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Mis-government lurks only in the shadows.

"Mohammed must go to the mountain."

Minor offices to be made appointive.

An example of a shortened ballot.

the voters may be able intelligently to study their qualifications. All other officials would be appointed, either directly by executive officers, or through the merit system. The principle of the short ballot is explained in the following extract from a pamphlet issued by the National Short Ballot Association:

Any conspicuous office is beyond the control of corruptive forces. The conspicuous office stands on a pinnacle of light, utterly beyond the reach of the low politician. Good government is in fact so much a matter of concentration of public attention, that publicity will make even corrupt officials behave themselves and move with great circumspection. . . . Mis-government lurks only in the shadows, in the places where the spot-light never touches. It cannot survive when a commission begins to investigate or when some especially important matter attracts to it the attention of the public.

We cannot hope to raise the level of the political intelligence of the entire citizenship to a point where it can handle the long ballot wisely. "The mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain." We must shorten the ballot to a point where the average man will vote intelligently without giving to politics more attention than he does at present. We must so reduce the total number of candidates that the newspapers will be able to give adequate attention to each. Voting a straight ticket is not a matter of party loyalty so much as of not knowing what else to do, and split tickets will become common as soon as the list is reduced to a point where each candidate becomes in the mind of the voter a definite personality instead of a mere name on a long list.

To make public office conspicuous can only be accomplished by making it stand out in solitude before the gaze of the voter. Let all the encumbrances in the shape of minor offices disappear from the ballot and be made appointive. Or at the very least prevent the few offices from overshadowing the many.

To be pictorial, let us see how a revised schedule of elections might look if we put into the realm of appointive offices as many as possible of those which public opinion now ignores. All county offices, many city positions and the entire tail of the state ticket would be disposed of and the ballots would look something like this:

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This schedule. provides for every office which is properly Merits of within the realm of politics. It provides ballots which any man can this plan. and would vote intelligently. The tendency is always to vote for men, not for parties; most men, even now, say, "I shall vote for Mr. —," rather than "I shall vote the Republican ticket." The personality of the conspicuous nominee appeals to the voter far more than his party label and the candidate whose personality is really familiar to the voters is almost independent of either the help or the opposition of his party machine.

So in the "second year," for instance, men will tell each other "I shall vote for Jackson and Williams," these being candidates for Governor and Assemblyman respectively, and if the wisdom of the latter choice is challenged there will be facts and reasons forthcoming. The average voter could carry the whole political situation in his head-political specialists would be superfluous. Instead of blindly ratifying a boss' selection for assemblyman, the voter will know all about the nominee. . . . Aspirants to office will have to appeal to the voters direct and when elected will be responsive directly to those voters without the intermediate party organization which now acts as a kind of "shock absorber.". . .

We must get on a basis where the good intentions of the average The goal. voter find intelligent expression on the entire ticket so as to produce good government year after year without a great fight. . . . Public opinion must always work in broad masses, clumsily but with tremendous force. To make a multitude of little decisions is beyond its

coarse powers. It can't play the tune it has in mind upon our complicated political instrument; but give it a keyboard simple enough for its huge, slow hands, and it will thump out the right notes with precision.

Questions on the foregoing Readings

1. Name several methods of choosing party candidates which have predominated at different periods in our history.

2. Why should the primary elections of all parties be held together in every election precinct on the same day?

3. How would the "registration of party affiliation" protect the party at the direct primary?

4. Name some minor features of a good primary election law. 5. When did the non-partisan ballot come into use?

6. What is the nature of this ballot?

7. What is its purpose?

8. With reference to Iowa, how many signatures must be secured before a citizen may become a candidate for mayor or commissioner?

9. What is the nature of the "improvement league "?

10. How are the claims of candidates for municipal office in Des Moines, Iowa, presented to the voters?

II. What is the influence of personality in such contests?

12. What can be said as to the elimination of sectional or ward influence in municipal elections in Des Moines?

13. Why has the preferential voting device been put forward? 14. Give the main provisions of the plan proposed in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

15. What is meant by saying that preferential voting makes possible either a majority choice, or a legitimate plurality choice? 16. How is the successful candidate ascertained under this preferential voting plan?

17. Why has the plan for proportional representation been put forward? 18. Discuss the framework of the Illinois plan for proportional repre

sentation.

19. Why is it important for each party to gauge its own strength under this plan?

20. To what extent has the Illinois plan allowed proportional representation to the two principal parties? to minor parties?

21. Trace the development of the long ballot in Ohio.

22. Give some examples of excessive burdens borne by the voters of

Ohio cities,

23. How has initiative and referendum legislation increased this burden?

24. What plan has been advocated as a remedy for the evils of the

long ballot?

25. Point out the chief advantages which are claimed for this plan. 26. What is the goal of election reformers?

Some

factors influencing legislation in the United States.

Defects of American legislation: (1) lack of responsibility.

CHAPTER XXXVI

HONESTY AND EFFICIENCY IN OFFICE

211. Obstacles to intelligent legislation 1

In both state and national legislatures lawmaking is notoriously inefficient and defective. American legislators are not always public-spirited or competent, but even where our lawmakers are conscientious and capable, it has been shown again and again that the laws which they turn out are often defective and ill-considered. We must admit, therefore, that regardless of the personnel of our legislatures there are in this country serious obstacles to intelligent legislation. These obstacles are discussed by Professor Freund in the following passage:

The shortcomings of our present system may be said to be lack of responsibility, lack of expert advice, and lack of principle.

...

1. Responsibility. . . . Any member of the legislature may introduce any bill he pleases, and his doing so does not even necessarily mean that he assumes any responsibility for its form or contents. It has been suggested that it might be well to limit each member of a state legislature to a small number of bills, to induce him to exercise some care and discrimination. If this were regarded as [unreasonable], he might at least be required, as a condition of having his bill considered by a committee, to state at whose request, at the instance of which interest or organization, he introduced a measure; still better to furnish a memorandum of the purpose of the bill and an explanation of its provisions, as is now common in the national legislature when a bill is reported favorably by a committee. This would ensure the correction of many errors and would tend to fix responsibility. . . . All this could be accomplished by rules of the

1 From the American Political Science Association, Proceedings at its Fourth Annual Meeting, 1907. Waverly Press, Baltimore, Md., 1908. Ernest Freund, "The Problem of Intelligent Legislation"; pp. 71-74, 77.

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