regard it as an insult which they never would forgive, if they were offered five hundred or a thousand dollars to aid in the halls of legislation, the projects of the railroad companies, yet are willing to accept passes. That is the most insidious of all species of bribery that can exist on the face of the earth, because it is unconscious bribery. Men do not understand that it is in the form or shape of bribery, but still, do you suppose a man can act as independently if he has a free pass in his pocket as he would act without one. Why, it is not but three or four years ago that a representation was made in the legislature of the state of Massachusetts that some member of that body was riding on a free pass, and that body at once appointed a committee to inquire into the fact; and the presumption is, if it had been found true he would be expelled from that body as not being in a position to act as a free, independent, unbiased legislator.

A member-He ought to be.

Mr. Sloan-One of the circuit judges in the state, sitting on the bench,-- I speak it to his honor, - had a case where a juryman was challenged in a railroad suit because he had a free pass in his pocket. And the judge, thinking it over after the adjournment of court, sat down to his desk and wrote a letter, returning his pass. He said if that was a species of interest that would disqualify a man as a juror from sitting in a case, it would certainly disqualify a man from trying the case as a judge. It seems to me that this has become a very widespread evil. It is said that a great many members of this convention have come here from their homes on free passes. Very likely that may be true; but remember they are not in office. They are not called upon to vote upon acts which favor the interests of these railroad companies. And it is well known that under this system of favors which railroad companies extend to the legislators of this state, they have possession of the legislature of the state, wherever railroad interests are involved. And unless human nature is to be changed, it always will be so as long as this system of free passes exists. They do not send free passes unless they expect some return

for them. If a man takes their transportation and when matters which interests them comes up votes against them, he, I think, is committing a species of fraud upon the railroad company. He is not paying consideration for the favors he has received. If he knowingly is influenced by a pass, no matter what you may call it, it is certainly a form of corruption. Now if the farmers of this state, represented here in convention from all parts of the state, an intelligent class of men, are in favor of having this thing go on, are in favor of having the railroad companies, in all local rates, impose very much more than a just compensation, why, let them say so, and nobody ought to complain. The railroad men are like all other men. They are like farmers, like anybody else who are put in the place they are in; they act in the good old way, the simple plan, let him take who has the power, and let him keep who can. It is an action which governs men when they have the means to tax the community.

Now I should be glad to hear from Mr. Babbitt, or from any other gentleman, some reason to justify the railroad corporations of this state furnishing all the officers of the state with free transportation. It is said that from our state fairs they carry passengers at less rates, they carry property at less rates; but they make a profit by it. The increased amount of traffic, of passenger traffic upon the road, pays them three or four times as much as though the fairs. were not held, even at these low rates. They can afford to carry and return the property. They do it as a matter of business. No shrewder men exist on the face of the earth; no men know what will pay and what will not pay better than the managers of the railroad companies of this country. They are the ablest and shrewdest men of the whole community, and therefore they fix cheap rates for any great exposition or any great gathering of people, to induce crowds to ride on the roads, and it returns them ten dollars for one they give. And yet this is urged as a reason why they should be allowed in their daily business to take from the agriculturists of this state, millions of dollars every year, which is in excess of a fair compensation. In 1872,

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before the Potter law was passed, Russell Sage, manager of one of the large railroads running through this state, sitting in his office in New York, wrote with a mere stroke of a pen," increase a third." We had a large grain crop in 1872. This had been almost a failure for two or three years before that but there was a large and abundant crop. Mr. Sage issued an order, sitting in his office in Wall street, increasing the rates of freight twelve and one-half per cent. It was against the protests of some of our managers, but they were increased upon the order of a single man. That very order took from the hard working farmers of this state, eight hundred thousand dollars in money, in four months money that had been gained from the earth by the straining sinews and hardened hands of the men who labor. They may do it at any time, under the system by which they manipulate the legislature of a state. Nobody desires that a railroad company shall transport passengers and goods at less than a good, fair, liberal compensation, but when it comes to taking more, taking it out of the men who have won it from the earth, then, I will not term it robbery, but it is an unjust exercise of the power they have. We must use them. Some one said, if you don't like the terms of these railroad companies, don't have your property transported by them. You enter into a bargain, make a bargain and it is a bargain you are constrained to keep. The surplus products of this world would rot down in the granaries of the farmer unless they were transported to market. It was a matter of necessity and compulsion on the part of the people to patronize them.

I suggest this as a restraint that ought to be imposed. They are chartered by the state, they are supposed to be incorporated for the public benefit and to subserve the public interests. With proper regulation, they would minister to and serve the public benefit. But with the power to gratify their greed from the products of the industry of the state, instead of a benefit, it becomes a burden to the people. One of the great means which enables them to carry out their plans, and keep the legislative hands off of them is by this very system of free passes. Men that can not be bribed, that