Corruption in American politics and lifeBrooks, Robert C. (Robert Clarkson)
History
Corruption in American politics and life
Brooks, Robert C. (Robert Clarkson)
Political corruption -- United States; United States -- Social conditions -- 1865-1918
[111] Note, for example, the very different treatment of the campaign
contribution question in the two countries. It may be conceded that
America has much to learn from England with regard to the control
of election expenditures. On the side of collections, however, it
is notorious that in England both political parties unblushingly
barter titles for financial support. There is something particularly
despicable in this pollution of the “fountain of honour” to procure
campaign funds, yet on the rare occasions when the matter is brought
up in Parliament its discussion is characterised by hilarity rather
than by moral earnestness. In American politics the corresponding evil
is felt to be a scandal and as such provokes not only the curative
legislation discussed in an earlier study but also much bitter and
noisy denunciation.
[112] Any illusion as to the ease of restraining privilege in the
United States is likely to be speedily dispelled by the reading of
President Arthur T. Hadley’s masterly discussion in the _Independent_
of April 16, 1908, of “The Constitutional Position of Property in
America.”
[113] In “The Old Order Changeth,” _American Magazine_, lxvii (1909),
p. 219.
[114] No political reform now before the American people promises more
beneficent results than the short ballot movement. It advocates the
principle “that democracy can reach more efficient working through a
drastic reduction in the present number of officials selected by the
individual voter, thus securing a ballot which is very short and which
includes only offices that are of sufficient public interest to attract
from the voters a scrutiny and comparison of candidates that will be
adequate to make their relative individual merits a matter of common
knowledge.” _Cf._ the vigorous little pamphlet by Richard S. Childs on
“The Short Ballot: A New Plan of Reform,” reprinted from the _Outlook_
of July 17, 1909, New York, 127 Duane St., 1909.
[115] “Sin and Society,” pp. 29-30.
INDEX
Adams, Professor Henry C., 110, 177.
Addams, Jane, 215.
Ade, George, 146.
Advantage, personal, the end of a corrupt act, 59, 60.
Alger, G. W., 70.
Allen, William H., 185.
American Bar Association, 121.
Anarchy, 17, 21, 29, 66, 82.
Anthracite coal committees, 34.
Apologies for political corruption, 3, 37.
Aquinas, Thomas, 70.
Aristotle, 87.
Association to Prevent Corrupt Practices at Elections, New York, 272.
“Auto-corruption,” 46, 60, 170, 199.
Bacon, Lord, 90.
Belmont, Perry, 239, 271.
“Big Business,” 115, 163.
Blackmail, 63.
Bodley, J. E. C., 71.
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 83.
Boss, The (see also Machine), 23, 26, 71, 73, 105, 240, 278, 279.
Bribery, 44, 49, 59.
Brinkley, Captain F., 102.
Bryce, James, 216.
Bureau of Corporations, 175.
Bureau of Municipal Research, 184.
Burke, Edmund, 213.
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