[53]. This is quite a contrast with what has happened in France, Germany, Italy, and the other countries of Continental Europe. In these countries there are several parties and they continue in existence for long periods of time. No two parties ever manage to get the field of politics largely to themselves. It is significant that the two-party system has flourished in the English-speaking countries, that is, in Great Britain, the British colonies, and the United States. Everywhere else there are from three or four to a dozen parties. Why should there be this difference?
[54]. Until recent years the state convention also had the function of nominating the party candidates for state officers, but in most of the states this prerogative has been taken away from the convention and the nominations are made by the party voters at state-wide direct primaries. In the others the nominations are still made by the conventions. Even where the primary is used, however, it is sometimes the practice of a convention to adopt an “unofficial” slate of candidates which it recommends to the voters for their endorsement at the primary (see p. [129]).
[55]. At the Republican national convention of 1880 it took thirty-six ballots to nominate Mr. Garfield. In 1912, at the Democratic national convention, Woodrow Wilson was not nominated until the forty-sixth ballot. Sometimes the very first ballot results in nominating the candidate as happened with Mr. Wilson in 1916. How many ballots were taken before the nomination of Mr. Harding at Chicago in June, 1920, and before the nomination of his opponent, Mr. Cox, at San Francisco, a few weeks later?
[56]. Rings and bosses are not American inventions. Pericles was a political boss, and a very successful one in his day. There were bosses in ancient Rome; they could even get together and form a ring (they called it a triumvirate). Simon de Montfort, the so-called “father of the House of Commons”, was a boss and a rather skilful one at that. Pitt, the younger, was a boss of the first order, a corrupt one, too. In America we have had many political bosses from Aaron Burr down, but most of them have operated in state and city politics. There is no national party boss; the field is too large for any one man to control. Perhaps the most notable of all American bosses was William M. Tweed, who dominated the politics of New York City a half century ago. “He was an American by birth, a chairmaker by trade, a good fellow by nature, a politician by circumstances, a boss by natural process of evolution, and a grafter by choice.” As the boss of his party he sold nominations openly, assessed public officeholders for contributions to his campaign funds, gave out contracts to his friends, looted the city treasury, and finally went to jail. New York’s experience with Tweed cost the city about fifty million dollars in less than five years.
[57]. The campaign fund of the Republican party, when it elected Abraham Lincoln in 1860, was a little over $100,000. The amount raised by the Republicans for the campaign of 1920 was about $4,000,000. The Democratic campaign fund was considerably smaller, but it also ran into the millions. The laws provide that the treasurers of these funds must publish, before the election, the names of all contributors who give more than $100, and after the election must file a statement of all moneys expended. Corporations are forbidden to contribute to any federal campaign fund.
[58]. These costs mount up quickly. A torchlight procession in a large city costs several thousand dollars. To send a single circular, with a one-cent stamp on the envelope, to every registered voter in a city the size of Boston costs for printing, stationery, stamps, and labor about $10,000. Some large halls cost $500 per night, yet halls for meetings have to be hired night after night during the latter part of the campaign.
[59]. In Louisiana, however, the counties are known as parishes.
[60]. The largest county in the United States is San Bernardino county, California, which covers more than 2000 square miles. The smallest is Bristol county, R. I., with about 25 square miles. Cook county, which includes Chicago, has the biggest population and Cochran county, Texas, with less than 100 people, has the smallest.
[61]. In some states he is known as the district attorney, state’s attorney, or county solicitor.
[62]. To discontinue a prosecution the prosecuting attorney files in court a statement known as a nolle prosequi, indicating that he does not wish to press the case to trial. The right to do this gives the official a great deal of power, which has been in some cases abused.