Show dispelling THE FOG by charles michelson the liberty league which I 1 financed the republican propaganda in the 33 campaign it has as been quiescent for a long time but it is ishill still it in existence and though it does docs not appear to be issuing any pamphlets in its own name its soul and pocketbooks are still 1 marching on the republican Republic in national committee which was one of tile the liberty leagues aliases t three it r e c years ago recently filed its report of receipts and expenditures with the clerk of the house of representatives senta tives according to that report it received and expended for the first I 1 three months of 1939 among the I 1 contributors listed were three rockefellers Rocke fellers two mellons two weirs alfred P sloan jr a dupont apont or two and various others of the famous sixty families in all thirteen of these eminent people 1 contributed apiece while I 1 W would not intimate that this was it in t the he L no nature ture of an assessment I 1 the thought comes up that when a battleship is to be built or a large order of supplies is offered by the government for competitive bids a suspicious auditor looks on questioningly when these bids come in from diverse sections exactly alike I 1 of course these prominent subscribers bers to the republican cause may have arrived at the amount expected of them for the first quarter of the year independently it was perhaps only a coincidence that some of them did not give and others the only contribution listed comes from the massachusetts republican finance committee with no detail as to who gave it to the bay state organization there were in addition to these various thousand dollar two thousand dollar and twenty five hundred dollar contributions approximately the same total was collected and spent by the democratic national co committee it CC this money came in in the form orm ef cf payments on the jackson day dinners and other affairs of the sort and I 1 do not think that in the whole long list there was a contribution of more than one hundred dollars much of it was made up of 25 and 10 donations the contrast pretty well exemplifies the difference in the makeup of the minority and the majority political parties needless to say I 1 am in some degree envious of the size of these wads dumped on the republican doorstep or perhaps dredged up by the G 0 P machine but on the other hand these lavish contributors know what they are trying to buy and perhaps feel that they have a chance to get the worth of their money fortunately or unfortunately the democratic party anything tor for sale and therefore has not the advantage of such generous customers it may be recalled that in the 1930 1936 campaign the republicans gathered that they reported and spent considerable in excess of that amount a difference of and all that money brought the republicans only maine and vermont so this years year calculation may not be a VC very ry sound investment at least it could hardly be classified as such a good risk as the banks are demanding when a business man applies for a loan of course rich people have a perfect right to give whatever they want to give to a political organization e cither I 1 t h e r through a make believe liberty league or directly but the question must ali ways arise as to what they expect for their money there is is a progressive gres sive as well as a conserva conservative wing to the republican party and the G 0 P chairman who vo f cally at least represents their na dional organization ever let it be known what his party stands for they have had for some years now a numerous committee which under the direction of dr glenn frank is working on a platform and no plank of that platform has 1 yet been forthcoming they clamor about the 1 ganco gance of the roosevelt administration and their senators and representatives boost the budget suggested by the president half a billion dollars at a clip they demand economy a and n d never yet have answered the question chera do you propose to do the cutting they call the nav dea policies harebrained hare brained and visionary but never have they ventured to tell which of the laws enacted in fur I 1 therance of those policies they I 1 would repeal so any way you t take ake it the plethoric contributors to t 0 the G 0 0 P treasure chest are buying a pig in a poke they do not know w what bat they would get if they won the 1940 election they do not know whether it will be the heavy act of herbert hoover or the sometimes one thing sometimes another of senator vanden barg the vagueness of senator hafl or the prosecuting zest i district attorney dewey whose qualifications appear to be that ho he convicted a minor politician of racketeering and whose own state stalle refused to elect him governor han when he ventured into the broader if still limited field of state stale administration probably they are playing a hunch not a bad one perhaps perhaps t that h a t whatever the republican platform turns out to be a and n 1 whatever is the economic complexion of a republican president they may look for the privileges and perquisites that were theirs in i n the harding coolidge hoover days and those would be worth buying |