Evening star., 1931-12-22
Campaign Expenditures.

An effort to curb campaign expendi-
lures for the election of President
and Vice President, Senators and
Representatives in Congress is made in
q bill just introduced by Senator
Gerald P Nye on behalf of the Sena-
torial Campaign Expenditures Commit
tee. The measure, which has been pre-
pared after extensive Investigations and
hearings by the committee, merits seri-
Gus consideration. The expenditure of
huge sums in election campaigns is in
defensible. With the use of money and
promises Of preferment corruption
creeps in. If it goes far enough it
shakes the very foundation of any de-
mocracy. The high cost OF campaign
ing in this country has gone beyond all
reason. When upward of five million
nomination and election of one-third of
the membership of the United States
Senate it is time to call a halt.
The new bill undertakes for the
first time in corrupt practices legisla-
tion to fix a limit on the expenditures
which may be made by and for can
didates for the nomination and cleo
tion of the President and Vice President.
The committee holds that these are
Federal Offices in which the entire
Nation has an interest 1t sweeps
of ho oil
lege. the members of which are sup
posed to be State officers and for that
reason not subject to regulatory leg
islation enacted by the Federal Con-
gress. In this connection an opinion
OF the late Chief Justice White is
quoted as follows to show how the
votes in the States in reality are cast
not for presidential electors, but for
the candidates for President and Vice
President, leaving no discretion to the
electoral college whatever:
When James Russell Lowell. a Re
publican elector for Massachusetts, in
1876 was urged to exercise his inde-
pendence and vote for Tilden, he de-
clined, saying, Whatever the first in
tent OF the Constitution was. usage
mad made the presidential electors
surety the instruments of the party
which chose them
The Senate committee holds that the
nomination OF President must be con-
sidered part of his election. 1t fixes,
therefore, maximum of S25O,OOO for
the pre-convention campaign of any
candidate for the presidential nomina-
ton. Almost enough, it might be con-
sidered, to expend for an Office that is
supposed to seek the man. In the
general election for President and Vice
President the figure is S5,OOO,0OO. The
committee assumes, too, that Congress
has the right to limit expenditures in
primary campaigns for the nomination
of Senator's and Representatives, hold
Ing that the Supreme Court in the New
berry case did not deny this power.
For the primary and election a candi-
date for the Senate must not spend
over $4,000 and a candidate for the
House $4,000.
1t is insisted by the committee that
no effort to enact a general election
law is intended in the bill, but merely
. measure to fix certain limitations on
expenditures. In addition the bill
provides for the utmost publicity of
campaign expenditures, both by cam
paign committees and by individuals.
Furthermore, it proposes to set up a
joint committee CT Congress to which
reports of expenditures must be made
by candidates and their agents and in
dividual contributors of the larger
sums at stated intervals. On full pub
hclty OF expenditures rests, after all,
the principal measure of control.