Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-03-28
MONEY AND THE PRESIDENCY

advantages of money in politics. Much was known about that sub- ject long before he appeared on the scene, says the Dispatch.
 Neither is his campaign the first campaign that was financed by mill lionaires, who knew exactly what was wanted i'll the way of government That has happened before, and it will happen again.
 It has come about that great many very rich men, with extensive business in the United States and in Mexico are deeply interested in the presidential ambitions of General Wood. Being deeply interested they are working with the only po- litical tools with which they are fa- miliar-check books. Their motives for all we know to the contrary, may be of the purest and most patriotic The one question involved is whether the American people are willing to allow their political machinery to be controlled by money.
 This is very old question, but it has appeared this time in new form. Many of the grossest forms of political corruption in presidential contests nave been eliminated Banks and corporations are no longer per. mitted to contribute to campaign funds. A system of publicity has been obtained which is sufficiently : comprehensive to show where the money comes from if it does not al- together show where the money goes. What has not been guarded is the machinery for nominating candi- dates for president; yet there are circumstances in which the nomina- ton may be equivalent to an election.
 It is no easy task to prescribe ef- fective methods to prevent the inn proper or the excessive use of money in the selection of delegates to national convention. The national convention itself is an extra legal institution. The nomination of a candidate is likewise extra legal. The Constitution of the United States knows nothing about candidates for president. It knows only about pres idential electors, who arc state of- ficers and who, theoretically, have full freedom of choice as to the par ticular individual for whom they cast their votes.
 In practice, presidents are not made by the electoral college but by national conventions, and the federal authority has double measure of control over these conventions. Yet the convention is the decisive thing, and it is just as important to know how much money is used to nominate candidate for president and where the money comes from, as it is to know how much money is used to elect candidate for president and who gives it. Pre-convention pub licity is essential as election pub licity, and for every reason why there should be corrupt-practice act to- safeguard the election of president there is an equally strong reason why there should be corrupt-practices act to safeguard the nomination of q candidate for president.
 There seems to be more actual money back of the Wood candidacy than there is back of all the other candidates combined. A great organ ization has been created with hired workers and with hired publicity agents to manfaucture delegates and public sentiment in behalf of the gen- erals nomination. All the familiar methods of manipulation and propa- ganda are in plain sight; but until the New York World printed the ac- count of the financing of the Wood campaign the public had no informa stion as to who contributed the money
 
 or what the expenditures might be Probably General Wood himself does not know. He is "in the hands of his friends" with all that it implies inl politics.
 These practices are fatal to any thing that resembles the free election of a president. The candidate with put money, whatever his qualifications may be, is smothered by the cam pAign funds of his rival who has rich and generous supporters, and where public opinion is halting and as between candidates money can easily become dominat-l