Imperial Valley press., 1915-10-20

are largely strangers TO each other.
Town meetings are out of the ques-
tion, except for the most formal pur-
poses. perfunctorily served; life sweeps
around a thousand centers. and the
old processes of selection, the old bases
of responsibility are impossible.
"3. We have given the people some
thing 50 vast and complicated to do in
asking them to select all the Officers
of government that they cannot do il.
II must BE- done for them by profes-
sionals There are 50 many men II
be named for office; il is futile 10
name one or Two unless You name a
whole ticket; the offices that fill a
ticket are 50 many and so obscure that
done informally and offhand by III
rect, unassisted popular choice. There
must b preliminary process of Sc
lection. Of nomination, of preparing The
ticket as whole. unless there is to
be hopeless confusion, names put up al
haphazard and nobody elected by
clear ma jority at the end The (party)
machine is as yet an indispensable
instrumentality of our politics.
-. And yet that organization is for
the time being necessary. 1t centers,
as everybody knows, in the nominat-
ing machinery. There could be no par
~ organization if our elective system
were literally carried out as il was in
tended 10 be, by the actual direct and
informal selection of every officer of
government, not by party agents or
leaders. but by the scattered voters
of the thousand neighbour oods of a
vast country. 1t was necessary To de
wise some machinery by which these
innumerable choices should be co or
dinated and squared with party lines
1t was a huge business and called for
compact and efficient organization
IN MoreoNer, there was more than the
process of selection to be overseen and
directed students of our political
methods have not often enough brought
into their reckoning the great diver
sity OF social and economic interest
and development which has existed
among the different sections and re
gions of this various country, which
even yet shows every stage and var-
ETY. of growth and makeup and an eX-
traordinarY mixture of races and Gle
mcnts OF population. 1t has been
necessary to keep this miscellaneous
body together by continual exterior
pressure. to give IL a common diree-
ton and consciousness of purpose by /
sheer force of organization. If political
action was not to become hopelessly I
confused and disordered. 1t was not F
conscious If any immediate solidarity I
of interest or object. II might have
broken up into score of groups or
coteries. We might have had more
parties than France, as many sections j.
of political opinions as there were dis
tinctly marked regions of population .
and development. Party interests have
been kept alive, party energy Stlmu-
lated, by entrusting to local agents
and leaders the duty of seeing to ii |
that systematic party nominations were
regularly made and urged upon the
voters by organized campaigns, wheth-
er there was any natural reason or
not why. in any given locality. this .
party or that should be preferred; and .
parties have been pioced to
gether out of these local fragments
The creation of the parts was neces
sary to the creation of the whole. /
do not know how else co-ordiuated
parties could have been made out of
such heterogeneous materials and such
diversified interests.
-. The voter has not the leisure
and, therefore, has not the knowledge
for the difficult and intricate business.
He cannot organize government
every year or two. make up its whole
personnel. apply lis punshments and |
rewards, effect it's dismissals and pro-
motions Neither is there any officer
or any group of Officers of the gov
ernment itself who can organize II [
for him. for no officer has the legal
authority.
sc. Just because there are innumer-
abIe offices to be filled by election.
lust because there are long and elab-
orate tickets to be made up, Just be
cause it needs close and constant at
tention to the matter to perform the
dutV of selection successfully ly-aS care
full and constant attention as the su-
of great business or
the head Of a great government bu-
reau has to exercise in selecting ana
Keeping up the personnel of his fac
tory, his office, or his bureau-lt can
not POSSIBLY be done by the voters as
n body 1t requires too much knowl-
edge and too much judgment. best stowed
upon little offices without number as
we'll as upon great.
~ 1t is very desirable to nave Sc
cret voting to protect the voter against
scrutiny or any kind of coercion di-