The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-09-27
Campaign Funds Running Low
Expected Contributions Not Materazng and Leaders
of Both Political Parties Are Worrying

! impression has been creaed that fabu-
lous sums have been gathered in by
! party leaders, and that this has been
accomplished by processes almost as
| simple as turning on a faucet Ac-
cording to these breezy tales, the par
ty boss has only to decide on how
many millions he wants and then call
IN representatives of "the interests
and tell them what their respective
assessments will be, and the money
will be forthcoming instanter.
! OF course, the boss has to make a
few casual little promises guarantee
| ing the interests that they will get
their money back tenfold, but what is
promise to a party leader when he
wants money? Sometimes the in
terests drive hard bargains and mani
fest purpose to skin the public to
the bones and boil the bones for
! grease, but why should campaign
chairman worry
The heroes of these stories, un.
! bought and unpurchasable as heroes
should be, Invariably do something
awful to the boss in the last chapter
but IN the meanwhile the boss always
gets the money The campaign war
oSS' oA Y always luiI W OVSIIIOWlQR
Just how much fiction there is in
TINS sort OF stuff is best attested by
the men who have agoniZed over the
problem OF how to raise money to see
a committee through a campaign with
out staggering deficit They will
agree, irrespective of their party at.
Iinat1ons, that the percentage of fic-I
tlon IS fully equal to that of the purity
OF well known soap.
FRED Upham, who has been treasur-
er OF the Republican national COM
inlttee Tor years, in referring to that
KIND of novel, once said that some
aWIul punishment should be visited
on the author.
The only punishment | can think
OF that would fit the crime" added
MI. Upham, would be to compel the
author to spend the rest of his life
something campaign funds. After ex
perlenclng what. some of us have gone
through he could face death without
any terror of the hereafter"
1t IS true that relatively large cam
palgn funds have been raised in wears
past, but it is to be doubted that they
nave ever been as large as popular
imagination has pictured them Rare
~ nave they been large enough to |
leave the committee with balances in
the treasury after all the bills have
oeen paid. Instead, the usual thing
mas been the spending of every dollar
tnat has been taken in and incurring
OF obligations that mean a deficit to
be carried over and wiped out afte-
the election.
There really is almost no limit
TO the amount of money that national
committee can spend in a campaign.
ard that without spending a dollar
Organization expenses
and the budgets for advertising and
other kinds of publicity may be made
Just as large as the party resources
Will permit and all such expenditures
Will withstand the most rigid scrutiny
VI course money has been spent
eorruptly in the politics of this couu.
Try, but such instances have been com.
paratlveIy rare and as a rule have
Den petty and sordid, rather than i'm
portant. However, unless present
signs fall no one need worry about +.
now the money is being spent this
year. There isn't any to be spent!