Evening star., 1895-09-21

Inoepenoeht HIaWho mas sat IN the Sen
ate in more than thirty years. He got into
the Senate by alke. and at the end Of a
very brilliant terth he was retired to pri-
vate life. II Me. eSchurz had remained in
the most useful nman in public life, In
England men like Mr.. Schurz have been
retired from parliament by the adverse
vote of one constituency and returned i'm.
mediately afternby another constituency to
fulfill their pubic omission. Mr.. Gladstone,
defeated at Oxford, reappears from Liver
pool or Midlothian Under our system our
public mep beeame sooner or later mere
party hacks or apportunists They have
their eyes always, on their districts and
they dodge issuss instead Of facing them"
And what Is your remedy for this state
Of aRairs? asked.
Proportional representation" said Mr..
Adams. 1.-The chief obstacle to proper
tional representation today is the obstacle
adoption of the Australian system of bal
loting. It Is supposed to be something
complex, something hard to understand.
Unfortunately. when, forty years ago,
English-speakipg race the idea of minor
ity representation, he attempted too much
at once. He tried to reduce the thing to
practice instead Of being satisfied with
system. He devised q scheme Of balloting
SO complicated that no one has yet been
able to work 1t out. Since Hares time the
idea Of minority representation has grown
and many systems have been suggested:
The methods now devised have as their
cardinal principles that the voting shall
be done from the city at large and the
uted among the various political bodies
or groups. There need be little contention
about the method employed provided it
embodies these requirements. We may
adopt the limited vote, 30 called. which
allows the citizen to vote for a certain
part of the whole number of representa-
tiyes to be chosen-ffteen out of twenty
frof o1Gn ita
to cumulate his fifteen votes as he pleases.
Or we may have the free list system now
in operation in Switzerland and Belgium,
which allows voting for party nominations
as is done in this country and then ap-
portions the successful candidates among
the several parties in proportion to the
votes cast by them' taking the required
their respective party polls. The latter
scheme commends itself wholly to my
Judgment.
Tribute to Reed.
1.-THE adoption of proportional representa-
ton in any FORM" said Mr.. Adams. would
afford the greatest possible scope to indi-
vidual action at the polls, and by 1t the
basis of constituency would be changed
1t would rest not as now on the accident
of residence in a given locality-the same
ward-but on the community of political
opinion and identical ends in view. Con-
slider what an enormous influence this
would give to the intelligent individual
voter! How it would bother the ward boss!
Voters now divided up and segregated
by artificial lines, are so placed that they
can be manipulated by astute political
managers to the utmost possible extent
Divide and conquer is the policy of the
professional politician. Under the new SyS-
tenn, of course, the machine could concen-
trate it's votes and elect representatives
too. But at least the machine would be
forced into the open and into contest on
equal terms. The mere enabling of mi
norities to unite and secure representa-
tion is vast and obvious improvement in
the political condition of those composing
minoritieS.'
Speaking of the Reed rules in relation to
the obstruction of legislation, Mr.. Adams
paid warm tribute to the Maine man.
and 1 asked him IL he supposed Mr.. Reed
would have the individual support of Mas
sachusetts in the. national conventional
he was the candidate of Massachusetts,.
Massachusetts, has no candidate" said
Mr.. Adams. Il would say from what
know of the feeling of the people of this
state that Massachusetts has not the least
interest in anyman There is no one now
whom Massachusetts loo ks on as she did
to Sumner OFT Andrew. No man occupies
their position in the state today. Probably
Ii is because there is no great issue in
which the state is rinterested."
Not even the free trade question:" I
said A
Massachusetts. cares nothing for free
trade" said Nr4, Adams. "The moral-re-
!igious questions. are those which have
always interested our people. No such
issue presents itself today. When it does, /
suppose some men will appear who will
represent the people of the state as Sumner
did. and as Andrew dii.'
l asked Mr.. Adams If he found signs
of prosperity in the west where his busi-
ness interests largely are.
There are indications of returning pros
perity in the west, as there are all over the
country" he said. "There has been no
Improvement in real estate values yet but
there has been time for that. Real
estate is always the first to feel hard times
and the last to recover from them. But
there will be revival in real estate in the
near future. 1 have no doubt
GEORGE GRANTHAM BAIN.