Average cost per thousand, $3.65%. Average cost per page, $2.16 3-5.

RELATIVE TO PASSES.

COMMUNICATION

FROM J. T. BROOKS, SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILWAY, RELATIVE TO PASSES.

PENNSYLVANIA LINES WEST OF PITTSBURG.

OFFICE OF THE SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT,
PITTSBURG, PA., July 20, 1894.

Hon. Joseph H. Choate, President Constitutional Convention.
Albany, N. Y.:

Dear sir.- A few days ago I learned, from an item in the newspaper, that your Convention is considering the question of prohibiting the issues of passes to public officials, within the State of New York.

I desire to avail myself of the use of your honored name, in presenting this letter to the committee, to whose consideration that subject is committed.

I have had a personal experience of the pass question for a quarter of a century, in connection with the lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. For about eight years, I have maintained, single-handed, a contest against the issue of free passes to persons occupying official positions in city, county, State and federal governments; the only exception to this statement being that I have continued to issue session passes to members of the Legislature, and in rare instances, extending those passes after the close of the session, to the end of the current year.

I have seen the evils of the pass system grow from very small beginnings to what I regard as now very great and deplorable proportions. I have tried to persuade officials of other railroad companies to follow my example, and I have endeavored to persuade the Legislature of Ohio, in which State I have always lived, on different occasions, to pass prohibitory laws on this subject, but in each instance, and always, without avail.