The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-02-12
SENATE BILL NO.. 40.
Discussed by u Member of the Ticket
Brokers Association.

Discussed by n Member of the Ticket
Brokers' Association.
To Tho Independent:
Gentlemen of the Legislative Honse:
You will be asked to pass and perpetuate a.
a law s. b. No. 40. which makes IL a felony
for any one outside of n railroad corpora
tion to sell. barter or transfer any ticket or
part of n ticket that he may own by reason
of having paid for Ii.
Gentlemen of the house. this bill is os-
tensibly introduced and pushed by the
brotherhood of conductors. Actually, IL is
solely in the interest of the Northern Pa
oitio railroad and against every interest of
the citizens. Are not railroad rates high
enough now? Why, then, lend your legis-
lative aid to make them hiShet? To re-
quire each and every person who sells a
ticket to be appointed an agent. and certi-
fed to 40 such, removes one of the safe
guards of competition in the passenger
traffic. One who has purchased a
ticket and for some reason has
not completed his journey becomes
a criminal under this bill If he
sells the same. 1t is no protection to hin,
to know that he is promised something at
the place he stops off at. When a railroad
sends a man to Portland from Chicago for
is not much coming to him for the Pc t.
land end of his ticket. The rate from
Helena to Portland is S35. The railroad
would only pay him 81, if they paid him
anything.
The American Ticket Brokers association
was formed to do for the passenger what
the interstate commerce law seeks to do for
the shippers. 1t seeks to equalize rates be-
tween points. Whenever q railroad treats
all points alike and cha, ges q man no more
in proportion for q 800 mile ride than it
does for q 1000 mile ride, then will this
broker cease to exist,
The conductors say they need this law for
their protection. Admitting that they do,
are you gentlemen here to legislste for a
few conductors as against public interest?
But they do not need this protection. They
can protect themselves. The Northe II
Pacific railroad needs it, because it is the
strongest road in the state and seeks to
make its rates and monopoly lronclad. 10
buy whatever you have money to pay for
and sell whatever you have to sell would
seem to be the inalienable right of every
citizen. Why should a corporation having
now more privileges than any citizen ask
you gentlemen to pass a law not granted
the merchant or tradesman. AS we'll COM
mutton or beef, fnds he has too much, to
eat it all, as to pass this law for the North
ern Pacific railroad.
This law has been brought up year after
year in nearly every state in the union. and
has been killed ne brought up. 1t does
oAisb Al L SilS}lSduAHs ~ 40 q AOoo Osu0
in every town except Philadelphia. The
good people of PlttsburQ have time and
again refused to lndict under 1t. 10 pre-
vent the debt holder from selling in the
highest market is certainly a violation of
right. To permit him to sell in that mar
ket is only justice. II is q case which
arises many times every day in every line
Of trade. 1t is the old question which in
! terests the professional man and merchant.
artisan and laborer. and will interest them
to the end OF time.
Il ask the right to sell my wares to the
best advantage" is what they all say. To
all of them it is granted without question.
Yet here in Montana comes a bill which
says: Draw a line, except one class of
people; take away the right from him who
travels" You may make this law, gentle
men, but you can never make it equity.
The Salt Lake Tribune of the Sth has
the following editorial on this subject:
THE Montana legislature is working the
! old Jacket which seeks to forbid any one
dealing in railroad tickets except the en-
ployeR of the company, etc., ETC. tho old
law, which has been tried and killed over
, and over again in every Legislature in the
! west. and which ought TO be killed as often
as it's crest ia upreared in a legislature-be-
> ; cause it is a direct interference with the
I legitimate rights of the citizen. If u man
) buys a railroad ticket, he exercises one of
3 the prerogatives of the great American peo-
D pie. If he pleases to sell 1t at an advance
. or at a discount, that is another of the pre-
! roga9ives which attach to him, and NO legis-
l lature in the world has a right to interfere.
We believe the rule prescribed by railroad
! companies. that q man cannot ride on a
ticket unless he buys it for his own use, ia
unconstitutional in every way. We believe
a man has q right to buy q railroad ticket
Just as lie buys a bill of groceries, and
that after the ticket is bought and paid for.
it is exactly like the groceries-the man can
either take them home or he can send them
to some other house, and after he buys
g them and pays all the price demanded for
them, he has a RICH. to sell them; and
:, though the railroads have obtained two or
/. three decisions in their favor, still we be
Z. lieve if a heroic test were to be made the
rule would not stand long, because, as We
said above. a railroad company is simply a
= common carrier and it has no province
, which enables it to decide what any citizen
may or may not do with his own properly.
A ticket broker pursues just as legitimate a
business az the mining broker, or the cot
ton broker or the wheat broker. and there
Is no discrimination which ought to lie
against the one which Ia without effect
against the other. Our Montana friends
had better kill that bill"
No one save the Northern Pacific con-
ductocs is clamot ing for the passage OF this
law and, gentleman of the house, it would
!, seem to be tho part OF prudence to go slow
i'll making laws that benefit corporations
only.
1 a MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN TICKET BRoK-
EHs' ASSOCIATION.
iuy a gold band tea set this week at The Zee
Hive. real china. only $50.
China cnspidore worth 81. so are selling thil
week for Zoe at The Boo Hive.
samuel X. Davis Special.
INVESTMENT STOCKS.
g Bald Butte-Vcry little stock ip this grea'
e gold mine is offered-the present lots that
have in bank for delivery is probably al
Y that can be purchased within 80 per cent O
price offered at.
Ion Mountsin-In the history of thi
u mine no better time to invest is presented
d than the present. The price of stock i
guaged by the necessities of the holders.
o Whitlatch Union and McIntire-If ther,