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Nevada Historical Society Quarterly WINTER 1995 NEVADA HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY EDITORIAL BOARD Eugene Moehring, Chairman, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Marie Boutte, University of Nevada, Reno Robert Davenport, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Doris Dwyer, Western Nevada Community College Jerome E. Edwards, University of Nevada, Reno Candace C. Kant, Community College of Southern Nevada Guy Louis Rocha, Nevada State Library and Archives Willard H. Rollings, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Hal K. Rothman, University of Nevada, Las Vegas The Nevada Historical Society Quarterly solicits contributions of scholarly or popular interest dealing with the following subjects: the general (e.g., the political, social, economic, constitutional) or the natural history of Nevada and the Great Basin; the literature, languages, anthropology, and archaeology of these areas; reprints of historic documents; reviews and essays concerning the historical literature of Nevada, the Great Basin, and the West. Prospective authors 'should send their work to The Editor, Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, 1650 N. Virginia St., Reno, Nevada 89503. Papers should be typed double-spaced and sent in duplicate. All manuscripts, whether articles, edited documents, or essays, should conform to the most recent edition of the University of Chicago Press Manual of Style. Footnotes should be typed double-spaced on separate pages and numbered consecutively. Correspondence concerning articles and essays is welcomed, and should be addressed to The Editor. © Copyright Nevada Historical Society, 1995. The Nevada Historical Society Quarterly (ISSN 0047-9462) is published quarterly by the Nevada Historical Society. The Quarterly is sent to all members of the Society. Membership dues are: Student, $15; Senior Citizen without Quarterly, $15; Regular, $25; Family, $35; Sustaining, $50; Contributing, $100; Departmental Fellow, $250; Patron, $500; Benefactor, $1,000. Membership applications and dues should be sent to the Director, Nevada Historical Society, 1650 N. Virginia St., Reno, NV 89503. Second-class postage paid at Reno, Nevada and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, 1650 N. Virginia St., Reno, Nevada 89503. Nevada Historical Society Quarterly William D. Rowley Editor-in-Chief Jerome E. Edwards Juliet S. Pierson Book Review Editor Manuscript Editor Volume 38 Winter 1995 Number 4 Contents 223 Campaign Finance Reform in the Silver Era: A Puzzle - Part Two ELMER R. RUSCO 255 Nevada's Emergence in the American Great Basin: Territory and State GUY LOUIS ROCHA 281 Las Vegas in Popular Culture, 1950-1959 EDWARD E. BALDWIN 304 Notes and Documents Murder on the Nevada Desert: Reed Slays Snyder of the Donner Party JOSEPH A. KING Front Cover: J. A. Denton of Caliente, sitting in the 1911 session of the Assembly. He had been a member of the Eighteenth Leg islature in 1897. (Nevada Historical Society) Book Reviews: 314 Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, Religion and Society in Frontier California and Sandra Sizer Frankiel, California Spiritual Frontiers: Religious Alternatives in Anglo-Protestantism, 1850-1910 reviewed by Charles Jeffrey Garrison 318 Ronald A. Farrell and Carole Case, The Black Book and the Mob: The Untold Story of the Control of Nevada's Casinos reviewed by Alan Balboni 320 Frank Bergon, Wild Game reviewed by Ann Ronald 322 Marshall E. Bowen, Utah People in the Nevada Desert: Homestead and Community on a Twentieth-Century Farmers' Frontier reviewed by Cyd. McMullen 323 Carlos Schwantes with the assistance of Evelyne Stitt Pickett, Encounters with a Distant Land: Explorations and the Great Northwest reviewed by Chris Cronin CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM IN THE SILVER ERA: A PUZZLE Part Two Elmer R. Rusco The 1895 Nevada Legislature passed a Purity of Elections law which a knowl edgeable observer predicted would "reduce the potency of the sack" in state elections and give poor men the same opportunity to run for office as rich men. Part One of this article has described the statute in detail and what can be learned of the circumstances surrounding its passage. This second part reports what is known of the actual operation of the law and ends with speculation on the puzzle presented by the fact that the law was passed by a legislature alleg edly dominated by a non-party organization, the Southern Pacific machine, which allegedly used money in ways forbidden by the act to secure this control. REPORTS FILED UNDER THE PURITY OF ELECTIONS LAW Some of the documents filed as a result of this law are still available to the public. Ninety-five returns filed with the Secretary of State by candidates and committees for the 1896 general election were examined in the office of the Nevada State Library and Archives in Carson City, and a single party return for 1898 was copied from the library of the Nevada Historical