The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-08-31

Took $500 to Elect Lincoln
Will Cost Five Millions to Elect Next
President.
President.


the inquire III pOlllIcS lHdt Ho uiu Ia
former years; the multiplication of
printing presses and telegraph lines has
struck heavy blow to his prestige
as creator and molder of public opin
ion, but his influence is still great
and must be taken into account by cam
paign managers. During the months
of a national campaign hundreds of
speakers of national and local re-
pute are kept constantly employed by
the national and state committees, the
efforts of those under the direction of
the national organization being as
rule confined to the close and doubt
full states. The expenses of all of
these speakers are paid, but their SER
vices are generally given without ex-
pectation of monetary reward. In the
cases of men of exceptional gifts of
oratory, or Of those who can not at.
ford to neglect their business with
out money reeompense, fees are paid,
though an effort is generally made to
keep the fact of such payment secret,
as when it is known the orator is look
ed upon as a special pleader, and his
arguments carry little weight.
The result of this flood of campaign
oratory is an open question. AS Re
publican mass meetings are attended
in the main by Republican voters and
Democratic mass meetings by Demo
cratic voters the number of converts
,, made by them must be small. Still,
they serve to create enthusiasm, to
maintain and improve discipline and,
as it were, to close up and steady the
party ranks. Very useful for the same
purpose are the campaign clubs and
societies, whose organization and equip
ment cost in the aggregate large sum.
The moneys which a national commit
tee gives to it's several state commit
tees are sent grudgingly and the latter
are always urged to- raise all that they
can themselves.
The routine work of national COM
mittee requires the renting of spacious
quarters, the employment of large
I force of clerks, stenographers and mes
sengers, all of whom are well paid for
their services, and the committee gen.
orally sustains the expense OF the party
parades and demonstrations In New
York city during the campaign months.
These parades and demonstrations do
not materially alter the result in the
| metropolis and are not expected to, but
1 their influence as imposing partisan
| spectacles are believed to have good eff
| feet upon the country at large. Thus
| it will be seen that while the sums of
money collected for campaign purposes
swell yearly, the ways of spending them
more than keep pace with the means of
raising them.
| With the growing use of money in
politics it has been found more and
more desirable that the chairman of a
| national committee should be a man of
large private fortune, with credit and
business status which inspire confidence
| and respect. When subscriptions are
slow in coming in and he has as yet
| only promises in lieu of cash he must
become responsible for or advance the
/ funds needed to meet current expenses.
and these advances often amount to
several hundred thousand dollars. If
| there is a shortage after the campaign
is ended he is the one who is looked
to to make it good.
| The caution of contributors, coupled
to the close watch which one national
committee keeps on the doings and dis
bursements of the other, reduces to a
minimum the possibility of campaign
funds being Incorporated. Though
they are disbursed in large measure
| on honor, and final accounting is sell
dom had, still their management is gov
| erned as far as possible by strict busi-
ness rules, and handled as they are by
men of the highest character and in
tegrity.
| Instances in which they fail to reach
the channels for which they were in
tended are very rare, indeed 1t can,
| think, be said with truth that the funds
of a national committee are as careful
| ~ managed as are those of any large
business corporation. In 1883 Post
master General Wanamaker was at the
head of the finance committee, which
had in charge the work of raising the
Republican campaign funds, and care
| fully supervised all disbursements, for
which he received vouchers. Still, as
| I have Just said, the disbursement OF
the party fund is in large measure a
matter of honor, and the innovation IN
| troduced by Mr. Wanamaker may not
be repeated.
/ How is the money raised for cam
paign funds2 The work has developed
shrewd and successful beggars OF
money As a collector of campaign
funds Marshall Jewell, who was for
| several wears chairman of the Repub-
lican national committee, perhaps never
had an equal. When others failed he
succeeded, and it is told of him that
in Boston in a single day he collect
ed $4,000. President Arthur was a
charming beggar, and when he was an
active politician his services as money
| getter were always counted as of the
first Importance.
Campaign managers say that it is
under most conditions easier to raise
money for the party which is in office
Be this as it may, it is certain that
the Democratic managers in 1892 had
a larger fund at their disposal than
the Republicans And in 1896, when
the Republicans were out Of office, the
committee headed by Chairman Han
ma collected a campaign fund almost
twice as large as the fund of the man
ayers of the Bryan canvass. 1t IS an
open secret that the largest subscriber
to this fund was William X. Wander
bilt. who sent his check for $l50,o00.