The Clovis news. [volume] (Clovis, N.M.) 1907-1929, 1913-07-31

people in every State, city and county viii find the necessary means to get the
principle enacted into law. The great and busy public is usually introduced
to the movement with the simple declaration that
"The short Ballot principle is.-
"FHst-Tbat only those omees should be elective which are Inn
porant enough to attract land desere) public examination"
"second-Thatv very few offices should be filled by election at one
time so as to permit adequate and unconfused public examination Of
the candidates. and 50 as to facilitate the free and intelligent making
Of original tickets by any voter for himself unaided by political
specialists"
No complicated checks and balances" no clever mechanisna. Just d
very few. but absolutely direct points Of contact between the voter and his
public servants, without any patent atachment-hat declared Woodrow
Wilson, in a speech in Philadelphia, in support Of the movement, is the key to
the whole question Of the restoration OF government by the people" Eabor4
ahng somewhat, he said:-"The salient principles Of the Short Ballot system
are first, a governing body as small a is consistent with efficiency; second
a full administrative responsibility lodged in that body; third, the eleetOdi
Of that body by voters who are given only one. 0. at most two, persons to
select. for candidates ans NJ vote for a omcers" In January. 1910. he pub
lshed a complete exposition of the whole theme In a magazine article which
he called Hide and Seek Politics" in the course of which he decared;-
"The Short Ballot is the open way by which we can return. to representa-
tive government 1t has turned out that the methods Of organization which
lead to efficiency in government ar also the methods which give the people
control The busy owner is more enectuany in control if he appoints a
capable superintendent and holds him responsible for the conduct Of the BUSH
ness than he would be if he undertook himself to choose all the subordinate
agents and workmen and superintend both them and the superintendent; and
the business is also better conducted incomparaby better conducted. What
the voters OF the country ar now attempting is not only impossible but also
undesirable If we desire good goMrnment Such a charter as that of the
city Of New York for example is a mere system of obscurhy and Of in
efficiency. It disperses responsibility, murdples elective Offices beyond all
reason Of necessity, and makes both of the government itself and Of its con.
troll by the voters a game Of hdeandseek in labyrinth. Nothing could have
been devised better suited to the uses Of the professional politician nothing
susceptible Of being more perfectly artculated with the nominating machine.
AS a means o popular government, it is not worth the bother and expense OF
an election"
Swiftly. the truth Of these doctrines has been impressing itself Upon the
thinking people Of the country. All but a mere handful Of the editors of the
larger city newspapers have come out readily for the principle; some Of them
revert to It again and again Colleges and universities and high schools over
sixty in number have made it a special subject Of instruction in their class
rooms
Two years slipped by from the launching otthis idea. In the spring Of
1912 the Short Ballot was head over heels in politics. This was partly due
to Colonel Roosevelt who put his influence behind it in his address before
the Ohio constitutional convention. In the fan Of last year it was endorsed
in fourteen State patforms-in Ohio and Illinois by all three leading parties
In 1913 eleven Governors urged its adoption in their States.
CThe next two articles viii show how Mr. Wilson used and extended
the Short Ballot in New Jersey)