And he says, "Go on, mind your own business and get out of here.” And I says, "No; that is why I am here, to see that you don't do things like that." And he says, "We'll take care of you." She testified that she later went to the fourth district and kept supervision over both districts accompanied by her husband. Her testimony continues: "I see a man walk straight for my husband with his sleeves rolled up and hit him right on the chin. As I seen him do that I jumped in between the two men, that was my husband and the other man. * * * I was very much nervous and I was shaking all over, besides, as I held that man, I meant to tell you this, he struck me in the stomach about three times with his fist. I had hemorrhages which I kept it to myself. When I came home I don't know what happened after that, I was to doctors after the thing I went through. The doctor advised me to go under an operation, but somehow, thank God, I was making Novenas, and things happened and God straightened my whole health and brought me back to myself." * * * She She later testified that her husband was laid off from work. testified that the man who punched her in the stomach had been imported for election day and that they hid him and that there were police around at the polls but none assisted her or protected her. I might add, that when she said she prayed for honest elections, the crowd in the committee room, largely made up of the machine, derisively laughed at her. Such things in our American life are not comedy; they are tragedy and yet they go on year after year in this supposedly free United States. The machine controls the police; the machine influences the courts and officials; and the common citizens dependent upon the machine for their jobs, have no redress unless there is some power in the Government of the United States greater than the will of the dictators of these political machines, and unless elected officials of the Government make a fearless effort to rid the Government of these un-American machine bosses, these conditions will increasingly undermine the very democracy which we seek to preserve, in a world where democracy is threatened from without as well as from within. Jersey City has the largest tax rate of any city of similar size in the country, and is bearing a burden of debt which is the greatest per capita of any city in the Nation. The common man is paying many times over for the small benefits he is receiving from the political regime which controls the city. The boss of the regime, Mayor Hague, who testified that his salary as a government official over a period of more than 20 years has never been over $8,000 and that he has no outside remunerative position, has grown wealthy during the years he has held political office in Jersey City. He secretly had made purchases of hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate, such purchases being made and paid for with the checks of a dummy whom Mr. Hague later reimbursed with cash. This was admitted under oath by Mr. Hague's dummy at a legislative hearing. At the same time, people on moderate salaries are forced to make cash contributions to the political regime. When President Roosevelt, then Governor of New York, sat at the hearing in the investigation of former Sheriff Farley, he made the 298119-41-7 statement that when any public servant lived far in excess of his apparent means of income, it was his duty to tell the American public where his money came from. Mayor Hague was advised of that statement when he was on the stand before the subcommittee, and his remark with regard to the President's statement was, "I don't give a damn about it." He hurled similar abuse about Supreme Court Justice Murphy, and about the Supreme Court itself, and when he was questioned before the committee with regard to his large source of income, in an effort to trace campaign contributions, to see whether or not any of the contributions went into his pockets, he refused to testify, under urgent advice of his counsel, Mr. Rooney. The average man and woman who learns of these conditions, and the men and women who live with these conditions, cannot have faith in our Government unless the responsible officials of the Government, who have the power to clean up this situation, demonstrate by action their determination to free these American people from such rotten conditions which, so long as they exist, are a disgrace to America. In conclusion, I point out that to me the most depressing feature in connection with this Senate committee investigation into New Jersey political methods and practices is not the evidence of interference with free and honest elections which prevails in Hudson County and Jersey City and which is also to be found in certain other counties in New Jersey which are Republican-controlled, but lies rather in the fact that an important political leader in Washington used pressure and influence on committee members to have the investigation called off and did this on behalf of the very man who is chiefly responsible for such rotten political conditions. SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT OF SENATOR CHARLES W. TOBEY ON INORDINATE EXPENSES IN SENATE CAMPAIGNS There is one matter that has not been covered in the committee report which deserves special comment. In one of the smallest States of the Union, the State of Maryland, there is a Corrupt Practices Act which requires each candidate to file with the several circuit clerks within 20 days after the primary election a list of donors and amounts contributed by each, together with a detailed statement of expenditures. While the Federal Corrupt Practices Act does not apply to primary elections, the Corrupt Practices Act of that particular State does provide a limitation of expenditures in behalf of all candidates. The Code of Public General Laws of that State provides a limitation in amounts of expenditures to $10 for each 1,000 voters, or a major portion thereof, registered at the next preceding election for the office in question, up to 50,000, and $5 for each 1,000 voters, or major portion thereof, over 50,000. Reported official statistics show 523,238 total votes have been cast in the senatorial campaign in that State in 1938. Applying this limitation to the 1938 vote, as an example, the amount permitted to be expended thereunder would be less than $3,000. The Treasurer for one of the senatorial candidates in the primary campaign for the United States Senate reported as follows: Total receipts. Total disbursements- Unpaid bills. $82, 651. 79 82, 293. 65 358. 14 23, 032. 64 22, 674. 