The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1870-12-01
Personal GR MINORITY REPRE-.
SEN RATION.
From the Oshkosh Northwestern.


Personal representation means that the
| members Of legislative body should
| represent persons rather than pEaces or
districts 1t starts from the principle
| that every voter ought to be represented
| by member for whom he voted, rather
| than one who happens to live within the
same territorial limits with himself; and
it proposes to make it possible that every
vote should go to elect candidate, and
! that the proportion of parties In the leg
islature should be exactly the same as
| in the community. OF course the ma
iority must rule in the end; anything
| which prevents this is dishonest and fac
tious. But the minority has right in
| the shaping Of measures precisely pros
| portloned to It's strength III the communi-
| ty.
Under the present system, all the per-
sons who live IN the same county or dis
| trict vote for one member; the candidate
who has the most votes is elected, and all
| persons who voted for other candidates
are left unrepresentcd. What personal
representation proposes is that those who
are now unrepresented should be repre-
sented. OF course, at present, it is often
| the case that majority of one party in
| one district Is balanced in another, so that
the legislature will be, on the whole,
made up of parties In about the right
proportion. This may happen. and per-
haps usually does happen, but not always.
For instance, In Massachusetts the Re-
publican party very often has had every
member Of the senate and it is not very
uncommon for state to be gel7Ymander-
ed in such a way that the minority in the
state gets control of the legislature
Personal representation proposes to make
this outrage impossible.
The chief object of personal represen-
tation is, therefore, to give poportion-
ate representation to mlnorities. For
this reason it is often called minority
or proportional representation J" but
there is second disadvantage of the
present system which it proposes also to
remove. As things are now managed,
not only is the minority left without any
representation, but the majority itself is
under the control of caucuses- Now
there Is no objection to caucuses in them
selves. We could not get along without
them. By means Of them the members
Of party are able to agree upon candi-
dates, and it is hard to see any other way
in which 1t can be done. But the eau
| cuses have too much power. 1t is all
right and good that they should select
| the candidates. But causes make mis-
takes as well as other bodies, and as
things now stand there is no way of cor
recting mistakes. The caucus candida 90
has to be voted for whether fit or unfit.
If an incapable or dishonest man is NOM
mated, the party has to swallow the nom
ination, or let the other party get the
ell action.
We see than that there are two defects
in our present system the minority Is
not represented at all, and the majority
has no escape from the control of an ir-
responsible caucus. Personal represen-
tation proposes to give the minority joint
weight in the legislative body, and at the
same time to enable the majority to re-
pudiate bad nomination without, at the
same time, losing the election. The
method of doing this will be considered
at another time