The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1909-10-08
Legitimate Expenses.
bellows Falls Times.)

Since Candidate Fleetwood's pronuncia-
mento that he should use little money, or
no money, or no money in q questionable
way, or words to that effect, the question
for candidate for governorship! The
Northfeld News hurls interrogation points
right and left after this fashion,:
But just how far may a candidate go
in expenditures and keep within legitimate
lines? Can he pay the actual expenses of
friends who canvass their town in the in
terest of his candidacy? Can he pay for
printing the ballot for list of delegates
favorable to him to be used in a canvass!
Can he pay for announcements in the ad-
vertising columns of newspapers? Can he
| hire hall In which to speak in his own
| behalf! Can he pay stenOgrapher to
write letters urging his candidacy? Can
he hire personal press agent? Can he
do any or all of these things and others
| along the same lines and keep within the
moral limit! Where does the legitimate
expenditures of political canvass end and
a corruption fund begin?'
Candidate Fleetwood's answer to these
several inquiries would be mighty inter
esting reading, but as we are not likely to
hear from him until after the campaign
anyway, and the Mortified contemporary
does not answer its own questions, we
butt in and volunteer a little information.
A candidate for the govenorship, or any
other office conferred by the votes Of the
candidates fellow citizens should of course
pay all his personal expenses such as post
age, travelling expenses, etc. He is gener-
ally obliged to pay these for the simple
reason that no one else will pay them for
him.
What man can lawfully do by himself |
he can lawfully do by an agent. If lawful |
and legitimate are synonymous he can
iegltlmately pay. the actual expenses OF
friend for carrying on a political canvass.
The number of friends for whom he can
legitimately defray expenses is limited
only by the size of his pocketbook. He
can pay for advertising in newspaper If
1t is over his own name. He certainly can
chooses. That is any citizens privilege
whether he is candidate or not. He GER
tainly has the moral right to hire all the
he wants, and a carload OF
press agents if he chooses.
A candidate for governor of single
state ought not to be hedged about by
any greater restrictions than a candidate
for president of all the states. Did Candi-
date Taft employ any stenographers, or
press agents or pay any postage bills PRIOR
to receiving the nomination at the repub-
lican national convention? Did anybody
consider that expenditure of money illegit-
innate?
Wnat, tnen, Is luegltlmate expenditure
on the part of a candidate? We answer
any expenditure of money or influence
that is not of educational nature. So long
as the money expended brings to the at |
tention of the electorate the merits and
slaims of the candidate and the issues
which he advocates, leaving the final ac-
ion of the voter uninfuenced by the ex-
of financial or political gain the j
is legitimate. To buy voters
It so much per head; to pay their travel
ng expenditures in getting to the voting i
,ooth, to furnish free booze or cigars or $
linners, or TO offer any inducement for I
'oting for one candidate rather than an j
'ther, except the voters opinion of the a
merits of the candidate gained in the pre- {
aucus campaign of agitation and educa r
ion is wrong use of money. After the n
aucuses are held and delegates chosen it b