RAILROADS IN POLITICS.
The question might be asked how the railroad companies for many years in succession have been able to prevent State control and pursue a policy so detrimental to the best interests of the public. One might think that in a republic where the people are the source of all power, and where all officers are directly or indirectly selected by the people to carry out their wishes and to administer the government in their interest, a coterie of men bent on pecuniary gain would not be permitted to subvert those principles of the common law and public economy which from time immemorial have been the recognized anchors of the liberty of the Anglo-Saxon race.
The statement that under a free government it is possible for a few to suppress the many might almost sound absurd to a monarchist, and yet is it true that for the past twenty-five years the public affairs of this country have been unduly controlled by a few hundred railroad managers.
To perpetuate without molestation their unjust practices and prevent any approach to an assertion of the principle of State control of railroad transportation, railroad managers have secured, wherever possible, the co-operation of public officials, and, in fact, of every semi-public and private agency capable of affecting public opinion. Their great wealth and power has made it possible for them to influence to a greater or less extent every department of the National and State governments. Their influence extends from the township assessor's office to the national capital, from the publisher of the small cross-roads paper to the editorial staff of the metropolitan daily. It is felt in every caucus, in every nominating convention and at every election. Typical railroad men draw no party lines, advocate no principles, and take little interest in any but their own cause; they are, as Mr. Gould expressed it, Democrats in Democratic and Republicans in Republican districts. The large means at the command of railroad companies, their favors, their vast armies of employes and attorneys and their almost equally large force of special retainers are freely employed to carry into execution their political designs, and the standard of ethics recognized by railroad managers in these exploits is an exceedingly low one.
It is a settled principle of these men that, if they can prevent it, no person not known to be friendly to their cause must be placed into any public office where he might have an opportunity to aid or injure their interests. The records of the various candidates of the principal parties for city, county, State and national offices are therefore carefully canvassed previous to the primaries, the most acceptable among the candidates of each party are selected as the railroad candidates, and the local representatives of the railroad interest in each party are instructed to use all means in their power to secure their nomination.
If none but candidates who are servile to the railroad interest are nominated by the principal parties, the election is permitted to take its own course, for, whichever side is successful, the railroad interest is safe. If, however, there is reason to believe that a nominee is not as devoted to their interests as the nominee of an opposing party, the latter is sure to receive at the polls whatever support railroad influence can give him. That a public official elected by the grace of a railroad manager is but too apt to become a tool in his hands needs no proof. Both gratitude and fear tie the average politician to the powerful forces which can control his political destiny.
The railroad manager, on the other hand, always kindly remembers his officeholding friends as long as they are loyal and in a position to serve him. Before the enactment of the Interstate Commerce Act there was every year a wholesale distribution of railroad passes among public officeholders and other prominent politicians. The pass was the token of the continued good will of the railroad dignitaries as the withholding of the "courtesy" was a certain indication of their displeasure. If the officeholder had personal or political friends whom he desired to have recognized, an intimation of this desire was generally sufficient to have the pass privilege even extended to them. And yet these favors were not bestowed indiscriminately. Thus the pass credit of a county official was more limited than that of an officer of the State, and the latter class were again rated according to their influence and rank. Furthermore, while annual passes were thus freely distributed among one class of officials, others could obtain them only by making special application for them. Members of the legislature would not unfrequently receive their supply of railroad passes before their certificates of election were issued, but legislative committee clerks and employes in the various departments of the State government were required to satisfy the railroad authorities that they were in a position to aid or to injure the railroad cause before their names were placed on the list of persons "entitled to the courtesy".
Of course the judiciary, as a coördinate branch of the government, could not well be slighted. Indeed, previous to the enactment of the Interstate Commerce Law, a judge would have regarded it an affront if he had not been furnished with passes by the various companies operating railroads in his district. It appears that the law has not entirely corrected this abuse, for only about two years ago the Chicago News made the discovery that nearly every judge in the city of Chicago traveled on passes. It is strange to what extent the pass often debased the judiciary. It was not unfrequent for judges to solicit passes for family and friends, and instances might be named where they demanded them in a wholesale way.
The impudent demands were usually honored by the railroad authorities, who reasoned that they could better afford to bear the shameless effrontery of the ermined extortioner than the damage which might result to them from adverse decisions.
A railroad pass, when presented by a public official or even by any public man, is now, in nine cases out of ten, a certificate of dishonor and a token of servility, and is so recognized by railroad officials. What equivalent railroad companies expect for the pass "courtesy" is well illustrated by the experience of an Iowa judge. This gentleman, who had been on the bench for years and always had been favored with passes by the various companies operating lines in his district, at the beginning of a new year failed to receive the customary pass from a leading road. Meeting its chief attorney, he took occasion to call his attention to what he supposed to have been an oversight on the part of the officer charged with the distribution of the passes. The attorney seemed to take in the situation at once. "Judge," said he, "did you not recently decide an important case against our company?" "And was my decision," replied the Judge, "not in accordance with law as well as with justice?" The attorney did not answer this question, but in the course of a few days the Judge received the desired pass. A few months later it again became the Judge's unpleasant duty to render a decision adverse to the same company. This second act of judicial independence was not forgiven, and the next time he presented his pass it was unceremoniously taken up by the conductor in the presence of a large number of passengers, and he was required to pay his fare.