50 This does not include expenditures of approximately $17,000 that were made by other committees on behalf of that latter candidate and others. In that same State, the personal treasurer for another senatorial candidate in the primary election for the United States Senate gave the following statement of accounts: Total receipts.. Total disbursements. $5,650 5, 650 The treasurer of the campaign committee for that same latter candidate filed as follows: Total contributions.. Total disbursements_ $86, 423.00 86, 409. 53 5, 331. 06 And so, the fact is that more than $200,000 was spent in the campaigns of these two senatorial candidates for the nomination only, one of whom was elected and seated in the United States Senate. Thus, a seat in the United States Senate was gained by illegal methods. When this situation was brought to the attention of the committee, the committee decided not to take cognizance of it on the ground that this illegal expenditure was made in the primary which made the party candidate, rather than in the election later in which one of the candidates was elected. I do not concur in this reasoning. Here we have a situation in which a Senator-elect has come to the Senate through the lavish, inordinate expenditure of great sums of money and whose claimed right to a Senate seat was achieved by illegal means. I feel that the Senate should be informed of the fact and that the people should be acquainted with the situation. In a State such as this, unless a man is able to receive the nomination of his party, he cannot go before the people at the polls at the election. This is another way of saying that candidates are made at the primaries and in many States, as a matter of fact, the primary nomination is tantamount to an election, because of an overwhelming party majority which has been demonstrated for many years. Where such practices of heavy money spending in the primaries are followed, the result is that no man can become a member of the United States Senate from that State, regardless of his ability, integrity, and qualifications, unless he is able to lay his hands on one-tenth of a million dollars. If the Senate committee, specifically directed to inquire into campaign expenditures of senatorial candidates, declines to report such situations of inordinate money spending to the Senate and, by its silence condones this practice whereby individuals acquire a seat in the Senate by the mere weight of dollars in violation of the State law rather than by the weight of the considered judgment of a free electorate, it thereby contributes to the practice which tends to make the United States Senate an exclusive body of the well-to-do rather than a democratic body representative of the people. This minority report is not made as a personal criticism of the individuals involved on the contrary it is understood that the practice has been indulged in with impunity in a number of the States by both Republicans and Democrats. It is a practice which cannot be too emphatically assailed. I point out that had this been the practice in the early days of our Republic, our Nation would have been deprived of the patriotic and invaluable services of some of the most eminent statesmen who have served the people in the Congress of the United States. CHARLES W. TOBEY. APPENDIXES APPENDIX I [S. Res. 212, 76th Cong., 3d sess.] RESOLUTION Resolved, That a special committee consisting of five Senators, to be appointed by the Vice President, is hereby authorized and directed to investigate the campaign expenditures of the various Presidential candidates, Vice Presidential candidates, and candidates for the United States Senate, in all parties, the names of the persons, firms, or corporations subscribing, the amount contributed, the method of expenditure of said sums, and all facts in relation thereto, not only as to the subscriptions of money and expenditures thereof but as to the use of any other means or influence, including the promise or use of patronage or use of any public funds, and all other facts in relation thereto which would not only be of public interest but which would aid the Senate in enacting any remedial legislation or in deciding any contests which might be instituted involving the right to a seat in the United States Senate. No Senator shall be appointed upon said committee from a State in which a Senator is to be elected at the general election in 1940. The investigation hereby provided for, in all the respects above enumerated, shall apply to candidates and to contests before primaries, conventions, and the contests and campaign terminating in the general election in 1940. Said committee is hereby authorized to act upon its own initiative and upon such information as in its judgment may be reasonable or reliable. Upon complaint being made before said committee, under oath, by any person, persons, candidate, or political committee, setting forth allegations as to facts which, under this resolution it would be the duty of said committee to investigate, the said committee shall investigate such charges as fully as though it were acting upon its own motion, unless, after a hearing upon such complaint, the committee shall find that the allegations in said complaint are immaterial or untrue. Said committee is hereby authorized, in the performance of its duties, to sit at such times and places, either in the District of Columbia or elsewhere, as it deems necessary or proper. It is specifically authorized to require the attendance of witnesses by subpena or otherwise; to require the production of books, papers, and documents; and to employ counsel, experts, clerical, and other assistants; and to employ stenographers at a cost not exceeding 25 cents per one hundred words. Said committee is hereby specifically authorized to act through any subcommittee authorized to be appointed by said committee. The chairman or any member of said committee or of any subcommittee may administer oaths to witnesses and sign subpenas for witnesses; and every person duly summoned before said committee, or any subcommittee thereof, who refuses or fails to obey the process of said committee or who appears and refuses to answer questions pertinent to said investigation, shall be punished as prescribed by law. The expenses of said investigation, not exceeding in the aggregate $30,000, shall be paid from the contingent fund of the Senate on vouchers signed by the chairman of the committee or the chairman of any subcommittee. All hearings before said committee shall be public, and all orders or decisions of the committee shall be public. The committee shall make a full report to the Senate on the frst day of the next session of the Congress. [S. Res. 336, 76th Cong. 3d sess.] Resolved, That Resolution Numbered 212, agreed to February 9, 1940, authorizing a Special Committee to Investigate the Campaign Expenditures of Presidential, Vice Presidential, and Senatorial Candidates in 1940, hereby is continued |