100 years ago in Spokane: More fallout from Cox’s campaign-finance charge

The fallout continued from Democratic presidential candidate James M. Cox’s extraordinary visit to Spokane.

The Spokesman-Review ran a headline that read, “Says Cox Lacks Moral Honesty – Deliberately Misled Spokane Hearers.” Prominent Spokane Republican Charles Hebberd said in the story that Cox deliberately attempted to mislead an audience of more than 4,000 at the Interstate Fairgrounds and that this “should utterly discredit him as a presidential candidate.”

If Cox had “one iota of mental or moral honesty,” he would have “withdrawn that statement,” he continued. Hebberd was referring to Cox’s charge that Spokane businessmen, including Spokesman-Review publisher W.H. Cowles, had contributed large sums to a controversial Republican campaign fund. Hebberd, like Cowles, said Cox grossly exaggerated the amount given by Spokane men and that, in any case, the donations were above board and public-spirited.

Another front-page story, from the Associated Press, said that a Senate investigating committee had just completed a two-week inquiry into Cox’s charges that the Republicans’ $15 million campaign fund drive was in violation of campaign finance rules.

They came to no definitive conclusion, except to say that they might reopen their hearings in two weeks to gather more information.

The entire controversy indicates that a multimillion-dollar campaign war chest was still a relatively new development in a presidential campaign, and that many people were uneasy about the prospect of large political donations from wealthy businesses and individuals.