19. What is the nature of the Commission created by the Act? 20. What are the eight fundamental rules under which the Commission

operates?

21. What type of legislation is reducing the evils which formerly

attended contributions to the campaign fund of political parties? 22. Summarize the election laws of New York with regard to con

tributions to the campaign fund. 23. What facts must be contained in the statement of campaign

contributions which is filed with the secretary of state in New

York? 24. What becomes of these statements? 25. In what two ways has the law recognized the political party? 26. Summarize the preamble to the election law of Oregon with

respect to the desirability of party government. 27. In the enjoyment of what rights is the political party to be pro

tected by law?

CHAPTER XXXV

CHOOSING THE AGENTS OF GOVERNMENT

205. Essentials of a primary election law 1 Various methods of choosing party candidates have predominated Rise and

decline of at different periods in our history. An early method was the caucus,

the caucus but after 1825 the caucus declined and the nominating convention and nomi

nating became important. The convention was an improvement upon the

convention. caucus, but was itself subject to so many defects that in the latter part of the nineteenth century new methods of choosing party candidates were developed. Of these new methods one of the most important and widespread is the Direct Primary. Every state in the Union Direct i

Primary. has enacted legislation to fix the form, and to protect the administration, of the Direct Primary, though such legislation is not adequate in every state. The essential features of a good primary law are enumerated by Professor Woodburn in the following passage:

To the successful working of a good primary election law the following features are considered essential: 1. The primary elections of all parties should be held together The pri

maries of in every election precinct on the same day. The time and place of

all parties these elections should be fixed by law and not left to be determined should be

held on the by party committees. In this way the election day will be known,

same day. the polling places will be fixed and not precarious; machine gerrymandering and snap primaries will be prevented; and the voters of one party will be prevented from packing the primary of the other for the purpose of nominating weak candidates for their opponents.

2. A good registration law. The party voters must be registered Registration. a certain number of days before the primary. Careful registration always tends to promote fair elections.

unfair prac

voter.

Legal pro

3. The right to vote at a party primary should be secured against tection of

fraud by the registration of the party affiliation, or preference, of the party against the

all voters who seek to vote at the primary. No opponent of a party

has a right to participate in its primary. The law should protect tices of members a party from its enemies who may seek to disrupt or weaken it. The of other

test of party membership, or party fealty, is the most difficult matter parties.

in framing primary election laws. Experience shows that liberality in this direction should be encouraged. It is not necessary, nor is it generally desired by party managers, to shut out the independent element within a party. It is not necessary to apply hard party tests or a cast-iron pledge to support the nominees. Self-respecting men will not seek to vote in the primary of a party to which they are not attached, and the unscrupulous will do so in the face of

pledges which they will unhesitatingly violate. ... Recognition With the primaries of all parties on the same day, the voters of of the

each party will be led to give their attention to their own nominations. independent

The primary system is not to destroy parties, but it implies that the party is not merely its managers, its machine, but the whole body of its voters. The independent voter should recognize that the registration of a voter's party affiliation, as the Kentucky law requires, is a desirable protection to the party organization. Very few would object to stating their party affiliation, if other information and pledges as to the voter's past and future are not exacted. If this seems to a voter to violate his independence he may either refrain from voting at the primary, or other provision may be made

for him. Use of the 4. The Australian secret-ballot system of voting should be used Australian

in the primary as in the regular election day. All the ordinary safeballot.

guards of the law should be placed around the primary election. All trickery and personal and party favoritism in choosing election judges

and clerks should be reduced to a minimum. .. Other

Other minor features urged by primary election advocates are: features

(1) The application of the law should be made mandatory and not of a good primary be left to the option of party committees. Primary elections should election law. be under state control, not under party control. (2) The rotation

of names in the printed ballots. Any name appearing first in all the ballots would have a manifest advantage. The unknowing and

a

indifferent voters are apt to vote for the first on the list. In a poll of fifteen or twenty thousand votes the first place is probably worth one thousand votes to a candidate. Fairness requires rotation.

.

206. The non-partisan ballot 1 The non-partisan ballot is a ballot on which names may be placed Nature and without party designations. This system came into use between purpose of

the non1880 and 1890, and was intended to reduce the influence of the party partisan

ballot. machine. It provides that candidates may be placed in nomination by filing with some specified officer nomination papers, or petitions, signed by a specified number of voters. The merits of this device are debated, but in many cities it has undoubtedly reduced partisanship to the minimum. A favorable view of the non-partisan ballot in Des Moines, Iowa, is given in the following selection by Former Mayor James R. Hanna: Under the Iowa law, any citizen who can secure the signatures of The cir

culation of twenty-five of his fellow citizens to a statement of his honorable

petitions standing in the community, may become a candidate for mayor or under the

Iowa law. commissioner. In our three campaigns this ease of candidacy has been taken advantage of by great numbers and there have been always from thirty to more than fifty aspirants to civic honors. Coincident with the introduction of the Des Moines plan into our Introduction

of the city affairs there sprang up, all over the city, neighborhood organiza

Des Moines tions of voters under the title of improvement leagues, etc. plan. When the campaign . is well under way, the various candidates are invited to appear before these leagues to present their claims to the suffrage of the voters.

At these meetings, the various candidates, owing to the number Candidates that are to speak, find it necessary to present their claims to con

present their

claims to sideration in talks of not to exceed ten or twelve minutes. A speaker the voters. must make his impression upon his hearers in very short order. In the rapid review of candidates, the audience is, in each case, deciding on about three things. They decide first as to whether the speaker knows what he is talking about. In other words, they esti

.

The influence of personality.

mate his intellectual alertness and the soundness of judgment. Second, they decide upon the earnestness of purpose, or conviction, with which the candidate seems to present his issues. And finally having weighed the intelligence and sincerity of the candidate, they put an estimate upon his courage or determination of purpose which will or will not lead him to carry into effect the policies which he professes to stand for.

The candidate who impresses his hearers that he knows what he is talking about, that he means what he says, and that he has the courage in the hour of trial to stand for what he advocates, generally has the right of way to the voters' suffrage, provided of course that his position on the issues of the campaign appeals to the voter as being sound..

Even those who may not have attended the league meetings very faithfully during the six weeks campaign have heard the neighborhood discussion concerning the candidates. Opinion in the vicinity is very clearly outlined. Municipal issues and the personality of the candidate enter with somewhat varying proportions into the composition of the neighborhood opinion. If there are striking municipal issues upon which the people may divide, this has a large bearing upon the fortunes of the candidates. If, however, municipal issues are not pronounced, the personality of the candidate has a very large determining force. Indeed, with the impossibility of organizing candidates into groups, each group standing upon a given platform, the personality of the candidate has fully as much to do with his advancement as the issues for which he stands.

Another feature of our campaigns is the entire absence of sectional or ward influence. The candidate must face the entire electorate of the city upon the issues and interests of the entire city. He cannot go into one ward advocating measures for the good of that ward alone without incurring the hostility of the voters in other wards. The consequence is that the residence of the candidate is no longer inquired after, though at first there was considerable jealousy over this point. One who is not broad enough to be a citizen of the entire city has small hope of convincing a majority of the voters of the entire city of his fitness to participate in the determination of municipal policies as a member of the city council. ...

Elimination of sectional or ward influence.