Show POLITICAL POLITICAL- TAXATION LEGISLATION TION LIKELY REQUIRING PUBLICATION OF ALL LARGE CONTRIBUTIONS Such a Bill Int Introduced Last Year was Looked upon as a Crank Measure Meas Meas- ure Will tire Will be on a Different Basis This Session J Exposure of the pr practice of f the great lIf lie insurance Insurance companies s 's and other corporal corporations ons ol ot making contrIbutions contributions contributions contri contrI- to political campaign funds and of devoting large j i amounts of money to influence legislation will bring before the next session of congress congress the question of the passage of a bill similar to that introduced atthe atthe at atthe the last session by Representative Bourke Cockran of New York and familiarly known as the tho Corrupt Practice bill It may not be that this bill will be taken up and gi given cn the serious consideration which it was denied dented at the last session but that a bill containing provisions of the same general description as those of the Cockran bill will be introduced and pressed to a vote is a moral The Cockran bill bUl provided that every contribution of more than 50 to a national campaign fund should be reported to the clerk of the district district dis dis- court of the United States to th republican committees In Jn the last ree campaigns and John ohn A A. A McCall pre president of the New ew i York Work Life Insurance Company admitted d that he had contributed l OOOO of the company's funds to I Ithe the S same me committees committees- In fact the big companies have bae frequently been contributors contributors to both political parties Public May lay Demand Le Legislation There are t o questions involved In any fair consideration of these dis dIs- closures s. s The first is the desirability of corporations taking such an active and T Th T part In political cam cam- vand and the We second Is the morality moral moral- ity oC corporation n officers making contrI contributions on their own initiative out o funds that are arc really trust funds funds- Of course a law can be made prohibiting pro pro- campaign contributions by insurance companies or other corpo corpo- corporations rations This may correct the abuse or it may not Laws are not always obeyed or enforced There for example example exam exam- laws of Moses The world has b been en violating them for thousands thousands thou thou- i sands of f years it might be considered considered consid consid- ered fair if the directors of every insurance insurance insurance in in- company savings bank trust company or other corporation handling handling hand hand- ling the peoples people's money would adopt a rule forbidding absolutely all such contributions and holding every officer officer financially and morally responsible responsible sible for its observance Second political political po po- po- po candidates and committees q could announce that they would neither solicit nor receive tribu- tribu j Pu Public sentiment Is rapidly apI y crystal- crystal Criminal penalties were provided for violations of the law Looked Upon as a Co Cockran kran Oddity The bill was treated with derision last winter both by the daily press and by gentlemen of tue house of Representatives thes r th the the the- Senate nat nate and and Third House It It was was worth a I laugh l gh people said There was very little corruption they a averred The Tho Idea that corporations corporatIon employed legislative legislative legisla legisla- tive agents and disbursed huge sums of money for or against certain bills was moonshine doled out by sensa sensationalists to gratify the morbid fancy and the appetite for scandal of a peculiar peculiar pe pe- culiar class of people The The legislative inquiry into the nf- nf fairs and conduct of the Equitable Life Lite and arid Mutual Insurance companies at New York seems to have placed the matter of campaign contributions and legislative disbursements ments in other than a humorous light It mi mt not whether the corporations come forward voluntarily with their contributions to funds or whether they are solicited ed ell b by campaign collectors until they contribute the contribute the result Is the same Vice Vice president president Gillette of the Mutual Mutual Mu Mu- Life Lite Insurance Company testified testified testified fied that his company contributed OO of the policy nOlley holders holders' money j I J izing into into the conviction that corporate corpo carp rate contributions should either b be e made impossible or or else required t to be made in such public fashion that tha t they would be robb robbed d of their baneful bane bane- ful fui effect |