The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-09-01

ON the Democratic side without the
power. of the Democratic leaders to stop
such an enterprise.
The examination of all witnesses re-
yealed how little value attaches to the
certificates filed by the national commit
tees of both parties showing campaign
expenditures. While in many instances
the national organization acts as col
lection agency for state committees and
actually turns back large sums of money
for state uses, both Mr.. Hays and Mr..
Cummings developed the fact that mo-
body knows how much the state commit
tees collect for use inside the states with
out making q statement of any sort to.
the national organizations. Mr.. Hays
denied absolutely that the quotas which
Governor Cox has said were set for 81
leading cities, totalling more than
IS 100000, were the Republican figures.
He refused to give the exact quotas,
leaving that to Fred W.sUpham to sup
ply. In reply to questions about several
states or cities Mr.. Hays professed not to
remember a single quota. All he would
say was that Governor Cox's alleged
quotas were false. Mr.. Hays would only
admit this much:
"At different periods different quotas
have been suggested by the treasurer's
office as tentative goals in different
states, and the state committees them
selves have fixed different quotas These
are changing constantly and always, of
course, were made very much higher than
the amount either necessary or antiei-
pated The fact is quotas mean very
little
Some of the Democratic leaders after
I'd
quotas would prove troublesome to the
Republicans after this investigation was
concluded for it was not in accord, they
declared with the line of reasoning
adopted by Senator Harding and Chair
man Good, of the house committee on APP
preparations who base much of their
praise for the last Republican congress
on the statement that congress cut down
by at least two billion dollars the quotas
or estimates by the 10 government de-
partments of the sums they wanted to
get from congress. The departments al
ways do what Mr.. Hays said his commit
tee did-they ask for more than they
expect to get. He says the mere asking
| for large quotas isn't of Importance. It's
the amount actually raised or author
lied to be spent. Mr. HAYS declares his
budget does not authorize an expenditure
of more than $3,076,000. That's the sum
his bureaus are permitted to appropriate
| though only about Sl,000,000 in cash
has actually been turned in. In other
words, the Democrats now twit their
opponents by saying that even if Gov
ernor Cox doesn't prove that Ss,O0O,O0O
or sl5,000.000 in quotas have been or
shall have been spent, he ought to get
credit for saving the rank and file of the
Republican party the difference between
A budget OF S3,000,0OO and what might
otherwise been insisted upon in the way
Iof quotas in excess of that sum
In nutshell, if Governor Cox wanted
to throw monkey wrench into the Re
publican financial campaign simply be-
cause the Democratic effort to raise
money has been failure thus far, he
may succeed but so far as proving either
corruption actual or intended or the ex-
penditure of excessive sums. his own
supporters doubt whether he can do so
convincingly because of the inaecessi
bility Of state fund records.