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. FOOTNOTES: [6] I.e., “one not so large but that the candidate who is willing to run may be known with a fair degree of ease by the electorate and be able with the least expense to make a personal canvass” (see chap. xii, p. 148). CHAPTER VI ABOLITION OF THE PARTY CIRCLE AND PARTY COLUMN