"invisible empire"
which throve by what was done in secrecy. Many, probably most, of the
contributors of this type never wished anything personal in exchange for
their contributions, and made them with sincere patriotism, desiring in
return only that the Government should be conducted on a proper basis.
Unfortunately, it was, in practice, exceedingly difficult to distinguish
these men from the others who contributed big sums to the various party
bosses with the expectation of gaining concrete and personal advantages
(in which the bosses shared) at the expense of the general public. It
was very hard to draw the line between these two types of contributions.

There was but one kind of money contributions as to which it seemed to
me absolutely impossible for either the contributor or the recipient to
disguise to themselves the evil meaning of the contribution. This was
where a big corporation contributed to both political parties. I knew of
one such case where in a State campaign a big corporation which had many
dealings with public officials frankly contributed in the neighborhood
of a hundred thousand dollars to one campaign fund and fifty thousand
dollars to the campaign fund of the other side--and, I believe, made
some further substantial contributions in the same ratio of two dollars
to one side for every one dollar given to the other. The contributors
were Democrats, and the big contributions went to the Democratic
managers. The Republican was elected, and after his election, when
a matter came up affecting the company, in which its interests were
hostile to those of the general public, the successful candidate, then
holding a high State office, was approached by his campaign managers
and the situation put frankly before him. He was less disturbed than
astonished, and remarked, "Why, I thought So-and-so and his associates
were Democrats and subscribed to the Democratic campaign fund." "So they
did," was the answer; "they subscribed to them twice as much as they
subscribed to us, but if they had had any idea that you intended doing
what you now say you will do, they would have subscribed it all to the
other side, and more too." The State official in his turn answered that
he was very sorry if any one had subscribed under a misapprehension,
that it was no fault of his, for he had stated definitely and clearly
his position, that he of course had no money wherewith himself to return
what without his knowledge had been con