The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1911-03-24

- il had frequently lone in the past
Z task was a hopeless one, for it wal
AeaA beyond the power " the state tt
Gsans the exemptions. I was curious tt
~s Bow Major vardaman voted OH this
~a, would you believe it, if the minutes
se eroreet, he voted for the exemption
38ee o Journal 1892, page $685. He
AAs never yet confessed his error, but
H has recently written of the author
u that amendment that he was with
Na exception the best legislator that ]
kes ever known" But this granting
~ exemption to the rich seems to have
become a habit with the Major, for in
The same session he voted for a measure
- exempt from all taxation money
hsned at rates as high as 8 per cent
eEhsuse journal, page 234.) Now, what
<ver may be the wisdom or legality of
seeking to invite into our state cheap
AsSey from abroad by exempting it
wAea loaned at q rate far below the cur
ss~t rate, such as s or 6 per cent, sure
y - one who poses as the champion of
~ down-trodden poor as against the
sseA. could favor exempting loans at s
pr cent. How about this, my friends
k0a . men before me that has borrowed
ta,eee at 8 per cent, and bought him
= hone. You pay $28 q year IN that
&etae home; the money lender under this
~ would pay nothing on his loan. Is
that quality2 Is there not here an
jssxe about which the Major and 1 could
<eAatef I certainly could do it without
a~y bitterness or acrimony.
Nv. Alexander next proceeded to dis
eane the matter of the control of rail-
read corporations and the regulation Of
saalread rates. He said that the people
geAerally did not appreciate how much
&Asir prosperity and their profits depend
- upon railroad rates. The importance
q The question he emphasized by calling
attention to the fact that the senator
slested last February has stated that
sAEse months of the four months he
ssrved last session were devoted to the
AaAl He referred to his own experience
- m attorney which had called him at
various emits to represent four of the
sssaing cities of the state in their fight
~eaisst discrimination in railroad rates,
NJ said that his first appearance in the
s4preme court of the United States was
q . case where the validity of the
statute creating the railroad commits
aisa was being attacked. While conced-
ing the constitutional right of the rail-
EsoAs to fair interest and dividends on
&heir capitalization, he pointed out that
n most instances the capitalization was
grossly excessive and that some railroads
- this state were valuing their roads
Sa the fixing of rates and of the wages
81 employees at two OF three times as
1&ch as they valued them for taxation.
He was emphatic in denouncing the
oethods by which the railroad companies
ssxEAt to influence legislation, and even
governors and courts by means of special
4awcrs.
vardaman and Railroad Passes.
Speaking of the evil of railroad passes,
Alexander said: The most common
Term of corruptiy influencing Legislatures
81 public officials is not by open
bribery, but by bestowal of ~favors, and
IT, most common of these favors is a
railroad pass. Prof. Parsons, in his
great work on The Railways, the Trusts
IN The People, says: I'm investigating
uasss Of corruption, have found in al
most every instance, the first step of
ehe legislator toward bribery was the
acceptance of a railroad pass" Some
kioes it must be admitted the legisla-
holds up the railroad company by
Aaksag a request for a pass which has
sAs force of a demand. Oftener the
voluntarily gives it. We read
With shame of the disclosures in the
iNs~ois Legislature when it was shown
AAat nearly all its members had passes
II their pockets. They are offered not
oily to officials, but to others. 1 have
srequently had them offered to me. Now,
d has been more or less publicly charged
tSaa Major Vardaman, while governor,
violated the law by accepting and riding
- Saiiroad passes. This is hard to be-
Sese, for Governor Vardaman must
haze known that the law prohibited his
aerrsring a pass. He himself approved
he had spoken In no uncertain tones of
sAss great evil. In the Commonwealth
81 January 3, 1902, he said: There was
asser a railroad company or any other
a~stitution of the kind but what would
cake advantage of every opportunity to
rKtort, plumber and rob-" And, on Feb
ssary !, 1908, he said in the Issue: "No
should be permitted to hold a place
en- the state legislature or in the con-
.ress of the United States who carries
~ his pocket a railroad pass as re-
ssiner for legal services to such com
Paxy." Even the railroad lawyer, he
says, who is paid in part by a pass for
his services, should not make our laws.
The charge against Governor Vardaman
b harder to believe because the railroad
that is supposed to have issued the pass
Is The Gulf and Ship Island, a company
which he has excoriated for its efforts to
control and corrupt the Legislature. On
sAc he wrote on March 81, 1908 in
The Issue: "The only thing 1 desire to
accomplish is to keep the people of
Mississippi alive to their own interest
they may not permit themselves to
be tied hand and foot by Jones' octopus,
or any other corporation" And further:
n am going to continue to lift the cover
a~a when it becomes necessary | am 60
ts to remove the skin from the Gulf
.~d Ship Island" etc. AND again he
svote in The Issue: "The least hold that
a. n.1f auI Gill; T.l.-l l.