Essay: NOW IS THE FOR ALL GOOD MEN . . .

An important force in winning political office in the U.S. is green power: the money required to publicize a candidate's views and persuade the voters that he is worthy of governing by their consent. Those who give the cash exercise a vital form of political expression: they provide a basic nourishment of democracy. "Money," says California Democratic Boss Jesse Unruh, "is the mother's milk of politics." Yet Americans remain deeply suspicious of the campaign spending essential to effective elections. They fear that political contributors buy political influence. They know that even the nation's greatest political figures flout the laws regulating political fund raising. Such is the resulting public cynicism that only 10% of Americans make political contributions. Most of the political dollars come in large sums from a tiny percentage of the population.

How to finance political campaigns—honestly, adequately and from a far broader base—is surely one of U.S. democracy's biggest unsolved problems as it enters another presidential election year. As the nation grows, candidates must spend more and more to reach more and more people; while TV now puts office seekers in every living room, the enormous cost drains party budgets. Given most voters' financial apathy, the net result is a qualification for office unspecified in the Constitution: a candidate must now be rich or have rich friends or run the risk of making himself beholden to big contributors by accepting their big contributions.

The Price of Technology In 1846, Abraham Lincoln's friends raised a mere $200 to finance his race for Congress. After he won, Lincoln returned $199.25: he had canvassed the voters on his own horse and spent only 75¢—to treat some farm hands to a barrel of cider. In 1860, Lincoln won the presidency without leaving Springfield or making a single speech; his entire national campaign cost $100,000—a sum now barely sufficient for one 30-minute national telecast.

By election time, 1960, John Kennedy had traveled 44,000 miles and made 400-odd speeches in 45 states to win the White House, at a reported cost to his party of $11 million—excluding his own unreported costs. In 1964, total reported campaign costs were almost $50 million—more than double the price of 1952. On primaries alone, Loser Nelson Rockefeller personally shelled out nearly $5,000,000. The 1968 money competition may be fiercer. In the New Hampshire primary, presidential hopefuls may drop $1,000,000.