The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-09-27
Frederick Haskin,s Letter
GN.FUNDS RUNNING Low

! sons why they should contribute IN
1899 az in 1890. or 1918 or 1900. or
In any other year. Our political
methods have not changed. It has
not been made unlawful to do that
which will cause a campaign treas
urer to smile.
AS . matter Of fact, this having
been a tariff-making year it would
be taken for granted that contri-
buttons would be more liberal and
more numerous than ordinary.
Moreover, a bitterly contested
election is in prospect, with a DOS
sibility of a shift in the party con-
troll Of the legislative branch of the
government, and that would be ex-
pected, normally, to be productive
Of fat party exchequers.
In the face Of all this the actual
situation at the time the campaign
should be in full swing is little
short Of appalling to the party
workers, and that may be said for
both the Republicans and Demo-
Gratis. Expected contributions SIM
ply are rot materializing. On the
)contrary there seems to be an ac-
tual conspiracy on the party of the
give-uppers to hold out On the co.
getters.
Popular Fiction and FallacleS
Writers of popular fiction anent
politics have been responsible
, largely for the popular fallacies as
to the size Of campaign funds and
the ease with which they have been
collected. The impression has been
created that fabulous sums have
been gathertd in by party leaders,
and that this has been accom-
plished by processes almost as SIM,
! pie as turning on faucet. Ac-
, cording to these breezy tales, the
j party boss has only to decide on
how many millions he wants and
then call in the representatives Of,
| 1.-THE interests" and tell them what
1 their respective assessments will
be, and the money will be forth
coming instanter.
OF course, the boss has to make
a few casual little promises guar
anteeiug the interests that they
will get their money back ten-fold,
but what is a promise to party
leader when he wants money?
Sometimes the interests drive hard
bargains and manifest purpose to
skin the public to the bones and
boil the bones for grease, but why
should a campaign chairman wor-
~?
I, The heroes of these stories, un-
bought and unpurchasable sas
heroes should be. invariably do
something awful to the boss in the
last chapter, but in the meantime
the boss always gets the money.
| The campaign war chests are al
ways full to OVERLOOKING.
Just how much fiction there Is
in this sort OF stuff is best attested
by the men who have agonized over
the problem of how to raise enough
money to see a committee through
a campaign without a staggering
deficit. They will agree, irrespec-
tive of their party affiliations, that
the percentage of fiction is fully
equal to that of the purity of well
known soap. -
There really is almost no limit 70
THE amount of money that a nation
al committee can spend in cam
paign, and that without spending
la dollar Alegitimately. Organiza-
ton expenses and the budgets for
advertising and other kinds of pub
licity may be made just as large as
/ the party resources will permit and
all such expenditures will with
stand the most rigid scrutiny.
4 OF course money has been spent
corruptly in the politics Of this
d country, but such instances have
been comparatively rare and az a
rule have been petty and sordid,
rather than important. However,
unless present signs fail no one
need worry about how the money
is being spent this year. There
isn't any to be spent!