The result so far has refuted all these assumptions, hopes and promises. The people at large do not take part in the primaries, and the political machines are more powerful than ever. Thus, in New York county, the Republican vote for governor at the direct primaries of 1914 was only 23,305, out of a total enrollment of 56,108 and a vote in November of 85,478; the Democratic primary vote was only 48,673 out of a total enrollment of 132,693 and a vote in November of 90,666, and the Progressive primary vote was only 6,972 out of a total enrollment of 19,705 and a vote in November of 5,604. It will be readily perceived from these figures that a small minority of the voters in each party took the trouble to participate in the direct primary elections, even in the case of the nomination for governor of our state, as to which there was an exciting contest in each party. An examination of the figures throughout the entire state will show that the voters in nearly all districts took less interest in direct primary elections for nominations than they were accustomed to take under the old convention system and that the controlling power is still being exercised by the organization, but now acting in secret and utterly irresponsible. For example, the Republican primary vote for governor in Bronx county was 5,276 against a Republican vote of 29,865 in November, and in Richmond county the Republican primary vote for governor was 984 against a Republican vote of 5,477 in November. It is probably correct to assume that not one-half of the Republican or Democratic voters now enroll, and that, on an average, less than one-half of the enrolled voters take the trouble to go to the primaries, even when there is a serious contest, as was the case last year for governor. There were then three proposed Republican candidates, Whitman, Hedges and Hinman, and the result was that less than one-sixth of the Republican vote in November might have been sufficient to carry the primaries, the total Republican vote for governor having been 686,701 as against a total primary vote of 226,037 for the three candidates. Under the present direct primaries, the voters of a small portion of the state can put a candidate in nomination by petition; any number of names may be put on the official primary ballot, and a candidate may be put in nomination by a very small minority vote confined to a single locality. In fact, twenty or more names can be placed by petition on the official primary ballot of any party as candidates for any elective office, and the name of the person receiving the largest number of votes will be that of the candidate of a great party, to whose support the party will be committed and for whose conduct in office the party will be responsible, although the successful candidate may be entirely unknown to nineteen-twentieths of the voters at that particular primary. Under the present primary system, in view of the small number of those