judges, four members of the advisory committee to the chairman of the Essex county committee. Of the twentyeight Democrats, one was governor, one ex-state committeeman and member of the Essex county committee, two United States representatives, one chairman of a county committee, three state committeemen, four mayors of leading cities, one county clerk, two state senators, one collector of internal revenue, one leader of last session of assembly, two city commissioners of two largest cities in the state, one member of a county executive committee, and one member of a state commission. After the Republican convention some of the New Jersey papers attempted to indicate which five delegates voted for Senator Harding. In the absence of a poll of the delegation there seems to be no means of putting a national delegate on record in the exercise of his most important function.

New York. First Tuesday in April. State primary seventh Tuesday before fall election. Delegates are directly elected, not more than four at large. There is no preference vote and no provision for a delegate to indicate on the ballot his choice for president. Designating petitions for delegate at large must contain 3,000 signatures and for district delegate, 500. There is a strict party enrollment law.

The details of the New York primary of this year are instructive. The primary was held on April 6. In the New York Times of February 4 appeared the statement that the Democratic state committee would hold a meeting to consider the calling of an unofficial state convention for the proposal or endorsement of delegates at large and district delegates to the national convention. A letter to the Democratic state chairman asking for information on the composition of this convention and the method of selecting the mem

bers elicited no reply and the newspapers contain no account of an election of delegates. A district leader in New York county, however, vouchsafed the information that each state committeeman was entitled to attend the convention along with two persons whom he selected to accompany him. The Republicans also held an unofficial convention which had for its avowed purpose the adoption of a platform and the recommending of delegates at large to the Republican voters. The necessity or advantage of a platform at this time is hardly apparent to the naked eye. Elections to choose delegates to this convention were held, in New York city at any rate, at the various assembly district headquarters. A request by letter to the Republican state chairman for the vote for these delegates brought no response. The vote for delegate in the eleventh assembly district was printed in the Times as 126, the result of a contest which was apparently the single exception to complete harmony in the Manhattan caucuses. The Republican enrollment in the eleventh district in 1919 was 8,181. Party leaders stated that no significance attached to the selection of these delegates as far as the presidential situation was concerned.

To head off any trouble that might be started in the Republican convention the state committee first named the "big four" delegates and alternates. At the Democratic convention a complete slate of delegates was proposed for "recommendation" to the voters. The "recommendation" was accepted with hardly a murmur of disapproval. In 39 of the 43 districts absolutely no choice among delegates was offered to the Democratic voter who went to the polls on April 6 out of a sense of civic duty. duty. The organization candidates in the Republican primaries made a clean sweep. In only 16 of the 43 dis

tricts were there contests. Only one man contested the choice of the machine for delegate at large and he was a Hoover supporter. About a quarter of the Republican voters went to the polls and 15 per cent of the Democrats. Among the Democratic delegates were 23 state committeemen, district leaders or congressmen; among the Republican delegates were 33 persons of similar political positions while only 34 of the 88 delegates did not hold public or party office. The number of officials, party and public, who find places on the delegations is not really a matter of much moment because the preliminaries, if considered in connection with the result of the primaries, show that the state committee members could probably secure their election to the conventions to the number to which the state is entitled, if they chose to do so. The Evening Post's editorial on the primary was headed, "The Primary Vindicated": it asserted there could be no disappointment among friends of the primary over the way in which it had done what it was intended to do; that Governor Hughes never held it up as anything more than an opportunity for the effective expression of the will of the party voter. That the opportunity was very imperfectly realized this year would be the testimony of most intelligent voters, but the voters may have been responsible for the lack of opportunity. To state what principle or what candidate he was supporting in his vote for delegate would have been beyond the conjecture of the great majority of the voters.

North Carolina. First Saturday in June. Latest presidential primary. General state primary at the same time. Preference vote. All delegates at large and district delegates are held bound to support the candidate receiving the majority of the preference vote.

If no candidate receives a majority, the plurality governs in each congressional district and in the state at large respectively. The intent of this provision is not very clear in the absence of interpretation. How far the delegate is "bound" by the preference vote is not indicated. There seems, as in the case of Michigan, to be no provision whatever for the election of the national delegates. A declaration and record of party membership is required of the voters before participation in the primary.

North Dakota. Third Tuesday of March. Regular state primary last Wednesday in June. Preference vote. Delegates are elected directly on a general ticket. Recommendation of a national committeeman by the primary vote. Each elector receives the ballot of the party with which he declares himself affiliated or with which he may have registered. Expenses of delegates to the national convention are paid to the amount of $200. Every delegate must subscribe an oath that he will to the best of his judgment and ability faithfully carry out the wishes of his party. The privilege of the publicity pamphlet does not seem to be available to the candidates for president and delegates.

Ohio. Last Tuesday in April. State primary second Tuesday of August. Preference vote. Direct election of delegates. The candidate for delegate must state his first and second choice for president with the consent of the presidential aspirants indicated. These choices appear with the candidate's name on the ballot. The candidate for delegate may also file a statement that he will support the candidate for president who receives the highest vote in the party. It does not appear whether this statement is printed on the ballot or whether the delegate is to support the choice of the state or of the district.

The name of no candidate for president is to be submitted to the voters without his consent. Voters are restricted to the primary of their own party.

