The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-04-21
THE LEGISLATURE.

nSlIou DitCk lul) inc y Jay Ol luc people.
We praised i. very highly at one tine,
and it then deserved our commentator.
1t did seem to us that an hOnester or
betterintentioned body of gentlemen
could not be found anywhere. And this
they continued to he until the giant cor
pOrations began to get in their work,
and then the greater part of them "fell
like Lucifer never to rise again" At
first the mire of corruption only came
to their shoe tops-in a little While it
had reached their knees then it was
around their waists, and by the time the
legislature was ready to adjourn you
could only see wagging ear waving
here and there, marking where a pa
triot and statesman had gone down for
ever. There was considerable residu-
UNI of honest men left, standing on the
dry land of public decency and duty,
but they were powerless to accomplish
any important reform.
The results of the session confirm us
more and more in our belief that the
Republic will not be safe nor secure of
continued existence, until the people
have absorbed the great transportation
companies. Until that is done our
courts and legislatures will be mockeries
and shams. We go through the motions
of self-government; we have all the ap-
pearance of free-men; we have the ira
ditions and paraphernalia of liberty, but
when we have elected our representa-
tives a hostile power comes into play
and we have lost all control over our
agents.
Nor can we Justly complain shat hui
man nature is not strong enough to re-
sist the pressure put upon it.
On the one side are one hundred and
sixty-eight legislators, each with a hun
dred ambitions and thousand neces-
sites; many of them with mortgages on
the very homes that cover
their wives aud children On
the other side are powerful cor
porations, worth hundreds Of mil
lions of dollars; with millions to spend
in corruption; with the most capable at
torneys in the country to devise expedi-
ents and give plausible excuses for
wrong-doing, and with swarms of active
and INSCRIPTIONS lobbyists. How can
human nature endure such an unequal
conflict? The wonder is not that many
fall but that any stand.
1t is indeed pitiful to see men, en-
dowed by their creator with most noble
gifts, yielding to the tremendous temp
tations which surround them, and going
back to their homes at the end of the
session. demoralized, debauched and
ruined; to carry the contagion of cor
ruption to the poisoning of the COM
munities in which they dwell
Neither can we greatly blame the Of
ficers of the corporations for using the
very money wrung from the people to
corrupt the representatives of the peo-
pie, and prevent the community from
| protecting itself. They know that the
retention of their own positions depends
they fight the people and perpetuate the
abuses of which the people complain.
They are like the old rack-renting
agents of Ireland, who had to extort
from the half-starved peasantry their
last shilling to send to the nonresident
landlords. If the money was not forth
coming for his pleasures in Paris or
London, my lord would soon charge his
agent; and the agent to keep from fall
ing back into the common flood of mis-
cry had to work with renewed zeal to
despoil his fellowmen.
We must not fight human nature; We
must relieve it of the stain put upon it
by evil conditions
In the first place get the people to
thinking over these matters Let them
understand how much is at stake.
Call their attention to the fact that
they are supporting the railroads of the
country today. From the presidents
salary down to the cotton waste that
stuffs the wheel-boxes all comes Oh. Of
the people. There is nowhere else for it
to come from. Labor--on the farm, in
the shop, in the mill, in the mine, in the
forests the prolific parent Of every
thing.
Would it not be better to have one
railroad president instead Of five hun
dred? Would it not be bet
ter to squeeze out the water
ed stock and pay interest only
on the real capital invested? Would it
not be better to relieve the courts, and
the juries, and >the legislatures, and the
ballot boxes of the dreadful pressure
now put upon them to maintain pools
and earn unjust profits?
It appears certain that if present con-
ditions continue liberty cannot endure
in the land. There is growing up a
widespread disbelief in the law and it's
administration which must inevitably
result in a reign of violence.
Contempt of law is the beginning Of
anarchy. We find the following illus
trative extract in the papers:
indianapolis, April 16.-FOr the pres
ent, at least, the Citizens Street railroad
against the three-cent fare law. Mr.. Ma
son, president of the company, says that
until the case Is settled in the courts
three cents will be accepted as a