Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-12-27
PINCHOT URGES
Limit ON CASH
ONE MAY SPEND


Former Governor Clifford Penchot, of
Pennsylvania, who was defeated for
he nomination on the republican
ticket for United States senator from
Pennsylvania by William S. Ware, who
is now having trouble in breaking into
the senate because OF the expenditures
made in the primary election, is now
making a fight to bring about the
enactment OF l3w governing cleo
ton expenses for United States sena-
tors and members Of congress. Gov
errlor Pinchot has proposed some spec
ific features for the. law which he
thinks ought to be enacted that differ
from anything yet urged. His state
ment was sent out from his headquar-
ters some days ago and it is expected
that there will be some effort to
cryStalize sentiment for it in order to-
bring about remedial legislation, ii
not along the lines Pinchot advocates,
along some lines. Here is The Pinchot
proposal:
''NcW that the exclusion of Ware and
Smith from the U. S. senate is assured,
the next step is to make certain that
no such corruption OF the ballot will
occur again.
s'We need to set by law limit 10
the amount of money that can be spent
in an election for national office
| (such as senator or congressman, and
any candidate whose campaign ex-
penses go beyond that limit should
forfeit his election. To make that
work BILE every candidate should be
required to appoint an agent (and sub
agents if necessary through whom
and through whom alone all campaign
expenses would be paid Nobody else
! should be allowed to spend cent, un-
| der severe penalties.
I'm that way all the money would
pass through the hands of one man,
and the total cost of any campaign
could be actually known and effectively
limited.
"But what should the limit be? OBJ
viouSly, money enough to conduct a
campaign in Nevada, with less than
| 100000 people, or in Michigan, with
1000 900, would not get far in Penn
sylvania with 100000. Obviously,
again, the limit must be fixed at SO
/ much per inhabitant or per voter and
not at so much per state.
s"The present limit set by federal
law is in fact no limitation at all, for
| it allows unlimited spending for print
ing, postage, and most other items OF
campaign cos.
':The Pennsylvania committee of 76
q. non-partisan body, appointed to con-
lsider the whole problem of clean cleo
tions after certain frauds by the Ware
! machine became known, last year
/: recommended for primary elections q
I limit for all expenditures of every legal
scrt equal to ten cents for each vote
!! cas- by the candidates party at the
/ last general election for any office in
the candidates district That would
result in Pennsylvania, for example, on
l the basis of the election in which Ware
Er3n, in limit of $4,000 in a primary
campaign in the United States senate
I 1.-THE same general principles of linn
Eitation, if not the same specific limit
can be applied, of course, to a general
election as we'll as to primary
eThe amount of the limit is very i'm
| Iportant. If the number of cents per
| voter is made too large, the purchase
of elections will not be prevented. II
| it is made 100 small, an independent
candidate could seldom or never win
against an organized machine. Since
| it costs five cents to send one letter
| to one voter, the limit of ten cents
] would not appear to be unreasonably
| high.
| "The punishment for exceeding the
limit should be loss Of the election
If any candidate Cor his authorized
agent) spends money beyond the legal
limit, or for any purpose not allowed by
/ law, his nomiantion or election should
be void The point is to make any
candidate who cheats lose the office
he cheated to get.
IF a candidate is guilty of fraud or
of conniving at fraud, in that case
1 also he should lose the office he cheat
! cd to get. That will be far better
deterrent than merely putting some
4 crooked minor election official in jail
] desirable as that is also.
| I2N1Other Things are necessary, such as
1 recurring all contributions and eXpendi-
| lures larger than, say, $500 to be made
| by check; preventing punber OF
candidates running together as one
! ticket from spending more than one
! candidate running alone as one ticket;
and complete publicity of campaign
expenses.
"But the main thing is to make buy
I ing or stealing elections unprofitable
A man vino buys or steals votes tc
win an election should lose it even il
he wins
i "a bill embodying the foregoing
principles is in preparation and vii
shortly be introduced in congress"