THE PRICE OF OFFICE
The Price of Office From Collier's Weekly The United States Senate used to he considered the most select social club in the country. At present election prices membership in the Senate might ba...
...At present election prices membership in the Senate might ba more accurately compared with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange...
...The disbursement cf so much money to put him in the Senate seemed thoroughly scandalous 12 years ago...
...Newberry was seated but the Senate majority announced its disapproval of his campaign method, saying in part: "The expenditure of such excessive sums in behalf of a candidate, cither with or without his knowledge and consent, being contrary to pound public policy, harmful to the honor and dignity of the Senate and dangerous to the perpetuity of a free government, such excessive expenditures are hereby severely condemned and disapproved...
...Then came other cases...
...Take the case of Truman H. Newberry as a starting point...
...In their desire for victory politicians have been reckless advertisers...
...Joseph R. Grundy spent $382,250 to lose his fight against Mr...
...It is also true that a candidate not supported by a political organization may have to spend large sums before he can run on equal terms with the machine nominee...
...Meanwhile, a few things are perfectly plain...
...First, the honor or the privilege of being in the Senate is worth more to many candidates than the salary of the office...
...When this year's crop is elected, the Senate will have plenty to worry about...
...Yet manifestly this rising tide of election money can't be allowed to continue unchallenged...
...He can sell his seat if he doesn't, find it comfortable, while the candidate who expends a few hundred thousand dollar...
...Charles Evans Hughes, now Chief Justice, appealed Newberry's case, and the Supreme Court freed him...
...Second, it is possible to spend vast sums in the populous states in ways intrinsically innocent...
...The record is long, interesting and confusing if you look tor logic or reason in our tangled democratic processes...
...In the primaries, at any rate, candidates may spend as much as they think advisable...
...They bankrupt their candidacies by their excessive expenditures...
...In Illinois, Michigan, Ohio...
...Better far that good men escape attention because wholesale expenditures are outlawed than that bad men ride into office on a flood of gold...
...Congress should at the first opportunity redraft tn"e Corrupt Practices statute to meet the specifications of the Supreme Court so that all may have due notice that office may not be won by money...
...Newbery was well known, having been Secretary of the Navy under President Roosevelt...
...With such disapproval ringing in his ears Mr...
...Mrs...
...The Exchange member seems to have the advantage...
...In six years a senator is paid only $60.000—$10,000 a year...
...Medill McCormick sp»nt $252,-572 and defeated Senator Charles De-neen in.the recent Illinois primary...
...to "sell himself to the voters is just out that much money if his colleagues in Washington don't like the cut of his jib or approve his brand of politics...
...Colonel Frank L. Smi'h of IllinoU spent $452,782 and was denied a seat...
...In behalf of his candidacy in 1918 about $195,000 was ."pent...
...Davis...
...Obviously what the Senate said in 1922 about the Newberry expenditures has not deterred candidates in 1930...
...Vare...
...deciding that the Corrupt Practices law did not apply to senatorial primaries...
...By a strict party vote Mr...
...It is his misfortune and the public may thereby be deprived ot the services of a potentially useful servant...
...Secretary of Labor James J. Davis' managers spent $358,287, according to Senator Gerald P. Nye, to win the Republican nomination for him in Pennsylvania...
...It costs about, half a million dollars to get into the Exchange...
...In business an advertising appropriation is governed by the sales expected...
...Nevertheless it is a loss which must be endured...
...Third, no standards of propriety now exist...
...A few aspirants for the Senate have spent quite as much in the mere hope of joining the Senate...
...He was tried and convicted in the United States Court at Grand Rapids and sentenced to two years imprisonment and to a fine of $10,000...
...Newberry resigned frcm the Senate in 1922...
...Politicians have evidently borrowed a device of business without understanding its usefulness or its limitations...
...Finally, we ought not to permit any man or woman to attain public office by lavish expenditure...
...If a man is so little known that his claims need to be advertised by the spending of vast sums, he has not qualified himself for high office...
...Pennylvania or New York a million dollars might easily be spent on advertising, printing, mailing and other elect ioneerng devices, each proper in itself...
...William S. Vare spent $604,905 and was denied a seat...
...George Wharton Pepper spent $1.086 429 and was defeated in the Pennsylvania primary by Mr...
Vol. 1 • July 1930 • No. 32
