The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-06-11
Election SIush Fund
Probe to Give Birth
to Electoral Reforms
BY j. LOUIS ENoDAHL.

CHORTLY the nation will again
~ witness some more political
pyrotechnics incidental to the activi-
ties of the special senate campaign
investigating committee in probing
campaign expenditures. The search
light will first be thrown on the huge
slush fund flow that featured the
recent Pennsylvania primaries.
Probes of the opening of stable
barrels" in other states, even In
Guiding Iowa, will follow.
No charges have so far been made
that any labor" candidate has been
spending too much money to corrupt
the electorate. The tussle will be
between the candidates of the old
parties. They will try to prove each
other guilty of every brand Of crook
edness.
The exhibition will be interesting
and of some value if the workers
and farmers do not take it too
seriously, succumbing to the subtle
arguments of the "reformers' that if
campaign expenses can only be cut
to minimum, then the electoral
struggle will be purified. The ere
formers" argue that if the big politi-
cal bosses are deprived by law Of
funds to buy votes, then the I'M
corrupted citizenry will be in posi-
ton to cast a spotless ballot, the ex-
preston of its uninfluenced will.
Yet all this only serves the great
capitalists in hiding the real nature
of the class struggle. There have
been plenty of efforts to cure great
social evils with quack nostrums
sufficient to prove to all thinking
workers the complete failure of this
''reformism." Electoral reforms are
no exception.
1t was originally argued that the
substitution of the primary election
in place of the convention system
for the selection of candidates would
give the predatory interests knock
out blow. 1.-THE people" would be
given a chance to speak. Thus the
primary became an established insti-
tuition all over the nation. Only the
presidency itself was saved from this
alleged democratizing process. Even
here the preferential primary" was
brought into play. If the voters
were not permitted to pick their
candidates, they were at least allow
ed to indicate their choice. The
bosses might ignore the voters
desires, as they did, but ''the people"
were at least given an opportunity
TO go thru the motions of indicating
their desires.
Now it is pointed out that the
primary is a failure, and it is de-
clared that the road must lead back
to the convention system. It is
argued that the primaries are so ex-
pensive that only the rich can afford
to become candidates, and that it
takes large sums of money to win.
1t is claimed that the convention
system is much cheaper.
Thus it is charged that from
100000 to $5,OOO,OOO were spent
in Pennsylvania in an unsuccessful
effort to re-nominate Senator George
Wharton Pepper. The victor, Rep
resentative Ware, has filed a person
al expense account stating that he
spent $1,000 out of his own pocket
In the race for a six-year senatorial
job that will only net him 100000 in
salary. Governor Clifford Pinchot,
another unsuccessful candidate, con-
fesses to having burned up 100000
in the heat of the struggle. OF this,
$43,767.31 came out of his own
pocket. II was shown othat the in