The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-12-05
Woodrow Wilson
on the Short Ballot
lFrom speech by Woodrow Wilson at
Philadelphia City Club

4
Philadelphia City Club
Political reform is not with US in
America any longer a question OF mo-
| tive, but a question of means.
The reason for the existence of a
political machine Is the elaborate po-
litical processes now necessary in tine
nomination and election Of candidates
for office. These processes are so
elaborate as to need the skill of those
who make their use a profession
Our attacks upon the machine are
for the most part futile because they
ordinarily take the form of still fur
Their elaboration of process. We in
vent some new form of primary. We
Introduce the practice of the '|initia-
tive" and referendum" We create
the privilege of recall" and before
we are through We have given the
need the assistance Of professional adj
visers in doing them, and can easily
be outwitted by those very advisers
in the very processes which were
meant to free them from control
The whole of the matter is clearly
enough displayed in the circumstances
| of our ordinary elections. We give
! the voter SO many persons to vote for
| that the ballot becomes complicated
thing which he has not time himself
to prepare, and which he can not
thoroughly understand after il has
Nv !
sional politician. 1t is very rare that
a ballot put in the hands of the voter
contains less than twenty-five names.
| One ballot that I have seen contained
seven hundred, was printed like a
| newspaper in compact columns, and
was much larger than a single sheet
OF newspaper. And the ballots de-
vised even by ballot reforlners
throughout the country differ from
this extraordinary ballot only in the
number of names, which run from the
scores to the hundreds. OF course it
is impossible for the ordinary voter
to make discriminating choices among
the multitude of names presented to
MIN of persons unknown to him, and
about whom diligent inquiry will dis
close very little. 1t would take a small
volume to set before him the records
OF all the persons he is asked to vote
for, and he is helpless in the presence
of the task set before him. If he tries
to make nominations of his own, a
single name Of his own and his neigh
boris suggesting will be lost among
the multitude on the ballot; and il
he tries to make up an entire ticket
he will find himself daunted in a thou
sand ways by the difficulty of the I'M
ldertaking.
1t is plain that the way of reform
lies in the direction of simplification
If the voter is to know what he is
about, the number Of persons he is to
be called upon to vote for must be
reduced to a minimum. When it is sc
reduced. both nomination and election
will become direct, simple and intel
lligible.
| / believe that the short ballot is the
key to the whole question of the re
storation of government by the PEG
pie. It's salient principles are these:
First, a governing body as small as is
consistent with efficiency; second
full administrative responsibility
lodged in that body; third, the cleo
ton of that body by voters who arr
given only one or at most two per
sons to select for candidates and t.
vote for as officers