amount of investigating to be done overwhelms and discourages him, and he goes to the polls too frequently utterly ignorant of the qualifications of candidates for members of Congress and the state legislature. That the decentralization of governmental power and the increased application of the elective principle has necessarily cast upon the electorate an enormous burden in order that it may vote intelligently is clear enough from the everyday experience of the voter at the polls. At least one political scientist has directed an experiment to emphasize it. President Judson, a few years ago, gave to a graduate class at the University of Chicago, four weeks before the regular fall election in Cook County, a list of all the candidates for office on a ballot substantially similar to that which appears _supra_ (p. 29), and required them to report at the time of the election such facts as they could ascertain about the candidates and their qualifications. With diligent work on the part of the really mature men in Dr. Judson’s class a satisfactory report was turned in with regard to only a small percentage of the entire list. This, Dr. Judson thought, fairly indicated what the average voter could do on his own responsibility in the way of securing information respecting candidates if he had spent the same amount of time with that object in view. Not only is it obvious that the voter is under a great burden with respect to seeking and securing information about the candidates for office he is called upon to vote for, but it is clear that the task is so great as to be impossible of fulfilment by the large mass of the electorate who have their place in competitive industry to maintain. A small handful of intelligent men of commanding position in the community, after many years of experience, may be able with comparatively little expenditure of time to inform themselves accurately concerning a large number of the candidates of the two or three principal parties on the ballot. But the average man whose position in the community and experience with affairs is more limited could not obtain the proper amount of information without an actual neglect of his business or profession--a neglect which he dare not permit. The voter who occupies a salaried position which demands a full day of work for his employer throughout the year has no time, inclination, nor opportunity for prolonged investigation into the qualifications of candidates for public office. The residuary mass of the electorate have neither the time, the experience, nor the interest to investigate in advance and inform themselves of the qualifications of candidates to be presented for a large number of offices. Section 3 The Resulting Political Ignorance of the Voter and His Consequent Disfranchisement