California: Crossed up on Cross-filing.

The article reports on the amendments by the California legislature in its direct-primary act. The amendment give a person the right to become the candidate of more than one political party for the same office. This Cross-filing is attacked by Democrats and Republicans, by the American Federation of Labour and the Congress of Industrial Organization by the press, the League of Women Voters, and the National Municipal League. To understand why the cross-filing amendment was ever adopted it is useful to analyze the great economic upsurge that the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 produced in California.