tion of the clerks, both called for by law, have reduced the appropriation necessary for salaries by about $20,000. The cost of supplies was $115,000 less than in 1924. Plans have been announced for reducing the number of districts in the boroughs where equipment is to be completed, to take advantage of the provision allowing 600-700 voters where one machine is used as against 450-600 with paper ballots. In 1926, districts in Manhattan averaged less than 400 and those in Brooklyn about 440. It was planned to reduce the number in these two boroughs from 2,188 to less than 1,600.

As a result of the opposition of Democratic politicians, the reduction will not be as drastic as was hoped for. Nevertheless it has already been decided that in Brooklyn the reduction will be from 1,071 to 917 districts, for both registration and election, though not for the primaries this year. This will mean, as against the allowance required for the last election, a saving of $61,000 in salaries of election officials for this one borough alone. It is offset to some slight extent by the allowance for custodians and instructors. A much greater saving in supplies will doubtless accrue, as well as in rent cost because of the fewer polling places needed. The opposition to greater reduction in the number of districts took the form of a plea that it was against the convenience of the voters. The secretary of the board, however, who is a Republican, pointed out that 700 persons had voted without difficulty on one machine used in 1925, and that in other cities larger numbers had been accommodated. When the redistricting has been completed it will be possible to compute the real economy, as well as the efficiency, in the use of machines.

1

a. Preamble to Oregon Primary Election Law of 1905

[General Laws of Oregon, 1905, pp. 8-9.]

Under our form of government, political parties are useful and necessary at the present time. It is necessary for the public welfare and safety that every practical guaranty shall be provided by law to assure the people generally as well as the members of the several parties, that political parties shall be fairly, freely and honestly conducted, in appearance as well as in fact. The method of naming candidates for elective public offices by political parties and voluntary political organizations is the best plan yet found for placing before the people the names of qualified and worthy citizens from whom the electors may choose the officers of our government. The government of our State by its electors and the government of a political party by its members are rightfully based on the same general principles. Every political party and every voluntary political organization has the same right to be protected from the interference of persons who are not identified with it as its known and publicly avowed members, that the government of the States has to protect itself from the interference of persons who are not known and registered as its electors. It is as great a wrong to the people, as well as to the members of a political party, for one who is not known to be one of its members to vote or take any part at any election or other proceedings of such political party, as it is for one who is not a qualified and registered elector to vote at any State election or take any part in the business of the State. Every political party and voluntary political organization is rightfully entitled to the sole and exclusive use of every word of its official name. people of the State and the members of every political party and voluntary political organization are rightfully entitled to know that every person who offers to take any part in the affairs or business of any political party or voluntary political organization in the State is in good faith a member of such party. The reason for the law which requires a secret ballot when all the electors choose their officers, equally requires a secret ballot when the members of a party choose their candidates for public office. It is as necessary for the preservation of the public welfare and safety that there shall be a free and fair vote and an honest count as well as a secret ballot at primary elections, as it is that there shall be a free and fair vote and an honest count in addition to the secret ballot at all elections of public officers. All

The

qualified electors who wish to serve the people in an elective public office are rightfully entitled to equal opportunities under the law.

The purpose of this law is better to secure and to preserve the rights of political parties and voluntary political organizations, and of their members and candidates, and especially of the rights above stated.

b. Speech of Elihu Root

[Revised Record, New York State Constitutional Convention, 1915,
vol. IV, pp. 3501-3502.]

We talk about the government of the constitution. We have spent many days in discussing the powers of this and that and the other officer. What is the government of this state? What has it been during the forty years of my acquaintance with it? The government of the constitution? Oh, no; not half the time, or halfway. When I ask what do the people find wrong in our state government, my mind goes back to those periodic fits of public rage in which the people rouse up and tear down the political leader, first of one party and then of the other party. It goes on to the public feeling of resentment against the control of party organizations, of both parties and of all parties.

