Recently the Pennsylvania Railroad gave notice that after January 1, 1906, no free passes would be issued except to employees. As we have seen reason to believe, this may still include members of the Legislature, and even if the order should happen to be enforced according to the common acceptation of the word “employees,” there are plenty of ways in which free transportation can be given to men the railroad management deems it desirable to favor. Railroads have made such orders before, and in every case the fact has proved to be that the order simply constituted an easy method of lopping off the overgrown demand for passes, a ready excuse for denying requests the railroad does not wish to honor, without in the least interfering with its power of favoring those it really wishes to favor. In cutting off passes under said order to multitudes of city officials in Pittsburg lately the Pennsylvania railroad officers stated that the demand had become so great that those having free rides were actually crowding the paying passengers on many of the trains. The _Philadelphia North American_ declared that in that city every big and little politician expected free passage when he requested it, and that there was no ward heeler so humble that he might not demand transportation for himself and friends to Atlantic City, Harrisburg, or any other point on the Pennsylvania line. The _Springfield Republican_ said: “It does not appear to be recognized, in the praise given to the present action of the railroad company, how great an impeachment of its management the old order constituted. We are told that passes were issued literally in bundles for the use of political workers, big and little.” We watched with much interest to see what the railroad would really do when the time for full enforcement of the order came. In Pennsylvania, as was anticipated, the order has been used as a basis for refusing passes to the overgrown horde of grafters who have feasted so long at the Pennsylvania’s tables. The railway does not want anything this year in Pennsylvania that the grafters can give it, and it is an excellent opportunity to punish the Pittsburg politicians for allowing the Gould lines to enter the city. But in Ohio the situation is different, and, in spite of the recent order, the time-honored free passes have been sent to every member of the Ohio Legislature. A press despatch from Columbus, January 1, says: “One of the notable events that marked the opening of the general assembly to-day was the unexpected arrival of railroad passes for every member. The Pennsylvania, first to announce that the time-honored graft would be cut off, was the first to send the little tickets, and the other lines followed suit.”