The Omaha morning bee. [volume] (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927, 1924-01-17
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

Washington. Jan. 16.-The oues-
ton Of choosing the convention city
by the democratic national commit
tee was really subordinate to the mat
ter Of raising money. That is why
the amount of money offered by the
various cities was important. The
democratic national organization is
today $3.50 in debt. This debt is
a relic of the campaign of 1920. Dur
ring the 1920 campaign. the demo-
Gratis had far fewer rich supporters
than the republicans. At all times the
republican organization was ade-
quatey financed. But at no time did
the democratic organization have as
much money as they could have used
legitimately and advantageously. AT
enc time. during the 1920 campaign,
it was question whethernthe ma
tional headquarters woud not be
locked up within "a hours for lack
of money 10 pay the rent. In the
course Of various emergencies that
arose during the campaign, the COM
mittee borrowed S240 900 from banks
ON the security of notes endorsed by
the following democrats of national
prominence:
Timothy r. Ansberry OF Ohio; John
Barnett of Colorado Bernard NJ
Baruch Of New York; Thomas Chad.
bourne of New York; Homer 5. Cum
mings of Connecticut; Francis |. Gar
van Of New York; Joseph Guffey Of
1f
Iowa; Vance Mccormick of Pennsyl.
vania; A. Mitchell Palmer OF Penn
sylvania; Joseph p Tumulty Of New
Jersey.
Debt Slowly Reduced.
For the past three and a half
years. the democratic chairman, Cor
dell Hull has been paying interest on
this debt and working hard TO pay
off some installments of the princ-
pal. He has reduced it to $3.50 At
the same time he has had to raise, In
addition, about $4,000 month to
keep the committee going. The demo
cratic national committee runs at an
expense Of about one-third that OF the
republican national committee.
The republicans find 1t much easier
to get money from their friends and
followers than the democrats. The
republicans ended the campaign of
1920 with a debt of upwards of
was paid off by the republican ma
tional treasury some six or eight
weeks ago, and the republican COM
mittee now has a clean slate. With
the money received from New York
for the convention, the democrats
now will have a clean slate. Never
theless, the committee must now look
forward to the coming campaign, and
the extremely trying work Chairman
Hull has done In soliciting contribu-
tions from individuals in the past
must be repeated, in order to provide
funds for the next campaign. 1t Is
curious fact, for whatever signifl-
canoe it may have. that the total
amount of money collected by both
the republican and the democratic
national committees during the past
two years has probably been less than
one-tenth of the money collected by
the fNu NUN fAidii iioiii Ito ilitllip'io
during the same period.
Demand Independent Press.
In the choice of city for the con.
vention. mnuch emphasis was laid on
the desirability of having in the con
yention city an independent press
willing to give impartial and non
PARTISAN treatment to the various
candidates for the nomination. This
insistence on the value of disinter-
ested press in the convention city was
an echo of the convention at San
Francisco in 1920. when one of the
local papers in all its references to
McAdoo kept speaking of him as 'the
Crown Prince" and "The Heir Ap-
parent" The friends of McAdoo re
sented this bitterly. regarding It as
an effort to create prejudice.
At one time during the San Fran
cisco convention in 1920. Senator Har.
rison of Mississippi publicly threat