The most important single issue raised by the policies of the two parties during the last presidential campaign was that of publicity before or after election. Early in the campaign the Democratic National Committee decided to publish on or before October 15th all individual contributions in excess of $100; contributions received subsequent to that date to be published on the day of their receipt. Following the principle of the New York law both parties made post-election statements. It is manifest that complete statements of expenditures, or for that matter of contributions as well, can be made only after election. Every thorough provision for publicity must, therefore, require post-election reports. Shall preliminary statements also be required? As against the latter it is urged that contributors whose motives are of the highest character will be deterred by the fear of savage partisan criticism. If publicity is delayed until after the election campaign bitterness will have subsided and a juster view of the whole situation will be possible. In favour of publicity before the election it is said that two main ends are aimed at by all legislation of this sort;—first to prevent the collection and expenditure of enormous sums for the bribery of voters and other corrupt purposes, and, second, by revealing the source of campaign funds to make it difficult or impossible for the victorious party to carry out corrupt bargains into which it may have entered in order to obtain large contributions. Publicity after the election will, indeed, serve the second of these ends, but publicity before would be much more effective in preventing corrupt collection and expenditure of funds. Moreover it might prevent the victory of the party pursuing such a policy and thus, by keeping it out of power, render it incapable of paying by governmental favour for its contributions.