THE LEGISLATURE BRIBED AGAIN.
It seems that the entire amount, including the large fees paid to agents and lawyers, corruptly expended by the English capitalists in ousting Gould, was $750,000. Did they foot this bill out of their own pockets? By no means. They arranged the reimbursements by voting this sum to themselves out of the Erie Railroad treasury; [Footnote: Assembly Document No. 98, 1873: xii and xvi.] that is to say, they compelled the public to shoulder it by adding to the bonded burdens on which the people were taxed to pay interest.
To complete their control they bribed the New York Legislature to repeal the Classification Act. As has been shown, the Legislature of 1872 was considered a "reform" body, and it also has been brought out how Vanderbilt bribed it to give him invaluable public franchises and large grants of public money. In fact, other railroad magnates as well as he systematically bribed; and it is clear that they contributed jointly a pool of money both to buy laws and to prevent the passage of objectionable acts. "It appears conclusive," reported the Assembly Investigating Committee of 1873, "that a large amount— reported by one witness at $100,000—was appropriated for legislative purposes by the railroad interest in 1872, and that this [$30,000] was Erie's proportion." [Footnote: Ibid., xvii.] One of the lobbyists, James D. Barber, "a ruling spirit in the Republican party," admitted receiving $50,000 from the Vanderbilts. [Footnote: Ibid., 633.] While uniting to suppress bills feared by them all, each of the magnates bribed to foil the others' purposes.