enumerate the objects for which campaign committees might
legitimately spend money. These are usually personal traveling
expenses of the candidates, rental of rooms for committees and
halls for meetings, payment of musicians and speakers and their
traveling expenses, printing campaign material, postage for
distribution of letters, newspapers and printed matter, telephone
and telegraph charges, political advertising, employing
challengers at the polls, necessary clerk hire, and conveyances
for bringing aged or infirm voters to the polls. The maximum
amount that can be spent by candidates is fixed, and they are
required to make under oath a detailed statement of their
expenses in both primary and general elections. The various
committees, also, must make detailed reports of the funds they
handle, the amount, the contributors, and the expenditures.
Corporations are forbidden to contribute, and the amount that
candidates themselves may give is limited in many States. These
exactions are reinforced by stringent laws against bribery.
Persons found guilty of either receiving or soliciting a bribe
are generally disfranchised or declared ineligible for public
office for a term of years. Illinois, for the second offense,
forever disfranchises.

It is not surprising that these restrictions have led the State
to face the question whether it should not itself bear some of
the expenses of the campaign. It has, of course, already assumed
an enormous burden formerly borne entirely by the party. The cost
of primary and general elections nowadays is tremendous. A few
Western States print a campaign pamphlet and distribute it to
every voter. The pamphlet contains usually the photographs of the
candidates, a brief biography, and a statement of principles.