The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1913-04-10
SEN. TILLMAN AGAIN
ON THE WAR PATH.
PAYS HIS RESPECTS MAINLY TO
RAILROAD Attorneys
TOUCHES UP BLEASE.

man an open letter to the people OF
South Carolina in which he renews
the charges ne made last winter of
subserviency to the railroads on the
part of Legislators.
The Senator's particular grievance
is the refusal of the railroads to rec
ognize interchangeable mileage
books in South Carolina. He says
that this is an outrage and cites it as
an evidence of too much railroad in
fluence at Columbia.
Expressing regret that the Legis-
lature did not give him the opportu-
nifty to press his criticisms recently,
he says that had this been allowed
he would have cited the record of
Governor Blease among Others, al.
leging that Governor Blease cast
the deciding vote on one occasion
which defeated the mileage BILL"
Senator Tillman's letter in full fol-
lows:
Fellow Citizens: | have a griev-
ance and l want to tell you all about
it and ask you to use your influence
to help correct it. 1t concerns every
citizen.
The might l left Washington l
bought two mileage books over the
Southern railway for my wife and
self. l paid $50 apiece for them
two cents a mile. They are inter-
changeable and can be exchanged
for tickets over fifty-fve railroads
operating in the South. l exchanged
this mileage for tickets to Calhoun,
South Carolina, but l could not ex-
change it for tickets from Anderson
to Greenwood Tor from Greenwood
to Columbia. | note on the back
cover of the book this condition.:
Coupons from this book will not
be accepted on trains, nor on and
after May l, 1912, in exchange for
tickets for a journey wholly within
the State of South Carolina. The
Southern railway has my $40 for
these two books, and yet l cannot
use them in the State of South Car
olina. call this infamous and down.
right robbery. Why? Because north
of the Potomac and Ohio rivers and
westward to the Great Plains each
system of roads like the Southern
sells mileage at 2 cents per mile.
No signature of the purchaser is re-
quired. One may use such mileage
to carry his whole family as well as
his neighbors and friends. All the
railroads want or require is a cou-
pom for every mile travelled by ev-
cry passenger. Why this discrimina-
ton? Are the Northern people any
more civilized or better Christians
or citizens than the Southern peo-
pie? | do not think anybody claims
it, but all the same the people Of
South Carolina are treated as though
they are criminals and convicts.
Why? Because they have not sense
enough, it seems, to elect men to the
Legislature who will compel the
railroads to treat them fairly and
justly like the citizens of other States
are treated.
Investigation will show that a
large number of the members of the
Legislature are lawyers in the en-
ploy of the railroads. Many of them
are travelling on free passes in South
Carolina because the railroad rate
bill, which | engineered through
the United States Senate, expressly
provides in terms that no free passes
shall be granted by the railroads ex-
cept to their employees, attorneys,
etc 1t is through this loophole that
the Legislators who are venal can be
debauched. In every court house
town in the State some lawyer rep
resents the railroads, sometimes more
than one, and these lawyers are -
ten elected to the Legislature. If a
lawyer is elected to the Legislature
,,,bo ;e not already a railroad attOr-