those of capacity and patriotism, not those only of rapacity and purse. Best wishes. JAS. HAMILTON LEWIS. Now, I observe that there are other candidates from whom there have been at this stage no responses whatever. Mr. Wisler, while he has given us his approximate expenditures, I think should be asked to file a complete statement of his expenditures, and the chair will address those who have not been heard from for statements at once. Now let us hear Mrs. McCormick. TESTIMONY OF RUTH HANNA MCCORMICK, REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS The CHAIRMAN. In the presentation, Mrs. McCormick, of such a statement as I understand you are prepared to leave with the committee this morning, do you wish to make any statement in explanation in advance? Mrs. MCCORMICK. I have prepared a very small statement which I should like to be permitted to read. The CHAIRMAN. We shall be glad to have it presented, Mrs. McCormick. Mrs. MCCORMICK. Instead of submitting a condensed statement of expenses in the recent Illinois primary campaign I have brought to the Senate committee a set of accounts in books containing a complete record of my campaign expenditures. The committee thus is enabled to examine individual items and groups of items and determine upon a method of arriving at a total of disbursements. I am eager to give the committee every assistance possible. I regard this inquiry as extremely important in that it offers a basis for legislation which would provide specific regulation of expenditures in primary campaigns. There is no such law now. Having no law to guide them, successive senatorial investigating committees, it appears, confront the necessity of exercising their own judgment and discretion in determining how much a candidate may spend. The lack of specific legal regulation of these matters is proved in my own situation. I could not undertake to make a statement of expenditures in my recent campaign, for I do not know what period such a statement should cover. When does a candidate for the Senate become a candidate? Should the record of expenses begin with the formal announcement of candidacy or should it begin with the moment the candidate determines in his own mind to be a candidate? One of my opponents in the recent primary never formally announced his candidacy, but had been organizing and campaigning for two years in advance of the primary. Another of my opponents announced his candidacy in midwinter, and two others entered the race merely by filing their names with the secretary of state. New legislation should also take into account the necessity of checking up of money expenditure in a campaign as against opposition in the form of patronage influence, patronage promises, and the use of pay rollers in canvassing the district. A law is needed, both in the public interest and in justice to the candidates themselves. In my campaign I had to make an appeal to approximately 3,000,000 voters scattered over 102 Illinois counties. I was running independently of factions but I had serious machine opposition in all of those counties. I perfected a personal organization of my own. I had bureaus which worked out the details of carrying our message to various groups. We had a labor committee, a woman's organization, a foreign language citizens' committee, and so forth. This, in miniature form followed the method of establishing bureaus in national-party campaigns. It was necessary to circulate printed material, carry on extensive correspondence by direct mail, hold meetings in all parts of the State and make a systematic campaign by radio. One of the issues in the campaign involved an intricate problem in our foreign relations, which made the task of informing the voters of my attitude on the question a most difficult one. The mailing of one letter each to all the voters of Illinois would cost approximately $120,000. The present investigation undoubtedly will be useful in directing attention toward the whole subject of primary-election methods and the lack of proper legislation. The public is aware, of course, that a candidate may either pay campaign expenses out of his own pocket or he may collect money from individuals, or groups, or organizations for campaign purposes. In the latter case he places himself under obligations which may hinder his freedom of action in the public service in the event of his election. I have a photostatic copy of my books, which I am leaving with you. I think you will have no trouble at all, for I can explain the method by which it has been compiled; but I think there is no difficulty, in studying it, to find every detail which you want for your information. I have put in here a list of the counties and the population and the vote. I think you will find it complete. Every item is incorporated here, and it is arranged so that you can-and the amounts are here, and then they are broken under those subheadings which you will find through the book. The CHAIRMAN. The subheading indicates the nature of the expenditure, does it? Mrs. MCCORMICK. Yes. Printing, for example, here would be B-1, and you turn to B-1 and you will find every detail. I think you will find no difficulty. Senator DILL. Have you a summary of it? Mrs. McCORMICK. Yes. This has been all transferred on the books. Senator DILL. What is the total amount? Mrs. MCCORMICK. $252,572.30. There is one item of printing Senator DILL. You submit in your statements all of the account. When did you begin? Mrs. MCCORMICK. I have given you the whole campaign here, Senator. For instance, here are expenditures prior to the date of announcement, expenditures, date of announcement to opening of campaign, and expenditures in campaign, which are all itemized there, because I did not know when you wanted the statement to begin. Here is the total expenditure here. The CHAIRMAN. You had a "McCormick for Senator" campaign committee? Mrs. McCORMICK. No; I had no committee. The CHAIRMAN. What did you have in the way of an organization, or did you handle the entire campaign yourself? Mrs. MCCORMICK. I handled it entirely myself. The CHAIRMAN. You had no treasurer of the campaign, Mrs. McCormick? Mrs. McCORMICK. NO. The CHAIRMAN. No chairman of a committee? Mrs. McCORMICK. NO. The CHAIRMAN. You had headquarters? Mrs. McCORMICK. Well, in my office, yes. The CHAIRMAN. In Chicago? Mrs. McCORMICK. In Chicago. The CHAIRMAN. In your statement here you have included only what you personally have expended in the campaign? Mrs. MCCORMICK. Well, that is all that was expended in the campaign. The CHAIRMAN. I understand. Did you receive any contributions other than what is accounted for here? Mrs. McCORMICK. No; everything is accounted for. The CHAIRMAN. Are we to understand that you had no contribu tions to your campaign? Mrs. McCORMICK. One or two very small ones, from members of my family. The CHAIRMAN. Do you have knowledge, Mrs. McCormick, of organizations or individuals working independently of your own activities in your behalf? Mrs. McCORMICK. Yes; there were two organizations in Cook County who worked, who worked independently, that indorsed my candidacy; an organization known as Voters' Progress Club of Men. The CHAIRMAN. Can you tell us who the officers of that club were? Mrs. MCCORMICK. Yes; Mr. Lucius Wilson is the president of the club. I have not a list of the officers. I can get it. The CHAIRMAN. He is the president? Mrs. McCORMICK. