II 
THE DIRECT PRIMARY LAW: ITS GENESIS AND 
DEVELOPMENT^^ 
The movement for control of the nominating procedure in 
Maine reached its culmination in the enactment of the direct 
primary law by the voters of the state, September, 1911. The 
direct primary law was, in the main, an outgrowth of the 
progressive movement which, in less than a decade, had re- 
sulted in the adoption of the initiative and referendum and a 
corrupt practices act. The first decade of the twentieth 
century witnessed, moreover, the rise of an independent and 
progressive element in the Republican, or majority, party, 
which led in many instances to contests, more or less bitter, 
between “ring’’ and “anti-ring” for the control of the party 
machinery and nominations. Such contests gave greater 
publicity to undesirable party practices. 
Legal control of the delegate convention and party caucus 
was no longer considered by the masses of party members 
an adequate remedy for the evils of party government. A 
system of nominations was demanded which would give 
promise of the following results: 
1. Bring the party under greater popular control. 
2. Make the combination of selfish interests and corrupt 
politics more difficult and less effective. (It was whispered 
around that control of legislation from a certain hotel room 
must be terminated.) 
3. Reduce corruption to a minimum. 
4. Afford opportunity for the examination of a candidate’s 
record. 
5. Inform the voters with regard to the candidate’s posi- 
tion on pending questions of public policy. 
6. Afford better facilities for punishment of official wrong- 
doing. 
7. Fix responsibility for official well-doing upon the official 
personally and make him realize that he represented the people 
rather than a small office-filling group. 
25 A portion of the substance of the material appearing in this and the following 
chapter has been taken from an article prepared by the author for the Annals of the 
Am.erican Academy of Political and Social Science, January, 1923, and from Bowdoin 
College Bulletins, Nos. 4, 6. 
( 349 ) 
