racter, ability,
and public spirit. They might as well be asked to select men of
that quality to follow the profession of burglars, a comparison
which is not intended to convey any disrespect to the number of
honest and respectable men who constantly are sent to Congress.
Chosen as burglars, they would fail just the same in the
business.... It is the organization of Congress which offers every
facility to those who wish to buy and those who wish to be bought.

Again, as to the present character of parties, Mr. Bradford declares:--

The names of the two great parties, Republicans and Democrats, have
in themselves and at the present time no meaning at all.

Simply because the basis of organization is corruption, and not
questions of public policy. For the same reason recent elections have
been fought on popular "crazes," such as the silver question. But Mr.
Bradford says:--

New parties cannot be formed on constantly changing issues, since
to have any strength they must have a certain degree of permanence.
The only two nations which have succeeded in forming great national
parties are Great Britain and the United States. In other European
countries the splitting into groups has almost made representative
government impossible.

What Mr. Bradford has failed to appreciate is that the absolutely rigid
division into two camps which prevails in America is founded on
corruption, and will disappear when corruption is abolished. In the
United States such a thing as a Congressman deserting one party for the
other is practically unknown. In Great Britain, on the contrary, party
lines do continually change as new issues arise; and when they are
founded on questions of public policy it must be so. What gives them
permanence is that certain principles underlie most questions, and men
who have the same political principles are likely to think the same on
any single question; and further that a member would rather follow his
party and sacrifice his opinion on a single question than sacrifice most
of his principles.

Therefore, even if the Americans do succeed in purifying their politics,
they will be faced with the same difficulty as exists elsewhere--namely,
such improved organization as will secure the return of representatives
on questions of general public policy only. The present system of
single-membered electorates will not suffice. The only remedy l