system, went through both Houses, while the Commonwealth Club bills,
drawn to simplify the methods of criminal procedure, were held up and
eventually defeated. The ineffective Wright Railroad Regulation bill
became a law, while the Stetson Railroad measure effective as finally
amended - was rejected. The provision in the Direct Primary bill for the
selection of United States Senators by State-wide vote was stricken out,
and the meaningless advisory, district vote plan substituted.

Certainly, the accomplishment of the Legislature does not line with the
purpose of a majority of its members. The voter is naturally asking why
the majority in both Houses standing for good legislation and opposing
bad, accomplished so little; how it was that a minority, at practically
every turn, defeated a majority.

There were three principal reasons for this outcome.

(1) The machine, as its name indicates, is a definite organization, with
recognized leaders. The anti-machine element was without organization or
recognized leaders.

(2) The reform-advocating majority, except in the anti-racetrack
gambling fight, was without definite plan of action. The majority was,
for example, for the passage of a direct primary law that would, first,
take the control of politics out of the hands of political bosses big
and little, and, second, give the people of California the privilege of
naming their United States Senators, a privilege already enjoyed by the
people of the more progressive States of the Union. But the reform
element knew little or nothing of the details of direct primary
legislation.