Evening star., 1947-07-17

ditures." To date no action has
been reported from anywhere that
indisputably constitutes violation
of law.
Thus the burden Of proof on the
prosecution in any test case Is to
discover first what expenditure, If
any, was made "in connection with
a campaign For a labor-union
newspaper. regularly issued as a
service to It's members, to announce
that it supports candidate does
not on It's face prove what "expen.
diture," If any, has been made. The
publication would have been issued
even If there had been no election.
Tc fill a space already arranged
for is not to make a direct eXpen-
diture identifiable separately.
Law Not Even Tested.
Thus, in Maryland's congressional
election to fill a vacancy. labor
paper announced its support of the
Democratic candidate. Immediately
dispatches were written declaring
that the labor union in question has
"defied" the law. AS a matter of
fact, 1t has not even tested the law,
for there is nothing in the statute
which defines what an "expendi-
ture" really is.
The custom in constituting any
statute which has a criminal pro-
vision is to find an explicit and
plain violation of the law and not
to think up some far-fetched mean
ing or to try to stretch the law to
cover prosecution. The record
shows, for instance, that the Federal
Corrupt Practices Act which has
been on the statute books for many
years has developed few cases of
enforcement. During the 1886 cam
paign many corporations bought a
campaign book autographed by the
late President Roosevelt. It was
to all intents and purposes a cam
paign contribution" but no prose-
cution followed, primarily because
1t may be presumed there would
have been difficulty proving that the
purchase of the book was in fact a
contribution" Because the law Is
vague no prosecution followed. The
same thing was true in the 1914
campaign when the Smith Connally
law prohibiting contributions by
labor unions was in effect The for
nation of CIO Political Action Com
mittees was in itself legal. But was
this also true as to the time con-
tributed by labor-union officials to
collect political contributions from
union members?
The new law will not be tested
merely on vago point II q labor
union actually buys radio time or
advertising space In some publica-
ton other than its own or issues
handbills or makes any other direct
expenditure out of its own funds,
a clear case of violation could be
made out and a test could follow.
But even if, in such a contingency
the courts declared the provision to
go beyond the power of Congress to
regulate expenditures in elections,
labor -union leaders could jeopardize
the seating of members of the House
or Senate who won elections through
the improper use of union funds.
Own Judge of Rules.
Congress. under the Constitution,
is its own judge of rules for the ad-
mission of Senators and Represent
atiyes. Long before the Supreme
Court ruled that Congress could reg
ulate primary elections, there were
cases of excessive expenditures in
party primaries which caused the
Senate to consider whether or not
to admit the members who won
their elections that way, even though
it was argued the candidates had
no knowledge of the transactions
through which money was spent to
advance their political fortunes.
Congress will go slow about
amending the election provisions of
the Taft-Hartley law. Certainly it
will await a clear-cut case in the
courts to determine it's power to
regulate election expenses. Sugges-
tions that the law be amended so
as to permit labor unions to spend
freely while denying this right to
corporations are not likely to get
very far, because they are specious
on their face. While it is true that
corporation executives as individuals
can contribute money of their own
without violating the law, it is also
true that labor unions have the
means of collecting political contri-
buttons in small amounts from MEM
bers as individual citizens. This,
because Of effective organization
machinery. can bring in vast sums
to a campaign fund more readily
than any regular political commit
tee could ever collect it from corpo-
ration executives as individuals and
In much larger total mounts.
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