Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/282

278 machine politics and to restore control to the people. Oregon was the second state to adopt the direct primary; Wisconsin, in 1903, preceded Oregon by one year. Washington followed in 1907 and California in 1909. Now there are thirty-two states possessing it, not counting the southern states that have long had the white primary. The effect of direct nominations has been to loosen party ties. Perhaps other governmental agencies have assisted, but at any rate, party ties bind very lightly on the Pacific coast. Some careful observers think that the direct primary has finished its work in Oregon and that it has left an expensive and troublesome double elective system. Hence Portland, Oregon, is found by 1913 adopting a non-party preferential system of voting that necessitates only one election and provides approximately majority rule by the counting of second and third choice votes. Washington also has a preferential system for state elections. The system is somewhat technical, but seems to have produced excellent results in the few elections in which it has been tried.

In the Oregon direct-primary law was found a curious clause known as "Statement No. 1." The operation of "Statement No. 1" resulted in the direct election of United States senators without the adoption of a constitutional amendment to that effect. "Statement No. 1" was simply a statement, which might or might not be made by a candidate for the state legislature, to the effect that he would vote in the state legislature for the people's choice for United States senator. The candidate felt that his chances of election were better if he thus pledged himself. Although a majority of the candidates "took" the statement, the fight to make it effective was dramatic. It was so successful, however, that a republican legislature was forced to elect a democrat for senator. Attention is called to "Statement No. 1" because it was a genuine invention, the rarest of phenomena in politics. Other states followed Oregon's example. All such devices lost their force, however, when the constitution of the United States was so amended that senators are no longer elected by the state legislatures, but directly by the people.

Associated in spirit with the initiative and referendum is the recall of public officials at the will of the voters before the expiration of their terms. Oregon adopted the recall in 1908, and was the first state to do so. California followed in 1911 and Washington in 1912. At the present time ten other states have the recall. The recall has precipitated much argument concerning the whims of democracy and mob psychology. However, experience shows that it has not been used very much. The most conspicuous cases are the recalls of a mayor and an occasional councilman. The failure to use it is not due to the number of signatures necessary to put it in operation, but rather to the difficulty in securing an able candidate to run against the recalled official and