A BROAD CONFESSION by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 31, 1906

A BROAD CONFESSION.

By G.

EVERY day the evidence increases concerning the prevalence of corruption in the world through lust. The latest is a wholesale tacit confession of being susceptible to bribes on the part of newspaper editors and legislators in Pennsylvania. The confession is perhaps unwitting on the part of some, but it is none the less flagrant. With the beginning of the year, the railroads of the state put in force a rule prohibiting passes. Now the indignant editors and legislators propose retaliation. These classes had been the recipients of such favors for twenty years, and as a result the railroad companies had been allowed whatever legislation they desired.

It is now said that bills are contemplated that would fix responsibility for accidents, and compel the railroads to provide more safety appliances. Bills to insure better sanitary arrangements in cars, to provide a seat for every person with a ticket, and to change the laws that give the railroads such a great monopoly over the state, are now under consideration. It is also said that more railroad accidents are being reported than ever before. And a measure to allow trolley lines to carry freight, that has been held up in the Legislature and discouraged by the press, is now to be taken up.

Now all these things are proper measures, and in the interest of the people; and the fact that they are to be advocated by the legislators and editors in retaliation for a withdrawal of passes, shows that they had been bribed by the passes to favor the railroad companies at the expense of the people—to the estimated extent of about two million dollars a year. And they are calling their change of attitude “independence of the railroads,” whereas they could not exercise any such independence in the face of standing passes on the cars. Retaliation is not independence; it is more in the nature of blackmail.

This is not saying that conditions are any worse in the Keystone State than elsewhere; but this specific circumstance is a marked illustration of political corruption posing as political virtue. It is a current disposition, this striving to get something for nothing; but few are willing to give anything for nothing. The plea of interest in the public welfare is a good lever with which to get official position; but it soon gives way to self-interest in most cases.