The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-31
M iusu 1879 Inches
Increasing Business With the
Globe Increases Business
for Business Men.
MONDAY, AUGUST 81, 1908.
THE PEOPLE FOOT THE BILLS.


Even as far as political eXpediency
is concerned, it is an open question
whether the habit into which our
presidents have fallen, of touring the
is not a mistake. AS a matter of good
taste it certainly cannot be defended.
But if it is to exist at all, it certainly
ought to be at the expense of the indi-
vidual most concerned, and not at that
of the people or of some great corpo-
ration.
patches of T he G / o b e that the cost
of President Roosevelt's recent tour
across the continent was betrayed by a
railroad company. 1t is the friends of
the president, and not his enemies, who
make the statement. On it's face there
is every reason to suppose that it is
true. For the enormous figures of the
expenditure, placed at $4,000, but like
ly to exceed that sum rather than to
fall below it, are out of proportion to
the presidential income When we come
to look art it squarely. the practice does
not admit of defense
The trip of the president was not
called for by any reasons of public pol
icy. However glad the people were to
greet him. and their welcome was I'M
feignedly sincere, it could not be con-
tended that he was on any mission Of
theirs. The object was essentially po-
litical. There is not a particle more
reason why the cost of 1t should be
charged upon the public than why the
expenses of the next national Repub-
lican committee should be dealt with
in the same way. But it is the public
that pays them in the final analysis.
If these moneys were contributed,
as we think they were. by great rail-
road corporation, how does that leave
the chief executive? This company is
one of those that have been formed by
the consolidation of a great number of
Independent systems. many of them
parallel and competing lines. If this Is
contrary to law, and the president says
that he thinks so and instructed his
attorney general to test the point, then
in what position does he stand as the
recipient of favors from concern for
whose dissolution it will be his duty
to move? That relation Is something
that a private citizen could ill endure
and it should be intolerable to the
president.
Again. it is a mere subterfuge to say
that a railroad company pays the bill
That pretense was dissipated long ago.
All our recent railroad legislation Of
Importance has had for its purpose the
abolition of favoritism and discrimi-
nation in railroad charges: on the
sound ground that the. people who are
not favored pay the bills in the long
run. This, of course, is true. If a rail-
road company extends its courtesies to
the presidential party, that does not
obviate it from the necessity of burn
ing fuel, using rolling stock and paying
the wages Of many crews of men. This
from the people who use the railroad
and pay for what they get The bill Is
charged up to them in the end.
Government officials, from top to
bottom, have shown themselves desti-
tute of nice moral sense In their free
use of luxuries at the public expense
1t is we'll known that the revenue cllt-
ter service has been very largely de-
voted to the social or pleasure excur-
sions of persons high in official life.
The rage for perquisites is extending
And president sets striking and a
very bad example if he receives gratis
such courtesies as these. If it should
hereafter appear that the president
paid the bills of his six weeks trip out
Of his own pocket, The Globe will