tickets he deposits in a large waste basket provided for the
discards.

While the party was being fenced in by legal definition, its
machinery, the intricate hierarchy of committees, was subjected
to state scrutiny with the avowed object of ridding the party of
ring rule. The State Central Committee is the key to the
situation. To democratize this committee is a task that has
severely tested the ingenuity of the State, for the inventive
capacity of the professional politician is prodigious. The
devices to circumvent the politician are so numerous and various
that only a few types can be selected to illustrate how the State
is carrying out its determination. Illinois has provided perhaps
the most democratic method. In each congressional district, the
voters, at the regular party primaries, choose the member of the
state committee for the district, who serves for a term of two
years. The law says that "no other person or persons whomsoever"
than those so chosen by the voters shall serve on the committee,
so that members by courtesy or by proxy, who might represent the
boss, are apparently shut off. The law stipulates the time within
which the committee must meet and organize. Under this plan, if
the ring controls the committee, the fault lies wholly with the
majority of the party; it is a self-imposed thraldom.

Iowa likewise stipulates that the Central Committee shall be
composed of one member from each congressional district. But the
members are chosen in a state convention, organized under strict
and minute regulations imposed by law. It permits considerable
freedom to the committee, however, stating that it "may organize
at pleasure for political work as is usual and customary with