5. Make a list of the administrative officers of your state and community, indicating which ones should be elected and which appointed. Can you think of any proper exceptions to the rule that all administrative offices requiring skill or experience should be filled by appointment? 6. What arguments were put forward in behalf of the spoils system? 7. What sort of civil service tests ought to be applied in selecting persons for the following positions: truck-and-ladder driver in the fire department; gardener in the public park service; bookkeeper in the office of the state treasurer; member of the United States life-saving service; railway-mail clerk; analyst of food and drugs; inspector of wires and lamps; woman police officer; probation officer; draftsman in the state highway department. 8. In a city of 100,000 population what positions would you exempt from civil service rules? 9. Is _good government_ more important than _popular government_? Can a government be both _democratic_ and _efficient_? Do you regard appointments by competition as _undemocratic_? Why or why not? 10. Work out a plan by which promotions in the police department could be made under the merit system (consider the possibility of giving credits for punctuality, acts of courage, number of arrests, etc., and of making deductions for neglect of duty, etc.). 11. What is the strongest argument for direct legislation and what is the weakest? Which argument on the other side impresses you the most and which the least? 12. Is it more dangerous to subject judges to the possibility of recall than other officials? Topics for Debate 1. A congressman should obey his conscience rather than his constituents when he cannot obey both. 2. Heads of state and city administrative departments should be chosen under civil service rules. 3. The initiative and referendum should be extended to national lawmaking. CHAPTER VII SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS _The purpose of this chapter is to explain who have the right to vote, how the voters nominate public officials, and how elections are held._ SUFFRAGE [Sidenote: Direct and indirect popular control.] =How the Voters Control the Government.=—A democratic government is one in which the people, acting directly or through their representatives, control the course of public affairs. This control may be exercised, as has been pointed out, in either one of two ways. It may be exercised directly, that is, by the use of the initiative and referendum. The proposal for a law comes from a designated number of voters, and the adoption or rejection of the proposal is decided by a majority of the voters at the polls.