VOL. LXI

Preliminary

The State of South Dakota has Presidential adopted certain political arPolitics rangements that have some interest for the rest of the country, whether or not they are of much practical use to South Dakota itself. The primary elections for nominating party candidates are to be held in South Dakota in March; and at that time delegates will be chosen to attend the national party conventions. The law requires that the parties hold simultaneous conventions at the State Capitol, Pierre, several months in advance of the primaries, and accordingly these gatherings were held in the opening days of December. A preliminary expression on presidential candidates is one of the unusual requirements of this South Dakota system. The delegates from each county are allowed to vote in the ratio of the number of party votes cast at the last State election. The technical features of this curious primary law of South Dakota were not a matter of note, but the results last month actually secured extensive news reports and general press comment throughout the United States.

Candidates

Everyone interested in politics Named in South knew that several so-called

Dakota "booms" had been started for presidential candidates. But not many citizens knew to what extent such movements were organized; much less was it known how far there was a genuine public support for one or another of the suggested candidacies. The value to the country of South Dakota's early conventions lay in the testing. of these somewhat doubtful movements in a concrete situation. What was vaguely in solution had to be precipitated, to use a chemical analogy, in this Western political laboratory. So far as developed Republican candidacies are concerned, that of General

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The

Leonard Wood and that of Governor Frank O. Lowden of Illinois have now assumed a character quite substantial because the Republican convention in South Dakota, in actual experiment, discovered 28,599 votes for Wood and 15,442 for Lowden. endorsement of General Wood at the convention is not a conclusive or binding action; and the voters at the primaries in March will be free to choose delegates to the national convention in Lowden's interest rather than in that of General Wood, or even in the interest of some other candidate if they should then see fit to reject the advice of the December convention. But the vote for this candidate, who is not in any manner identified with South Dakota and who is not therefore a "favorite son" or a selection made for local reasons, is indicative of the practical character that the movement on behalf of the nomination of Leonard Wood has assumed throughout the country. From various indications many people had thought his candidacy was growing; and the South Dakota vote came as a significant piece of evidence. It was doubly welcome to the organizers and managers of the Wood movement, because local politicians everywhere like to be early in the camp of the winner; and many who had no objections but had not committed themselves were now ready to show a more positive interest in General Wood as the leading candidate.

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