Milford chronicle., 1935-11-29
CensOring Official
Records To Save The
Face OF Roosevelt

UnfaYOrably TO Roosevelt Admin
istratiOn.
WaShingtOn-The first week in NJ
1 Yember the Federal Trade Commits
sion, with a blare OF trumpets, issue
what was calculated to be a sensi
tional piece of publicity and a sever
indictment of the Republican Part!
That publicity consisted of list G
executives of electric and gas publ
utilities who had made contribution
to the Republican National Commit
, tee and the Democratic NatiOna
Committee in the three presidential
campaigns OF 1924, 1928 and 1882, to
gether with the amount of their re
spective contributions. The Fedora
Trade Commission announced tina
its own staff had prepared the lis
from reports the two Committees
filed with the Clerk of the House Of
Representatives, in compliance with
the Corrupt Practices Act.
The quite obvious purpose of the
/ publicity was to show that the Re
( publican Party has consistently been
the recipient of large contributions
/ from public utility executives, while
the Democratic Party is singularly
free from any such support. The list
purpOrted to show that utility eX-
ecutives, during the three campaigns
mentioned, had contributed $46S. 800
to the Republican National Commit
paigns they had contributed only
Sl20,100 to the Democratic National
Committee.
Furthermore. the report showed
that with one exception all of the
$120,100 contributed to the Demo-
cratic National Committee was con-
tTibuted during the campaign of 1928,
when Governor Smith was a candi
date. The one exception was $4,000.
which. it said. was contributed in the
1924 campaign by John D. Ryan. Di-
rector of The Montana Power Com
pany.
Nothing was shown to have been
contributed by the public utility eX-
ecutives toward the campaign fund
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in
1882. OF course, this was intended to
be a reflection on Governor Smith.
1t now turns out that the Federal
Trade Commission was guilty of
censoring the official records in Or
der to save the face of President
Roosevelt.
A hasty inspection of the Demo-
cratic National Committee cOntribu-
toys in 1892, checked against "DiTec-
tory of Directors" ," who's Who" and
other like authorities shows the Fed
eral Trade Commissions report sup
pressed contributions totaling at
least $53,S00 to the Roosevelt cam
paign. 1t IS likely that further in
VestigatiOu will disclose still addi-
tiOnal names. To show further that
the suppression was likely deliber-
ate, some of the names omitted as
contributors to the Roosevelt cam
paign have been connected with pub
lie utilities covering a long period OF
years, and have appeared in the
hearings and the records of the Fed
eral Trade Commission.
Moreover, in a further attempt to
doctor the record in behalf of Frank
lin d. Roosevelt, the Federal Trade
c C0mmissiOn listed at least four in
Oividuals as having contributed to
one or the other of the two Commit .
tees in campaigns previous to 1882,
and gave their official connection.
but did not list them as contributing
to the Democratic National Commit
tee in 1882, although the files at the
Of f1nrslr af
shows they did.
A partial list of the names of those
who contributed to President ROOse-
velts campaign fund in 1882, which
were apparently deliberately omitted
from it's statement by the Federal
Trade Commission, is as follows:
William c. Dickerman, Director of
tine United Gas Improvement Com
pany, $10.S00.
Howard Bruce, Director, American
Light and Traction Company, con-
tiibuted $4,000 in cash and made a
loan to the Committee of $4,000.
Victor Emanuel, President, United
States Electric Power Company, and
Director of Standard Gas and Elec-
trio Company, $500.
MOritz Rosenthal, Chairman, Du-
quesne Light Company. $4,000
Charles S. Mccain, President, Uni
ted Light and Power Company, $3.-
900.
w. B. Tuttle, President, San Anto-
nio, Texas, Public Service Company.
$4,000.
Harvey Crouch. of Arkansas, Pres
ident, Alabama Power and Light
and connected with
other public utility corporations, ST.
500.
John C. Weadock, Electric Rail
ways Security Company, $4,000.
Stanley Field. Peoples Gas. Light
and Coke Company, $500
Gerard SwOpe, Chairman of the
General Electric Company, $500.
OF the above named, Field was
listed by the Federal Trade Commits
son as having contributed to the Re-
publican campaign fund in 1924,
while Emanuel, Rosenthal, SwOpe
md Weadock were listed in the re-
port as having contributed to the
fund of Governor Smith in
1923. Their connections were given
n the report listing them for those
which shows that the
Federal Trade Commission knew
Who they were. This will make II
'ery difficult for the Commission to
yet up any kind of an alibi as to
Why it did not list them for making
to President Roose-
velt's campaign fund.