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In his public spirited and most excellent work, entitled The Free Pass Bribery System, Mr. George W. Berge says: Railroad government maintains itself through the free pass conspiracy, partly by the direct demands which it makes on the free pass holders, but very largely by means of such shrewd manipulation of the men against each other, that the pass holders themselves are all the time unconscious of the conspiracy against representative government, in which they are only little dumb figures on the corporation chess board. Mr. Berge shows in a most lucid manner how the railway lobbyists control the State legislatures, and through them and their ability materially to influence or control nominations and elections, how they secure the safe and sane constituency of the national Congress. Apropos of this state control he says: There is not a state west of the Mississippi River where representative government exists except in form. Every Western state has its free pass machine, maintained by the railroads, directed by their general managers and attorneys, and operated in detail by experienced lobbyists. It is useless for the people in these railroad-ridden states to look to the President and the National government for relief... . Can the President force the National Congress into any action that will drive railroad control out of the government at Washington, and out of these various state governments? The American Congress, as now (1905) constituted, is a railroad congress. The members, with perhaps a few exceptions, were picked out and put up by the railroad bosses. It is true that they were elected by the votes of the people, but congressmen have learned that the influence which can dictate nominations is the power that they must look to for future nominations, and the effect of this view upon the congressman makes him afraid to oppose the corporations and afraid to trust his political fortunes to the people. -Gillete's Social Redemption: A Review of World-wide Conditions as They Exist [1907]

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