El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-08-15


uy the law of me state of New York
The two big campaign committees nav
ing their headquarters in New York
city, thereby became amenable TO the
laws of the Empire state. The Demo-
Gratis, at the instance of W. J. BRYAN
published their contributions and eX-
pcnses before election. although that
was not required, even under the state
law. The Republicans refused to pub
llsh their lists until after the election
but there was nothing shown in the
report as finally published that might
not just as well have been made pub
lie beforehand.
According to the statements of the
officials OI the two national camDaien
committees, the Republicans had ST.
100000 more in 1908 than the Demo-
Gratis The Republican statement
placed the expenditures or the nation
al committee at $1,000. 600 while the
OF the Republican fund, $4,000 was
Iaised by state finance committees. and
was spent in the several states without
going through the hands of the nation
committee, although the accounts
were forwarded to the committee The
national committee itself expended a
little over a million dollars.
In the Democratic camp there were
more than 100000 individual contribu-
tors, upward of $500 0of whom lived
in the state of New York. Uncle Sam
got $4,000 from the Democratic ma
tiOnal committee IN postage. the ex-
press companies $4,000. and the tele-
graph companies as much more On
the labor bureau $4,000 was spent in
the effort to line up organized labor
against Taft The printing bill
amounted to $l42. 00O and it cost $Sg,-
600 to supply the stream of campaign
OratOry that flowed from the hustings
of the country. The various state or
CARNATIONS got S129,0OO.
Recently congress has been probing
into the campaign fund situation in
the campaigns OF 1904 and 1908.
through the committee on privileges
and elections of the senate. but the re
suits have not been at all startling.
Are Politically HirtuOus.
According TO the testimony of those
who have appeared, the political com
mittees of the two great parties have
been as politically virtuOus as they
well could be. As far back as 1904
they were turning down sugar trust.
tobacco trust. and other trust cOntribu-
items right and left, and neither party
COnfeSSeS to have been willing to re-
ccive tainted money from any source.
One man came to chairman COrtelyOu
with roll of bills amounting TO S20,-
600 which he felt il his patriotic duty
to give TO the cause of his party, and
then offhandedly observed that when
victory came once more TO tie glorious
cause of RepubHcaniSm he hoped hG
would have friend at court when he
applied for a position in the diplo-
matte service abroad. That little re-
mark transformed a high purpOsed
contribution into one described by a
said nay, nay. there is no need of such
money in our camp. Mr. Dupont, Of
Delaware, had a 100000 donation to
make in the 1908 campaign, but Mr..
Hitchcock remembered that the powder
trust was then having a little trouble
with the government. so he told MI
Dupont that he would better keep his
money Mr.. Dupont did not view II
that way. however. What 1 have CIV
en-, I have given" he remarked, and
Immediately he opened up a new bank
~. = ~ @~.aa~-
party and started out to hold the S20,-
600 until such time as the party would
let him spend It
The Unique Ewing Contribution
One of the most interesting of all
the contributions to the Democratic
campaign fund was designated as the
Ewing contribution 1t amounted TO
nearly $4,000, and except for a few
quarters and half dollars, it consisted
entirely of five and 10 cent pieces
A man named Ewing IN Illinois under
took TO raise a nickel and dime 1und,
and il kept growing and growing until
il became one OF the comparatively lew
large contributions of the campaign
James Kerr, of Pennsylvania, also I'M
dertoOk to raise a fund by gathering
together all the pin money subscrlp-
lions he could get, and in the aggre-
gate this was one of the most import
ant contributions coming out OF the
state of Pennsylvania
How Ridder Contributed
Hermann Ridder, the treasurer OF
the Democratic national committee IN
1908 seems to have been the largest
contributor in either party that year.
He gave $37 900 to the fund. although
the books do not show it As Mr. Bry-
an had limited the amount that should
be received from any one man TO S1Os-
OOO Mr.. Ridder. according to his own
statement. gave $4,000, OF which SlO-
600 was in his own name and $1,000 IN
the name of each Of his three sons
This incident shows how easy II is,
usually to get around any law limit
ing contributions In this particular
case no one charges that the course OF
Mr. Ridder was open to criticism, Tor
he evidently had no Interior motive IN
the matter: but the magnate VINO
would want to give large amount
easily might mask II by giving
through a number Of individuals under
him.
The Democratic committee in 1908 is
the first national committee that ever
made public a full list of every contrl-
button given. Not a single five cent
piece contributed failed TO command
a record of the name OF the donor IN
the books of the committee Inc same
policy probably VIII be pursued TINS
YEAR and the party leaders expect that
the list of contributors will be the
longest in the entire history of Amerl-
can politics
who usually raise campaign funds Will
be considerably handicapped this year
i'll getting big contributions Inc tact
be full publicity will cause many con-
tributions to be turned down that 9TH
erwise might be solicited and accepted,
for fear of the effect that the an
nouncement might have on the voters
of the country OF course 1t has usual
" happened in the past that the work
that 81 900 can do in campaign mas
been greater than the harm that the
news of the contribution could DO,
and the present fight might not be an
exception, but none of the candidates
will be willing TO have the impression
get abroad that the socalled money
power is behind him.
The Rucker Laws Provisions.
The Rucker law requires that the
Dreelection statements of contributions
and expenditures shall be filed in
Washington not more than 10 days nor
loss than 10 days before the election
and that an additional statement of
subsequent contributions and eXpendl-
lures must be made every six days
thereafter until the election. A party
filing a report Is days before election
day would have to file two subsequent
reports while the committee filing its
first report u days or less before the
election would have to file only one
SUPPLEMENTAL report The election next
fall will be held on the fifth of No
vember Tn main prediction report
will have to be given out on or be-
fore Saturday. Oct. 26. and the latest
date on which the final report can be
given out will be Nov. /. This viii he
on Friday and the election viii come
on the following Tuesday.