Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-05-19 | Page 6 | Money in Politics

MONEY IN POLITICS. . . , . If the corrupt practices act, known as tho Owen bill, should happen to become be-come a law and pro vo to be .'nfo rotable, rot-able, which may well be doubted, ' : pickings " for the small-bore politicians politi-cians would be slight and it would be hard to awaken the enthusiasm of the rag-tag and bobtail eloment in any of tho political parties. In a country with a population of 100,000,000 an enormous enor-mous amount of money is required to finance a presidential campaign, leaving out the vast sums popularly supposed to be illegitimately expended every fourth year by both the great parties. A very large majority of the people of the United States would prefer to vote ytheir honest convictions, and do vote them, regardless of the slush funds. Those who have no political convictions follow the barrel rather than the party emblem and it may be that the expenditure expen-diture of an unlimited amount of money would turn a- presidential election in which the contest was close. In most cases, however, the cash is thrown away. The Owen bill may go through, but it is doubtful whether it will have any effect this year.