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The Commoner.
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MR. BRYAN ON CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
Zypwm
Mr. Bryan's speech at New York meeting
of Publicity Organization:
I am very much interested in the move
ment which this meeting represents, and I ap
preciate the strong part" that thq chairman,
7Hix. Belmont, is taking in it. I had a conver
sation with him more than two years ago, when
lie prepared a paper, I " think for the North
Amorican Review, on this subject, I have een
interested in all that he has done since, and I
want to lend whatever influence I may have to
the carrying out Of the idea that this movement
presents. It rests upon the theory that politics
should be honest, and while no one will dispute
the proposition, there is not at times as much
enthusiasm in favor of the proposition when
concretely applied, as there odght to be. There
can be no honest politics where any interest
In the country can purchase before the election
a promise that certain things will be done after
tho election, and the promise be concealed from
the voters..
If I understand our theory of government,
. ft assumes that those in office represent the
people who put them in office, and we write plat
forms for no other purpose than to announce
to the public in advance what the candidates
will do if elected. Ve go before the country
and we solicit the support of the people upon
the condition, and only upon the condition, that
they want carried out the things that are stated .
ln the platform. And it is the purpose of those
who write the platforms, or should be. to state
the party's' position on all the' questions that
are likely to be acted on by those who are elect
ed. Ndw that is the basis of our reasoning in
this matter, and it is not honest politics for a
party to write a platform, nominate a ticket
and go out and appeal to the voters to support
that ticket because of that platform, if there is
a secret 'understanding that some other policy
will be carried out. ' '
The objection to the campaign funds that
are contributed secretly, and spent secretly, is
that they are contributed for a purpose that tho
public does not understand, and to carry out a
policy against the public. That is the objection,
we. have to campaign contributions contributed
and expended secretly. i This question would
ndt arise but for the existence in this country
of great corporations that have an interest in
legislation. If we had no corporations the
chances are that no individual would be. per
sonally and pecuniarily interested enough in
legislation to contribute any large amount 'that ""
Is, larger than his patriotic Impulse would lead
him to contribute. But when we have great
corporations that not only receive their charters
from the government, but even ask favors of
the legislatures, or if -they do not ask favors of
tluT legislatures, ask immunity from the
- executive because we have these great corpor
ations, it has become the custom to run cam
paigns with funds supplied secretly and used
secretly; after the election the people who sub
scribed the funds dominate the government and
the people who do the voting are betrayed by
those for whom they voted.
That is the situation, and before a. remedy
can be suggested the situation must be under
stood. Now, this evil has not been confined to
qne party. A very interesting bit of-testimony
was brought out in the investigation of the
sugar trust.
Mr. Havemeyer testified that he had been
in the habit of contributing to campaign funds,
to one party In one state, to another party in
another state, according to the political com
plexion of the state.
' How are you going to stop it? In the first
place", a law making it unlawful for a corpora
tion to contribute to campaign fund will go a
good ways. But that is not sufficient. I would
not be willing to stop at that to merely pre
vent a corporation from contributing to cam
paign funds. If we had a law forbidding cor
porations to contribute to campaign funds you
would find that there were no corporations that
contributed, but that individuals did, who rep
resented, the corporations. And it is too difficult
a task Ho show . that the individual gets .the.,
money out.of the corporation to make the con
tribution, for if a few men control the cor
poration, the. man at the head of it may pay
fiie money out. of his own pocket, today andr.he
may not be reimbursed lor two or three or five
years hence. If evasions of that kind are pos-"
sible, the law is not sufficient.
What else is necessary? I believe there is
one thing possible. That is that the large con
tributions, no matter from whom, they come,
shall be made known; for when we see the head
a .trust, or other, corporation interested in.
legislation, contributing a largo sum of money
we know that ho is not doing it for himself,
but that he is doing it for tho corporation, or.
because of his interest therein, and that he
expects to get, back in legislatipn more than
ho contributed to the campaign fund.
If we are going to have publications, which
I regard as necessary, then another question
arises. "When shall tho publication be made?
Now I want to present a thought on this phaso
of the subject. I believe-, that tho publication
should be mado before the election, and I will
tell you why. In a campaign the parties may
deny that they areNgetting any money at all from
corporations or from persons, .representing or
acting for corporations or interested in corpor
ations. I have known statements oT that kind
to be made whn they were not founded on fact,
and I am afraid we hayo not had such a regen
eration of the Individual that they might not
l)e made In tho future. And when the pub
lished statement is delayed until after the elec
tion what redress have the people? The salo
has been made; the men have been elected. The
people can not recall their votes. "What can
they do then? Wait until the next olectlon. It
would "be claimed at the next election by tho
party guilty of the offense that the persons in
charge of the last campaign were put out and
an entirely new set pledged to reform put in
and thus the people might be fooled again. And
the party that can get into power usually has
enough men to keep up the delusion. And of
course after two or three campaigns they are
changed and they come back and use the first
set again, because by that time these are sup
posed to have a change of heart sothat they
would not again do wrong.
