232 BruncJcen — Use of Parties in Municipal Government. 
qualifications of candidates for municipal office. In the absence 
of such opinion, how shall the citizen be guided in his choice? 
Men who are in the habit of basing their judgment upon evi¬ 
dence will not say for a moment that the voter should be con¬ 
tent with an opinion based upon mere hasty generalizations 
from superficial impressions, and yet, that is all the average 
voter can do in the matter. He can select a particular candi¬ 
date because he likes his manners; or because some friend, who 
may know no more than himself and who may not be disinter¬ 
ested, asks him to do so; or because he belongs to the same 
church or order as himself; or because he at some time or other 
did some particular thing of which the voter approved. All 
these motives and a hundred similar ones undoubtedly influence 
voters in innumerable cases, but not one of them can be called 
either intelligent or conscientious. 
Here is where the utility of party in municipal government 
becomes apparent. It is much easier for the body of voters to 
judge of the general character of a municipal administration 
than of the details of each particular branch. By no means 
should it be imagined, that it is easy; but it is easier, or at 
least possible. Therefore if you may treat the entire adminis¬ 
tration as a body, and approve or condemn them in bulk, so to 
speak, your task is materially lightened, and the chances for 
good government are correspondingly increased. But the only 
way in which such solidarity of an administration can be at¬ 
tained in accordance with American institutions and habits of 
doing public business is by the instrumentality of party. 
Here I may possibly be met by an objection on the part of 
some who admit that we should make use of party organizations 
in municipal government, but maintain that municipal parties 
should be distinct from those organized for the purposes of na¬ 
tional politics. To men who have any experience in actual 
public life such a proposition hardly needs refutation. If men 
were purely reasoning beings, without emotions and affections, 
and above all without selfish interests, sucn a scheme might 
work well. But, as human nature is actually constituted, a party 
is not simply an aggregation of persons who entertain the same 
