The San Francisco call., 1907-02-10
RACE FOR COVE ERNOR
COST TOO MUCH
Hearst Incorporates in a
Bill the Fruits of His
Experiences of Last Fall
CURB USE OF COIN

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9.--s1t seems to
me that the root of all corruption In
public life is the use of money In elcc-
tions,' said Representative William
Randolph Hearst tonight, discussing
the bill to prevent the corrupt use OF
money at national elections.
ITO illustrate added Hearst, let me
cite the last New York State election
The use OF something more than mill
lion dollars in the State campaign is
admitted by the various committees OF
the Republican party In addition
there was a great deal of money spent
by individuals and by semipolitical or
ganiZations which did not come under
the restriction of the election laws.
These amounts of money cannot be
spent properly in merely informing the
voters of the issues of the campaign
and in guarding the ballot on election
day, and therefore the greater part of
1t must be spent improperly, in direct
ly or indirectly influencing the vote of
the citizens"
Hearst characterized as extraordinary
Governor Hughes recommendation for
a corrupt practices act in New York.
in that it failed TO limit the total
amount that could be spent in any
campaign. He said:
My bill is framed to limit the
amount of money that can be spent and
the uses to which 1t can be put, and
defines any other expenditure of money
as bribery. 1t furthermore contains a
clause which 1 think will be absolutely
effective in the detection of this brib-
cry and improper use of money. The
person guilty of this improper use of
money is, under my bill, punishable by
a fine of not more than $4,000 nor less
than $4,000, half of which amount shall
go to the informer. together with i'm
munity. Thus there will be constant
reward offered of from $500 to $1,000 in
every case OF the improper use of
money in elections. Moreover, the man
who gives the bribe automatically Of
fers the reward for his own detection.
There is another clause which pro-
vides punishment for false registra- :
tion and illegal voting.
This morning we all read In the
papers that Rockefeller had given thir-
ty-two millions of dollars for public
education-a most patriotic and praise
worthy thing for him to do. Yet we
cannot help feeling the possibilities of
the misuse of such great wealth to
control the Government under our
present lax election laws.
IF Rockefeller can give s32 900. 900
for a certain purpose, no matter how
beneficial, he might give a fifth or a
tenth that sum to preserve politi-
cal conditions that make the accumu-
lation of such great wealth as this
possible. Six millions or even three
millions, would go far toward carrying
State or even national election. And
if Rockefeller should be too high
minded to devote any part of his
wealth to such purposes, there are
many multi-millionaires in this coun-
try whose wealth has been secured by
political favors and special privileges,
who would spend millions to continue
the opportunities for further political
favors and to preserve their special
privileges
Hearst expressed confidence that his
bill would stop improper use of money
in elections. Yet" he concluded, Il
do not think that it will be passed, for
I do not believe that there is any sin
cere desire by either of the old parties
to interfere with the use of money in
politics."