Potosi journal. (Potosi, Mo.) 1894-1929, 1914-02-11
The Progress Of Reforms.

betterment of the conditions un.
der which the people live and
work, are prone to >a, with the
wife OF Sisera: Why is the cha
riot of reform so long coming:
The progress of reform in all
ages and in all countries is slow.
First, John the Baptist, crying
in the wilderness. He prepares
the way Then comes ridicule,
a, d opposition, and political pro
ScriDtion. ana son etimvS social.
But iftf4e rcfnrm"r is q true man
and has genuine cause of re-
fCru at heart. success follows.
Ii u4"N IL SLOW III como :, 1Ut IL
the end it comes.
| *. 3 Illustrate this b. tie
! '~ev"ir,o;i ,nt Of railroad reform.
, Forty years go, tne oranges III
! t!lc various Srate$ in The west
raised the question ~. - Whrthcr
the state had the riyNi tuv,ntrol
rates of fare and freight within
the state. This was regarded
by the politicians as craze
that had come over the people, a
kind of ObsesSiOn, a germ disease
in the air, which would pass a.
way. 1t did partly, through the
fault of the leaders in yielding to
the lure of office; but it did
not pass away entirely, and the
supreme court of the United
States decided that the state had
the right to control intra state
rates, that is, rates within the
state.
Years passed and the question
then arose as to whether the
United States had the right to
control interstate rates. After
many years of agitation ana the
defeat of some prominent pOliti-
clans who failed to see what was
coming, we secured the Inter-
state Commerce Commission. 1t
was dead thing until about 1908.
Since that it has been very live
thing indeed: but it was twcIty-
five years before the child mad
any teeth.
Our older readers can easily
remember when rebates were
the cOmmonest kind of a common
thing in every city and town and
station in the west. They can
rememb Der when some one man
| had a rebate of five or ten dollars
per car, not only on what he ship
ped himself. but on what others
shipped through HIM. The re-
suit was that he got the whole
business, and everybody else had
to ship through him. They can
very we'll remember when 70
man handling ium ber or flour or
coal knew what rate another
man was getting except by the
price at which he sold product.
That is all passed Now every
dealer, every shipper, stands o,
the same basis.
1t is but matter0f il few years
, past when every persnn who did
any great amount OF business.
every politician, every member
of the legislature or of congress.
every Judge from the supreme
court down to the county Judge,
rode on a pass. 1t is but short
time since every delegate to a
political convention in Iowa was
carried on A pass of one of two
railroads. Having accepted 1t
pass. they were obliged to do
what the railroad people asked
them to do: and two men ran the
state. If a young man had am
bition in a political way. he must
see one or the other of these men
How did they work it? Through
the pass. We can remem Der the
ridicule that was heaped upon
the one man in the state of Iowa,
who year after year after year
presented all anti pass bill. He
was ridiculed and laughed at:
and yet he won. Men voted for
the anti pass bill who had passes
Ill their pockets, and who, in
their whole political life, had
never paid a cent for railroad
; fare. The anti-pass bill won, just
as it has won even in the state OF
Illinois, dominated by the city of
Chicago with its vast corporation
interests. Surely, the hour of