The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1893-11-22

pOrRtion.
The following direct evidence Of COM
plicity between railway officials and out
side parties whereby stockholders suffer
from the speculatiOns Of some that are
entrusted with management is also
quoted from Mr.. Davis excellent article:
Aside from commissioners paid for d.
vsrtiDg passenger traffic, great sums are
paid for Influencing" and "routing" !"
freight traffic, and these sums, while paid
10 outsiders, or sO-Cslled brokers, are fire.
quently divided with railway officials. When
the writer was in charge Of the transpOrta-
tion accounts Of q railway running east
from Chicago, it was a part of his duty to
certify 10 the correctness of the vouchers on
which commission payments were made,
and he became aware Of the fact that one
Chicago brokerage Rrm was being paid a
commission Of from to cents per 100
pounds on nearly all the -four, grain, pack
ing house and distilleEy products being
shipped out Of Chicago over this railway,
no matter whore such shipments might
originate, many Of them, in fact, original
ing on and far west Of the Mississippi river;
and when he objected to certifying 10 ship
ments with which IL was clear that the Chi
Cago parties could have had nothing TO do,
he was told by the manager that his duties
ended when be had sscertsined and Oerti-
fed that such shipments had been made
from Chicago station. From Investigations
instituted by the writer, no soon learned
that some one connected with the manage
ment was deeply interested in the payment
of the largest sums possible as commits
siong.
FREE PASSES.
The policy that governs the granting
OF favors-in the form OF free passenger
transportatio by these powerful cor
porstions indicates some Of the corrupt
ing methods by which their extraordi-
nary privileges are perpetuated. With
systematic regularity annual passes are
issued and presented to national, state
and municipal officials with whom, as
such, these corporations have relations
which affect the public interest; to ma
tionRl and state Legislators upon whom
they depend for favorable legislation; to
newspaper editors and politicians who
influence public opinion in their respec-
tive localities; to judges Of courts before
whom they are almost cons ant liti
Rants. To such an extent ls this de.
moralizinR practice carried that, IN fact,
there are but few Of those who admins
ter the different departments OF the gov
ernment-the executive, the Legislative,
the iudicial-who do not, to greater or
less extent, yield to the seductive lnfu-
ence Of those who dispense these valua-
BILE fRVors.
Free passes are liberRlly bestowed
upon public officials and upon personal
friends that are denied to the heaviest
patrons Of the road, where the applicant
is dependent upon one line for the mar
keting of his product; only when the
large shipper can avail himself of the
facilities Of O rival line Is he granted
transportation" In consideration of his
patronage.
AeRIcULTURE's BURDENS.
Until agriculture ia made profitable
industry by q removal of the few causes
that at present make it Improbable, no
general prosperity Of the people Of the
United States is possible. So long as it
nnata the wheat raiser living laaYl in the