right, but is subject to challenge, test and improvement, as are other human institutions. The growing responsibilities of government are placing increasing burdens upon the party and with greater complexity of social and industrial conditions it may be presumed that the effectiveness of the party will be sharply scrutinized and its methods materially modified. In the end it will be found that the dissatisfaction with the delegate system and with the direct primary is a symptom of troubles that go deeper down than any method of nomination. The frequent lack of a real basis of party unity must be considered. Party and governmental organization adapted to democratic responsibility and efficiency are involved; social and indus trial maladjustments are related; our political mores, the level of popular interest and intelligence, human capacity for social organization, are intertwined in the fabric of the electoral issue. Light rather than heat is needed in the present stage of our party development, and the forward look of constructive intelligence striving to find the better way in our advance toward genuine democratic association and organization. "On a previous occasion the writer suggested and again urges the great importance of a thoroughgoing, objective study of nominating systems in the United States. This would require the collaboration of a number of persons and the expenditure of considerable amounts for detailed investigation of specific situations, but it would prove the necessary basis for a constructive future policy or alternative policies. Direct Primaries By CHARLES KETTLEBOROUGH, PH.D.1 As an nominatis, the S an agency for the nomination of nated by a primary, the determination direct primary has been adopted and is now in use in 45 states. Connecticut, New Mexico and Rhode Island are the only states which nominate candidates exclusively by other methods. Moreover, in most states the party machinery as it now exists is created and regulated by provisions which have been incorporated in the direct primary laws. The direct primary laws vary in their complexity and wealth of detail from those which have virtually adopted and legalized existing party methods of making nominations to the law of South Dakota, which is conspicuously detailed in its provisions. In its ideal form, all candidates who obtain office by election are nominated at the primary, but there are few, if any states in which the primary is as inclusive as that. Such tendency in the evolution of the primary as may be observed by an inspection of the laws, seems to be in the direction of restricting the primary to the nomination of local candidates, but even this tendency is not marked. The various types of primaries now in use fall rather logically into two classes: (1) The mandatory primary and (2) the optional or permissive primary, with which latter may be included the so-called preferential primary. By the terms of the mandatory primary, all, or certain designated candidates for elective offices must be nominated by a primary. By the terms of the optional or permissive primary, all, or certain designated candidates for elective offices may be nomi 1 See Digest of Primary Election Laws, p. 181. usually being vested in the governing authority of the party of the jurisdiction in which the primary is to be held. The laws in either case are substantially identical, but in the optional primary states, the law must be invoked, while in the mandatory states it operates under its own power. MANDATORY PRIMARIES There are 39 states which have man datory primary laws and in which primary elections are required to be held every alternate year for the nomination of candidates for public office. The mandatory primary states include Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. OPTIONAL PRIMARIES There are 6 states which have the optional primary plan, by virtue of which the governing authority of the party in any jurisdiction may invoke the primary prior to any general election. The optional primary states include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky and Virginia. In addition to these states, however, the optional primary plan may be used in the mandatory primary states under certain circumstances and upon the happening of certain contingencies. In several of the mandatory states, vacancies which happen between the regular primary and the general election may, in the discretion of the party committee, be filled by a nomination made at a special primary. In Alabama and Arkansas, the use of the primary to fill such vacancies is optional. In Michigan, the question of nominating candidates by the primary in cities of less than 70,000 may be submitted or re-submitted to the voters at any biennial primary election, on petition of 20 per cent of the voters; villages and townships, under the general law, nominate candidates at a caucus, but on petition of 10 per cent of the voters of any village, the question of nominating village officers by means of the primary may be submitted to the voters, and if approved by a majority thereof, candidates are thereafter nominated at a caucus in which ballots are used as in a primary. Any village adopting the primary-caucus system may at any time revert to the system provided by the general law. In townships, the primary-caucus plan may be adopted by the township board on its own initiative, or on petition of 25 per cent of the voters the adoption of the plan is obligatory. In Minnesota, in cities of the third class operating under a home rule charter, elective officers may be nominated at the primary on the adoption of a suitable resolution by the council. In North Carolina, county election boards may hold primaries for the selection of candidates for township and precinct officers. The Ohio primary law does not apply to township officers or officers of municipalities of less than 2,000 population, but the voters of such jurisdictions, by petition signed by a majority thereof, may establish the primary therein. Masters, magistrates and supervisors of registration in South Carolina are not nominated at the primary, but the respective county committees are authorized to order a primary for such officers. In West Virginia, the primary is applicable to municipalities, but any city or borough having a population of less than 30,000 may adopt other methods of nomination in lieu of a primary. In Florida, the primary is optional in all cities. In Massachusetts, the question of adopting, continuing or discontinuing the primary in municipalities is submitted at every city and town election. Except as otherwise specified, the governing authority of the party in the jurisdiction affected decides whether a party primary shall be held. The North Carolina primary law does not apply to 39 counties as to county officers and members of the lower house of the legislature, but on petition of one-fifth of the voters, the question of holding primaries therein may be submitted to the voters and if a majority vote favorably, the primary is thereafter operative. DATES OF PRIMARIES The dates of the primaries at which candidates are nominated for the general election are scattered from January to September of the even-numbered years. There is one general primary held in January, one in March, 7 in April, 8 in May, 6 in June, one in July, 16 in August and 14 in September. Owing to the fact that presidential primaries are held