The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-05-22
CAMP AICN FUNDS RAISED FOR COP. BY HAYS METHOD
Plan of Limiting Contribu tions to $1,OOO Said To Be Success.
(F'rom the New York World (Dem.)
 By Louis SeibO1d.l

 ton to speak authoritatively pro- claim the complete success of the plan devised by National Chairman Hays for financing the coming Pres identiaI campaign without accept ing favors from corporations and wealthy individuals"
 This statement is interpreted to mean that the t-favors" have already been accepted and is supplemented with the equally reliable intelligence that "there will be money enough to pay all legitimate expenses Of the battle on hand the day the candidate is selected by the Chicago Conven- tion.''
 There is no reason to doubht it. For three months agents of the com mittee have been appearing before groups of business men and soliciting from wealthy individuals contribu- tions limited to $2,000 from each classified industry and s1,0o0 from any individual. Just what is the aggregate amount of money ac- tually raised to date and turned over to the Finance Committee of the National Committee is uncertain. The most definite estimate to be oh- tained is that Git exceeds $2,0O0, 0O0 and may go to s5,00o,0Oo."
 Will Tell Of Big Donors. When he announced his scheme for recruiting the sinews of political warfare the National Chairman said he would make public announcement inme diately after the nomination of the Presidential candidate at Chi cago of the full amount collected and ! give the names of the larger con- tributors.
 The money will be disbursed, of ha National Committee, of which MT. Hays probably will be continued as Chairman His agents have assured all contributors that mot one dol lar has been or will be expended in promoting the interest of any con tender for the nomination." No evil dence to the contrary is available, though individual members or the committee have not only worked to bring about the indorsement of their respective favorites but have con tributed 1ibera1ly to the funds used in doing so.
 Some of the old timers have view ed the Hays plan for financing the Presidential campaign as bit of in offensive altruism that might lease the burdens on the old reliable meal tickets who are always called on toward the end of a fight, but that cannot be expected to raise all we need.''
 MT. Hays and his advisers hold a contrary opinion. They do not say | that "aIl the money needed in a | Presidential campaign will be ac- 1 tual1y on hand the day after the l Chicago nomination" but they do | say that enough will be pledged to 1 overcome objections and criticisms 1 of methods that have been in vogue l half a century and which, they say, | will be discarded. By this is meant | that there will be no passing of the | hat in Wall Street and among the 1 corporations at the start and, they | hope, at the finish of the fight. High Cost Extends to Politics | The leaders of both sides agree | that the high cost of everything has | extended to politics and that a great | deal more money will be required to l place the case of each party before { the people of the country than ever 1 before. The primary campaigns now i advancing to the final stage furnish 1 convincing proof of the fact While there is no way of actually determin- 1 ing the cost of complying with the | eccentricities of the various primary
 laws, at least s1,o0O,oOO probably has been spent by the score or more
 aspirants for the Republican and Democratic nominations, the outIay of the financial syndicate promotine | the canvass of Gen. Leonard wooC ] being generally estimated at one. | half of that sum-an apparently con- | servative estimate. | The campaign to follow the nom
 nations will be easier to handle, SC
 far as the candidates are concerned
 The financing will be attended to b,
 the National Committees and tn,
 candidates probably will know 1ittI,
 or nothing of the actual detaiIs-ir
 theory. State Committees will pa,
 large percentage of the cost of tn,
 national fight, because it will hel,
 their local interests.
 The Hays plan for rounding LII
 the money with which to fight fo | the Presidency was designed witl two objects in view: The first an,
 most important was to remove tn
 veil of secrecy that always invest
 the financing of political campaigns particularly the Republican, which i
 always credited to secret contribu tions of Big Business and wealth
 men who hope to benefit in the even of success.
 5 Hanna Fund About 5000, 900 The Mckinley campaign fund, { raised by the late Mark Hanna. wa
 
 know to have exceeded S5OOO OO( X In the contest between the late Co [ Roosevent and Alton D. Parker. i r 1904, the late F. H. Harrima r dumped s25O,000 into the New Tor
 State campaign in the last week , and, incidentally, won twice as rnuc = by betting on the Colonel and Nil f Higgins the candidate for Governo, e The Wilson-Hughes contest fou
 years ago cost each side s2,00O0O
 and was not regarded as an expensiv
 venture by either. But there i every reason to credit the statement e of the experts oft the present day tha }. this is going to be e costly fight e All signs point to it.
 So far as can be learned, the Dem = | ocrats have no money to speak ot = nor have they devised so elaborat n and apparently satisfactory a pla = for getting any as have their rfyal Il It is true of course that the army ( | officeholders, through the favor ( n the Wilson administration, will a-
 | test their loyalty in a SIIhSt n |.