Society.l No attempt was made to determine whether there are comparable records at the county level. Perhaps the 1896 collection was once larger, but it is assumed here that prob ably the only significant records missing, if there are any at all in this category, are records filed by political parties (see below). If no other returns than those now preserved by the State Archives were filed, it is clear that not all returns apparently required by the Purity of Elections act were filed with the Secretary of State. Table 1 provides information from which to develop an estimate of the extent to which the State Archives collection is complete at the state level. Because the Elmer R. Rusco is a professor emeritus of Political Science at the University of Nevada, Reno. Part One of this article appeared in the Fall 1995 issue of the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly. 223 224 Elmer R. Rusco Political History of Nevada gives election returns for all statewide offices plus races for the University of Nevada Board of Regents, it is possible to tell what pro portion of candidates running for these offices filed returns (if some have not been lost).2 Overall, in races for Presidential Elector, Congress, the Supreme Court, Lieutenant Governor and University Regent, 69.5 percent of the candi dates filed returns; sixteen candidates filed returns while seven did not. The largest number of candidates ran for legislative seats; there are thirteen returns for Senatorial candidates and sixty-six for Assembly candidates. Unfor tunately, the Secretary of State's office was not required to collect election re turns for all these races, so there is no official record of all candidacies. However, the Nevada Historical Society has compiled a list of all legislative candidates in that election. If this list is complete, two Senatorial candidates and ten Assembly candidates did not file. Overall 86.6 percent of all legislative candidates filed returns.3 The fact that all the legislators elected that year complied with the law by filing returns is no doubt testimony to the importance of the provision of the statute which could have resulted in forfeiture of office for not doing so. The legislative effort in 1899 which ultimately led to repeal of the Purity of Elections law initially was confined to repeal of this section, which presumably meant most legislators were particularly hostile to this provision. The forfeiture provision was not the only penalty portion of the act, however; failure to file could have resulted in a criminal indictment for any candidate. Two conclusions stand out from the data on these returns. They indicate that almost all the money spent on the general election in 1896 came from the can didates themselves; reported contributions by others were so minor as to be insignificant. In fact, the only clearcut contributions from someone other than a TABLE 1 Campaign Finance Reports by Office, 1896 No. of No. Filing Office Candidates Returns Presidential Elector 9 5 Member of Congress 3 2 Supreme Court Justice 3 3 Lt. Governor 3 2 Member University Board of Regents 5 4 Total 23 16 State Senator 15 13 State Assemblyman 76 66 Total 91 79 Grand Total 114 95 A Puzzle 225 candidate were reported by J. C. Doughty, the People's Party candidate for Congress. He reported that he had received personal contributions of $25 each from W. H. Barrett of Virginia City and J. B. McCullough. Notably, there were no reported contributions from the Southern Pacific Company reported by anybody. A small amount of money may have been contributed by political parties, but this is doubtful. D. W. Cutts, a Republican Assembly candidate in Ormsby County, reported receiving $13.25 from the "Central Com." On the contrary, candidates often reported making contributions to parties. Because rebates from such gifts were often reported by candidates, it is assumed that this payment was a rebate from a party, possibly the Ormsby County Republican Central Committee. C. E. Allen, who was elected to an Assembly seat from Eureka County, reported loans of $25 each from H. Kind and Hank Knight. If these were not repaid, which is sometimes the case with loans, these might have been campaign contributions. In summary, the only clearcut contributions by anyone other than candidates in all the races reported in these returns totalled $50, or 1.3 percent of the total of all contributions, which came to $3,964.71. If one adds the Cutts payment and the loans to Allen, the total amount of contributions comes to $113.25, or 2.8 percent of the new total of $4,027.96, still an insignificant amount. The second major conclusion is that the requirement of the Purity of Elections law that all contributions be channeled through appointed committees turned out to be meaningless, because no committees reported receiving or spending any money. In almost all cases where a filing was made, there is a return for a committee appointed by a specific candidate, and almost all of these state that no moneys were received or spent by the committee.