Railroad Pass Bribery

Edward Rosewater, a Republican leader and editor of the Daily Bee, accuses the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad of lavishing free passes as bribes to get Thomas Majors the Republican nomination for governor in 1894.

RAILROAD PASS BRIBERY

The most potential factor in the nomination of Thomas J. Majors was the wholesale distribution of railroad pass bribes. Not only was free transportation given to almost every delegate on the line of Burlington road from Plattsmouth to Box Butte, but annual B. & M. passes were distributed where they would do the most good in converting delegates from their honest choice to the support of Majors.

Every retainer and healer from Ager to Walt Seeley had satchels full of passes which were given out with a lavish hand and did their pernicious work more effectively than if they had been so many bank bills. A great many men who would resent the offer of a money bribe readily accept the pass bribe as a compliment, and in nearly every instance they feel bound to reciprocate by casting their votes in accordance with the request of the pass distributor.

In the palmist days of Gould and Dillon, when the entire Union Pacific was a political machine, there was nothing in the way of pass bribery to compare with the wholesale pass scatteration of the Burlington bosses, to whom alone Majors owes his bought nomination. Majors himself has for the last two years been a dealer in pass bribes to an extent that would seem incredible to parties who are not familiar with the methods by which he has been working up popularity while masquerading as the honest, horny-handed farmer and playing the old soldier racket.

Every candidate for the legislature, on whatever ticket he may run, should be made to give a written pledge that he will support a bill to prohibit under severe penalties, the issuance and acceptance of railroad passes or free mileage tickets under any pretext except to operatives and regular employes of the railroads. So long as railroad pass bribery is winked at there can be no free choice of candidates in political conventions.

THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.

Barring the rather verbose introductory the platform adopted by the republican convention commends itself as eminently sound on the most vital points at issue in the impending campaign.

The money plank speaks with no uncertain sound against the free silver craze and in favor of a sound, stable currency of which every dollar will represent 100 cents in commercial as well as in debt-paying value.

The railroad regulation plank strikes the nail on the head squarely in demanding the enactment of laws that will enforce that provision of our state constitution which forbids fictitious capitalization of railroads and declares void all stock dividends and stock issues that do not represent an actual investment.

The demand for the enforcement of the maximum rate bill enacted by the last legislature until the same is declared void by the courts voices the sentiment of the great mass of railway patrons.

The plank in favor of the supervision, regulation and control by the national government of corporations engaged in interstate commerce with a view to preventing their fictitious capitalization and excessive bonding is in harmony with the railroad plank and would, if carried out, go further toward breaking up the existing trusts than any legislation yet devised.

The declarations in behalf of the rights of labor and in favor of preventing lockouts and strikes by arbitration should meet with approval of capitalists as well as working-men.

The demand for the extirpation of anarchy by the passage of the pending bill to exclude foreign anarchists from American soil will meet the general approval of all law-abiding citizens.

The recommendation for the submission of a constitutional amendment to enlarge the scope for the investment of the permanent school fund is timely and should be carried out by the next legislature.

The importance of having the next house of representatives republican cannot be overestimated. It is necessary to put a check to the democratic purpose to further assail the principle of protection. A republican house could not secure the enactment of any legislation not acceptable to a democratic senate. It could, therefore, do nothing toward remedying the faults and the damaging effects of the tariff legislation of this congress. But it, would be a bulwark against the further efforts of democracy in the direction of free trade. Should the democrats succeed in retaining control of the house of another two years they would not leave a vestige of protection to American industries and American labor. It is their avowed purpose to keep up the crusade against that policy, and a popular endorsement next November of what they have already done would stimulate them to go to the full length in their destructive assault on protection. The election of a republican house will give an effectual check to this design.

THE WHEAT SITUATION

The comparatively small export demand for wheat and the low price of that grain are discouraging facts not only for the wheat growers of the country, but for all interest dependent for their prosperity upon the prosperity of the agricultural interest. For the month of July the exports of wheat (flour included) from all points amounted in round figures to 11,000,000 bushels, against 19,000,000 in the same month last year. The exports from the Pacific coast were less than one-tenth what they were in July, 1893, while for the Atlantic they were less than one-half. It is thus seen that the crop year begins most inauspiciously for the producers, and when it is remember that the government report and nearly all unofficial statements prior to the middle of July indicated a yield far below the average the smallness of the exports assumes greater importance, since under such conditions foreigners would likely to buy more largely than they would have done otherwise, especially as the average price in July, only 57.7 cents at New York, was altogether the lowest ever known in any month.