The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-16
for its campaign headquarters, and this year more have been provided.

for its campaign headquarters, ana tnls year more have been provided.
 The most expensive branch of a national campaign is the speakers bureau; next 1 in importance and in cost Is the literary l bureau As soon as the campaign head ] quarters are open the chief of the speak 1 CTS bureau gets together a list of his 1 available spell binders. He must know all l their peculiarties and their particular spe- cialties; some men can reach certain classes of voters while others cannot. Some speakers are qualified to advance a particularly able argument on some one issue of the campagn while others take up other issues-and so on. The orator. ical chief, in assigning his speakers, must confer with the chairmen of the different state committees and send as far as possible. into each locality the speakers desired by the local leaders. The speak CTS bureau must also arrange the dates of the different speakers, set down the time of the trains which they take, where they shall stay at their different appoint ments, and, in fact, every detail that Is necessary The work of securing halls, appointing reception committees, adver- Using, etc., is left to the town commit tees.
 Some of the best speakers receive " others s150 a week. Two speakers are usually sent to each appointment one eaking on one subject and the other on something else. The local commit tee is expected to furnish one speaker, and the three make up the programme. It is estima ted that the republican na- tfonal committee spends $2,0Oo,o00 for 1 its spellb finders alone.
 To the literary bureau falls the task of supplying the newspapers and the voters with the presidential candidates speech of acceptance, which is generally accepted as the keynote of the cam paign. The bureau must also keep on hand copies of the platform to be sent out as they are demanded. Then there is the campaign textbook, the party bible, which is supplied to all the party newspapers and orators.
 Four years ago it cost the republican party $50 900 to conduct the ordinary correspondence at campaign headquar- ters. The daily mail in that year aver aged close to 800 letters, and every one of these was answered. The majority i of them were of a most trivial char acter, but no one who writes is ig- nored.
 Aside from this, the work of carryin 7 on the house to house canvass of voters must be looked after The national committee holds the various state com mittees responsible for this task, the state committees the county commit tees, and the county committees the precinct captains.
 After all, the most important work , of the campaign is raising funds. Just i how this is done, every one knows. The candidates contribute, and enthusiastic 1 party leaders contribute, but most of 1 the money collected by the republica1 T | party, if common report is to be ac- | cepted as true, comes from the corpor- ] ations. There has been a great hue and cry recently against the use of corporation money for campaign pur | poses, but whether or not this will have any effect upon the republicans | remains to be seen. There is always more or less talk of the 1llegitimat te use of money in national campaigns | but 1t is not believed that this prevails to any extent at present The secret | ballot system which most of the states have adopted prevents the buying .. votes, so there is not much opportunity | for spending money illegitimately | Then, too the old methods of red fire campaigning have gone out There are no more parades that amount to any thing and very little money is spent for whisky. The money goes for speak CTS, the distribution of literature and for postage.
 In view of the fact that the labor unions are expected to play such an important part in this campaign, it is , interesting to know the number of | votes they control. According to the New York World not one voter in seven belongs to labor organization | The World continues:
 There are in the United States more 1 Odd Fellows and Freemasons than mem. bers of the American Federation of Labor, the Knights of Labor, the Indus trial Workers of the World and all the unafhliated unions. The 10104,561 mem
 bers of fraternal organizations outn,lmbe,
 more than three to one the bearers of
 union cards.
 Comparing by trades the United States
 census figures with the numbers in the
 labor unions, it appears that the men moi
 belonging to such organizations generally
 outnumber those who do belong. The
 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
 the Typographical union, the anthracite coal miners and the building trades unions
 are almost the only important cases
 where the organized bodies include ma
 jority of the men.
 Of the B,2S5922 persons engaged il
 gainful occupations in 1900 more than one
 third, 1043S,219 were in agricultural pur
 suits. Many farmers belong to a grange
 or alliance, but the object of farmers
 organizations is not to fix hours ol
 wages, but to try to get higher prices fo,
 products and better terms from railroad
 Every farmer is more or less a capitalist
 Even if he rents the land, he owns stool
 and farming machinery. In the labor mar
 ket he is usually an employer.
 Next most numerous to farmers ant
 farm hands were those engaged in man
 ufaoturing and building, who numbere,
 7,112,9s7 Those engaged in domestic an,
 personal service were 5,691,746 Merchants
 clerks, bookkeepers salesmen and sales
 women were more than 100000, twic ! as many as the railroad men and almor
 three times the number employed in tn