separately, there are two general primaries in California, Maryland, Montana, West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Nebraska and Ohio. These dates, of course, take no account of special and municipal primaries, which are timed to occur from 3 to 8 weeks before the election for which they are held. PARTIES TO WHICH APPLICABLE The primary is designed to apply only to the larger parties and only those parties which cast a certain designated per cent of the vote at the last preceding election are obliged to conform with the primary law, although this restriction is conspicuously liberal in several states. The criterion is the total vote cast for governor, or for Secretary of State or for the candidate receiving the highest vote at the last preceding general election. In some cases the state vote is used and in others either the state vote or the vote in the political sub-division affected. The primary is applicable to parties which cast at least 1 per cent of the vote in Maine, Nebraska and Wisconsin; 2 per cent of the vote in Illinois and Iowa and in Pennsylvania for state officers; 3 per cent of the vote in California, Massachusetts, Missouri and New Hampshire; 5 per cent of the vote in Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota and Vermont and in Pennsylvania for county offices; 10 per cent of the vote in Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming and Delaware; 20 per cent of the vote in Oregon and Kentucky; and 25 per cent of the vote in Alabama and Virginia. In New York the act applies to parties which polled 15,000 votes and in Texas 100,000 votes at the last election. In Kansas, Georgia, Arkansas, South Dakota, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Montana the law applies to all parties. In California, where joint candidates are allowable, the percentage is double that of single party candidates. In addition to casting 10 per cent of the vote, Idaho requires that the party must have had 3 nominees for state office at the last election. OFFICERS TO WHICH APPLICABLE Primaries, whether mandatory or optional, do not necessarily apply to all elective officers. The application is more generally uniform as to policy-determining officers than to those whose duty is more ministerial. Among the policy-determining officials to which the primary is applied, either by its own mandatory provisions or by preference provisions which may be invoked by the electors are: President and VicePresident, United States senator, congressmen, governor, and members of the state legislature. Of the local government officials, those having charge of the management and intrusted with the expenditure of the funds of counties, townships, cities, towns and parishes, are generally included. The nomination of local judges, states' attorneys, justices of the peace and constables is frequently, but by no means always, made at the primary. The chief division of local sentiment as expressed in the primaries is over the question of the nomination of state as well as local offices. The theory is that the primary has a more practicable application to local government units than to the state as a whole. Obviously this theory has not gained very wide acceptance as the only states in which the primary is applied to local officials only are the following: Indiana, which excludes all state officers, but affords a preference primary vote on governor and United States senator; Idaho, which, by an act of 1919, restricted the primary to local officers exclusively; Maryland; New York, which abandoned the state-wide primary in 1921; Utah and Florida which apply only to municipal officers; and Kentucky, which is optional as to state officers and mandatory as to local. In addition there are a certain number of officers which are specifically excluded from the primary. These include, in California, municipalities and counties under special charters, cities of the fifth and sixth classes and district officers not for municipal purposes; in Colorado, town officers, delegates to the national convention and presidential electors; in Illinois, to presidential electors, trustees of the State University, school and township officers; in Kansas, local school officials and officers of cities of less than 5,000; in Kentucky, school officers, presidential electors and officers of towns of the fifth and sixth classes; in Massachusetts, cities and towns whose charters otherwise provide; in Michigan, to commission-governed cities or those having special charters; in Minnesota, to towns, villages, third and fourth-class cities, members of school, park and library boards in cities of less than 100,000, to presidential electors and county surveyor; in Missouri, to school, town and village officers and to city officers not elected at a general election; in Nebraska, to cities of less than 25,000, villages, precincts, townships, school districts and boards of supervisors; in Nevada, to city officers and officers of reclamation and irrigation districts; in New Hampshire, to city, town and school district officers; in New York, to town, village, school officers and presidential electors; besides, unofficial primaries may be held, but not at public expense; in Oregon, to cities and towns of less than 2,000 inhabitants. SINGLE SHOT BALLOTS Alabama has a provision in the primary law which eliminates ballots on which but a single name is marked. The law provides that ballots commonly known as single shot ballots shall not be counted. Where two or more candidates are to be nominated, the voter must express himself for as many candidates as there are offices to be filled. INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES It frequently happens that the voters desire to nominate independent candidates for office subsequent to the primaries. There is a tendency on the part of party managers to discourage the practice of nominating independent candidates, and certain safeguards, some wise and others foolish, have been devised to insure party integrity or permit a free expression of opinion. In Arizona, candidates may be nominated by petition, but such petitions must be signed by voters who did not sign petitions before the primary and who did not participate in the primary. Arkansas permits nomination by petition without restrictions. In California, only those persons who did not vote in the primary or sign a petition for the particular candidate may sign a petition and no person is eligible for the office who was defeated at the primary. In Colorado and Idaho, petitions for independent candidates must be signed by voters who did not vote at the primary for any candidate for the office for which the petition is filed. In Indiana, no person can run as an independent candidate unless he files a petition 30 days before the primary. In Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana and Minnesota, a candidate who is defeated at the primary cannot run during the same year as an independent candidate. NON-PARTISAN CANDIDATES In California, all judges, school, county, municipal and township officers are nominated on a non-partisan ballot; in Iowa, all supreme, district and superior judges; in Minnesota, all judges of the supreme, district, probate and municipal courts; members of the state legislature, county officers and city officers in first and second-class cities; in Nevada, all judges of the supreme and district courts, justices of |