n the subject of a spicy article and showed it to a
friend who stood close to the gentleman chiefly implicated, with the
remark that nothing but a hundred dollar bill would prevent the
transmission of the article by the evening mail to the paper which he
represented. Before sundown the stipulated price for the correspondent's
silence was paid, and an enemy was turned into a friend.

Professor Bryce says of the American lobby system: "All legislative
bodies which control important pecuniary interests are as sure to have a
lobby as an army to have its camp followers. Where the body is, there
will the vultures be gathered together." To such an extent is the lobby
abuse carried that some large corporations select their regular
solicitors more for their qualifications as lobbyists than for their
legal lore. It is a common remark among lawyers that a great company in
Chicago pays a third-class lawyer, who has the reputation of being a
first-class lobbyist, an extravagant salary and calls him general
solicitor, while it relies upon other lawyers to attend to its important
legal business. The readiness of members of the bar to serve wealthy
corporations is fast bringing the legal profession of America into
disrepute abroad. The author just quoted, in speaking of its moral
standard, says: "But I am bound to add that some judicious American
observers hold that the last thirty years have witnessed a certain
decadence in the bar of the great cities. They say that the growth of
enormously rich and powerful corporations, willing to pay vast sums for
questionable services, has seduced the virtue of some counsel whose
eminence makes their example important, and that in a few States the
degradation of the bench has led to secret understandings between judges
and counsel for the perversion of justice."

There are, of course, able and honorable attorneys employed by railroad
companies, but often railroad lawyers are selected more for their
political influence, tact and ingenuity than for legal ability, and, as
a rule, the political lawyer receives much better compensation for his
services than does the lawyer who attends strictly to legitimate legal
work.

The danger from railroad corporations lies in their great wealth,
controlled by so few persons, and the want of publicity in their
business. Were they required to render accounts of their expenditures to
the public, legislative corruption funds would soon be numbered with the
defunct