St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-02-03

/ Tered Tor fraudulent tickets by ticket
Ibrokers, or in fact for any tickets, casts
| a cloud upon us as body of men so
long as it exists.
Moreover, is it not fact that what
ever enters into the cost of tranSporta-
| ton, or whatever money is absorbed be-
| tween the public and the railroads,
whether by ticket brokers or otherwise,
i'll the long run comes out of the public
purse? Is the public as body bene-
fitted? We answer uneQuivoeally, No.
I The public is not benefited, as passenger
[ fares are adjusted and maintained upon
| these unnatural conditions. NotWith-
standing the fact that concessions are
constantly given the public below legal
rates through excursions, Communication
rates for daily riding, mileage books.
which have reduced the cost of riding
in this state to the vicinity Of two cents
per mile, the fact still exists that what
ever the broker absOrbs out of
this is so much added to the
| public cost of transportation, and
the only people beuefited in the state of
Minnesota are those in the large cities.
We understand there are not more than
four cities in the state where ticket
! brokers' offices are established, and
where cut rate tickets can be purchased.
Notwithstanding the safeguards that
the railroad companies have put about
them by compelling us to pay for fraud
ulent tickets which we take up. and by
requiring the payment Of an additional
$40 an 1900 mileage book, SO as to Sc
cure the return of the covers and know
that it will not get into the hands of a
ticket broker. ticket brokers do exist.
The illustration made in the news
paper article in question, that the
Poor Farmer in the Country
cannot put up his $40 when he buys
mileage book as security for returning
the covers, is very lame illustration,
very cunningly put. Ii there were no
ticket brokers, the poor farmer who
wanted to buy 2,000-mile book could
do so without making any deposit, be-
cause there would be no opportunity to
dispose Of the book after portion Of it
had been used, but the purchaser would
be compelled to carry out his contract,
and use the book within the time sp9ci-
fed. The ticket broker in this country
today stands between the people and the
railroads, in the position of preventing
many concessions which the railroads
could we'll afford to make to the public,
were it not for the ability of the broker,
III his present position, to divert these
mate purposes.
There is one more Illustration in this
article which calls for an answer-that
is the instance cited wherein the rate of
S35 from Missouri river points to San
Francisco is compared with the rate
from the same points 10 Ogden. This
S35 rate is the second-clasS rate. 1t was
made to encourage the. emigration of
poor people from the East to the West
to open up homes. Undoubtedly the
railroad companies made this rate eX-
pecting to benefit themselves in the
long run, but they were willing to re-
duce the rate to much lower figure per
mile for settlers expecting to get their
recompense through the settlement OF
the country. The broker steps in at
this point, buys the ticket through his
agents-DosSibly at the regular ticket
otfice-dverts the use of it, selling the
ticket to Odgen and the portion from
people, in all probability both Of them
much better able to pay full fare than
the settler would be able to pay what
was practically half rate.
1t is an uudeniaDle fact that the pros
perity of every Western state has been
aided and helped by the low rates made
to people who wished to change their
Eastern locations and build up new
homes in the West. There is no good or
logical reason why concessions made by
the railroad companies for this purpose
should be perverted for
Purposes OF speculation
by so-called ticket brokers. As a mat
ter of fact, the broker has bnt two
methods Of living; one is by taking adj
vantage of the concessions made by
railroad companies for large meetings
of the people, another by taking
advantage of low rates granted to
settlers through fraudulently manipu-
lating the tickets i'll both cases, and
there is further method as claimed
in the argument made by a prominent
broker before the legislature Of Mime
sofa, through some railroads who sell
their tickets in large blocks to these
brokers at rates which discriminate
against the general public, especially in
the country districts. as these tickets
are always cold in the large cities, and
never put on the market in the country
towns: the farmer and laborer know
nothing about them; the smart city chap
is the fellow who gets the advantage of
such rates. and the railroads which
practice this discrimination against the
public, by enabling one portion of the
public to buy tickets at lower rate !
than others, is no better than the ticket /
broker himself. We believe that this |
latter class of business is rapidly going |
out of existence, and the broker ought /;
to 90 with it.
Reference is made to the American |
Ticket Brokers' association, as to its !
security and responsibility. 1t is simply |
an association of ticket bro kers, organ I
lied to prevent undue competition in |
their business, and for mutual pro- !
lection; it has no corporate existence; |
it cannot sue or be sued; it offers no !
security to any one, nor is it in any way
responsible. The first requisite for
membership, as stated in the Sioux CITY |
papers, is money. The other thing |
needful is character. AS to the charac- |
ter of the men who manipulate tickets
in this manner, comment is unneces-
sary Their penalty for crookedness
is expulsion from the association;
who ever heard of one being eX-
PEELED? And Furthermore. if this asSo-
citation did eXpel members for So-called
crookedness, there is nothing to compel
any ticket broker to become a member
of the association. He can, and does in
many instances, conduct his business
without membership i'll the so-called
ticket brokers' association. He does
corrupt railway employees. as has been
proven in your state in the MuSsgang
case, and he ought in all honesty and
fairness to be relegated to some other
business, which is not an interference
with the public, and where he cannot
create the present discriminating con-
dition of affairs.
Railroad transportation is not mer-
chandise and should never be consid-
cred as such. No middle man should
efer stand between the railroad COM
pany and the public to absorb any por-
tion OF the money which the public pay
for transportation, but every man who
rides on the sameday, OH the same train
and in the same car should travel at the
same rate of fare between the same
points. Any other condition of affairs
is discrimination of the most fragrant
ORDER OF RAILWAY CoNDUCToRs.
-a Frank Boards Talk.
The entertainment announced for the
Peoples church tonight might be called