Show XATIOXAL CONVENTIONS REPRE SEXTPIOX Prior to the meeting of the Republican Repub-lican national committee to select a place and time for holding the Republican Re-publican national convention there was talk that the committee might give the subject of the basis of representation rep-resentation some consideration but it did not The question of the unit of representation represen-tation in national conventions is an important one At present the basis of representation in both parties is the congressional delegation the representation rep-resentation in the conventions being double the number in the congressional delegation In 1SS4 a convention of Massachusetts Republicans brought forward a new plan which was to allow al-low each state a representation in national na-tional conventions based on the number num-ber of votes cast for the Republican presidential candidate There is merit in the plan but it has never been taken up by a national convention Had it been adopted it would have solved for the Republican party the problem if such it may be termed of the great power of the South in their national conventions when it had no power in the presidential elections so far as electing a Republican was concerned Chairman Manley of the National Republican executive committee is said to have made out a table showing what the result would be under the new plan Under it New York would have gained fiftyfour votes Illinois fortytwo Ohio thirtyfour Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania thirtythree Indiana ten while Georgia would have lost thirteen Alabama Ala-bama eleven Texas eleven and MissIssippI Mis-sissippi eight There is much to be said in favor of the plan but politicians will be very shy of favoring the innovation as at any time it might give some section of the country a preponderating and determining influence in a convention conven-tion which fact would tend to alienate alien-ate the political sympathy of some particular section whose support would be necessary to the success of the party Then the states are so jealous of their power In national conventions that It would be an extremely difficult diffi-cult matter to Induce them to agree to any plan that might deprive them of it The present plan of representation representa-tion will in all probability be adhered for many years to come |