The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-05-08
AGAINST FREE PASSES

AGAINST FREE PASSES
Il favor the passage Of bill 10 put
/ an end 10 the issuance OF Tree passes,
/ and the discrimination IN passenger
rates, with certain exceptions, Ike en-
plOyes OF the TUad. special rates ioT
/ charitable, religious. scientnc, educa-
/ tional, industrial and political gather-
: ings 10 be carefully defined by law.
| To many il may seem that the issu-
ance of a free pass is a mere courtesy
which il would be hypeTcritieal 10
condemn. and il Il were only an oc-
casional act, proceeding from person
al good will, like an invitation to din
ner. there would be no need TO pro-
test against It. But the evil has stead
lily grown until il has become scan
dal of the first magnitude. Not only
are the members of the Legislature
furnished with passes for themselves,
which might be regarded as a small
matter, but il has come to pass that
number of them, as well as other per-
sons supposed to WELD political IN
fuence, have become agents for the
wholesale distribution of free passes
among their friends. The railroad
companies which originated the prac-
tice have now become largely the vic
tins of their own wrong, for they dare
not refuse the growing demands that
are made upon them by men whose
political influence they court or fear.
To put an end to this practice would,
in my judgment, remove great
source of political corruption, and
would be in the interest of justice to
the general travelling public. The
amount of revenue which the roads
derive from passenger travel is large
ly reduced by this system of free
transportation, and the man who buys
his ticket pays the fare Of the free
pass traveller as well as his own.
There has been much discussion of
the question of reducing passenger
rates. There can be no complete I'M
derstanding of the effect of such legis-
lation until we know the amount of
revenue lost to the roads through the
free pass system.
CONSTITUTIONAL REVISION.
81 believe that our privilege tax
system is prolific source of injustice
and inequality in taxation, but | doubt
whether any general and effective
remedy could be had under our pres
ent Constitution. The question of a
worthy of the serious consideration of
the people. Several efforts have been
made to call a Constitutional Conven-
ton, but the people have either been
averse to the proposal, or have failed
to take much interest in the question.
Our Constitution has stood, with but
little change, for three-quarters of a
century. l propose, not as a plan
which l have thoroughly digested and
can unreservedly commend, but as one
for general consideration, the question
of thorough revision of our Constitu-
ton by a system of amendments to
be carefully prepared by commission
composed partly of members of the
General Assembly, and partly of citi
zens fairly representative of all in
terests and classes. These amend
ments, of course, would be submitted
to a vote of the people; and the plan
| propose seems to me to have an ad-
vantage over the submission of an en-
tire Constitution, in that the latter
must be accepted or rejected as a
whole, while under the plan proposed,
people could ratify or reject the vari-
Gus amendments as they thought
proper.
GUARANTEE DEPOSITS.
Il favor a law like that of Okla
homa for the guarantee of bank de-
posits in state banks, a guarantee
fund to be created by a small tax on
he average daily balance of all banks
hat come under the law. There
should go with this system an effec-
i've system of bank examination, and
10 bank should come under the bene-
it's of the law unless shown to be
thoroughly sound and solvent There
must be every possible safeguard to
,rotect the system against weak or
II managed banks.
: In great and growing country
Ike this all business is inseparably in
erwoven with the credit system and
very period of prosperity is charac-
erized by vast expansion of credit.
IN the other hand, credit is the cause
If every panic. At the first breath of
trouble there is an instantan-
GUS contraction of credit and an in
tantaneous paralysis of business. The
ansion of credit in times of prosperi-
Y and for the contraction of credit l
hen the first sign of trouble appears.
nd this is so from the very nature l
the banking business. What causes {
run on bank? 1t is not because the q
epositOrs doubt the normal sound |
ess of the bank, but because they .
now that no bank could pay its de- o
0sitors on demand-the amount of q
oney nominally on deposit in the
anks is vastly in excess of all the q
oney in the country. Every deposit II
IT is therefore afraid of every other a
oD0SitOr Relieve tho doDocitore 80 ii