Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-06-11
NUMBER 40. AT Low PRICES.

COllScJS OT TtCSlNGS ANY
/ other person or persons for doing for
him or them like and contemporary
eous service under similar circum.
stances and conditions, such common
carriers shall be deemed guilty of
unjust discrimination, which is hereby
prohibited and declared unlawful' y
Section 3. "Tt shall be unlawful for
any common carrier to make or give
any undue or unreasonable preference
or advantage to any particular person
in any respect, whatever"
Now let any person of fair reason
read these plain provisions of the law
and then show, if he can, that Messrs.
Harrison and Wannamaker are not
included in the act The common
carriers who are parading them over
the country at great expense in glid-
ing palaces openly and defiantly vio-
lated the law, and they (the distin-
guished government officialsl are pdr-
ticeps criminis in it. On page IL of
report of Interstate commerce COM
mission, 1889, the commission con-
strue those provisions as follows:.
| "The statu te undoubtedly was
| framed TO prohibit ''passes" or free
| transportation of persons as one of the
forms of unjust discrimination, favor
| ltism and misuse of corporate power that
had grown into an abuse of large propor-
tions and become demoralizing i'm its in
t1uence and detrimental to railroads, both
in loss of revenue and in provoking pub
lie hostility One OF the minor and meaner
phases of this abuse is the distinctive
preference shown in various ways by en-
ployes, both in service and civility, to
holders of passes. as If discrimination by
free carriage includes discrimination in
treatment of passengers. And here are
IInp
ties 10 the "meanest phases of this abuse''
that ever occurred lr the history of the
country.
These are the provisions of the statute
and also the construction put upon same
by the able commission. On same page
they say: 1.-The law aims at the correction
CT the abuse of free transportation, and
IN accomplishing this general purpose
some forms of free or reduced transporta-
ton that at first view might appear plaus-
ible or even unobjectionable in them
selves, have to fall under its general re-
strictions. The principle of equality un-
der like conditions for the travelling pub
lie have been grossly violated by the rail-
roads. Favored persons or classes of
persons have been furnished free trans
portation at the expense of the general
public by higher general charges to reim-
burse for grataitous carriage. The dis
elimination is equally unjust whether the
free transportation be complimentary or
TO aid some PERSONS business or for some
supposed Indirect advantage of the carrier.
The correction of the evil and the equality
of right, to which all are entitled, re-
quired the resolutions TO be general and
sweeping, (this includes the president
and the postmaster generaD, to furnish
any substantial assurance that the abuse
should not be continued or new ones de-
vised under cover of any discretion left
to the CARRIER Could more pointed
or singing rebuke be puJ in language to
read to these law-breakers in high places?
Yes, the poor and impoverished common
people of Pennsylvania and all along the
line of that great corporations road will
be taxed ''by higher general charges to
reimburse it for Harrison and Warns
makers swinging around the circle.
Does the prospect for reducing these car
riers to obedience to law seem bright
when the president and the postmaster
general of the United States are parties to
and participants in an enterprise i'm which
the law is spit upon? We ask. Why they
are not plain, cold, deliberate law break
ers, if this is true? o. D. JONES.