Cases may

appointed by the governor of the island. be carried by appeal from the supreme court of the island to the Supreme Court of the United States.

IV. Guam and Samoa (Tutuila). Governmental power in these islands is vested in the naval officers who happen to be in command of the naval station. As a matter of fact the inhabitants of the islands in a large degree govern themselves. At times, however, it is necessary for the naval officer to interpose his authority, and upon such occasions his orders have the force of laws.

V. The Virgin Islands. These islands, purchased (in 1917) from Denmark and acquired as a base for naval operations, are under the direct control of the Navy Department.

CHAPTER XII

PARTY ORGANIZATION

In almost every township, village, election district, and city ward, each of the great parties has its permanent local committee of management. Likewise it has its permanent county, city and State committees. Above all these it has a permanent National Committee, consisting of one member from each of the States and Territories.

These permanent committees do the heavy work of politics. Indeed, they do all the work of politics except the voting. They issue calls for the nominating conventions to be described below; they organize political clubs; they arrange for political mass meetings and processions; they solicit funds for conducting campaigns; they urge voters to register, and then urge them to come to the polls; in many other ways they promote and defend the interests of the party, through good and ill report, after defeat as well as after success.

The chief task of the permanent committees is to keep the nominating machinery of the party in motion. The nomination of candidates is accomplished in two ways, by the direct vote of the members of the party, and by the action of party conventions. Under

the plan of direct nominations the voters go to a primary meeting, which is managed in practically the same way as a regular election, and vote directly for the candidates whom they wish to represent their party at the next election. In other words, under the direct system the voters select their own party candidates; they do not entrust the selection to party representatives, or to the action of party conventions. When county officers, for example, are to be nominated, the voters of a party, instead of electing delegates to a county convention authorized to nominate these officers, express their choice for candidates at primary elections held throughout the county, and the candidates who win at the primaries are put on the ticket as the regular party nominees. If a candidate for governor is to be chosen the voters of the party throughout the State express their choice at the primaries and the person most in favor at the primaries becomes the regular party candidate for gov

ernor.

The direct method of nominating candidates has been adopted by a majority of the States and in many States it extends to the nomination of all candidates, from the lowest to the highest.

In some of the States candidates for the higher offices are nominated by the conventions composed of party representatives or delegates. Under this system a candidate for sheriff for example is nominated at a county convention composed of delegates chosen at primary meetings which have been held throughout the county. When a candidate for a State office is

to be nominated as, for example, a candidate for governor, the county (or city) conventions throughout the State send delegates to a State convention which nominates the candidates for governor.

Party organization in the United States was built up while men were finding a way to nominate a candidate for the Presidency and the Presidential nomination is still the central object of party activity. Since this is so, party organization may be best understood by following the workings of a party in a presidential year.

In the States which have adopted the plan of direct nomination each of the great parties by a direct vote of its members elect delegates to the National Convention which nominates the party candidates for President and Vice-President. In a few States at the primaries at which these delegates are chosen the voters are given an opportunity to express their preference in respect to presidential candidates.

The meetings and conventions in states where the convention system is in operation will now be described.

I. The Primary or Caucus. In the spring of a presidential year the permanent local committees of the lowest grade, in response to an order which has come down to them through the State committee from the National Committee, call upon the voters of the party within the town or election precinct or ward, to take action in a primary meeting-sometimes called a caucus-upon matters relating to the nomination of a candidate for President. At this Primary meeting

delegates to a county (or city) convention are elected. For many years the primary, like the entire party organization, was an extralegal, voluntary institution. It was controlled by rules made by party managers and whether it was conducted honestly or otherwise was not an affair of governmental concern. If at the primary election there was cheating or irregularities no one could be punished. But in recent years, in most of the States, primaries have been placed under the control of the law and have been conducted as regularly and as honestly as other elections are conducted.

II. The County (or City) Convention. The delegates chosen at the local primary are sometimes instructed to act in the interest of a certain man as the party candidate for President, and sometimes they are left free to act as their judgments direct. In a short time after the primary election they assemble (usually at the county-seat) as the county convention of the party which they represent. This body, consisting perhaps of forty or fifty men, elects three or four or five delegates to represent the party in a State convention. If the county convention is in favor of a certain man for President it may instruct these delegates for this man in the State convention.

III. The State Convention. A few weeks after the county convention, delegates from all the counties (and cities 1) assemble at some convenient place as

1 In a city each ward in primary meeting sends delegates to a city convention and this body elects delegates to the State convention to meet with the delegates from the counties.