"Burning Disgrace"

"Burning Disgrace"

Republicans in high places have done little to isolate themselves from the lavish vote-buying by their party brothers in Pennsylvania and Illinois beyond snorting, with Secretary Mellon, that such tactics are a regrettable necessity. But last week an orator fairly high in the hearts if not in the councils of Republicans let it be known that his political conscience, at least, did not condone Insull subsidies and the like. It was Col. Theodore Roosevelt instructing young Republicans in Manhattan in the way they should go. Said he:

"If we in this country are to preserve our government, which has been built with so much sacrifice and labor, we must keep it free of the influence of money. That means, of course, that we must scotch corruption relentlessly wherever we find it. In dealing with this question of corruption, the trouble is that corruption shades off in a hundred different ways that become increasingly difficult to detect. . . .

"Jones is a public official. Certain interests want a bill passed. There is no crude attempt to hand Jones money. Jones votes right, and later is given a part in some good business deal where he can make an excellent profit with no risk of loss.

"This, of course, is all but impossible to detect, and when detected is generally incapable of proof. At times the bribe takes the form of a heavy contribution to party funds, which is distributed in devious ways.

"It is not primarily, therefore, the illegal use of money for improper purpose that I fear. The great danger which confronts us is the legal use of money for improper purposes.

"At this time there is much use of money in just this fashion. Perhaps the most glaring instances are in the election of candidates to represent the parties in the election.

"The Pennsylvania and Illinois primaries this spring were a burning disgrace. . . .

"Regarding the expenditure of millions it is unnecessary to say that this is wrong, for the veriest child can see that this action not only subverts the principles of the primaries, but strikes at the very root of republican institutions. . ..

"As things stand, a poor man has no chance in them whatsoever. In Pennsylvania or Illinois what hope would a man have with neither personal wealth nor big financial backing?

"There are those who callously maintain that the primaries per se make such expenditures necessary, and do not in any way consider the men who spend the money to blame. That is an old and very evil fallacy which is based on the theory that nothing is immoral that is legal, and that what the other man does justifies your actions.

"Don't for a moment think that I am decrying business or prosperity in this speech. I would be a fool and an ungrateful fool to do so. It is only because .of business that I am able to go into nonremunerative work. My father was a comparatively poor man. He never was able to give me money during his life or to leave me money on his death. The money on which my own family has lived and is living is money that I made myself in business. . . .

"The United States Senate must not be permitted to degenerate into a board of directors of public utilities or any other business. . . .

"We do not believe in a state church. We are unalterably opposed to the Ku Klux Klan or any attempt towards religious solidarity politically, be it Protestant, Catholic or Jewish.

"By the same token, we do not believe in a money-controlled government, and we intend to see that orgies of expenditure such as those in Pennsylvania and Illinois do not occur again. . . ."