Campaign Funds

A low tariff party is at a disadvantage when it comes to the collection of campaign contributions from wealthy manufacturers. A pertinent sidelight was thrown on the meeting of the Democratic National Committee at Washington, last week, by Frank R. Kent of The Sun (Baltimore) when he told the following simple narrative:

"Three years ago, as a result of the Cox campaign, the Committee became saddled with a debt of $240,000, in the form of three notes, held by Washington and New York banks. The only way the committee could raise this money was to borrow it. The indorsers of the notes include the following: "A. Mitchell Palmer, of Pennsylvania.

"Francis P. Garvan, of New York.

"Timothy T. Ansberry, of Ohio.

"Homer S. Gumming, of Connecticut.

"Thomas Chadbourne, of New York.

"Vance McCormick, of Pennsylvania.

"William Jameson, of Missouri.

"John Barnett, of Colorado.

"Bernard M. Baruch, of New York.

"Joseph P. Tumulty, of New Jersey.

"Joseph Guffey, of Pennsylvania.

"In the last two years Cordell Hull, Chairman of the Committee, has paid the interest and $60,000 on the principal, thus cutting the amount down to $180,000. ... It ought here to be stated that the actual cost of running the Democratic Committee is close to $10,000 a month. This seems like a lot of money until you compare it with the $30,000 a month the Republican Committee has on which to operate. . . . What Mr.

Hull did two years ago was to apportion the debt among the 48 States--put it up to each national committeeman to raise the quota for his State. Only eight States came through. They included Connecticut, Rhode Island, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Colorado, Delaware. A number of others partly raised their quota. . . . The plan failed. A new one has to be found."