Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-04-20
+ LOOKER.ON IN IOWA

Eldora, April 20.--It comes to me OF
very good authority that one of TIL.
big railway companiya crossing Iowa
will test the constitdtiohality of the
anti-pass law in SO far as the railway
surgeon Is concerned. The contention
is that these local as we'll as district
surgeons are in the employ OF sthn
railway company and that as par;
payment for their services (subject to
instant call, even if other demands are
made on them, they contract 10 give
railway work preference), they are to
receive annual passes. Another argu-
ment advanced by the surgeons is that
in many cases they are called to attend
transient patients, /. e., travellers who
frequently are made to pay a sur
geons legal fee, and as they have no
legal residence they cannot be made
county charge, therefore such surgi-
cal work is a donation on the part OF
the surgeon in attendance. Again,
frequently the injured person is a
trespasser, legally, in other words he is
injured by his own carelessness, there
fore the company Is not legally bound
to pay his doctors bill, yet under the
present system a doctor is instantly
telegraphed for, and facts ascertained
afterwards. To all these good reasons
why surgeon should have a pass to
ride on any engine. any freight or
passenger train. the public that is de-
termined to root out the entire pass
system In Iowa says, let these sur
geons buy tickets, charge the amount
up in their bill for services. Thus the
railroad gets the money before it re-
funds it, and the doctor gets back his
money after he has paid 1T out. An
other crowd of voters say let The rail-
way companies issue passes to sur
geons good only when travelling to at
tend persons injured by the. railway
company, and make it a nisdemeanor
to use said passes for other purposes.
-.
But when it comes to lawyers having
an annual" there's an almost unan-
imous feeling against it. No one seems
to pity the poor attorneys. They must
pay or walk, and so must the mem
bers of their family. Lawyers become
Judges and then try railway cases.
Lawyers are politicians, frequently
bosses; may, nay, Pauline"
+ When it comes to counting the dead
and picking up the wounded, The figures
are frightftl. 1t Is estimated that by
the last vote on the last anti-pass bill,
many members of the legislature, j. e.,
doctors and attorneys. voted themselves
out OF pocket anywhere from $500 to
$1,000 year, previously saved in car
fare for themselves and members Of
the family. And vet we say this was
not a model legislature.
.
Here's another crowd trying ITO grin
and bear it." It's the mayors and
councilmen of nearly all of our incor-
rorated cities. Just why they were en-
titled to ANNALS and trip passes, no
one seems to know, unless it was a
custom, and it had grown into pretty
general custom OF course 1t would be
preposterous to assume such city Of
ficials were influenced in railway at
sfecting city ordinances. and the en-
forcement thereof. but what were these
passes given for?
Still another crowd have had their
feelings hurt, and that is the news
paper crowd Men that never in their
business careers paid a cert fori car
fare, now have to whack up So do
their aunts and cousins. SO do several
travelling men that for years Travelled
on newspaper advertising mileage
Some of us that formerly could ride
both day and night in the sleeper. now
are glad to get into any old car. and
hunt the lunch counter instead of the
diner. It's cold, cruel world, my
brethren.
And by the time the next legislature
meets. it will be as impossible to re-
peal this law as the one against steal
ing. The railroads by that time will
have figures of cash receipts to show
sufficiently large to place them all in
the anti-pass crowd. It's a curious
fact, and one that cannot be contro-
verified. All anti-railroad legislation for
the past twenty-five years, as whole
paradoxical as it seems, has proved to
be of beneficial result to the railway
companies. Study the past legislative