The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1911-03-31

H thtI ~ ~ Nar
held beyond the power Of the state Il
grant the exemptions. / was curious Il
see how Major Vardaman voted on this
and. would you believe II, II the minutes
are crorect, he voted for the exemption
(See aaouse Journal 1892, page s62.) He
has never yet confessed his error, but
he has recently written Of the author
of that amendment that he was with,
out exception the best legislator that
have ever known" But this granting
of exemption to the rich seems to have
become a habit with the Major, for in
the same session he voted for a measure
70 exempt from all taxation money
loaned at rates as high as 5 per cent.
House Journal, page 1884, Now, what.
ever may be the wisdom or legality Of
seeking to invite into our state cheap
money from abroad by exempting it
when loaned at a rate far below the cur.
rent rate, such as 5 or 9 per cent, sure
" no one who poses as the champion OF
the down-tr0dden poor as against the
rich, could favor exempting loans at s
per cent, How about this, my friends 7
/ see a man before me that has borrowed
$1,000 at ; per cent, and bought him
a home. You pay S2s a year on that
little home; the money lender under this
law would pay nothing OH his loan. Is
that quality Is there not here an
issue about which the Major and / could
debatef I certainly could do it without
any bitterness or acrimony.
Mr.. Alexander next proceeded to dis
cuss the matter of the control Of rail-
road corporations and the regulation Of
railroad rates. He said that the people
generally did not appreciate how much
their prosperity and their profits depend
ed upon railroad rates. The Importance
of the question he emphasized by calling
attention to the fact that the senator
elected last February has stated that
three months Of the four months he
served last session were devoted to the
consideration OF the national railroad
bill. He referred to his own experience
as an attorney which had called him at
various emits to represent four OF the
leading cities of the state in their fight
against discrimination in railroad rates,
and said that his first appearance in the
supreme court Of the United States was
in a case where the validity of the
statute creating the railroad commits
sion was being attacked. While conced-
ing the constitutional right of the rail-
roads to fair interest and dividends on
their capitalization, be pointed out that
in most instances the capitalization was
rros.lx, nvnnsa,un a,l 4bo4 eama ra;lraade
in this state were valuing their roads
for the fixing of rates and of the wages
OF employees at two or three times as
much as they valued them for taxation.
He was emphatic in ~denouncing the
methods by which the railroad companies
sought to influence legislation, and even
governors and courts by means Of special
favors.
Vardaman and Railroad Passes.
Speaking Of the evil Of railroad passes,
Mr.. Alexander said: The most common
form Of corruptly influencing legislatures
and public officials is not by open
bribery, but by bestowal of ~faVors, and
the most common Of these favors is a
railroad pass. Prof. Parsons, in his
great work on The Railways, the Trusts
and The People, says: "In Investigating
cases Of corruption, | have found In al
most every instance, the first step Of
the legislator toward bribery was the
acceptance Of d railroad pass. Some
times it must be admitted the legisla-
tor holds up the railroad company by
making a request for a pass which has
the force of a demand. Oftener the
company voluntarily gives ii. We read
with shame of the disclosures in the
Illinois legislature when it was shown
that nearly all its members had passes
In their pockets. They are offered not
only to officials, but to Others. | have
frequently had them offered to me. Now,
it has been more or less publicly charged
that Major Nardaman, while governor,
violated the law by accepting and riding
on railroad passes. This is hard to be-
lievc, for Governor Vardaman must
have known that the law prohibited his
receiving a pass. He himself approved
the code containing the statute. Besides,
he had spoken in no uncertain tones Of
this great evil. III the Commonwealth
Of January 3, 1902, he said. "There was
never a railroad company or any other
institution of the kind but what would
take advantage OF every opportunity to
extort, plumber and rob" And, on Feb
ruary 1, 1908, he said in the Issue: eNo
man should be permitted to hold a place
in the state legislature or III the con-
gress OF the United States who carries
in his pocket a railroad pass as re-
tainer for legal services to such com
pany." 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
10 harder to believe because the railroad
that is supposed to have issued the pass
ia the Gulf and Ship Island, a company
which he has excoriated for its efforts to
control and corrupt the Legislature. On
this he wrote on March 81, 1908 in
The Issue: ''The only thing / desire to
accomplish is to keep the people of
Mississippi alive to their own interest
that they may not permit themselves to
tied hand and foot by Jones, octopus,
any other corporation" And further:
Il am going to continue to lift the cover
and when it becomes necessary I am go
Ing to remove the skin from the Gulf
and Ship Island etc. And again he
wrote in The Issue: THE least hold that
the Gulf and Ship Island has Oh the
public officers, the better 1t will be for
people" Nov, IN view Of these and
other utterances, there would be no
dntihf that fba oLar,a x.o. f.l.. t..4 gA.I