tic and national parties may
exist; but a genuinely patriotic faction within a party would be a
plant of much rarer growth. From every point of view, consequently, the
direct primary has its doubtful aspects. The device is becoming so
popular that it will probably prevail; and as it prevails, it may have
the indirect beneficial result of diminishing the number of regular
elections; but at bottom it is a clumsy and mechanical device for the
selection of party candidates. It is merely one of the many means
generated by American political practice for cheapening the ballot. The
way to make votes important and effective is not to increase but to
diminish their number.

A democracy has no interest in making good government complicated,
difficult, and costly. It has, on the contrary, every interest in so
simplifying its machinery that only decisive decisions and choices are
submitted to the voter. Every attempt should be made to arouse his
interest and to turn his public spirit to account; and for that reason
it should not be fatigued by excessive demands and confused by
complicated decisions. The cost of government in time, ability,
training, and energy should fall not upon the followers but upon the
leaders; and the latter should have every opportunity to make the
expenditure pay. Such is the object of the foregoing suggestions towards
reconstruction which, radical as they may seem, have been suggested
chiefly by an examination of the practical conditions of contemporary
reform. Only by the adoption of some such plan can the reformers become
something better than perpetual moral protestants who are fighting a
battle in which a victory may be less fruitful than defeat. As it is,
they are usually flourishing in the eyes of the American people a flask
of virtue which, when it is uncorked, proves to be filled with oaths of
office. The reformers must put strong wine into their bottle. They must
make office-holding worth while by giving to the officeholders the power
of effecting substantial public benefits.

III

POSSIBILITIES OF EFFECTIVE STATE ACTION

The questions relating to the kind of reforms which these reorganized
state governments might and should attempt to bring about need not be
considered in any detail. In the case of the states institutional
reconstruction is necessarily prior to social reconstruction; and the
objects for which their improved powers can be best used need at present
only be indicated. These o