A few astute friends of the electorate have perceived that the power of the extra-legal politocracy rested fundamentally upon the political ignorance of the voter, especially the political ignorance of the voter who was an intelligent man and who could render a valuable judgment if he could have the facts. This idea produced the Independent Voters’ League, which through a small executive committee undertakes to gather facts and give out information to the voters about candidates for office. The electorate, of course, should be given information about all candidates in every election. But such a task is too large and (if indeed it be possible at all) would require more money than could be raised by subscription from a comparatively few people. These leagues therefore, when formed, have devoted all their energies to giving the voter information about the candidates for a single office. Thus in Chicago the Municipal Voters’ League informs the electorate in each ward of the city about the candidates for aldermen and those alone. The Illinois Legislative Voters’ League gives out information concerning candidates for the state legislature.

It has been noticeable that of the two the Municipal Voters’ League has been the more effective. This is due in part at least to the fact that at the Chicago aldermanic elections the ballot is very short. In many elections the candidates for the aldermanic office and those alone appear upon the ballot. Thus the voter’s attention is concentrated upon the candidate for a single office from a single district. The advice of the league is, therefore, more easily noted and remembered. On the other hand, the Legislative Voters’ League attempts to advise the voter at an election at which are filled state, county, and judicial offices. The length of the ballot and the number of offices to be filled has already been indicated by the specimen ballot printed, ante, opposite p. 29. Naturally the advice is lost in the babel of voices which goes up concerning the candidates for the important local, state, and national offices to be filled.

The bar primaries as they have been held in Chicago are the weakest of all these altruistic efforts to inform the voter how to vote. Such primaries are merely the expression of preferences by the lawyers of Cook County with respect to the candidates for judicial office. They do not characterize any candidate or give any facts concerning his record. Nor is any effort made to promote the election of the men approved at such bar primary. Where a large number of judges are to be selected by an electorate of several hundred thousand, the bar primary is very weak indeed in its function of giving information to the politically ignorant voter.

Practical experience would seem to indicate that altruistic efforts to enlighten the political ignorance of the voter who is an intelligent man, to be effective at all, must consist of non-partisan, direct, and personal criticisms of candidates’ qualifications and records. Even then not much can be done unless the election is for a single important office and the election district is wieldy[6] in size. Whenever the candidates about whom the voter is to be informed are only four or five out of two or three hundred running for fifty different offices, the information and criticism lose much of their force. If the altruistic effort were directed toward informing the electorate about candidates for unimportant and inconspicuous offices, not only would funds fail to be forthcoming, but its voice would be unheeded and unheard. Thus the limitations upon the effectiveness of the efforts of altruistic voters’ leagues are very definitely fixed.

Of course, newspapers wield a great influence in elections, even when partisan in the dissemination of news regarding candidates and in their comments upon the news. But this exhibition of partisanship occurs largely with reference to the head of the ticket or to candidates for two or three of the most important offices. The influence of a newspaper in advising and directing the voter how to vote when he is ignorant of the qualifications of the candidates and has heard no public discussion in regard to them, depends upon much the same considerations as does the influence of the altruistic voters’ league. To be an effective adviser to the voter as to candidates for subordinate offices, about whom there is no public discussion, a newspaper must be to some extent at least non-partisan. It must be direct and explicit in its recommendations and characterization of the candidates. It must concentrate its efforts on some one point in the ballot and let everything else go. These rules are as a matter of fact regularly observed by newspapers. The practice of them very much limits the actual scope of a newspaper’s power as an adviser and director of the politically ignorant voter.