Note 114 — VII CORRUPTION AND NOTORIETY: THE MEASURE OF OUR OFFENDING

No political reform now before the American people promises more beneficent results than the short ballot movement. It advocates the principle “that democracy can reach more efficient working through a drastic reduction in the present number of officials selected by the individual voter, thus securing a ballot which is very short and which includes only offices that are of sufficient public interest to attract from the voters a scrutiny and comparison of candidates that will be adequate to make their relative individual merits a matter of common knowledge.” Cf. the vigorous little pamphlet by Richard S. Childs on “The Short Ballot: A New Plan of Reform,” reprinted from the Outlook of July 17, 1909, New York, 127 Duane St., 1909.