Omaha daily bee., 1899-05-14
BUSINESS TIPS IN BRITAIN.
Naval Crusade Against "Divvics,"
Perquisitcs and Such.

1HllduelpHld l'IeSS.
Lord Russell of Killowen is a hard hitting
clear headed Irishman, who has stirred up
much in his day and time; but he has never
addressed himself to a larger task or had
a livelier fight before him than in the bill
he has introduced in the House of Lords
making the acceptance of a commission"
by an agent a crime unless the agent can
prove that his principal knew of his ac
ceptance of the fee, percentage or gift from
the man with whom he is dealing for his
principal. By Commission" is meant in
England the percentage paid in some form,
direct or indirect by the seller to the agent
or employe of the buyer. The payment of
these divides exists everywhere, but the
evil is out Of all proportion greater there
than here. AS Lord Russell says in his
speech, the cook collects on the marketing,
the butler on the wines, the coachman on
carriage, harness and horse shoeing and the
gamekeeper on every gun in the gun room.
Architects get commissions Of plumbers and
hardware men, and engineers out of builders.
Druggists pay physicians a percentage of
quarter or third on the prescriptions they
send, and the physician obligingly suggests
druggist at the beginning and an under
taker at the end of his case. The charge
is made though not by Lord Russell, that
ante chamber takes fee from the patient
and that the physician has earned one from
a hotelkeeper when he has sent the patient
to a fashionable health resort.
The drummer" or as the English call
him, "traveler," pays the clerks to whom
he sells goods, and his approach TO the head
OF a department in big company Is made
easy by tips and commissions, The asser-
tion is even made in England, astonishing
as this may seem to Americans, that the
purchasers of railroad supplies collect COM
missions on their annual purchases and get
special fees for adopting a new appliance.
Coal dealers pay commissions to servants
and receive them from the agents of coal
companies competing for trade. Breweres
pay commissions to hotel managers and the
commissions Of the manager on all his pur-
chases in one case tried in court were bigger
than the profits of the company owning the
hotel.
This network of commissions, Lord Rus
sell declares, affects public offices and city
gas works, and in purchasing supplies for
Charitable institutions, asylums and work
houses there Is grave abuse, and a system OF
corrupt and pernicious bribery prevails" All
these commissions Lord Russell proposes to
stop by an act whose vital clause declares
criminal.
Every valuable consideration given or Of
fered to any agent by any person having
business relations with the principal of such
agent shall be deemed to be corrupty given
or offered unless it be proved (a) that the
principal had given his consent thereto. or
Oh that the valuable consideration was not
calculated or intended and had no tendency
to corrupt the agent by inducing him to do
or TO leave undone something contrary to
his duty or by creating any other undue in
nuence on the mind of the agent.
The courts will be busy If this act passes
and is enforced in England. and we fear that
even in this country It would not leave them
idle.