tions, which as we have seen usually carry in their train great variation of social conditions, particularly where the means of communication are neither good nor abundant, considerable recognition must be accorded to sectional representation. This is true as well of the lower house as of the upper house of the legislature. The experience of all confederated states corroborates this view. They all without exception provide for district representation, and sometimes that the districts formed for the purpose shall be districts exclusively of one of the states or provinces of which the confederation is composed. Furthermore, it may be said that usually the single-district system has been provided.

On the other hand, it may be questioned whether the single-district system is always a wise one. Such a system makes formal provision only for locality representation. There are, however, in all countries which have attained any degree of complexity other than local interests which believe they should be represented. Not being accorded any opportunity in the formal legal system to secure recognition, many of these interests, when they become important and powerful enough, resort to illegitimate methods to secure the representation which they believe they ought to have. Through bribery and intimidation and wheedling of voters they, as a matter of fact, try to secure and often do secure representation by getting control of some particular district or districts. Up to the present time it has seemed to be impossible to prevent the development of these practices.

If, however, through some of the methods of minority representation such as have been described, the representation of special interests were made possible, it is probable that the pressure would be relieved and

resort would be less frequent to practices which, if generally and persistently followed, will make difficult, if not impossible, the orderly and progressive development of the state the largest and most important social group to which all men owe allegiance, and from which all men should receive protection.

XV

THE METHODS OF VOTING AND PARTICULARLY OF THE

SECRET BALLOT

SOME of the most important features of a real repre

sentative government, but features to which comparatively little attention has until recently been given, are the methods of casting and counting the vote; in other words, election procedure.

In Great Britain, where voting at public elections was first adopted in a systematic and comprehensive manner, the original method of vote was the public vote. That is, where there was a contest between two or more candidates, what was called "a poll" was had. Every voter was called upon to express publicly his choice, which was recorded by the officer appointed for the purpose. This method was a very natural one. The voters were few in number. The progress of the voting was known to all as the voting went on, and the result was known at once when the voting was finished. Such a method, however, lent itself readily to bribery and intimidation in a country where, owing to the great inequality in the distribution of wealth, the poorer classes were in a state of economic dependence upon the wealthier classes. For every man's vote was known, and it was not at all infrequent for the displeasure of the wealthy to be visited on the poor in case they did

not vote as expected. Furthermore, the fact that the progress of the voting was at all times known brought it about that when the election was close the competition in the purchase of votes not infrequently became very keen during the closing hours of the vote. Large sums of money were frequently spent to secure the votes of those who were independent enough to be able to resist the browbeating of the more powerful social classes.

The evils connected with public open voting were seen by certain English political writers as early as the middle of the seventeenth century. Their writing first bore fruit, however, in the United States. The "secret ballot," as it was called, was adopted there as early as the latter part of the eighteenth century. The first attempt to provide for the secret ballot was made in the first constitution of the State of New York, adopted at about the time of the Declaration of Independence. This rather famous pronouncement in favor of a secret ballot reads as follows:

And whereas, An opinion hath long prevailed among divers of the good people of this state, that voting at elections by ballot would tend more to preserve the liberty and equal freedom of the people than voting viva voce; to the end, therefore, that a fair experiment be made which of these two methods of voting is to be preferred:

Be It Ordained, That as soon as may be after the termination of the present war between the United States of America and Great Britain, an act or acts be passed by the legislature of this state, for causing all elections thereafter to be held in this state for senators and representatives in assembly to be by ballot, and directing the manner in which the same shall be conducted.

And Whereas, It is possible that after all the care of the legislature in framing the said act or acts, certain inconveniences and mischiefs, unforeseen at this day, may be found to attend the said mode of electing by ballot;

It Is Further Ordained, That if after a full and fair experiment shall be made of voting by ballot aforesaid, the same shall be found less

conducive to the safety or interest of the state than the method of voting viva voce it shall be lawful and constitutional for the legislature to abolish the same.

The example set by New York was followed in the course of the next few years by other American states, until by the middle of the nineteenth century public or open voting had been all but universally replaced by the secret ballot.

The method adopted was that the voter no longer was permitted, when voting publicly, to state his choice, but was required to deposit in a ballot-box, as it was called, which was provided for the purpose, a paper known as a ballot. On this ballot the name of the candidate voted for was written or printed.

The adoption of the secret ballot was followed in the United States by a long and elaborate series of laws intended to preserve the secrecy of the vote. Thus, all ballots had to be written or printed on plain white paper of a certain size and quality, and having on the outside no marks by means of which the way in which the voter voted could be ascertained. All ballots which did not conform to the provisions of these laws were to be thrown out as bad when the vote was counted.

In the mean time one of the colonies of Australia found that the open or public vote was accompanied by the same evils which had been noticed in England and solved the problem in a somewhat different way. The Australians adopted the principle of the secret ballot, but they took precautions to secure the secrecy desired which were much more successful in attaining the end sought than was the American legislation. The chief defect in that legislation was that, while it fixed with great particularity the kind of ballot which might be