The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-18

| nations and combines and cut-throat
policies will be relegated and forgot
ten. Among the cut-throat subterfuges
which has developed is that of ticket
| scalping. There is a strong public de-
mand for its abrogation. 1t is not
business in that it is not honest or hon.
orable competition. 1t comes Of under
| handed efforts to cripple a competitor
and congress should in both the interest
of the railroads and of the public niI
the policy in the bud and destroy it root
and branch. Boards of trade and other
commercial organizations are urging
upon congress the passage of measure
which will put a stop to this unbusl-
nesslike traffic. Both the senate anu
| house committees on interstate and for
eign commerce after having given the
matter a thorough hearing, have with
great unanimity favored the passage
Of the "anti-scaIping BILL" so-called.
From an article touching this subject,
which lies before US, and which covers
the merits of the question quite thor
oughly, we quote the following declara-
tions and conclusions:
1.-The bill contemplates the abolition of
traffic by irresponsible and unauthor-
lied persons, in railroad and steamship
tickets, and confines such transactions
to the duly constituted agents of the
transportation companies, and obligates
all common carriers to promptly and
equitabIy redeem passage tickets when
for any reason unused in whole or in
part.
1.-The Interstate Commerce Commits
sion in its annual reports to congress
has again and again reviewed the evils
of ticket scalping and uniformly urged
upon congress the ekpediency and JUS
tice to the travelling public and the
railways of such amendments to the in
terstate commerce act as would abolish
the practice and limit sales Of passage
tickets to responsible and properly au-
thorized channels.
LAS a rule, the ticket scalper, in his
province of a self-constituted agent, is
unable, were he so disposed, to discrim-
mate touching the legitimacy or regu-
larity of tickets rendered and purchased
in the course Of his transactions. It
therefore follows that his office creates
a convenient market for lost, stolen or
fraudulent tickets, and likewise, an in
centive and temptation to railway en-
ployes to, through the medium of the
ticket broker, defraud the companies
whom they serve. This feature of the
business of the ticket scalper being self
evident, should condemn his transac-
lions from a moral standpoint.
THE business of the ticket scalper
does not appear to, in any essential
way, serve the economy, convenience
or welfare of the travelling public; con-
versely, the unfair and unlawful manip-
ulation of excursion tickets to which he
necessarily resorts to obtain a profit
from the business, compels the rail-
ways to surround such forms of trans
portation with restrictive conditions
nomical use by legitimate purchasers,
and not infrequently the ticket scalp
er's methods compel the railways, in a
reasonable protection of their inter
ests, to decline meritorious applications
for excursion fares, particularly when
such concessions involve important
commercial centers or movements of
large bodies of people.
THE moral influence Of the ticket
scalpers avocation is depIorable from
whatever point of view it may be con-
sidered, and in the interest of public
morals and fair dealing, the law-abid-
ing, thinking people of the country
should raise their voice and influence
in the direction of securing enactment
of the measures now under considera-
ton by congress-"