The Lake County times., 1907-01-10
They Plead With Congress
to Modify Law Whose
Passage They Urged.
NO MORE ''COURTES|Es"
Hard Hearted Railroads Take Edict
AS it Stands and Cuts Off Ne
gotiable Mileage.

notice ye country editor is sorry
he did it/or helped to do it," chuckled
a district passenger agent of a railroad
which traverses Indiana while he sat
the smoking section of Pullman car
on the way out from Chicago to Ham
mond this morning, and that We Hoosier
editor is most outspoken in his OBJ
lection to having himself taken seri-
ously."
The railroad official had just got
through reading the Washington cor
respondence of an Indianapolis news
paper.
1T says here" he continued, that the
lives of the Indiana senators and con-
gressmen are being made burdens to
them by the avalanche of mail which has
descended upon them since the real sig
nificance of the new rate bill came
home to roost. The efforts of the coun
try editors to repeal the bill. or that
part of it which affects them, are said
to be almost frantic. This would be
funny if it were not so pathetic.
Congressman are swamped.
The protesting letters. it says, have
poured in from every hamlet in the
state which boasts of a newspaper and
the convenience of a railroad. The
burden of the cry is Repeal. repealr
The railroads are simply taking the
law as it stands. I dare say it is i'm
material to them whether the anti-pass
clause stands or falls. Personally. as
a former dispenser of courtesies.' nv
heart goes out in sympathy to the
country editor, none the less on ac-
count of his having helped to forge his
own fetters. I have grown to love
him through long acquaintance and
there is nothing 1 wouldn't do for him
If the law didn't stand in the way.
one could imagine from reading the
extracts from the letters that the conn
try editor spent nine-tenths of his
time hop-scotching from place to place
You know, of course. this is merely a
good natured foible I know an editor
on our right of way who has secured
enough personal transportation to
glride the earth and yet in the last ten
years has never travelled beyond the
county seat and that only at fair time.
EVERY conductor on the road and its
tributaries knows his name but the
oluest or them has not yet become ia
mlilar with his various shapes.
Didn't Know 1t Was Loaded.
during the last campaign he was
present at all of the meetings at which
the candidate for congress repeated
MS pledge to do all that in him Law
TO curo the power of the railroads
Whleh were corrupting our statesman
snip and multiplying our patriotism bv |
issuing Tree passes and granting re-
oateS lie preached this doctrine in |
ms newspaper every week 1t was
what his readers wanted and why not |
give 1t to them? Had not this CON
sressman lived up to his ante-election |
pledge to curb the earruptive power of |
the railroads this editor would have |
branded him as traitor
The fact is that the 'molder of pub-
lie opinion in the farming communities
IN this and other states has been FOO
strenuous and has killed the goose
that laid the golden egg. or to reduce
1t to the concrete, damned the source
Of the negotiable mileage book which
helped to pay the printer and tho ma
per man.
He did not think the law whose
passage he urged. would interfere with
his time honored medium of hartar
and sale.
Was 1t Pure "AdvertiStnr9.
Possibly the authors of IT, -. -, |
possessed sense of humor. Possibly
hey merely took ye editor at his word
md believed that he believed the rail
oad pass was an unmitigated nuis-
nee. Whatever the motives of the au-
hors or the bill. or whether they had anv
motives or not, the country editor can
ertainly blame himself in a large
Measure for the passage of the railroad
ate bill; and the Joke is on the country
ditor If 1 had anything to do with
t. l would restore him at least part
4 the privilege he used to eniov and
which meant so much to his pleasure
md profit"
No Effect Here.
Ihis is matter which does not con-
'ern THE LAKE COUNTY TINES a. a busi-
less institution. This paper placed h
1selt on record at the beginning of its
existence to deal with the rail- h
Dads on a cash basis. The law
low In force does not affect its policy. Ia
ne advertising space of this paper is
pen TO railroads at current rates and !;
Fnen 1t travels, it deals only with the ,
lcket seller.
That the drafters of the rate bin I,