Short Ballot PDF Download

Mr. Childs has written a book on Short Ballot Principles with incidental remarks on other phases of our political life. The book is interesting because of its originality. It is almost unique in that Mr. Childs, though he would ordinarily be classed as a reformer, writes in a spirit of charity. Practical politicians generally regard reformers as persons filled with envy, malice and all uncharitableness, hypocritically seeking access to the flesh-pots of Egypt for themselves, while abusing the experienced servants of the public, who have been honored with the public confidence. The real convictions of practical politicians rarely find adequate expression in the press because of their instinctive and almost universal dislike for newspaper notoriety. They regard reformers as notoriety seekers, and have no wish to emulate them in this respect. Reformers ordinarily account for this dislike of notoriety on the theory that the ways of politicians are dark and that naturally they shun the sunlight of public inspection. Mr. Childs shows us plainly that we owe a debt of gratitude to the particular men who govern us. He admits what is the fact that we can't expect them to do all the work of running our exceedingly complicated political machinery without pay and that generally we pay but one salary for this unofficial service and official service too. In our desire to have what we think is democratic government and to attend to all the details in person, we have elaborated our electoral machinery and patiently vote for clerks, constables and dog catchers, seldom reflecting that we are only enabled to do this by the devoted labors of those who arrange our complicated ballots for inspection on election day. We are accustomed to complain that bosses make the nominations to suit themselves, but when we delegate the job to a selected committee of reformers we seldom approve the result. Mr. Childs proves by example and illustration that there is a limit to the number of persons for whom we can intelligently vote at one session. He says that election day is a misnomer, we ought to call it "elections day" when we vote to fill forty offices at once. Mr. Childs has charity in his heart for both reformers and politicians. He does not ascribe to either the characters they each give to the other. He seems to think that in the existing conditions of our society they both have been evolved as natural products with useful functions to perform, somewhat akin to the functions of the germs that inhabit our bodies and continually war upon each other, thus preserving a happy balance.... -"National Municipal Review," Volume 1 [1912]