St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-03-10

of taxation of mining properties, and
the whole question was whether Or not
the state should have a larger revenue,
under existing laws. and Hompe voted
that it should not. l voted that it
should.
Hompe was elected to the. senate on
great anti-railroad wave. The voters OF
Otter Tail county had grown tired of
sending men to the legislature who. it
and tools of the transportation corpora
tons, and so they took up a loud
mouthed "friend OF the people," from
Deer Creek, and sent him to the senate
to fight the plutOcratS and defend the
producers. Little did they imagine that
one of the first bills which this ferocious
patriot and enemy of rings would intro
duce would BE- bill, drawn in rail
road office, to enrich and protect the
railroads at the expense OF the people.
The ScaIpers' bill.
1t is wei! understood that the railroad
companies are banded together, In an
iron-clad pooling contract. to prevent
competition from cheapening rates and
wiping out their bogus watered stock.
But they have one trouble to encounter.
The weaker and poorer roads. in their
eagerneSS to get business, and live, go
to ''scalperS," as they are called, and
secretly sell large bodies of their tickets,
at reduced rates, and these in turn are
sold to the public, at prices below those
charged by the pool, and thus kind OF
competition is established. part of
the people travel at somewhat reduced
cost and the pool is broken. 1t is said
that one road between ST. Paul and Chi
cago sold in this way, i'll 1890, SAC, 600
worth of tickets, at reduced rates, III a
lump, to meet pressing eXlgency; and
that the other companies lodged COM
plant against the delinquent before the
interstate commerce commissioning
our grand old government is. it seems,
engaged in the noble business of up
holding 1.-THE pool'' and preventing COM
petition. Now all this irrtateS the rail-
road companies, and so. i'll state after
state, they have introduced, and, in
some cases, secured the passage
of laws, to abolish ''Scalpers." In some
states the courts have held such laws to
be unconstitutional, on the ground that
you cannot stop man, in tree cOun-
try, from buying and selling railroad
tickets, or any other legitimate article
of personal property. And the "scalD-
erS,'' large association of reputable
gentlemen, with extensive capital, eX-
tending all over the United States, are
kept busy every winter; rushing around
from state to state, to defend themselves
from bills of that kind. Usually those
bills are introduced by railroad attorneys
from the great cities, bat in Mime
sofa, strange to say, the corporations
passed by their usual representatives,
and placed their interests in the hands
of this Danton of the Northwest, this
terocious, picayune RobeSpierre OF Ot-
ter Tail county, this apostle of red
headed revolution and fiery, volcanic
anti-monopoly. What fact it was in
Mr.. Hompe's past history, or what Sc
cret relations between himself and the
railroad companies, (Which he denOunceS
so SaVagely at home) that led the intel
ligent tranSpOrtati0n-nabob to select
the Wlld-eyed granger from Deer
Creek as their advocate and
defender, we leave to the
Imagination of his constituents. And
so he introduced bin to crush out the
t'ScalperS" and leave the railroads COM
plete masters of the situation. And the
bill went to the judiciary committee. OF
which | was member. l was thunder
struck to find such a measure coming
from such a source. But, thank God. 1T
never got beyond that committee. The
"scalpers" came before the committee
to defend their right to live; and the
principal railroad officials, with their
attorneys. came in sWarmS to defend
Hompe's bill! And the fight ragged fast
and furious for days ana weeks.
Railroad Defender.
And how does this Alliance man now
defend such bill. He says:
Now the facts are, whether we like
it or not, the railroads intend to charge
such passenger,and freight rates as shall
net them certain per cent on their
property, including water"
Precisely. And Hompe proposes to
His the scalper's) business" says
HOmpe, lis a great drain on the reve-
nues of the company, to meet which
they put up rates"
Poor railroads! Klnd-hearted Hompe!
Why this is equal to the benevOlence of
of distinguished statesman of Otter
Tail county, who, years ago, creased
neighbours OK, to keep the flies from
biting him, and did it so artStically
that the owner could scarcely recognize
his own beast; and the ungrateful
wretch afterwards ambushed the gentle
artist and filed his seat of destiny with
duck shot, so that he could not sit down
on chair for month without hurting
the chair.
Had | been left alone | have no
doubt" continues HOmpe, "but what |
could (sic) have brought about a reduc-
ton of passenger rates from three to
two cents per mile, as condition of
passing this bill. Messrs. Donnelly and
Fish were aware of this fact, and con-
Guided it would never do to let me get
the credit for this. and when l found
that every move [ made was misrepre-
scented. quietly withdrew the BILL"
Oh, Hompe. Hompe! How can you?
You know very we'll that you never
withdrew that bill; you cannot with
draw a bill without the vote of the sen
ate, and no such vote was ever given.
1t was battered to pieces and stamped
into the dirt in the judiciary commit
tee, despite all your efforts TO secure
its passage. And you thought you
could have induced the railroad corpOr-
ations to have traded off One-third of
their vast revenues, derived from the
transportation of passengers, as the
| price of crushing out the poor ''scalp-
ers?" Why, my dear Hompe,
why did you not say so?
Never once did such PROPOSE
tion peep from you at any stage OF the
battle. And who made you minister
pie nipotentiary and envoy extraordin-
airy TO make Sucnsa traoe on DenalI OF
the railroad corporations? How come
your relations to be SO intimate with
those bodies-yOu, a plain farmer and
honest granger? And Fish and Don
nelly stopped you from cutting down
the rates of travel. in all this great
state, one-third! God help u.s. Did we
muzzIe you. Hompe? Did we gag
you? Why didn't you apply the
great energy you baYe lately shown
in digging up the votes on all
those momentOuS adiOurnmentS to