The Hawera Star. WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1928. MONEY IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 23 May 1928, Page 6

The Hawera Star.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1928. MONEY IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

Delivered every evening by 5 o'olook In Hawera. Manaio. Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltharn. Mangat.oki. Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville' Patea. Waverlev. Mokoia. Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Fraser Road, and Ararata.

Partisanship leads men into strange capers. When political, feeling runs high, many men will draw deeply on their financial resources merely for the sake of being on the winning side. As a rule, however, in political campaigns, a man spends money, or a party spends money, as a form of investment, and that is one very substantial reason, why all countries limit the amount a candidate may spend on election expenses. It is for this reason that the .Senate Committee of the United States is closely investigating contributions towards candidates’ expenses, and it is the reason, also, why the public of the United States may feel a little alarmed at the fact that four millionaire supporters of one presidential candidate are prepared to go the limit in their contributions towards the funds that may be necessary to bring their campaign to a successful issue. 'Lord Bryce has stated that the influence of rich men on representative government had grown weaker in recent years. Nevertheless, it has been clearly demonstrated that party organisations in the United States exist to select candidates for office and to procure places of emolument for party workers.- “The practice of securing places for persons who have served the party in however humble a capacity,” says the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “has sprung from the maxim that in the strife of politics the ‘spoils belong to the victors,’ and has furnished a motive of incomparable and everpresent. activity ever siiiee the administration (1829-1837) of [President. Andrew Jackson.” The influence of rich men on political parties, or even the. lavish expenditure of party funds in election year, must always cause un. easiness in the public mind because of the underlying danger that monetary contribution call for monetary returns. Of “graft,” ns Sydney experience, knows it, New Zealand has had nj> experience and, happily, there is every reason -to believe that this is a phase of public affairs which is never likely to smirch the name of the country.