FLOWING GOLD

In the political struggle for power, there is no surer road to success than the expenditure of huge sums of money. Money is the most potent ally which a political candidate can secure. By spreading its benefits over a wide area, the campaigner can gather about his standard a group of partisans who will support him regardless of his party affiliations personal character or past record.

Comprehension of this essential fact makes it comparatively easy to understand the confidence which characterizes the Democratic candidates in those October campaigns. They are the local representatives of an administration which is pouring out federal money at the rate of half a billion dollars a month. Whether or not the government may hold up its hands in horror at the accusation of using national funds for political purposes, the result of the vast expenditures remains the same. Public projects for the unemployed, corn-hog payments for the dissatisfied farmers, ever increasing relief funds are more formidable votegetters than reams of political speeches.

The administration is adding to the effectiveness of these funds by bunching payments so that they will all fall due during the month of October. These sums are the foundations on which the candidates base their hopes of election. By associating their campaigns with the national government at Washington, they are attempting to create the belief that their defeat will end the flow of federal funds to their respective states. Indeed, the present campaign is a tribute to the political genius of Farley and his henchmen.