permits one road to cheat
another it is equally permissible for the public
to cheat the railroads. The inevitable tendency
OF the practice. therefore. is to eliminate the
moral element and the rule of action that ele-
ment Observation-Disclosures hOnor-from the
practical field of transportation.
''In whatever aspect ticket scalping may be
viewed it is fraudulent alike in its conception
and in its operations. The competition of
roads affords the opportunity for the work of
the scalper. Without rival roads competing
for business he could have field. The pros
pect OF selling more transportation at a dis
count than at the established rate, and so di-
verting business dishonesty from q competitor.
Is the temptation to road to let a scaper do for
it secretly what it does not dare do openly. The
Weak excuse OF every road that transgresSeS in
this manner il that some competitor does it.
Fraud, therefore, is the incentive to the bus
mess. And in its conduct every step is one of
actual fraud. The scalpers vocation, the ne
cessity for his occupation, is to sell transporta-
ton at less than published and established rates;
in other words, below lawful charges Every
such sale is fraud upon the law. fraud upon
competing roads and a fraud upon the stock
holders and the creditors of the road for which
the sale is made.
But badas these transactions are theyare not
the worst. There are other branches of the
bus mess which We are told by railroad officials
are practiced, to their actual knowledge, which
are even more culpabie These said to en-
brace such acts dealing in tickets and passes
that have been stolen and tickets that have
already been used, but not defaced or Cancelled
by conductors also in tickets fraudulently
altered in respect to dates extent of journey
and spurious tickets, to which the of some
artful device gives the appearance of genuine
ness. In such cases an imposition il practiced.
either on railroad or upon passenger. GER
tainly upon the latter if the fraud be detected.
Whether all or only some brokers engage in
these fraudulent practices or whether the frauds
by which stolen. defnnct or altered tickets arc
palmed off on the public and on the railroads
az well, are perpetrated by brokers themselves
or by others acting in collision with them are
not material. The acts are incidents of the
business and arguments Of great potency for
Legislative action to eradicate the evil.
One might suppose that practice of this
character could no more be defended than lar
ceny or forgery, but strange as it may appear
it is defended before legislative bodies and
elsewhere and the right to carry it on unmo-
Tested is demanded"