soliciting of voters-from June 1 to election day in November.

3. The large majority of candidates nominated are machine men. As less than fifty per cent of those entitled to do so voted, the Boss's henchmen, as under the convention system, controlled matters, though a few free-lances slid in.

4. The bitter contests for nomination result too frequently in the defeated candidate for nomination and his friends bolting the party nominee.

5. The geographical location of candidates is important in making up a county ticket. This cannot be provided for under the primary system, hence all the candidates may come from one town or vicinity, at the cost of enthusiasm for a local candidate in other precincts.

6. The nominees, when selected, are not better qualified or better citizens than those selected under the convention system. Almost of necessity they are under more obligations to a greater number of people.

Is the primary system, so far as county offices are concerned, a failure?

I asked one candidate his experience and opinion of the system. He said: "I thought I took an interest in politics because I always voted and read what the newspapers said; but that's a small part of being interested, I've found.

I am

opposed to bosses, and always have been, and I concluded to run for Treasurer. It pays, I find, about eight thousand dollars a year. I thought that under the primary system I would have as good a chance as any one to get the nomination, as I have lived in the county twenty years and knew so many people, and it wouldn't cost much, anyway. I certainly would be considered qualified [he is an expert accountant]. I announced my candidacy and had several thousand cards and placards printed, and interviewed the newspapers and got a 'write-up' in each one, at a cost of from ten to twenty-five dollars per write-up. My opponent did the same, and began a very active campaign over the county in an automobile. started then, and didn't like to quit, so I rented an automobile and went out campaigning. I saw ninety per cent of the voters-less than fifty per cent voted at the primaries. I found there was no party organization to help a candidate for nomination, though the Boss's opinion as to who should be nominated cut a large figure-I didn't understand exactly why. I found I had to have a personal repre

I was

sentative in each voting precinct-two or three in some-and set about securing them. I was greatly surprised to find that practically every one of the men who know the voters individually, have some influence with them, and are at the polls each election day whooping it up for some particular persons, are not only machine men, but expect and receive pay for their services. And they are absolutely necessary to success; they shape the sentiment of their community towards a candidate, and the voters of the precinct know them as active party men and look to them for information. I was in the race, and meant to win; so I got two men in each of the seventy-two precincts to work for me. So each precinct cost me from ten to twenty-five dollars for election day work alone. Now that I've got the nomination I find our County Committee is hope lessly split and wholly useless because of so much soreness' over candidates defeated for nomination, so I've got to continue my personal machine until election-three months-and increase it by adding the workers that were for my opponent. I've got a month's work to do to get my own party in line for me, and I ought to have that time to work on Republicans, for I've got to have a lot of Republican votes and all my own party's votes in order to win. It looks like I'll have to join forces with C- ~ [the Boss], who controls a number of the other candidates, and try to get some sort of a working organization outside the County Committee; otherwise there's no chance for any of us. I'm out about three thousand dollars now, and the real fight hasn't commenced. This primary business sounds nice, but the old convention system beats it. There we'd have had the nominations over in a day, and no time for the voters to get worked up in favor of some certain candidate and sore at his defeat."

"But," I said, "you acknowledge you have become a machine politician, so perhaps you are prejudiced."

Every one in this county will tell you the same thing," he retorted.

'Perhaps so," I answered; "but there aren't any reformers in this county-just office-seekers."

"I guess you're right there," he agreed; "we're not reformers."

"If a born leader like Roosevelt or Garfield or La Follette wanted to fight a machine for a principle, he could succeed easier than under the convention system, couldn't he?" I asked.

"Sure thing. The primary would render a boss helpless against a Roosevelt."

That, of course, is the prime point in favor of the primary. But must we have this advantage at the expense of county politics? For the primary has debauched county politics into personal politics. It simply has turned the political machine, which had some use as a preserver of party organization, into a personal machine to graft off the county and the boss into a disburser of offices, without regard to party.

This condition suggests the query, If no political question is involved in the choice of county officials, why elect them at all? Why permit the business of a county-mere clerical work-to be a matter of politics? If political plum trees no longer make lumber for a party organization, why grow them? Why longer elect a $10,000-a-year sheriff, an $8,000-ayear Collector, a $4,000-a-year Recorder of Deeds? Surely, if political parties cannot use the plums, the people have no desire to maintain a sort of Jack Horner pie into which any one with money may put his thumb. Why not place our county offices under Civil Service? Class them where they belong-clerkships-and attach clerkship salaries to them and fill them with citizens who pass examinations held under State supervision. The work would be done cheaper and better; in fact, the clerks who are now, and for years have been, doing the county's work would take examinations and continue the work, the politician and his salary would be eliminated, and the taxpayer's public employees, like his private ones, would be working on a business basis.

In this county there is in the Circuit Clerk's office a woman who has run the office for twelve years at a salary of eighty dollars a month, while three successive officials have come and gone, with little knowledge of the office or its conduct, though drawing a yearly income of more than three thousand dollars.

In the office of the Recorder of Deeds is a man made deaf by an accident some years ago, who has managed and overseen the work there for twenty years, while four elected officials have smilingly and politically held the office and received its emoluments. In the County Clerk's office another man has served for years as clerk. These are the ones who, under civil service, would hold the office, while officeseekers would turn their attention to other lines of business, less remunerative perhaps, but more stable. Good men would not be made into ingratiating beggars and citizens would not be harassed by their importunities.

This appointment of minor officials would shorten the ballot, leaving the voter free to study and decide the real issues in State and Federal politics, centering his attention on offices where there is a principle at stake. It would very largely eliminate political pie, and free State candidates from entangling alliances with county officials, their friends and machines. Ultimately it would shear county machines of all power.

If the primary makes plain to thinking people the character of county politics, if it discloses what county office-seeking really is-an effort to work the public for a living-and points the way to correct the situation; if it does all this, in addition to offering an opportunity for real leaders to come before the people when there is a real issue, we will call it a success. But certainly office-seekers with no issue and machine bosses will never approve it.