The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-03-05
KANSAS RAILWAY LEGISLATION.

Speaker Elder of the Kansas House is
the representative of the Farmers ALI
ance in the drawing of bills to express
their ideas of legislation, and most of the
important alliance measures are known
therefore by mis- name. because he intro
duces them. Thus there have been al
ready an Elder Tax Bill, and Elder Inter
est and Usury Bill, an Elder Insurance
Bill, and an Elder Railway Bill and we
know not how many others. All of these
have been promptly passed by the House,
whose overwhelming majority of farm
ers makes it possible to put any bill
through which is offered with the ALI
ance sanction. The latest in the series
is the Railway Bill, which is thus
described:
'The bill provides that no railroad
company shall charge or receive a rate
in excess of q cents mile for trans
portation of any passenger, and that it
shall be unlawful for railroad company
or corporation, receiver, or any employe,
thereof, to issue, give or deliver any
pass, ticket cards or other devices for
free transportation of any person over
any railroad within this State other than
the employees or their families or ship
pers of livestock of such railroad. The
bill provides for the election of a Board
of Railway Commissioners by direct
vote of the people. The Commissioners
are empowered to issue subpenas and
administer oaths in the same manner
and with the power to enforce obedience
thereto in the performance of said
duties, as belongs and pertains to courts
of record in this State, and any person
who may willfully obstruct said Commits
sioners in the performance of their
duties. or who may refuse to give any
information within their possession that
NAV be required by said Commissioners
within the line of their duty, shall be
deemed guilty Of misdemeanOr.
) 1t shall be the duty or any railroad
company, upon five days notice to any
station agent, to furnish suitable cars to
any and all persons who may apply for
the transportation of any and all kinds
of freight, and to receive and transport
such freight with all reasonable dispatch,
and TO provide and keep suitable facili-
ties for the receiving and handling of the
same at any depot on the line of its road,
and also to receive and transport in like
manner the empty and loaded cars fur
nished by any connecting road TO be de
livered at any station or stations on the
line of its road, to be loaded or dis
charged or reloaded and returned TO the
road so connecting, and for compensa-
ton it shall not demand or receive any
greater sum than is accepted by it from
any other connecting railroad for sim
liar service
The relations between the Kansas
Senate, which is almost solidly Repub-
lican, and the House, which is over
whelmingly Alliance, are becoming more
and more strained as the session pro-
crosses. When the House passed the
Tax Bill the Senate took the very
unusual course of adopting the following
re O'ution:
"Whereas, By the passage of the
House bill commonly called the Elder
TaxsBill and others OF like character,
the House of Representatives of this
State has caused great apprehension and
distrust among the holders of Kansas
securities. and is, as we believe, doing
the people of this State great and ire
parable injury by causing the withdrawal
Of all foreign capital from our State, by
rendering It impossible for the debtor
class Of our people 10 renew their mort
CAGES or even pay the interest accruing
thereon; therefore, be it
Res,l Cd, That is the sense Of this
Senate that no wild OF visionary meas
ure. calculated in its nature or by its
nroyisions TO injuriously affect the peo-
nle of this State or the credit of the
same. can or shall pass the body"
ii wil be seen, therefore, that the