The morning journal-courier., 1908-08-19
FINANCING THE CAMPAIGN.

The Democratic national committee Is hard up for money. The Republican national committee is not flush and 1t Is announced has already returned to contributing corporations their tainted checks. The elimination of the use of money to control elections appears to have arrived. The substitution of plan which will keep tainted money where 1t belongs and which will bring purified money into the party treas- uries is yet on its way, if 1t can be said to have started.
 The situation is exactly what should have been seen beforehand. The aver age citizen knows just as well as he knows anything that political cam Ipaigns cost lot of money and that he has never contributed to the liqui- dation of them. He has been content to let the money come from where 1t will, and in great majority of in- stances 1t has come in consequence from those who are either really patrl- otic or interested in legislative favors. The discovery of the overpowering mastery of the latter led to a demand that they be eliminated. That has been accomplished. The result Is emp ty treasuries and beating hearts. The people are in no mood apparently to take uo the burden where the possess sion of tainted money gently laid 1t down, and there is the rub. They have never given and evidently do not pro- pose now to learn the lesson of fnane- ing campaign.
 This is preposterous situation. The constitution of the country requires periodical popular elections The mak- CTS of paper and ink, the printers, the postoff1ce department and the various other agencies of a popular election demand to be paid for their services. They are all as inexorable as the butch CT, the baker and candle stickmaker when 1t comes to the necessaries of life, Eliminate money under the exist ing conditions from the comprehension of an election and there would be none. Those in office would hold over de lure. It Is this situation which leads us to again say that the pre- vailing embarrassment among political parties is preposterous and must car ry one logically and irresistibly to the consideration of some yet unapplied method of raising the money needed. It is out of the question to talk about reviving the practice of taking tainted money. The immediate consequences are too serious. It seems to be out of the question to expect the people to make up the deficiency. And yet the money must be had.
 Obviously there is no time to conceive new methods of meeting campaign elections The two parties must get along as best they may upon shortened rations. In the future, however, eith- CT new method must be devised or as sure as shooting the abandoned meth ods will in some form or other be re- vived, with the same old consequences that those who pay the freight will in- sist upon getting the goods at the gen eral delivery It Is this situation which of itself suggests that sooner or later the government will have to meet all of the necessary expenses of the cam paign It is not only the only way out of the predicament but 1t Is the best way out It is better to tax the en- tire community for It's own benefit than to unload upon the shoulders of the few the burden of financing a cam paign. In other words, when in a creditable burst of honesty it was de- manded that the campaign treasuries