party and owes his preferment to that party is under a double sense of responsibility for efficiency, honesty and consistency in public office. He has a sense of responsibility and duty to the state as a whole, and he has a sense of responsibility and duty to his party, and both are moral factors of inestimable worth in securing integrity, efficiency and industry in public office. In its real origin, the movement to abolish the convention system and introduce direct nominating primaries sprang not from any hope of reforming the existing political parties but from a desire to subvert and destroy the American system of government by political parties. The scheme was later taken up by men who sincerely desired to reform party management and correct party abuses, who conscientiously despaired of reform within the parties themselves, and who conceived and finally came to believe that betterment could be brought about only by uprooting and casting aside all the party machinery, organization and discipline which had been built up by the practical experience of over a century. The plea of bringing the government back to the people was catching and plausible, and it found eager response in the deeply rooted dislike of party machinery, party discipline and party constancy on the part of those who habitually neglect all attention to politics and the political duties of citizenship except during periods of popular excitement and upheaval. Although I am one of those who believe in independence in politics and in the right and duty of every citizen to vote against his party if in his judgment the public interests so require, I profoundly believe that party government and party organization and machinery are absolutely essential under our form of government. Political parties in America have given stability to governmental policies and have created the only effective restraint upon disintegration and individual caprice or demagogism. There must be coherence in political forces; there must be concentration and direction of the political energy of communities; there must be some systematic and practical method of investigating the qualifications of candidates and selecting competent public officials; there must be stability, harmony and cooperation in governmental policies. These can be secured in the long run only by and through permanently organized and disciplined political parties. No other method has yet been discovered by which effectively to express political opinion, to secure stability in governmental administration and policies, and to effectuate the real and permanent judgment of the people and promote their best interests. President Wilson some years ago, in referring to attacks upon party government in the United States, used the following striking language, which I think should be now recalled: