The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-02-08
How Legislation Is Influenced
by Big Corporations.
NO BRIBES IN BUSINESS
political Pressure" Usually
AccompIishes Required Result.

the Presidents Vice-Presidents and gen
eraI counsel Of big railroad and other
corporations to hear themselves called
lobbyists, yet that is what they are, at
times.
The lobbying in Washington is done
by two extremes-very big men or very
little men, There is no middle ground.
In the old days there were many men
who kept sleek and fat by pushing claims
of one kind and another procuring legis-
lation with particular reference to cor
portations and all that sort of thing
Now the lobbyist with the hall mark on
him is usually a miserable person who
lives by the few wits he has combined
with a species of petty larceny. The
lobbyist without the hall mark is a man
high in power in great combinations, who
drops in and out of Washington whenever
there in anything before Congress in
which his trust or combination or firm is
interested.
When lobbying consisted in buying wine
and terrapin for a man and passing him
few thousand dollar bills in an envelope
all it required was enough audacity on
the part of the briber to collect the per-
sons who were needed around his board
and the skill to pick them out so there
should be no scandal. The operations
were crude.
Now hi3h-grade lobbying is conducted
on a scientific plane. Suppose bill is
introduced in Congress providing for the
equipment of all railroads with some new
sort of safety device that means hundreds
of thousands of dollars in expenditure for
the railroads affected. Suppose that bill .
has gone TO the proper committee and
there are rumors that it is TO be reported
favorably, and that Congress thinks well
of it.
Do representatives of the railroads come
to Congress and try to bride the COM
mittee not to report the bill, or the var
ious pronounced advocates of il in the
Congress not to support it? Do they of
fer smoney or stock or anything of the
kind? Not bit of it. At the proper time
the general counsel or the vice-president
of one or two or dozen railroads. usually
the general counsel. come to Washington.
They do not bother themselves with
the rank and file. They go to the leaders
The man in the Senate of the House who
controls his delegation is seen. He is
shown what an injustice such a bill would
NOrk 10 the tie Is asked 10
call off the members of his delegation. |
He is told there will be suitable contri-
button to the campaign fund in his state
or to the national campaign fund and
then he goes to work. The whole proceed
ing takes little time on the part of the
railroad representative. He has only
few men to see
If he is sxiIlful and uses the right sort
of arguments and promises campaign
contributions that are liberal enough he
can go home, feeling that the party pres
sure that will be exerted will be sufficient
TO keep the bill pigeonholed.
1t must not be understood, either that
the party leaders take the money them
selves They do not. They turn ii into
the treasury of the state or national or
ganization to hold themselves in power.
There is always tacit understanding
that for favors received at the hands of
The majority in Congress favors will be
received by the contributors. 1t is reci-
procal arrangement.
The organization has taken awny the
graft of the man who, wants to be
ribbed. In the fact of party decree or
a del mand by the. bosses. the opposition of
onel or half a dozen men is futile, The
me9l who want money dare not disobey.
They may be able to pick up a few dollars
from some one who wants to supply the
tome for government building or to sell
q! dredge to furnish stone for break
Water, or to build something or has a
Iand or mineral claim TO be fixed up. but
fthey do not get much and they never will
while the present domination of the or
ganization over the individual prevails.
The first thought of every man in Con-
gress is his own political future. Very
few men who get taste of legislative
life here want to go back home and re-
sumo their own occupations. AS soon as
a Representative is elected he begins to
think what he must do to be reelected
He cannot affaird to fall out with the
party bosses. and he unhesitatingly car
ries out their orders.
The discipline of the Republican party
In matters of this kind is absolute and
perfect He who falters generally loses
the denomination.
There are cases of course. when the
individual is needful to the corporation
or the private interest. Then the indi-
viduaT is appreciated warmly. If he can
not be influenced by politics he may be !
Influenced by money. There is no
coarse passing of bills from one gentle |
man to another. Only the most shame
less are willing to take a bride from the (
outstretched hand. Is is easy enough. /
though.
The men can be told in the most in /
offensive manner possible that it will |
be a great pleasure for the lobbyist to |
Of
There is certain to be rise. and the !
company wants ali its friends 10 profit /
BY 1t. He hears nothing more about il (
until some day a firm Of brokers in New T,
York or Philadelphia or Boston or Chi
cago notifies him that they hold TO his I
credit so much. and will he be kindly (.
enough TO notify them what disposition he /
wishes made Of the money.
he tells them TO send II on. They |
make draft or check On the fact Of il /
the man has taken a flyer in a stock /
and made profit. There can be no con- |
meeting him with any bride or any legis- |
lation. but he votes right at the proper /
time
Then again. there is the pleasant re- |
membrance TO the wife or the gift TO 1
the child
Perhaps there is a real estate deal II 4
is possible the railroad company intends 1
70 run a spur somewhere and build a |
town. Land is very cheap at the place /
where the spur Will end. How simple |
II is for the man whom the corporation /
wants to influence to pick up few acres |
n the center Of the proposed town at q |