A farmer and a lawyer occupied the same seat in a railroad car. When the conductor came the farmer presented his ticket, and the lawyer a pass. The farmer did not conceal his disgust when he discovered that his seat-mate was a deadhead. The lawyer, trying to assuage the indignation of the farmer, said to him: “My friend, you travel very cheaply on this road.” “I think so myself,” replied the farmer, “considering the fact that I have to pay fare for both of us.”
The free-pass system is specially vicious because of its relation to government. Passes are constantly given to public officials in spite of the law, and constitute one of the most insidious forms of bribery and corruption yet invented. I have in my possession some photographs of annual passes given by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1903, 1904, and 1905 to members of the State Legislature, and the Common Council of Philadelphia.
The Constitution of Pennsylvania, Section 8 of Article 8, says: “No railroad, railway, or other transportation company, shall grant free passes, or passes at a discount, to any persons except officers or employees of the company.”
The question is whether the members of the Legislature are employees of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Recently the Pennsylvania Railroad gave notice that after January 1, 1906, no free passes would be issued except to employees. As we have seen reason to believe, this may still include members of the Legislature, and even if the order should happen to be enforced according to the common acceptation of the word “employees,” there are plenty of ways in which free transportation can be given to men the railroad management deems it desirable to favor. Railroads have made such orders before, and in every case the fact has proved to be that the order simply constituted an easy method of lopping off the overgrown demand for passes, a ready excuse for denying requests the railroad does not wish to honor, without in the least interfering with its power of favoring those it really wishes to favor. In cutting off passes under said order to multitudes of city officials in Pittsburg lately the Pennsylvania railroad officers stated that the demand had become so great that those having free rides were actually crowding the paying passengers on many of the trains. The Philadelphia North American declared that in that city every big and little politician expected free passage when he requested it, and that there was no ward heeler so humble that he might not demand transportation for himself and friends to Atlantic City, Harrisburg, or any other point on the Pennsylvania line. The Springfield Republican said: “It does not appear to be recognized, in the praise given to the present action of the railroad company, how great an impeachment of its management the old order constituted. We are told that passes were issued literally in bundles for the use of political workers, big and little.”
We watched with much interest to see what the railroad would really do when the time for full enforcement of the order came. In Pennsylvania, as was anticipated, the order has been used as a basis for refusing passes to the overgrown horde of grafters who have feasted so long at the Pennsylvania’s tables. The railway does not want anything this year in Pennsylvania that the grafters can give it, and it is an excellent opportunity to punish the Pittsburg politicians for allowing the Gould lines to enter the city. But in Ohio the situation is different, and, in spite of the recent order, the time-honored free passes have been sent to every member of the Ohio Legislature. A press despatch from Columbus, January 1, says: “One of the notable events that marked the opening of the general assembly to-day was the unexpected arrival of railroad passes for every member. The Pennsylvania, first to announce that the time-honored graft would be cut off, was the first to send the little tickets, and the other lines followed suit.”
The Pennsylvania is not alone in its delicate generosity to legislators and other persons of influence. The practice is practically universal.[[3]] From Maine to California there is not a State in which the railroads refrain from giving passes to legislators, judges, mayors, assessors, etc. And the roads expect full value for their favors. Some time ago a member of the Illinois Legislature applied to the president of a leading railroad for a pass. In reply he received the following:
“Your letter of the 22nd to President ——, requesting an annual over the railroad of this company, has been referred to me. A couple of years ago, after you had been furnished with an annual over this line, you voted against a bill which you knew this company was directly interested in. Do you know of any particular reason, therefore, why we should favor you with an annual this year?”
The railroads give passes to legislators and public officials not, as a rule, in any spirit of philanthropy or respect for public office, but as a matter of business; and if a legislator does not recognize the obligation that adheres to the pass, the pass is not likely to adhere to him in subsequent years.
In many cases the pass is the first step on the road to railroad servitude. Governor Folk said to me: “The railroads debauch legislators at the start by the free pass. It is a misdemeanor by the law of this State to take such a favor.[[4]] But it seems so ordinary a thing that the legislator takes it. He may start out with good intentions, but he takes a pass and then the railroad people have him in their power. He has broken the law, and if he does not do as they wish they threaten to publish the number of his pass. He generally ends by taking bribe money. He’s in the railroad power anyway to a certain extent, and thinks he might as well make something out of it. In investigating cases of corruption I have found that in almost every instance the first step of the legislator toward bribery was the acceptance of a railroad pass.”