Note 345 — Chapter XXX · SUMMARY OF METHODS AND RESULTS.
Reading edition
Salaries are paid to favored persons; stock is given to influential people; and tips on the market are given to congressmen and others whose favor may be of advantage. And the railroads act against those they dislike as vigorously as they act in favor of their friends. A curious illustration of the extent to which railways will sometimes go in their breaches of neutrality occurred in connection with the recent trip of Thomas W. Lawson in the West. During the Chatauqua exercises at Ottawa, Kansas, the Santa Fe advertised specials to run every day. The day that Lawson was to speak, however, no specials ran, and thousands of people were unable to go, as they had expected, to hear the man who was attacking Standard Oil and its allies. The specials ran as advertised every day up to “Lawson Day,” and began running again the day after. The Santa Fe may not approve of Mr. Lawson’s statements and in common with all other citizens it has the right to oppose him with disproof, but isn’t it a little strange in this land of liberty, free speech, and equal rights, for one of the best railroads in the country to boycott a Chatauqua day because a man it does not approve of is to speak?
Similar experiences with the railroad service are reported from the Chatauqua at Fairbury, Neb., when Lawson spoke there.