Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1913-04-25
Democrats are Afraid to Print State
mentS.

Democrats are Afraid to Print State
mentS.
Representative Murdoch, of Kansas,
the floor leader Of the Progressives in
the House, has got both Democrats
and Republicans squirming over the
publication of their expense accoun is
for the last campaign, together with
the statements of contributions and
expenditures filed by the treasurers
sof the Progressive, Democratic and
Republican national committees. The
Democrats especially are up against a
plain problem Of keeping faith with
their widely trumpeted demand for
campaign fund publicity or demon
strating by their actions now that
their talk has been buncombe for
campaign consumption alone.
For eight or ten years, the Demo
Gratis have been loud In their de-
mands for campaign fund publicity.
Mr.. Bryan, especially, has been a
most ardent advocate Of the plan OF
compelling all candidates to make ex-
plicit statements of contributions
both before and after election. After
tremendous bother about it, a law
was passed which was hailed by
Democrats all over the country as
great triumph for the principle OF
publicity. But the law had been
drawn with extreme cleverness, so
that it merely provided for the filing
of statements with the clerk of the
House and said never a word about
the printing or publication of them.
1t did not even provide against their
destruction, which will take place
automatically, under the general
practice with such records, after
eighteen months.
All the committee treasurers filed
their statements last fall as required,
and most of the candidates for con-
gress filed theirs. For day or two,
at the prescribed times of fling, the
newspaper men In Washington had
access to these statements, and arti-
cles of varying length were printed,
confined almost wholly to the mere
statement of total contributions and
expenditures, with the names of the
largest contributors to the various
funds Such publicity as there was
dealt almost wholly with the nation
al funds, and there was next to no
comment about the congressional
statements There was no examina-
tion of any Of the statements ia de-
tail, and there never has been any
real publicity Of them, nor was it
ever possible for individuals away
from Washington to examine them.
All of which was very satisfactory to
both Democrats and Republicans.
The Progressives have not made
anything like the hullaballoo over
campaign publicity that has distin-
guished the Democratic campaigns.
but they declared in favor of the
principle in their platforms and In
numerous cases where publicity OF
contributions only was demanded
they filed statements'giving expendi-
lures as we'll.
Mr.. Murdoch Is a believer In giving
practical effect to the platform de-
clarations as we'll as theoretical sup
port to them during camgaign. Sc
he prepared a resolution providing fol
the printing of the records on file
with the clerk of the House as pub
lie document. He had his resolution
ready on the first day of the session
and at the earliest opportunity sought
the floor to bring it up. Both the
Democratic and Republican leaders
had been informed of his purpose
The result was that as soon as he ad.
dressed the Speaker, a motion to ad.
iourn was made on the Democratic
side. That motion is always In order
and is not debatable, so there was NJ
opportunity for Mr.. Murdock to tel
the House what he wanted to do. Tha