sists of men who are not so much desirous of political positions as of political favors, or of the control of the disbursement of political funds. It is largely this aspect of the committee system which has brought it into disrepute in many states. Though it is generally conceded that the work done by the various committees could not easily be done by other than comparatively small bodies of men, and that successful party government necessitates some such plan, the extra-legal phase of the committee system has come into such disrepute that steps have been taken to render the state committees more directly responsible to the electorate.

With the introduction of the party machinery under the convention system came the acceptance of the principle of rotation in office, with the idea of short terms and frequent elections. The practice followed by Jackson and his successors in the Presidency became general throughout the states -namely, for the politicians to control the conventions with a view to the distribution of the spoils. Availability was made the first qualification for candidates to office. With this practice came an exaltation of party loyalty and the growth of a class of office-seekers. Thorough organization and effective party discipline were accomplished before the Civil War. The war resulted in the strengthening of these organizations. The North perfected its machinery to hold the government under its control; the South organized as a solid South to fight reconstruction policies. In the conventions centered the great contests for political power and preferment. Despite the fact, then, that efforts have been made to regulate the conduct both of the caucus and of the convention, to limit their action and even to abolish them entirely, they both continue to persist as influential parts of the political machinery. Whether to abolish the caucus and the convention systems or whether to continue to retain them as permanent organs of party government in their present form or in a modified form, are issues on which there is a wide diversity of opinion.

If caucus and convention are to be retained, it then becomes necessary to determine what functions can properly be accorded to these party devices and to define the regulations by law under which they may operate.1

DEFECTS OF THE PARTY SYSTEM

With the rise and growth of parties in the United States have come corrupt and undesirable practices. To such an extent have these developed that radical reformers would eliminate parties. Though the founders of our nation, fearing the evils which accompany political divisions, made no provisions for parties in the fundamental law, they were not only inevitable, but also have served a valuable purpose in the political mechanism of the government. Parties are, no doubt, essential in promoting the fundamental aims of a democratic form of government, in unifying, in harmonizing, and in directing the various departments. But the real service which the party system renders toward that end will continue to be thwarted unless the conspicuous evils and vital problems which have developed with the system are given that thought and effort on the part of citizens which will lessen or eradicate such evils.

The Convention System.-Evils and defects which developed under the convention system, and later in connection with the primaries, have tended to discredit party machinery and party organization. One of the chief defects of the convention system, it has been claimed, is that conventions are frequently in the hands of disreputable leaders.2 This fact was evidenced in the roster of a Cook County convention which met in Chicago in 1896, in which, according to a current report, there were 157 delegates who had been convicted of crime, and 278 saloon keepers, pool

Report on the status of the convention in your state. Secure information from officers of state committee, county committee, and precinct committee.

2 P. O. Ray, Introduction to Political Parties and Practical Politics, revised edition (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1917), p. 127.

room proprietors, etc., out of a total of 723 delegates.1 It is hardly likely that such a body would select nominees representing the best citizenship of the community. Other defects which have developed under the convention system are the use of bribery and the intimidation of delegates before the meeting of the convention; the sending of substitutes as proxies, by which unscrupulous politicians often performed the duties of regularly elected delegates; the practice of organizing a faction among those defeated at the primaries in order to contest the election of the regularly chosen delegates; and the indulgence in fraudulent proceedings which frequently resulted in depriving the individual delegate of his judgment and vote. These and other evils of the convention system tended to discredit convention procedure and brought about a general demand for nomination by primaries. Government became a matter in which the few job seekers and ward politicians might exercise their activities and ingenuity; and to this type of citizen it gave its chief incentive and encouragement. To the orderly citizen there was a positive discouragement to participate in the sometimes outrageous procedure which conventions encouraged. All of these evils developed under a system in which the rules and regulations of conducting conventions were regulated by each party according to its own desires. The theory prevailed that political parties were private affairs in which the state had no interest, and parties were thus allowed to manage their own affairs in what has been called an extralegal and extra-constitutional fashion. The customary method of procedure is thus described by M. Ostrogorski:

The absolute power of the small cliques of managers, who settled everything behind the scenes, was such a common thing with them, that the old appellation of Caucus, in the sense of secret meeting, of cabal, was revived and applied in everyday language to the primaries, either term being used indifferently, and finally extended to the whole system of the

1 P. O. Ray, Introduction to Political Parties and Practical Politics, revised edition (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1917), p. 128.

representative party organization, of which the primaries were the basis, under the name of 'caucus system.” The professional politicians, who filled the Organization at all its stages, executed their movements, under the direction of the managers and the wirepullers, with such uniformity and with such indifference or insensibility to right and wrong, and operated with such unerring certainty on the electorate, that they evoked the idea of a piece of mechanism working automatically and blindly, of a machine. The effect appeared so precisely identical that the term "Machine" was bestowed on the Organization as a nickname, which it bears down to the present day, even in preference to that of "Caucus."

The convention system was built upon a series of primaries entirely unregulated by law and controlled, as a rule, in the interests of the dominant machine. Some of the most notorious evils were practiced in such unregulated primaries.

Unregulated Primaries.-The evils which centered around the unregulated primaries were, briefly:2 The predominance of the foreign elements, and as a result the increase of the large vote which has been continuously used by the party managers for their own special and private ends; and the holding of primaries in objectionable places, saloons, and other centers which the respectable citizens have found objectionable in case they performed their duties as voters. A few years ago the majority of primaries were held in saloons, under conditions which were far from conducive to good citizenship. Often rough and outrageous conduct prevailed at the primaries, and it has been a favorite practice to conduct the whole affair in such a manner in order to discourage the participation of those who did not sanction such procedure. Bribery has been 1 M. Ostrogorski, Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties; vol. ii (The Macmillan Company, 1908), pp. 128-129.

Report on Tammany Hall. Cf. James Bryce, The American Commonwealth, ch. lxxxviii, and references in Ray, op. cit., pp. 474-481.

Report on the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Machine. Cf. Bryce, op. cit. lxxxix, and C. A. Beard, Readings on American Government and Politics, p. 127, and references in Ray op. cit., pp. 474-481.

Report on the Colorado Machine. Cf. Ben B. Lindsey and Harvey J. Higgins, The Beast (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1910).

2 For this summary we are indebted to P. O. Ray, op. cit., pp. 115 ff,

used notoriously in elections when necessary to carry out the wishes of the boss or the machine, and party affairs have often been conducted by a very small group or ring made up of those who were seekers for office or were in the pay of some special or private interests and were seeking to control the government for these ends. Although laws have been enacted to prevent practically all of these evils, nevertheless recent revelations have made it clear that such methods and devices have by no means been eliminated.

The Regulated Primary.-As a result of a growing dissatisfaction with the convention system, dominated by party bosses and run by party committees, there developed a popular attempt to ascertain more nearly the popular will through the direct primary. In most states it is now used in some form in the nomination of state and local officers. But even under the direct-primary system many states have retained some form of the party convention as an organized agency to formulate the party platform and to assist in the administration of certain phases of the election laws. Moreover, in some states where conventions have given way to the direct primary, they have been re-established in order to permit the selection of candidates for certain offices.

The first primary law, passed by California in 1866, was purely optional, and in case it was accepted by a party required that (1) due notice be given of the time and place of the elections of candidates and delegates; (2) publication in the papers of the time and place of the primary be required; (3) provision be made for a supervisor to examine prospective voters. In addition penalties were provided for violation of the act. In Crawford County, Pennsylvania, a system was devised by which nominations were made by all parties on the same day under the same rules and regulations. This system was later recognized and approved under laws enacted by other states, in the effort to institute a statewide regulation