CONCLUSIONS 
The materials presented in the foregoing pages of this 
study do not warrant an arbitrary statement regarding the 
success or failure of the direct primary. They do bring the 
conviction, however, that many of the popular notions regard- 
ing the working of the primaries are mere assumptions and 
not founded upon facts. 
The direct primary system has not cured the “ills of de- 
mocracy” to the extent promised and expected by its ardent 
proponents, neither has it resulted in many of the disadvan- 
tages predicted by its opponents. Party government to a 
surprising degree has continued under the primary much as 
it was under the convention system. Experience seems to 
teach that no system is perfect or can fit the needs of all times. 
Therefore, if popular government is to endure and make 
progress, improvements must be continually sought after. 
One of the most outstanding needs today is to bring into 
closer coordination and cooperation the party machinery and 
the party candidates nominated at the primaries. The party 
machinery is recruited and organized under the rules of the 
old regime, while candidates are nominated thru popular pri- 
maries. So long as that situation continues conflicts are in- 
evitable. The party organization must be made more 
responsible to the entire party membership and its nominees, 
or the nominees must be made more responsible to the party 
organization before party government can function effectively 
and without numerous conflicts. A step toward a solution 
might be to take from the hand-picked delegates in the state 
conventions the function of creating the party organization, 
and to devise a more popular method of selecting party com- 
mittees and party officials. 
It must be realized that the direct primary is merely an 
instrument of government and therefore is not self-operative. 
The best results can come only with an awakened public in- 
terest on the part of the voters, and with an aroused civic 
conscience which will lead the voters to accept as a duty the 
task of selecting candidates for office. 
( 380 ) 
