The Washington times., 1908-07-23
A True Type of Tory.

The Hon. Joseph Holt Gaines, Rep
resentative in Congress from the ThirC
West Virginia district, recently jour
neyed to Hot Springs, Va, for confer
ence with William Howard Taft, who
needs no description. Mr.. Gaines Is
chairman of the House Committee on
Election of President, Vice President,
and Representatives This is the com
mittee to which are referred bills re-
lating to publicity of campaign ex-
penses-
A newspaper interview says:
While satisfied that Judge Taft is
serious regarding publicity, as he also
believes Mr.. Bryan to be on the saiIle
subject Mr. Gaines said ne was IN
clined 10 think campaign managers
throughout the country would make IL
their business TO see that the canuludIeS
did not learn the real facts apout lhe
collection of campaign CONTRIBUTORS. ii
''WhiIe I will not say that pubhclty
laws put a premium on perjury. Mr..
Gaines is quoted as saying, y Will say
they nut Veracity at a decided dlSad-
vantage They make CONSCIENTIOUS
man less available as a campaign man
ager than a man who has an elastic
Conscience
Mr.. Gaines doubtless reads the news
papers more OF less. Presumably he
knows something of the disgust with
which the country regarded the course
of his committee last session, when
it reorganized a publicity bill, so that
it could not possibly pass, and assumed
to have done a clever trick. If he does
know this, it must be assumed that he
is a man of prodigious courage in his
convictions. He must be tremendously
devoted, for some good moral reason, TO
the old-fashioned methods of raising
campaign funds in secret, from unknown
sources. In short, assuming that the
Hon. Gaines is a man of Just moderate
intelligence, it can only be assumed
that he Is weighted down by a burden
of conviction such as once made men
martyrs, in favor of the old system Of
running politics.
Mr.. Gaines is entitled to credts- for
honesty. No man would speak out thus
frankly who didn't believe what he
said. But how does the public feel
about it2 Does the public believe he
is right? Does it believe that secrecy
is necessary in conducting the politics
of the whole people? Does it gravely
doubt whether it ought to know who
is paying the campaign expenses Of
the men for whom it is asked TO vote
Does it fear to know too much about
the financial backing of the parties be
tween which it must divide its sup
port?
Mr.. Gaines trouble is that ne
doesn't understand what is going on in
the public mind nowadays. He hasn't
found out what all this political new
thought is about His naive interview
proclaims him as hopelessly the Tory as
was Wellington when as opposition
leader in the Lords he declared that
Parliament had no concern with the
condition of women in England's mines,
because to legislate concerning their
employment would be to Infringe the
right of contract!" The legislation
passed, despite the solemn protest; and
campaign publicity will henceforth be
the rule in this country, despite Gaines
and such as he.
It was the moral obtuseness of men
who accepted such views, that turned
the country against the Sixtieth Con
gress on the basis of the record made
at its first session. In pity, rather
than in anger, the country is recog-
nizing that men of such views are
unfit TO be trusted with the effort
to interpret what is in its thought.