Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-12-08
SCA[PS OF SCALPERS.
House Agrees That They Are
Good Things to Hang to
the Official Belt.
BILL AGAINST TICKET sCALPING

Passes By a Vote of I19 to 1oI-First I'm
portant BIZ of the Session-Features of
the aIeasure-Heavy Demand for Its
PassaGe-Hoar Preeipitates a Technical
Debate in the senate-AIorgan's Report
ON the Nicaragua Canal.
Washington. Dec s.-The house yes
terday passed the anti-ticket scalping
biIl by & vote OF 119 to 1C1. This action
is the cuIntnation Of a ten years
struggle on the part Of the railroads to
put an end TO the business Of ticket
scalping The interstate commerce
commission first called attention to the
subject in its report of 1855 and it has
been before congress ever since in one
form or another. During the last ses-
sion extensive hearings were given both
to the representatives Of the railroads
and the scalpeTs. and Sherman Of New
York secured ia pledges for the meas
uTe- Il was; however. deemed iHadvis-
able to bring the measure forward until
the present session The debate yester-
day lasted four hours and was spirited
upon both sides None OF the amend
ments offered was adopted and the bill
passed as reported by the committee.
Principal Features OF the BILL
The bin requires the carriers subject
to the Interstate commerce act to pro-
vide each agent authorized to sell tick
cts with a certificate and makes il I'M
lawful for an officer Of such carrier to
supply tickets to any but authorized
agents. 1t makes violation of these pro-
visions n.!sdeIne. nor and provides for
the redemption Of unused or partially
used tickets and also provides penalties
for forging or altering tickets. Sherman
said this legislation had been repeated
~ rccoTnrne nded by the interstate COM
merce committee. that IL had the sup
port Of newspapers and commercial
boCies. and that over 3.CC0 petitions in
its favor had been presented to the
house during the present congress. The
business communities had come to look
Urcn the ticket brokerage business as
Illegal. The amount Of fraud practiced,
n known. would startLe any one unfa-
miliar with the facts.
senate Has an Academic Debate.
No business was transacted by the
senate in open session. = few minutes
after the senate convened it went into
executive session. At 2:l5 business in
open session was resumed. the death
of REPRESENTATIVE NCrthway. OF Ohio
and Love. Of Mississippi. was announced
and the senate adjourned as a mark Of
respect To- their memories. During the
executive session HoaT started Il debate
on the prdttlEe OF appolh tlhS SeIdtnIS
upon such commissions as that to Ha-
wall. He said that senators should
hold aloof from such positions. because
their acts as commissioners were to he
passed upon by themselves as senators
4 very reprehensible practice. Aldrich
made the point that the position Of
commissioner IN such duties as those
of the Hawaiian commission and
Paris PEACE commission was not
Inconsistent with the performance
of senatorial duties. Those posi-
tions were. he said. not offices in the
usual Interpretation Of the word. and
to prevent the president calling fortheir
services for such work was to often de-
priVe him OF the best assistance avail
able in special cases like those in which
Senators Morgan. CuIlom. Davis. Frye
and others were engaged TIE debate
was quite extended. IL g