Arizona republican., 1913-09-05
Plot to Steal the Seat of Representative William J. Macdonald of Twelfth Michigan District Was Easily Frustrated
HE WAS OPPOSED
 ON TECHNICALITY
In Spite of His Overwhelm- ing Election, Six Demo crats Voted Against Him When His Seat Was Contested
Especial to The Republican, )

Especial to The Republican.)
 WASHINGTON, Sept. 4.-The house of representatives has at length done justice to William J. Macdonald. the progressive who was elected to con gress from the 18th Michigan district last November, but whose seat the republican board of canvassers at tempted to steal from him by counting 45S of his votes for mythical person for whom they were not cast.
 The committee on elections, which had mada an exhaustive investigation of the case, had previously reported unanimously in favor of seating MT Macdonald The resolution carrying that report into effect was debated fDr about two hours in the house, and was finally adopted by a vote of 175 to $. The voting opposition was confined entirely to democrats, but representa- tive Mann of Illinois, the republican standpat leader, joined in the opposi- tion to Mr. Macdonald that was dis played in the debate. No question was raised as to the validity of MT. Mac DonaId's election. The only point brought up against him was that he had failed to file a supplemental state ment of his campaign contributions and expenses, required under the campaign publicity law, within the thirty days allowed by the statute for that purpose. II appeared that MT. Macdonald had complied substantially with the law by fiIirg on October 26tll. just prior to the election, a statement which in fact cover eG practically the whole of his campaign fund. It also appeared that he was the district attorney of his own county and immediately after the cleo tion had devoted himself to court work for a long time, having been engaged in the trial of some fifty separate cases. His final statement was filed on April 18th of this year, and it appeared that there had been no material addition to the items set forth in the October statement.
 The effort of a very small number of democrats and of Republican Leader Mann to make capital out of this in cident recalls the vigor with which both the democrats and the republi- cans have fought the efforts of Repre- sentative MurdOck, the progressive floor leader of the house, to have print ed as a public document all the state ments of campaign contributions and expenditures filed with the clerk of the house The law requires that such statements shall be filed by all can didates for congress, whether success full or unsuccessful The law also pro- vides a penalty of fine or imprisonment. or both, for failure to comply with It's provisions It is a notorious fact, how ever, that a considerable number of candidates at the last session have not ct fpY tempt has been made to do anything in any of these cases. On the contrary. when MT. Murdock proposed that the statements which had been filed should be printed as a document. so that they might be permanently pre- served. he encountered the vigorous op- position of the leaders and the rank and file of both the Tory parties.
 The avowed purpose of the campaign publicity law was to secure genuine publicity of these contributions and eX- penditures In point of fact it has se- cured no practical publicity, because the statements are filed with the clerk of the house. and are not only difficult of access in Washington but practically wholly inaccessible so far as the people of the different congressional districts are concerned. If published as a docu- ment in acordance with MT. Murdock s proposal they would be made readily available all over the country, and the people in any district, who are the ones naturally most familiar with the cam paign work of their candidate for con- gress, would have some means of de- termining whether or not the state ments were complete and trustworthy. But thus far MT. Murdock has been un- unable. in the fact of the bipartisan democra ratic-republican opposition, to secure action on his proposal
 Under the usual practice, such docu- ments filed with the clerk of the house are kept for only few months and then destroyed. Unless. therefore. these statements are printed as per manent documents they will cease to have any potential value in a few months, and thus the law will be rend- cred purely farce.
 MT. Macdonald was sworn in as member of the house immediately after the passage of the resolution. He will be assigned to places on committees, and is already entering into the work | of representing his district,