St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-03-21
EX-Congressman Lind Makes
a Strong Talk for the
\ Brokers.
Both Sides Sure the Other
Means to Ruin the
Whole World.

statute books. The conductors were
first at the bat, and. through their rep
resentative, Il. ID. O'Brien, of this city,
argued the constitutionalty of the law.
He referred to the two states in which
the question has been passed upon,
dwelt particularly upon the decision of
the Indiana supreme court, and quoted
from Judge Cooley, chairman of the
Interstate commerce commission, III
combating the contention of the scalp
erS that the bill would interfere with
Interstate commerce.
Mr.. OBrien used half Of his time
and then asked that the scalpers'
side be heard, he wishing to use his last
half hour closing.
Mr.. Mckenzie the representative of the
ticket brokers, objected to such an ar
rangement.
There is. he said. something to be
said in support of the bill. | am here
to reply to these reasons and | can't re-
ply without hearing what is to be urged
against the ticket brokerage business"
The committee spent some time in ar
ranging the subsequent details of the
hearing, and decided that as the scalp
ers' business was on trial it was
hardly proper to require them to prove
themselves innocent before they had
been accused. The conductors were re-
CURED to state their case, and it was
agreed to give them fifteen minutes in
which to reply to the ScalperS.
Conductors Charge Fraud.
The conductors themselves then took
their inning. S. E. Farnham was first
Oh the floor. He recited the history of
the bill through its tempestuouS career.
Fraud was the basis of his argument,
and he submitted that he could prove
fraud. He read letters from railroad
officials complaining that conductors
are not sufficiently careful in scrutiniZ-
ing mileage tickets, and to show that
conductors are responsible for mistakes.
1t TRANSFERRED that portion of a letter
had been omitted in the reading. and
ticket broker asked full reading, and
Mr. Farnham complied. 1t was the de-
tail showing to whom ticket referred
| to in the letter had been sold. 1t was to
an invalid and the letter related
that the sick man had sold it
to a scalper. The speaker was drastic
in the extreme, and exposed the fact
| that there is bitter enmlty between
| the conductors and Scalpers. He charged
| that passes are bought and then tam
pered with by brokers. He had a roast
| for the newspaper men, too, and empha-
| sized the impecuniosity of the profess
sion. Then turning again to the brok-
ers, he produced collection of railway
| passes that had been taken up by con-
ductOrs, and he declared that they had
| been fraudulentiy tempered with
| names erased and different names writ
ten in, etc. One of the documents he
| produced in evidence was dated 1879.
Mr.. Mckenzie, of Minneapolis, re-
piled at ieguth. He charged that MIR.
| Farnham had adduced sensational
newspaper clippings and ancient cases
of fraud. He demanded that the passes
cited should be brought before the COM
mittee for inspection. Mr.. Mckenzie
demanded to Know whether or not the
passes had been issued in violation of
| the interstate commerce laws. He adj
United that large commissions are re-
| ceived by the brokers on steamship
| tickets. The commission, for illuStra-
ton, on steamship tickets from any
point east of the Missouri river is SIT,
and this is divided with the people. A
| cut of 1915 is made, and the public gets
! the benefit of it. He asserted that the
railroads cannot, and do not, give that
| discount. He said that the Santa Fe
road had begun action against Mr..
milford. a Chicago broker. but the case
dropped because the Santa Fe road had
COulltCtCu Wtti Gll0 luttISIdtG COlllul6IC
laws. He said that the bill may de-
| prive the people of the Twin Cities of
the great benefits, and of VIII at they are
entitled to.
The Trend OF Travel
is towards st. Paul and Minneapolis,
and will continue, unless the legislature
should intervene. There is no such law
in Missouri and Nebraska; and pass this
bill. and brokers' in st. Louis, Chicago,
Buffalo and other Eastern cities can
sell tickets to Omaha 81 less than to
st. Paul. He hardly felt it incumbent
upon him to answer the charges of
fraud. He had been a broker for twenty
years, and thirteen years he had been
an officer of the ASSOCIATION.
He denied that there had been
any frauds, as charged by
Mr.. Farnham, and he said that if
ticket can be produced that has been
fraudulently tempered with by member
of the association. he stood ready as an
officer OF the association to redeem it.
The origin of ticket brokers sprung from
discrimination by railroads. McKen-
zie charged that as TO the redemption
clause, that a ticket sold outside the
state cannot be redeemed in Minnesota
if the bill passes. Another frightful
feature, he said, is that even though
100000 worth of tickets, unless sold by
authorized agents, are held by brokers
in ST. Paul, not one can be sold without
having the penitentiary stare the brok-
ers in the face. They would all be
subject to confiscation. Mr.. Mckenzie
asserted that the animus of the
bill is that the railway companies
that have ticket offices in this city wish
TO keep to themselves the commission
that is divided with the passengers by
the ticket brokers. Moreover, under
the bill the people of Minnesota will be
deprived of the competition east of Chi
cagO in case of cut by any of the East
ern lines. None Of the roads save the
Milwaukee and the Northern Pacific
combat the brokerage system. The re-
suit is the brokers do not handle tickets
on these roads, and the stock ON the
Northern Pacific has gone down III
few months from So to 80. The Great
Northern is getting the travek and is
building up the great Northwest. In
the matter of license gigantic monop-
oily is built up by the act.
Mr.. Mckenzie challenged any man to
produce evidence that any member Of
the American Ticket Brokers' associa-
ton has committed fraud, and he stood
ready to redeem all fraudulent tickets
sold. no matter what the amount. Then
why should he be driven from the state,
and a monopoly built up? Minnesota
needs all the people that it can induce
to come here, and cut rate tickets are
always an inducement, and the broker
age system has done more than any one
other thing t9yarq building up this
State. Mr.. Mckenzie Quoted the rates
charged by railway companies, and the
rates charged by brokers, proving that
big saving is made to the passenger
who buys from the broker. The saving
runs from 50 to $3.50 on each ticket to
points east OF Chicago.
Congressman Lima closed the argu-
ment for the brokers, and spoke as to
the expediency. He exclaimed that If
here is not rascal among the hun