Oregon. Third Friday in May, general state primary. National delegates, four at large and two from each district, are directly elected, and also national committeemen. Preference vote. The declaration of candidacy of a delegate must contain his promise to use his best efforts to secure the nomination of the voters' preference. The delegate may file in a statement of 100 words the names of candidates or principles in which he especially believes, and may indicate the 12 words that he desires printed on the ballot. Both candidates for delegate and for the presidential nomination are entitled to use the official publicity pamphlet on payment of the fee. Voters are registered in their respective parties. It will be noticed that the state is the unit in the preference vote and that each delegate must pledge his support of the statewide preference. Oregon, like Montana, has given up the system of election at large in which each voter could vote for only one delegate. The result in Oregon in 1912 was the election of a mixture of LaFollette, Roosevelt, and Taft men pledged by the preference vote to Roosevelt. As a consequence, part of the delegation supported the movement which gave the Taft forces control of the convention, yet the present Oregon law by no means guarantees the selection of delegates honestly favorable to the state's preferred candidate. All of the districts may not go as the state goes in preference; and further, due to the failure of some who vote a presidential preference to vote for a delegate, even the delegates at large may not personally desire the success of the state's favorite. This year although Johnson had a plurality of about 2,000, the avowed Johnson

delegates were defeated and the manager of the Wood campaign was among the delegates elected.

Pennsylvania. Third Tuesday in May. Regular spring primary for all the candidates for offices to be filled at the general election. Fall primary, the third Tuesday in September, in odd years. Preference vote and direct election of delegates. In 1912 delegates at large were chosen at a state convention and no preference vote was provided for. The distribution of delegates is certified to the secretary of the commonwealth by the chairman of the state committees. After the names of all candidates for delegate there must be printed on the ballot one of two statements: that the delegate promises or does not promise to support for the presidential nomination with all fidelity in all matters coming before the convention the popular choice of his party in the state (if a delegate at large) or in the district (if a district delegate) according as he has or has not filed a statement of this promise. This year the name of only one candidate for the Republican preference vote was printed on the ballot, that of a retired business man of Philadelphia, Edward Randolph Wood. The result was somewhat disconcerting to those whose confidence in plebiscites is unshaken. Mr. Wood polled about 258,000 votes out of a total Republican preference vote of 279,000. Some 3,900 voters wrote in the name of Leonard Wood. Just what was in the minds of the 258,000 adherents of Mr. E. R. Wood is not absolutely certain but probably the joke is on them. It is rather needless to say that the Pennsylvania delegation did not consider themselves under obligation to support the state's recorded choice.

South Dakota. Fourth Tuesday in March. General state primary. Prob

RECAPITULATION

This review of the presidential primary laws in these twenty states may be briefly recapitulated. Three states, Vermont, Michigan, North Carolina, provide for a preference vote on the presidential aspirants but make no provision whatever for the selection of delegates. Two other states, Indiana and Maryland, take a preference vote and allow the national delegates to be selected by state conventions, for which the delegates are chosen at the time of the preference vote. Three states, New York, New Hampshire, California, provide for the direct election of delegates, but not for a preference vote, although California's grouping arrangement is practically equivalent to a preference vote, and New Hampshire allows delegates to pledge themselves to support certain presidential candidates. The remaining states elect delegates directly (except delegates at large in Illinois) and permit the voters an expression of preference among aspirants. Montana, North Dakota and probably South Dakota (with California), select their quotas on a general ticket.

THE VOICE OF THE PRIMARY Back in 1912 as the returns from the presidential primary elections became public, it was a commonly expressed opinion in the daily and periodical press that probably the last old-fashioned pre-convention campaign was being witnessed. Eight years later the primaries and conventions have again been held, and if this year the former had any influence on the latter, it remains invisible and intangible. Both conventions are apparently as free as ever to select candidates, and there is no repetition of the 1912 comment as to the end of the convention system. But there seems to be continued wide

spread dissatisfaction with that system and voluble lament that the presidential primary is a "farce." True, Will Irwin's statement that the people of the United States have as much influence in selecting the president as the British have in choosing a crown prince appears to be no great exaggeration, or is not so obviously to be classed under the rhetorical category of hyperbole. If the administration of either Mr. Harding or Mr. Cox should prove disastrous, the blame which could be directly attached to the voters of the Republican or Democratic party for an unwise nomination would be slight indeed. Do the voters wish to determine the party candidate? Should the candidate be the voters' choice? Are the voters capable of making a wise selection? A popular referendum would certainly answer in the affirmative. Yet in 1912, when there was no doubt about the primary's favorite in the Republican party, a convention turned him down. The fact that twelve states used the primary, however, could not furnish a conclusive reason to the convention for throwing over the old system, which most states had retained. And the verdict of the old system was quite as clear as that of the new. There was a conflict of systems. One need not be a convinced Democrat to see some good results of the Republican primary of that year. On the other hand, the pronouncement of the Democratic primary in 1912 was less certain, although the Democratic convention's action is thought by many to have disregarded the people's choice. 1916 the primary was an automaton in one party and an idle implement in the other. In the one any conceivable system would have worked the same way. In the other even an improved primary would probably have uttered a Delphic response.

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