Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1922-10-12
With Our. State
Contemporaries
TAKING TOWNSEND TO COURT

x-Lieutenant- Governor Luren ID.
Dickinson, whose political good con-
science and sincerity of purpose is
wholly above reproach, makes the in
teresting suggestion that the intent
of the Michigan Corrupt Practices
Actin relation OF political cam
paign funds be tested, in the Supreme
Court, with Senator Charles f..
Townsend as a laboratory exhibit. He
suggests, in an open letter to Herbert
F. Baker that the runner-up in the
recent senatorial primary should
mandamus the Secretary of State to
Iprevent the appearance of Townsend's
name on the November ballot; then,
that if the Supreme Court rules adj
versely to Townsend, the vacancy on
the Republican ticket be left to the
Republican State Central Committee
to fill.
The whole question involved turns
on the intent Of the Michigan Law
which undertakes to limit a senator
ial candidate to a campaign expense
of $3.50. Does this apply to all ex-
|
purposes, made not only by the can
didate but also by his friends and his
committees Or does it apply only
to the personal expenditures Of the
candidate himself? The Townsend
Committee has reported total expend-
lures in excess of 100000. No ques-
ton is raised against the honorable,
clean, political legitimacy Of any of
the items involved in this total. The
sole question is: Did the Townsend
campaign violate the State Law by
expending more than $3.50?
When Supreme Justice Grant Eel
lows was Attorney General, he ruled
that the limitation applies to all ex
penditures made, no matter by whom,
on behalf of the candidate. Our lay
mans view would be that this must
be the intent of any Corrupt Practices
Act; otherwise, the backdoor, the
side door, and all the windows are
wide open to subterfuge and indirec-
ton. On the other hand, ex-Supreme
Justice Carpenter has ruled that the
limitation applies only to he personal
expenditures Of the candidate himself.
/ One opinion is as good as another.
This is one of the treacherous quirks
in our sacrosanct Primary System, as
| is. What the Law means, only the
Supreme Court can decide in test
case. By all means, some fair-play
method should be found to make the
test and clarity the situation in JUS
tice to candidates who, like Senator
Townsend, are trying to live within
the law.
But. Would it be 'fair-play"
method TO make the academic test,
now. on Senator Townsend at a mo-
ment when his eligibility might be
jeopardized? The Herald most decid-
edly thinks that it would not-ant
this, let it be remembered, is said by
an editorial column which has been
uncompromising in its answering
antipathy to any and every phase of
cash register politics. Here is the
situation: This State Law was on
the statute books when the Newberry
Committees confessedly spent about
100000 in a similar senatorial cam
paign. Things occurred in that can
vass which set it wholly part from
any kinship with the Townsend cam
paign-the campaign of poor man
who has never been remotely accused
of depending upon money" for his
political motive power. Yet the State
| Law was never invoked against Sen
ator Newberry. The present Govern
or of Michigan, as ACKNOWLEDGEMENT,
never moved under the State Law
Neither did Lieutenant Governor
Dickinson. This left the inference, at
least, that the State Law was not con-
strued as a bulk prescription upon all
expenditures. If the Law was not in
voked then-at a time when there
were a thousand reasons for it, COM
pared to one reason today-it would
be grossly unfair to invoke it now
when. in the absence of any scandal,
the Interpretation would be a matter
of mere abstract concern. In other
words, what might have been legiti-
mate prosecution in the former case,
would become little more than polit-
| zeal persecution III VIC iattsi N"N'-
The Herald continues heartily to
agree with Ex-Governor Dickinson in
all of his sturdy antipathies to cash
register politics. 1t agrees that this
expense question should have official
Qualification. 1t agrees that the Law
ought to mean what he thinks 1t
means-however absurd it may be,
practically, to limit senatorial cam
paign in a great State like Michigan
to a total Of $3.50. But it decidedly
disagrees that when Senator Town
lsend has fought his way through TO
la clean denomination, and when polit-
ical prostitution in his case is merely
a theory and in no sense an actual
condition, it would be fair or proper
or just to institute test case"
which, having been ignored in so flag
rant a campaign as that of four years
ago, should now await an impersonal
Northumberland Rapids Herald.
Big and Little.