now had become convinced of the necessity of direct legislation for the regulation of business transactions between the people and the powerful corporations which controlled the transportation of the country. He gave the problem careful investigation as chief Executive of the State and his influence was a powerful factor in securing the needed legislation.
There had long been a general belief among the people that “friendly legislation” for the railroads had been largely influenced by a distribution of free passes to public officials, such as members of the Legislature, judges of the courts, Railroad Commissioners and assessors; and the prohibition of this practice had been strongly demanded by the people since the first movements for railroad control. Yet the free passes were distributed so judiciously and effectively by the various companies, to all officials who had the power to curb the extortions of these powerful corporations, that bills to prohibit this system of influencing public officials were always defeated. All efforts made by the reformers before the Twenty-first General Assembly to prohibit free passes to public officials; to make the Railroad Commissioners elective by the people, and to give the Board power to fix freight and passenger rates, were defeated, notwithstanding the earnest efforts of the antimonopoly members of the various political parties. James G. Berryhill of Polk, George L. Finn of Taylor, Silas Wilson of Cass, Thomas Teale of Decatur, J. G. Brown of Marshall, and S. A. Converse of Howard were foremost among the advocates of railroad control in the House of Representatives during this session of 1886; the Senate giving little attention to the subject.
When the Twenty-second General Assembly convened in January, 1888, the advocates of railroad control realized the importance of thorough and systematic organization of their forces and able and aggressive leadership. In the Senate were George L. Finn, Lafayette Young, J. H. Swe-