Now, I treat this subject in my own mind not as a personal question to any man. I am talking about the system. From the days of Fenton and Conkling and Arthur and Cornell and Platt, from the days of David B. Hill, down to the present time the government of the state has presented two different lines of activity, one of the constitutional and statutory officers of the state, and the other of the party leaders-they call them party bosses. They call the system-I don't coin the phrase, I adopt it because it carries its own meaning-the system they call "invisible government." For I don't remember how many years, Mr. Conkling was the supreme ruler in this state; the governor did not count, the legislatures did not count; comptrollers and secretaries of state and what not did not count. It was what Mr. Conkling said, and in a great outburst of public rage he was pulled down.

Then Mr. Platt ruled the state; for nigh upon twenty years he ruled it. It was not the governor; it was not the legislature; it was not any elected officers; it was Mr. Platt. And the Capitol was not here; it was at 49 Broadway; Mr. Platt and his lieutenants. It makes no difference what name you give, whether you call it Fenton or Conkling or Cornell or Arthur or Platt, or by the names of men now living. The ruler of the state during the greater part of the forty years of my acquaintance with the state government has not been any man authorized by the constitution or by the law; and, sir, there is throughout the length and breadth of this state a deep and sullen and long-continued resentment at being governed thus by men not of the people's choosing. The party leader is elected by no one, accountable to no one, bound by no oath of office, removable by no one. But it is all wrong. It is all wrong that a government not authorized by the people should be continued superior to the government that is authorized by the people.

c. Regulation of Party Organization

[Illinois Primary Election Law of 1927. Laws of Illinois, 1927, pp. 459-480.]

AN ACT to provide for the making of nominations by, and the organization of, political parties.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

SECTION 1. The nomination of all candidates for all elective, State, congressional, county (including county and probate judge), city (including officers of the Municipal Court of Chicago), village and town and municipal officers, clerks of the Appellate Courts, trustees of sanitary districts, and for the election of precinct, and State central committeemen, and delegates and alternate delegates to national nominating conventions by all political parties, as defined by section 2 of this Act, shall be made in the manner provided in this Act, and not otherwise; provided, the nomination of candidates for electors of President and VicePresident of the United States, and trustees of the University of Illinois, and the election of delegates and alternate delegates at large to national nominating conventions shall be made only in the manner provided for in section ten (10) of this Act; and, provided, further, that this Act shall not apply to school elections and township elections or to the nomination of Circuit and Supreme Court judges or judges of the Superior Court of Cook County.

§ 2. A political party, which at the general election for State and county officers then next preceding a primary, polled more than 2 per cent. of the entire vote cast in the State, is hereby declared to be a political party within the State, and shall nominate all candidates provided for in this Act under the provisions hereof, and shall elect precinct, and State central committeemen as herein provided.

[Then follow similar definitions of a political party within the congressional district, county, city, village, town, or other political subdivision, except townships and school districts.]

§ 3. In determining the total vote of a political party, whenever required by this Act, the test shall be the total vote cast by such political party for its candidate who received the greatest number of votes; provided, however, that in applying this section to the vote cast for any candidate for an office for which cumulative voting is permitted, the total vote cast for such candidate shall be divided by that number which equals the greatest number of votes that could lawfully be cast for such candidate by one elector.

§ 8. The following committees shall constitute the central or managing committees of each political party, viz.: A State central committee, a congressional committee for each congressional district, a county central committee for each county, a municipal central committee for each city, town or village, a precinct committeeman for each precinct.

§9. The State central committee shall be composed of one member from each congressional district in the State and shall be elected as follows:

At the primary held on the second Tuesday in April, 1928, and at the April primary held every two years thereafter, each primary elector may vote for one candidate of his party for member of the State central committee for the congressional district in which he resides. The State central committee of each political party shall be composed of members elected from the several congressional districts of the State, as herein provided, and of no other person or persons whomsoever. The members of the State central committee shall, within thirty days after their election, meet in the city of Springfield and organize by electing from among their own number a chairman, and may at such time elect such officers from among their own number or otherwise, as they may deem necessary or expedient. The outgoing chairman of the State central committee of the party shall, ten days before the meeting, notify each member of the State central committee elected at the primary of the time and place of such meeting. In the organization and proceedings of the State cen