The End of the Railroad's Good Old Boys

The passing of the old order of railroad domination in state affairs is happily illustrated in the desire of the Northern Pacific railway to secure the services of State Tax Commissioner J. E. Frost to act as tax commissioner for the road. With this effort comes the announcement that Jay Sedgewick of Tacoma, tax commissioner for the N. P. since it entered the state, will be retired. For a generation, Jay Sedgewick has roamed the state, calling on county commissioners and boards of equalization in the interest of the railroad's taxation. Knowing nothing of the theories of taxation, he made his study the more pleasing one—man. He wheedled, cajoled, and treated, and by the force of sheer good-fellowship and often vinous sophistry, kept the taxes at a low figure. But now, government and the people have advanced to a stage where the railroads are tickled to hysterics if they can get a square deal in matters of taxation. They have no use for 'good fellows' because they can no longer deliver the goods. Mr. Frost, despite the apparent gelidity of his name, is a good fellow, but he does not make a business of it. He knows taxes in theory and art. The railroad now contemplates having Mr. Frost at hand with facts and figures, instead of wine and cigars, to plead for them. The old order changeth.