The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-23
BROKERS CLOSE TICKET SHOPS
Railway Ticket Protective Bureau
 Wins Victory in Atlanta.


 Severance 6 weinfeld and Iseman & Moore. two ticket brokerage firms which have for many years done business in Atlenta, closed their off,ces yesterday and retired permanently from the ticket brok- craze business. and there are now no ticket brokers in Atlanta.
 The closing of these offices is the result of skiiful work done by the Railway Ticket Protective Bureau, which was or ganized by the railroads at the sugges ton of William A. Pinkerton. head of the celebrated Pinkerton Detective Agency. on the same general lines as the Jewellers Security Alliance and the American Bankers Protective Bureau.
 The depredations of the ticket brokers upon the revenues of the railroads in the United States and the extent to which the influence of certain scalpers had per n1eated the offices of the railroads, so that clerks and others having access to tickets could md ready market for stolen tickets. had grown to such an ex- tent that it became absolutely necessary for the railroads, for the protection of their own revenue and the morals of their employees to take active measures.
 It was while the railroads were looking about Tor ways and means that MT Pin kerton suggested the organization of the Railway Ticket Protective Bureau. The results of the work of this bureau have been emlnentiy satisfactory, and here In Atlanta the work of the bureau has re- suited in closing up both offices which the railroads claim have been troubling them. The bureau had accumulated a very considerable amount of other evil dence which it was about to submit to the courts. when on the 14th day of January. J. P. Biliupe. General Passenger Agent of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad, reported to Joseph Richardson, the AtIan- ta representative of the bureau, that he had 1ust discovered that forty mileage tickets. representing 40.000 miles of trans portation, had been stolen from his ticket department. Mfr. Richardson immediately telegraphed the headquarters of the bu- reau in Chicago. and on the 18th one of Pinkerton's expert operatives arrived in Atlanta. This operative and his assist ants traced some of these tickets out of Severance 6 weinfeld's onice. On Jan uary ee by virtue of sAarch-warrants, the officers made thorough search of both of the ticket brokers offlces, with the re- suit that that night Sam M. McClurkan, a clerk in the auditors ofice of the West Point route, was arrested in the charge of larceny. and fin default of bond was committed to the city jaiI, where he staid until Saturday. Janury 30, when his bond was made. He implicated q negro. VIII Edwards, who was found by; the PinlEer- ton people in St. Louis and brought to Atlanta At his preliminary trail before Justice of the Peace Ormond he pleaded guilty. as McClurtan had previously done, and it is now understood that wein- field and Stephens will plead guilty when their cases are called in the Superior Court. ,
 Thus far the protective bureau has con- fined its prosecution to the brokers them selves. but 1t ia understood that their campaign will in future include passen. gers who travel on scalpers' tickets, as 1t is impossible, 1t is claimed. for them to use tickets obtained from the scalpers ofiees unless they commit the crime known to the law as false impersonation. which is a felony and is penitentiary