Show MILEAGE AiD PASSES That the acceptance of railroad passes by public officials is an evil is generally acknowledged With rare exceptions the men who seek public office do so for the compensation there Is In it If it is not sufficient for them they should not seek the office and after having got it attempt to farm it And that is what they do when they accept transportation from railroad rail-road companies and mileage from the state The mileage is given them to cover their expenses of travel and is adequate for the purpose Two or three years ago the Massachusetts Massa-chusetts legislature passed an act making it an offense for any member to accept a pass or for a railroad to tender one to a legislator In the present legislature there seems to be some suspicion that the law is being violated so the other day the following order was introduced in the Senate and adopted without objection Ordered that before the payroll for traveling expenses of the members of the present legislature is made up for certification by the secretary of state the clerks of the two branches shall obtain from each member of the senate and house of representatives respectively respec-tively a certificate that such member has not received since his election asa as-a member of the present legislature any pass mileage book or ticket entitling en-titling him to transportation upon any railroad without paying for the same the price that is demanded of the public pub-lic generally The provisions of this order should be enacted into law in Utah with further provisions that no public official of-ficial should accept of a pass mileage book or ticket entitling him to transportation trans-portation upon any railroad If any state official incurs expense for railroad rail-road fares paid in discharge of his official of-ficial duties the state reimburses him If he rides on passes both the railroad rail-road and the state are out while he Is enriched the amount of the mileage thus saved As a result of this the state taxes have to be increased to cover the cost of mileage for public officials while the railroads have to increase their passenger rates to the traveling public that the cost of carrying carry-Ing passengers with passes may be covered The only person to benefit by the system of passes is the public official whose ample compensation Is fixed by law This is the pass system viewed wholly from a business standpoint But there is another It is that of the immorality of the thing The acceptance accept-ance of a pass by a public official is to a certain degree the acceptance of a bribe They are given because of the office and not because of the individual indi-vidual So soon as the individual ceases to hold the office the passes cease to come to him Why Because Be-cause his power to work a railroad good or evil has ceased The whole thing is wrong and should be put a stop to Let the people who pay when they ride on railroads demand of the legislature the enactment of a IE > VW that will make it an offense with adequate ade-quate punishment for any public official of-ficial to accept or solicit a pass or for a railroad to tender one Ill |