New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-12-11

EITHER THE FORBES OR THE cHANDLER-M'PHER
SON SYSTEM
lBr TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBuYE.l
WASHINGTON. Dec 10.-The call for the National
Republican Committee meeting has revived interest
here in the subject of district representation aud
the new system of apportoning delegates which the
committee is expected to adopt A good many in
teresting questions will come up in the settlement
of these matters One is whether the convention
shall be large small-about 600 delegates, as
under the Forbes plan described in THE lRIBUNE
the other day; or about 1000, as under the
Chandler and McPhcrson plan. There promises TO
be a wide division of opinion on this point Still
another question of great importance is the method
of allotting additional delegates in proportion to
tho Republican strength of each State in Congress
The Forbes plan gives each State, after it has
been awarded one decgate-at-large for each Sena-
tor and one district delegate for each Representa-
tive in Congress an additional dcegateat-large for
each Republican Senatorin the existing Congress and
an additional district delegate for each Republican
Representative in the existing Congress. The
Chandler and Mcpherson plan provides that the
additional delegates shall be awarded in propor-
tion TO the Republican representation of each State
:" in the then existing next preceding Congress"
Under ordinary circumstances it might not have
seemed of much importance which Congress of the
two in the Presidential period selected no basis
but the results Of the late elections have served TO
show that the question can become of moment
and will be likely, If not adjusted with care, to
bad feeling the part of some of the States
For example, it in the call for the convention of
1884, the State of New-York should be awarded ad-
dtlonal district delegates Oh the basis of the Re-
publican Representatives, elected in 1850, there
would be twenty of them; if on the basis of the
Republican Represen tatlves elected in that State
this year, there would he only twelve. In other
words the fact that eight Republican districts were
lost III New-York this fall would cause a dimmution
of just that number in the vote of the the
National Convention two years hence, though no
one will pretend that the loss of that number Of
districts means that there any fewer RepublI-
cans in the State and every Republican hopes to
see the causes which produced that result abated
by 1884.
An unanswerabe objectiont taking the "exsting
Congress" tho sole ba5, for aIlOttinG tine addi-
tional delegates is that that Congress will always
be the Congress elected i'm the OPP wear usually a
year OF Republican apathy. The call for the Ma
tiOnal Convention is issued some time during the
twelve months preceding the Presidential elections.
The Congress then existing" will be that elected
midway between the Presidential elections,
and will not give n fair showing OF the relative
Republican strength OF the various states, inasmuch
II Is notorious that the full Republican
vote comes out only in Presidential election. The
whole purpose of allOting additional delegates Is
to give the various States representation more IN
proportion TO the size OF their Republican vote than
Is gwen by the present system under which Ken
tuciy. for example, has an almost equal weight in
a Republican convention with Massachusetts. THIS
being the purpose, the method of computing tho
Representation ought To be one that would
show best tIe real strength of the party in tho
various States. II the ALVlIth Congress should
be taken the sole basis the States that lost he
publican Congressman this fall would lose the same
numbers of delegates 30 the next National ConYcn-
ton as compared with the number they would re-
ccIvc If the representation in tho XLVIIth Con-
gTess taken a9 ihe bacIs. aud these are tho
States which would lose