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. That is sufficient. And the other organization? Mrs. MCCORMICK. The Ruth Hanna McCormick volunteers. The CHAIRMAN. Who was the Mrs. MCCORMICK. Mrs. Walter Wolf was the chairman of that. They were only in Cook County. The CHAIRMAN. To your knowledge were they the only organizations? Mrs. McCORMICK. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Aside from your own, operating in your behalf in Illinois ? Mrs. McCORMICK. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Do the members of the committee have any questions? Senator DILL. I notice the largest item here is the county budgets. Are they segregated in here? Mrs. McCORMICK. All here, Senator, if I may show you. Senator DILL. We will hunt them up. Mrs. MCCORMICK. Yes. You see we have every county chairman submits to me a detailed, itemized account, of the money, and every single penny is labeled. Senator DILL. It appears to be very complete. Mrs. McCORMICK. I think you will find it very complete. Senator DILL. Is there any newspaper advertising outside of the one item? Does that cover the county budgets also? Mrs. McCORMICK. Yes, sir; that covers the counties. Mrs. MCCORMICK. Yes; and we have that all listed on page 194; we have the amounts and the name of the paper. Senator DILL. I think, after studying it, we can ask more intelligent questions probably than now. It seems very complete. Senator WAGNER. Mrs. McCormick, I just want to ask, Is this a statement made from books kept during the course of the campaign? Mrs. MCCORMICK. Yes; my personal books. You see I have a habit of handling in my own office different sets of books. I have my own business interests, and I keep them on different sets of books in my business. My own bookkeeper, Mr. Rogers, kept the books and acted as treasurer here of this account; and I just asked him to make up in this form off my books everything we had paid, because I didn't know when you were going to say campaign expenses began, and so I have gone back and listed it for you here in order to make it as complete in detail, because I am entirely in sympathy with your investigation and want to do everything I can to help you arrive at a true finding. The CHAIRMAN. I am sure the committee appreciates your cooperation. Mrs. MCCORMICK. There you see it is very difficult to determine, at least it was for me, to determine accurately when a primary campaign begins. I think that is one of the important points to be brought out. Senator DILL. The law does not state. Mrs. McCORMICK. No. Senator DILL. In your report to the secretary, what did you file with him? Mrs. MCCORMICK. I have not filed any report, because I thought you were going to go into this thing, and this was one of the questions you would determine. Senator DILL. There is a legal requirement. Mr. AUSTRIAN. No; the law of 1925 excepts primaries. The law of 1910, as amended in 1911, provided for primaries. Senator DILL. Did they not send you a notice? Mrs. MCCORMICK. No. Mr. AUSTRIAN. No; there is no provision in the present law. Mr. AUSTRIAN. It specifically is excluded since 1925. Senator BILL. Since the Newberry Act? Mr. AUSTRIAN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. For the sake of the record, will you give your name to the reporter, please? Mr. AUSTRIAN. Albert S. Austrian, of Chicago, Mrs. McCormick's counsel. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Mrs. MCCORMICK. In keeping these accounts I have kept them with a view of submitting them to your committee, so detailed an account that it can be examined in every detail, and I think that this is going to provide for you a basis upon which you can determine legislative action, because I am enormously interested in it. The CHAIRMAN. I want to ask. This one item of $10,885.40 which you have included as being an expenditure prior to date of announcement Mrs. McCORMICK. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Is that included in your summary here of total expenses? Mrs. McCORMICK. Yes; the total expenditure goes from this date, and I classified it that way to clarify it for you. What I did, Senator, was this: That at the very minute in my own mind when I determined to be a candidate for the Senate and it was necessary then for me to employ extra stenographers to take care of it in my office, I began at once calling that campaign expenditure. It has been meticulously written down, I think you see. The CHAIRMAN. And that expenditure is included in this item? Mrs. McCORMICK. That is all this is. It was letters, I think you will find. The CHAIRMAN. There is a detail account of this total amount in your file here? Mrs. McCORMICK. Yes. Senator DILL. The amount, then, that was expended from the date of filing, January 14-is that the date of filing? Mrs. McCORMICK. Yes. Senator DILL. Was $204,000. Mrs. McCORMICK. Yes; and these were prior. But it seems to me that in making a complete analysis of the situation of a primary campaign, that it was necessary to go back. When do you begin accounting? Because you can spend a great deal of money prior to the announcement, which really has direct bearing on the primary. Senator DILL. Under what heading did you include your radio? Mrs. MCCORMICK. I think that is itemized as radio. Senator DILL. I did not see it. Mrs. McCORMICK. There are some bills for the radio-there are two bills that have not come; there is a printing bill of about $1,000 and a radio bill that may be between $4,000 to $5,000, I will have to send you. Senator DILL. I did not see radio listed and was very much in doubt where it ought to come. Mr. AUSTRIAN. Telephone and telegraph. Mrs. McCORMICK. I think it came in here [indicating]. The CHAIRMAN. Telephone and telegraph? Mrs. MCCORMICK. V-15. Mr. AUSTRIAN. Very few of those bills were in when this statement was made up. Mrs. MCCORMICK. The radio I used at the last of the campaign and those bills have not yet been brought into the office. |