The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-10
HEARST HAS
 GREAT PLAN Stop Using Money in
 Elections. BOTH PARTIES NSINCERE Says Corruption of Ballot Greatest
 National Evil. The Scheme of Editor xhe Knows How To Buy Votes centempIates oGer- ing Reward to Professional
 Informers.

Washington. Feb. s--william Ram dolph Hearst today issued the following signed statement. giving his reasons for urging the enactment of his bill into . law to prevent the corrupt use of money at national elections.
 Tt seems to me that the root of all corruption in public life is the use of money in elections. The evil Is not merely the use of corporation money iu elections. or the use of the money ok individuals. but the use of money at all to influence the vote of citizens on election day.
 Mir. Hughes makes an extraordinary recommendation for . corrupt practices act. in which he advises that the amount of money contributed by any individual candidate be limited to C small sum. If there Is no provision lin~ iting the total amount of money spent. this suggestion of Mir. Hughes would merely compel all candidates to ba un- der obligations for their campaign funds to the financial interests wha deal in politics.
 If, for example, million dollars is still permitted to be spent in a State election and the candidate might only contribute $25.000. there would remain S975, ,000 to be raised for which the cans didate must be indebted to those who invest their money in politics and an fn candidates.
 ''The public know sufficiently well what kind of services those large fsn- ancial interests require from elected officials In return for the campaign cosi- tributions that have helped to elect them.
 My bill Is framed to limit strictly the amount of money that can be spent and the uses to which 1t can he put, and Vf1V hill da6uaa any 0fhAr awTAaNtfx ure of money as bribery. 1t further moro contains q clause which think will be absolutely effective for tho de- tection of this bribery. and the i'm. proper use of money. The person guilty of this improper use of money is under my bill punishable by q fine Of not more than $10,0Q0 nor less than s2.oe0. half of which amount shall go to tiin informer. together with in1munltx.
 Thus there wiM he a constant rn@ offered from s5.0o0 to si.000 In every case of the improper use Of money In election. And. moreover, the man wlfn gives the bribe automatically offers , the reward for his own detection. There Is a further clause in my bill which offers a somewhat similar pun-. ishment for false registration and ille- sal voting. According to this provis-. ion, upon conviction of the accused the informer secures one-half of. the fine of from s1.000 to s5.000. and inanau- nifty. There arc also jail penalties for these crimes and am absolutely posi- tive that if this bill were passed it would prevent the uss of money in elections which I also have said and believe is the most serious menace to our Republican form of government.
 T say that the use of money by fha corporations Is not the only evil thae threatens us; the use of money by any individual or any collection of individ uals may be as greatly improper and as harmful to our institutions and 10 our political independence.
 If Mr. Rockefeller can give thirty millions for a certain purpose--hov- ever beneficial--he might give one-nffh or one-tenth of that sum to preserve political conditions that make the ac- emulation of such great wcath na this possible.
 'T am confident that my bill would stop the corrupt use of money in alec- tions. but l do not think 1t win ba passed for do not believe that there is any sincere desire on. the part of either of the old parties to interfere with the use of money in politics"