The Savannah morning news., 1904-08-07

New York. Aug. ct won't be very
long now before the two executive
headquarters will be running full
blast.
That means that both Mr. .Cortelyou
and Mr.. Taggart will be immersed in
the duties of the most absorbing, the
most delicate, the most important job
either of them has ever undertaken.
Neither of them will have any more
puzzling department to look after than
the Speakers Bureau. 1t will not be
the most costly by any means, but it
will probably require more ingenuity
in the running than will be required
in the conduct of any other branch
of the work.
Down to 1876, the year that Tilden
ran on the Democratic side against
Hayes. the bulk of the outgo in each
presidential campaign was for oratory,
banners and parades. Tilden, who was
his own campaign manager in fact if
not nominally, changed all that. 1t
was Tilden who introduced the "edu
cational campaign" so called, which
involved flooding the country with doc
uments. This, of course, called for
the spending of a good deal more
money for printing than in any other
single direction, and it proved so eff
fective that it has been the rule with
all the Executive Committees of both
parties ever since. The Congressional
Committees, too have adopted similar
tactics From Washington comes the
news that the Democratic Congress-
ional Committee is this year sending
out $4,000 copies of printed speeches a
day. and that the Republican Con-
f. gressional Committee, not to be out
done, will soon be sending out 10000
copies daily, or 100000 more than
half a million week, not counting
Sunday.
This, of course, will cost a lot of
money, but not nearly so much as you
might suppose. This is because it
costs neither Congressional Committee
a cent to send the matter out. This
is due to the "franking privilege"
which by law the senatWs and repre-
sentatives in Congress enjoy, they may
send out their own speeches delivered
in Congress through the mail free of
charge.
When this privilege was established
it was probably the idea to restrict
its operation to copies of their speech
es actually sent out by the members
themselves, but according to the prac-
tice as it obtains at present it makes
no difference who does the sending,
providing the matter sent was nomi-
nally delivered in Congress in the
form of a speech. 1t is the custom
of both parties, in view of this, to
prepare elaborate campaign docu-
ments, full of selected facts, figures
and arguments. long in advance, for
use in a coming campaign. When a
proper time arrives the documents are
read in open session as speeches, or,
if there is not time for that, leave to
print in the Congressional Record
is asked.
1t is rare, indeed, that this leave
is refused, and as the 'franking privi-
lege' covers, all speeches printed in
the Record as well as those actually
delivered, it operates to the saving of
many thousands of dollars every cam
paign year for both of the great par
ties, though of course all the money
saved to the parties is expended by
Uncle Sam and ultimately is drawn
from the pockets of the people. 1t
need hardly be added that the execu-
tive committees in the presidential
campaigns make the same use of the
ranking privilege" as do the con-
gressional committees.
Though the cost Of presidential
campaigns has increased vastly in re-
cent years, there is no doubt that cor
rect figures. concerning it would pune
ture many tall stories of campaign
expenditures. Stories giving in detail
the amounts expended by campaign
committees should always be received
with caution anyway, since there is no
possible way for the newspaper men
who write the articles to get the fig
ures.
They are guarded by the executive
committee authorities with the most
extreme care; at the end of each cam
paign practically all the books and
vouchers are destroyed, and, further
more, though the official in charge of
each department must, of course.
Know how much money passes