Evening star., 1926-12-12
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
J FEAR"POLITICAL CUNMEN''
Mania for Investigations, Fed by Inter.
ested and Plausible Persons,
May Grow This Season.

there is for investigating the
House and Senate themselves. The
fomenters of these departmental in
QUESTIONS don't really suspect there
is anything criminally or even seri
ously wrong there. Their only object
is to create in the public mind, on a
nationwide scale, the impression that
the State of Denmark seethes with
rottenness. They want to blast some
regulations They desire to drive
some people out of public life. They
have some scores to wipe out. They
have any number of axes to grind.
That is the alpha and omega Of their
ZEAL"
This writer interrupted his inform
ants somewhat passionate denuncia.
ton of Washington's gunner" to
ask just where this sort of thing is
leading to.
| Enthusiastically to the growing diff
| ficulty." he replied, "of getting men
of caliber and character to serve the
| country. Americans of eminence and
| capacity are willing not to become
Government officials at low pay. Hith-
erto Uncle Sam, fortunately, has ex-
perienced little trouble on that score.
But as surely as we are witnessing the
| mania of investigation apparently
soon to set in at Washington, the
| time is coming when it will be in
creasingly hard to find the right sort
Of men to place their characters in
Jeopardy in the exposed Federal
places. They will shrink from facing
the poison gas of the political gun
men. They know they are defenseless
against it. They will prefer the OBJ
security of private life to the risks of
public service
Cost of Politics Higher.
There is now to be encountered in
Washington a sentiment which will
find considerable expression when So
called "slush fund" SenatorS-elect-
and some sitting Senators-are put on
the grill of investigating committees.
That sentiment is that the cost of poll
tics, like the cost of everything else
In the United States, has gone up.
Primaries and election campaigns, in
other words, are going to be depicted
as necessarily expensive things be-
cause of the rise in price of every
factor, human or inanimate, that en-
ters into the conduct of a twentieth
century political contest.
workers." who cost $40 apiece on pri-
mary and election days in Pennsyl.
vania last May, could have been hired
for 81 or So five or ten years ago.
Everywhere in the United States a
horse and buggy used to suffice to cart
a voter to the polls. Livery stables
hired them out for a couple of dollars
a day or less. Now a candidate or his
manager must charter an automobile,
or a fleet of automobiles, at or 10
times what election day transport for
merly cost.
Senator-elect Ware of PENNSYLVANIA
spent $150,000 on the one item of
printing and postage in circularizing
Pennsylvania vast electorate of g..
100000 voters. In 1906, or in 1896,
Pennsylvania's population was not
only considerably smaller, but print
ing costs were immensely less. In
McKinley.Bryan days political leaders
could be employed at salaries running
between 81 500 and $4,000 a year to or
ganize and run campaigns. Today
wages three, four and five times those
figures are required. 1t costs more to
rent halls, lease headquarters, travel
and do any of the things present hour
politics calls for. When slush funds
come under fire the country may pre- 4
pare to be educated exhaustively on
the scores just above mentioned.
(Copyright. 1926)