The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1915-07-24
COSTS TO BE A
CANDIDATE

The condition in Maryland politics
that makes it next to impossible for
any man to attain high Office in the
State without the spending of very
large sums of money by himself or his
friends, or placing himself under de-
grading obligations to a machine. as
| pointed out in an editorial in The Bal
timore Sun, recently, is generally ad-
mitted and deplored by number of
| men who have had experience in pub
lie life in Maryland.
The opinion among those who dis
cussed the situation as it is to Sun
| reporter, was that something should
| be devised to remedy it, but just what
that something should be they were
at loss to suggest.
Leaders See Difficulties.
Former Governor Edwin Warfeld
said that there was no remedy except
in the public opinion of the electorate,
so that it would demand as public
| officials, not office jobbers and men
who continually solicited their votes,
but men who attended to the public
business in a statesmanlike way and
| let the record of their services speak
| for them.
William Cabell Bruce. who has been
in many reform fights in Baltimore,
bad much the same idea as Governor
| Wartield, that without a change of
| public ideals it would be a most diff
| cult undertaking to better conditions
so that man of moderate means
would have a fair chance against
rich candidate.
State Senator Maloy suggested that
il might be worth while to have a
commission appointed to study the sit
| uatlon. to consider such experiments
as the Oregon plan and others and re-
port its findings to the Legislature.
Objections to Money Limit.
A number of objections were ad-
vanced to any plan to limit the amount
| of money that candidates might spend,
| 1t was pointed out that what might be
| reasonable under some circumstances
| would be unreasonable in others; that
| in fight against an entrenched ma
chine it would cripple such a fight to
| be limited in legitimate expenditures:
that a machine would have a tremend-
Gus advantage over a candidate that
| both We're limited to the same expen-
| ditures, and would in many cases
doom the independent candidate to de-
feat from the beginning.
machine could, it was argued, af-
| ford to nominate a poor man if his
influence and work after election
should be considered as advantageous
to it as some other mans money, but
SUCH a man would have to be at the
| command of a boss or give up hope of
further preferment. On the other
4 hand. man who was at once honest
and Independent would need a great
deal of money to hope to, defeat a
machine candidate.
Oregon Has Campaign Book.
! The Oregon plan for primaries and
for genera! elections provides that the
State shall print a campaign book, to
, be sent to every voter in the State.
Every candidate is allotted space for
which he pays from $40 to 500 a
| page, according to the importance of
! the office, but the number of pages is
limited. He states why he should be
| elected. and his picture may be print
ed with his statement. His opponents
may buy a limited space to tell why he
| should not be elected. Thus all the
claims and arguments of all candi-
dates are officially placed before every
| voter. 1t is saving for the candi-
dates and costs the State compara-
lively little. This law was passed last
year and is in its experimental stage.
Similar eEactments have been pro-
posed in California, and the question
is being seriously discussed in a num-
Der of Western States where the ex-
penses of primaries and elections have
resulted in a condition similar to the
one in this State.
Costs Governor About $4,000.
1t is estimated that it will cost the
candidates $4,000 to get out the
registration this fall and it is under
stood among those in touch with poll
tics that in primary fight for the
Gubernatorial nomination a few years
ago one candidate spent from $4,000
to 100000, and it was not seriously
charged that any of it was improperly
or at least corruptly spent. 1t costs
some $4,000 to "circularize" the state
just once; that is, to send pamph-
let or letter to every voter. To dis
Va iDetC plHlI duN Ntll llSt-
mnts in the newspapers, hire halls and
bands and the like soon eats up the
thousands, and these expenses can
hardly be objected to. Speaking of
the expenses, Mr.. Bruce said:
81 doubt if Governor has been
elected in Maryland within a genera
tion whose campaign has cost him or
his close friends less than $4,000,
unless it was Governor Warfield. who
spent less than any of them, but who
expended considerable sum.
"And in saying this | do not for a
moment mean to charge any improper
use of money. The legitimate ex-
penses of campaign are very large.
| doubt if candidates spend any more
now than before the adoption of direct
primaries, but it seems that the field
from which candidates may be drawn
becomes more and more limited to rich
men. Unless some remedy is devised
it seems that we will drift to a sort of
plutocracy of office-holders.