My faith in the doctrine that you can fool
all the people some of the time and some of the
people all of the time was a little shaken by
an explanation I once heard, namely, that it is
not necessary to fool all the people all the
time. Fool some' this year and some next, and
some the next, and then the fourth year you can
fool the first set again.
The only way I see out of It is to compel
the publication BEFORE THE ELECTION, .
and then when the people see where the cam
paign money is coming from they, will have a
right to form their opinion as. to the reason fpr
the contribution. It seems to me that an im
portant part of this measure ought to be a pro
vision that I will not attempt to fix any time
arbitrarily? but say on the first of October" a
statement shall be made of all contributions and
expenditures up to that time. I will not say
that it is necessary to include small contribu
tions, so small that they may be assumed to
come from persons animated, by patriotism and
by a general interest in the subject .under dis
cussion. The minimum should be fixed. That
limit should not be. so high as to permit any
great contributions to" be made, or any amount
that would raise the suspicion of a pecuniary
interest to be subserved. Then, say," ton days
before the election there sbouldbe filed a sup
plemental statement giving the contributions up
to that time, and expenditures, and it should
be unlawful for any person to make a contribu
tion after the last day of publication. -
Now, I believe that if in our plan we in
clude the publication of these sums, say, thirty
days, andthen ten days before, and then make it
a penal offense for tiny person to subs'cribe to
any -campaign fund after that time, we will
meet the most difficult part of this question.
After the election there would be the final state
ment that would, include theexpenditurcs after
the last day, for, to my mind, the expenditures
are not so Important as the contributions. You
can not spend money juntil you get it, and tho
source from which you get it is, to my mind, all
important. t is very much easier to correct
evils in the spending of money than in the col
lection of money.
There is just one other thought on this
question, I do not believe in doing things half
way. If honesty in politics is the object desired,
then there ought to be no half-waymeasures.
And X suggest this additional thought,
namely,; jWtothe notice of -contributions shall be
given nbtf0oly, by .the committer which receives.,
them, put-obSf the person who, contributes.
wojild requirej if I had my wAy About it, that
every person who made a contribution to-a;
campaign fund above the minimum, so much
that the law declared his contribution should
be known, withim a very brief period of time
after the contribution was made, file a state
ment, of it, either at his home postoffice,
or at the United States court, or at some fixed
place;. so that you would have two. methods. In
all our treasury departments and in tho pay-.
monts .of monoy wo have chocks one on tho?
other, and I think that this is a good place for
tho chock. Wo ought to havo tho commlttco's
statement when it receives tho monoy, nnd tho
man's when ho contributes It, and In that way
we . will have tho one testifying against the
' other.
And then I would make it acrimlnal offense
if tiro man who contributed or tho commit. too
who received It, did pot make tho statement.
And, my friends, nothing 'but the criminal law
Is going to bo sufficient But if we provide that
it 'shall be a penal offense for giving without
notice, and a penal offense for a committee to
receivo without giving notice of it, T believe
wo will go to tho root of the matter. '
There may bo differences as to tho boat
thing to do, but, my friends, when the people
want this done they with do the best thing that
is proposed. When you give tho presumption
to the people in favor of honest government
you will not hesitate to make laws strong
enough and clear enough so that the people
can know who is enough interested in any par
ticular success to put up largo sums of money
to securea victory.
WhCn you have stopped tho purchase of
legislation from legislatures, and tho purchase
of immunity from executivo officers, reforms will
be possible Wo may differ as to what reforms
are necessary; but thqro ought to bo no differ
ence on .this proposition that the people have
a right to do what they want in government,
whether they want what I want or what you
want. Republicans and democrats and all
parties, if they believe in our theory of gov
ernment, ought to believe that no matter how
honestly or how deeply we may differ in opin
ion, we ought to- bo willing to let tho people
have what they want in government. Let tho
people rule; and it tho people make mistakes
remember that tho people have a right to make,
mistakes. Most of the bad government in the
past has arisen from the idea that a few people
ought to bo allowed to make tho mistakes for
the rest. Let tho people make their own mls
takesj'and you will find that tho majority Will,
rectify them. We can gete before them meas
ures of reform, we can try to persuade them
to 'accept that which wo 'believe to bo the best
roformbut back 6t every man who Speaks artd
every man who votes there ought to b'o tho
patriotic sentiment that prefers tho triumph of
that which is right to that which he may think
to be right, if he is in fact wrong.
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