THE COST OF ELECTIONS.
The recent primary campaigns in Illinois and Pennsylvania hive again called attention to the increasing cost of seeking election to the United States Senate. Some time ago the Senate condemned the expenditure of $195,000 by one can- didate as excessive and, in a vote of severe censure, held that to spend so large an amount for election purposes was "con- trary to sound public policy, harmful to the honour aid dignity of the Senate, and dangerous to the perpetuity of a free Government." Now Mrs. -Ruth Hanna McCormick has informed a Senate Committee that in her victorious primary fight in Illinois she incurred expenses amounting to approxi- mately $252,000, while Senator Grundy, unsuccessfully seeking nomination for re-election in Pennsylvania, puts the cost of his campaign at $332,076. The expenditures for both cam- paigns are being investigated by the Senate Campaign Com- mittee, several Senators being gravely concerned at a condition which, they contend, threatens ta make it impossible for 'a comparatively poor man to obtain election, at least in some States. No practical problem will arise in the ease of Senator Grundy, since he has failed to secure nomination, but if Mrs. McCormick defeats her Democratic opponent in the final election the Senate may be compelled, as a consequence of its resolution, to take formal notice of her primary expenses. The Senate, of course, has final power to accept or reject a candi- date who has been successful at the polls.
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