The Price of a Free Pass
In 1885, Seattle’s press took on the corrupting influence of Northern Pacific Railroad’s 'free' travel gifts to legislators, arguing that such favors were nothing less than bribes intended to command political obedience.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Legislators are hired by the government to perform certain work, and for this work they receive ample pay. It is not expected that they shall receive additional pay, especially not in money or service from corporations which are almost invariably interested in the legislation of a session. Here, almost all the passes given to legislators are issued by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company—a company which has openly declared that it issues no passes except in consideration of services rendered or to be rendered. If a legislator accepts a pass intending to render, as a return to the railroad, such services as he is able, he knowingly accepts a bribe which is so pitiful and mean that one would think it would fail to tempt a starving thief. They are offered to him in his character as a legislator, and in that character he receives them. It is too much like serving God and Mammon. The government has provided liberally for the traveling expenses of members of the Legislature. It has established a rate of mileage which is amply sufficient to allow them to travel to and from their homes in the best style. Why, then, should they insist upon placing themselves under obligation to the railroad? A member of the Legislature would be ashamed to acknowledge that he had received a bribe of a hundred dollars; why should he not be equally ashamed to acknowledge that he had received a pass equal to that sum?
“If a legislator accepts a pass intending to render, as a return to the railroad, such services as he is able, he knowingly accepts a bribe which is so pitiful and mean that one would think it would fail to tempt a starving thief.”
This 1885 editorial echoes the modern struggle against dark money and corporate lobbying in Washington state politics. Just as the P-I called out legislators for accepting railroad passes, today's debates over special interests and political campaign financing highlight a persistent tension between public duty and private incentives.
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