St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-07
HELPING THEMSELVES.


inc before the legislature the GLOBE
stouIly opposed it-not because it had
any fondness for the scalpers or any
hostility to the railroads per Sc, but be-
cause the bill was but another of the
too common efforts of these corporations
to obtain an advantage by means of Leg
lslation to which they were not entitled,
and because it was direct assault on the
liberties of the people. We insisted
that the scaiDer was the natural and
legitimate product of the abuse of their
privileges by the roads, the product of
their overreaching. and that the remedy,
III their own hands. was nothing more
than a just and fair dealing with the
public. and that they should be RENTED
to their own powers to apply the rem
edy.
Having failed in the courts to secure
what. they were influential enough
I with the legislature to get. the trunk
lines east or the Mississippi, we are
told, have agreed, along with the
correction of some other abuses, to
redeem all unused PORTIONS of tickets,
and thus deprive the scalpers of
OF what has given rise to their business.
1t would be far more to their credit had
they done this of their own motion and
before they had tried to retain the un.
earned gains coming from unused
mileage by attempting to crush out by
state enactment the men who bought
and sold it. 1t would have been also
more to the credit of the party which
controlled the latest legislature of this
state had it defeated the bill instead of
passing it, and thus making 1t a crime
for citizen to sell valuable right
which he had honestly acquired and
paid his money for.
We have never been of those who.
though unable to tell fish-plate from
semaphore, still felt qualified to
operate railroads better than those
could who had grown up in that work;
but it is true that, in any occupation,
those engaged in it are not the best
qualified to speak of its relations to
others. Railroad men naturally maxi
mize the importance of the roads to the
public. and minimize that of the public
to the roads. Their perspective is neces-
SNh'Ay AouiGys oSdCO W. hofS thC
spirit which expressed itself in Jay
Gould'S statement that rates were ad-
justed to what the traffic would bear"
and Vanderbilt's cool but sincere decla-
ration that 1.-THE public be damned"
Out ofthis attitude of the managers of
the roads has come all the hostility
shown in legislation, in platforms and
in political organizations 1t is the
knowledge that rapacity has guided
them rather than considerations of
broad policy aud justice. This feeling
has been met by the roads either with
indifference or contempt, or, when 1t
sought expression in legislation. by their
lobbyists plentitully supplied with
Doodle to enlist the wolves and corrupt
the corruptible. They have shame
lessly bought legislatures to secure
privileges to which they were not en-
titled, as this demolished scalper act, for
to secure to the public an acknowledge
ment of its rights.
The condition they have produced is
q deplorable one. Elections TO the leg
islature are now regularly sought by
men who go there with no other pur-
pose than to ''bleed" the roads. They
will get bills introduced striking at the
rights OF these corporations. solely for
the purpose of having the lobby buy
them off. We have seen a pack of these
wolves supporting bill introduced by
sincere men until 1t reached the caIen-
dar. when. in needless alarm. the rail-
roads met the demands of the pack, and
they defeated the bill. Not only do
these men come back. but the we'll
known fact that the roads do buy men
induces the INSCRIPTIONS men in every
district TO plan and intrigue and work
to get in the charmed circle of plumber.
The evils grow, and will grow as
long as the managers continue their
practices, and they may be assured that
they can no more surely guard them
selves against the wolves than by treat
ing the public with such fairness and
equal justice as to turn public senti-
ment in their favor. They will be Sc
cure in their rights when they the most
fully respect the rights OF the people.