r such laws,
whoever first gets possession of the hall at the time named would seem
to be the regular candidate. We have, therefore, in Massachusetts,
seen the scandal of two groups of men making different nominations in
a loud voice at the same time, one at the front of the hall, and the
other at the back, and the courts had to decide who was the regular
nominee. In the opinion of most lawyers, they decided in favor of
those who ought to have been the nominees rather than of those who in
fact were.

In the opinion of many "practical politicians," as well as others,
the whole mass of legislation that recognizes political parties and
applies to anything happening up to the date of election, should be
expunged from the statutes. I would hardly make an exception even
of the "bi-partisan" board. A board should be composed of the best
persons, not necessarily party-colored; if there be any force in the
argument for bi-partisan commissions, it should apply ten times as
much to the judges, but there is no provision in any State of the
Union or in the National government for bi-partisan courts of law.
Massachusetts, alone, so far as the writer is informed, of all the
States, by a certain tradition respects this principle. Very few
Massachusetts governors replace a Democratic judge by a Republican, or
_vice versa_.

But most significant of all political matters is the growing distrust
of legislatures. Curiously enough, although there was a great distrust
of the executive of the nation until within a very few years, that
seems to have entirely passed away. Governors of States have too
little power to inspire distrust in anybody. But that legislatures or
representatives of the people should fail to inspire their confidence
is one of the most curious developments of modern politics. The matter
has been fully discussed elsewhere in this book. It is greatly to be
lamented, for it tends to lower the character of the legislatures
themselves. The days are indeed far off when a man would prefer being
governor of a State to president, ambassador, or judge of the Supreme
Court; or the State Senate to the national Congress. Part of this
indifference is, of course, explicable; for with the perfection of our
civilization and the growing intelligence that most statutes have
been enacted that are really needful, there is really less for the
legislatures to do. Then, also, the growing practice of giving a large
share of governmental, or even