Evening star., 1952-09-29
Mr.. Stevenson Explains

There is nothing in Governor Stevenson's
report on his own political fund which reflects
on his personal integrity. The Star, for one
has never thought there would be. What the
report really does is to demonstrate that the
Stevenson fund, like the Nixon fund, rests on
dubious ethical grounds and opens way to
serious abuses.
Governor Stevenson's report leaves several
questions unanswered. There is no explanation
OF the uses to which about $500 was put. It
has been asserted, however, that the Governor
drew on the fund to pay his own expenses on
speaking trip to New York and for Christmas
candy given children in illinois, The Governor
does not deny this SO presumably the balance of
the fund was used for these and similar purposes.
Another gap in the report has to do with
the true intent of the payments to the individ-
ualS concerned. It is not clear why some State
officials received gifts" from the Governor and
some did not. Neither is it clear whether any
OF the recipients treated the payments as in
come and reported them in their tax returns
The inference is, however, that they did
not Some of the officials denied receiving any
supplemental payments. Governor Stevenson
says they made these statements in good faith
for they rightly regarded these as gifts and not
as compensation" Maybe so. But Governor
Stevenson previously had sought to justify this
State salaries, and his current contention that
the supplemental payments were gifts sounds
like an after-the-event effort to justify failure
by the recipients to report them as income. In
any event, it is doubtful point, and it will be
interesting to see whether the Truman admins
tration moves as eagerly to investigate this ques-
ton as it did to investigate the Nixon fund
The basic objection, however, runs to the
nature and purpose Of the fund itself. No doubt
most OF the contributors were genuinely disin-
terested and not seeking personal advantage.
This perhaps would not apply to the labor unions,
the race track director and the Democratic poll
tician now under indictment in Illinois morse
meat scandal whose names appeared on the
list OF donors. Presumably, however, their money
was spent during the Governors campaign and
was not part of the special fund. If it did go
into the fund this is not apparent from the
report.
The important fact is that in some degree
an obligation direct or indirect necessarily arises
in a situation of this kind. Governor Stevenson
discounts this by saying the benehciaries Of the
fund did not know who contributed to it. Senator
Nixon also says he did not know the names of
those who contributed to his fund But these
assertions are irrelevant. And the best test is
to ask Governor Stevenson whether, If elected
President, he would be willing to use similar
funds to supplement the salaries of chosen
few among his Cabinet. Certainly Federal SAL
aries are low In contrast to those in private in
dustry. And Presidept Truman often has COM
planned of the difficulty of attracting and hold
ing good men in Government service. But the
chances are that Governor Stevenson would
not repeat, as President, what he did as Gov
ernor. For In the long run such practice would
almost inevitably have a corrupting influence.