Two Kinds of Losers

It must be a sad fate for any upstanding American corporation first to be harried into making large (and illegal) political donations and then to be forced to confess on threat of prosecution. Nonetheless, Special Watergate Prosecutor Archibald Cox has a little list of these corporate donors, all of which could face fines of up to $5,000, for making illegal contributions to the 1972 Republican national campaign.

Since Cox has indicated that he might be lenient with those that confess, the shamefaced corporations have been stepping forward--Gulf Oil Corp.

($100,000), Ashland Oil, Inc. ($100,-000), American Airlines ($55,000), Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. ($40,000).

Last week two more, Phillips Petroleum ($100,000) and Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing ($30,000), admitted that they too had anted up.

In contrast to the insatiable big-time fund raisers who persuaded the companies to make illegal contributions from corporate funds, a Pennsylvania judge has just provided his backers with a pleasant surprise.

State Superior Court Judge Edmund B. Spaeth Jr., a liberal Democrat who last May lost a primary election for a full ten-year term on the appellate court, ended his campaign with an unspent $5,300 in his campaign chest.

So he announced last week that he was refunding all supporters' contributions of $5 and more at 460 on the dollar.

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