Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1920 — IS THE PRESIDENCY FOR SALE? [ARTICLE]

IS THE PRESIDENCY FOR SALE?

Disclosures before the Senate investigating committee prove that the G- O. P. is -still under the control of those “bosses” who adhere to. the principle that it is “money that makes the mare go.” No candidate fer the Presidential nomination at the hands of the Chicago convention have come out of the investigation unscathed. The use of large campaign funds is confessed, varying from something under SIOO,OOO expended for those candidates who had gathered only a handful of delegates, to the admitted expenditure of more than a million and a half dollars to “influence” delegates for General Wood. Early in the fall of 1919 certain prominent Democrats warned the country of the Republican bosses’ plan to buy the Presidency; that immense funds were being raised to control the election. Recent disclosures prove the warning to have been both timely and justified. If such vast sums are being spent in the interest of furthering the claims of individuals in a party fight, what a flood of gold may the country expect to see released in an effort to sweep into the White House the abettor in this deluge of debauchery who survived the Chicago- test! •

“They seem to be all good Americans,” remarked General Wood when shown the list of contributions to his billion and a half campaign fund, as submitted to the Senate investigating committee. And Colonel Proctor, having furnished a halfmillion, is doubtless regarded by the General as the best American of them all.

Senator Johnson said he was making the race on a “shoestring.” In- ' vestigation discloses upwards of $200,000 expended for him in California, which is pretty expensive for shoestrings, even in these h. c. 1. days. Governor Cox of Ohio seemingly has the best show of landing the nomination for president at the Democratic national convention which meets in San Francisco next Monday. The Indiana delegates will support Cox if atsured that Vice-Presi-dent Marshall will not accept the nomination if tendered to him. Cox is considered the strongest among the other candidates by conservative Democrats. Indianapolis News: The powers that be seem to approach a special session of the legislature with the same attitude of the man who said he was going to town to get; drunk, “and, Lord, how I do dread it.” The Republicans have set upon July 22 as the date they will "surprise” Senator Harding of Ohio by telling him that he was nominated by the senate cabal "for the presidency at Chicago recently. General Wood’s selection of a soap manufacturer for campaign manager appears to have been significant, in view of disclosures before the Senate investigating committee.