Birmingham age-herald., 1895-06-18
SEEKING ID SHEAR SAMBO A Question Before the RepubIi- can National Committee. S0UTH'S REPRESENTATION in the Convention Is in Great Danger of t6e
 <, fling Knife, WHICH IS EDGED, IT WOULD APPEAR It Is F 1S ole the Committee Will Meet in .T . snber and Call the Convention
 for May-An Early Educa-
 1 tional Campaign.
IUTH3S REPRESENTATION
WHICH IS EDGED, IT WOULD APPEAR

Washington, June 1.-The republican national committee will probably meet In November this year instead of Decem- Der, which has been the month selected for many years past. While this con clusion has not been definitely reached, 1t is one which meets the views of the ina fiuential members of the committee, and little doubt is entertained that it will be adopted.
 The republican leaders believe that the national convention should be held in May, and inasmuch as the national com mittee must give six months notice of the holding of the convention, it will be necessary therefore that the convention shall hold its meeting in November.
 It is proposed by the republican leaders to inaugurate campaign of education. In order to make such campaign efrec- tive it is necessary that sufficient time should elapse between te holding and election day in which to acquaint the voters with all the facts connected with the presidential contest.
 It is argued that little if any work is done during the heated term, from say the middle of July until the 1st of Sep tember and that therefore if the conven- tion does not make its change before the latter part of June the effective work of the campaign will be limited to a period not exceeding three months. If the con- vention should meet early in May there will be two months in which much use- ful work can be performed before the dog days arrive, and as many more after that period.
 It has been suggested by some of the members Of the national committee who are opposed to holding the convention in May that the campaign shall begin be- fore the democrats meet. To this ob- jection is made that it would be farcical to inaugurate vigorous political crusade before the party has selected its standard bearer. So far as can be learned the members of the national committee gen. orally favor the May convention, which will necessitate the meeting of the com mittee in November. Washington will, as usual, be the place of meeting of the committee, and Chicago is the favored place for the meeting of the convention.
 The forthcoming meeting of the na-. tfonal committee will consider one ques- tion of far reaching importance to the party At the committees last meeting, which was held in this city in December, 1891, a resolution was introduced by Henry B. Payne of Wisconsin to base the apportionment of delegates to the national convention on the number of votes cast by the republican party at the preceding presidential election. The bet ter part of one days session was devoted to the consideration of the resolution, which provoked strong opposition from the southern members particularly, and the committee adjourned leaving it un- settled. It will be the most important business which will come before the committee when they reassemble. The sentiment in favor of the proposition seems to have grown rather than dimin- ished during the interim. It was con- tended by MT. Payne that the committee as at present constituted gives to dele gates from strong democratic states as much influence and power as to the rep resentatiYes from the other states whose electoral vote Is always cast for the re- publican nominee. His contention was that the convention should be composed of delegates who represented the actual strength of the republican party in the several states, and that this was the only fair basis of apportlonment.
 The southern members argued that the republican vote in their states was sup pressed and for that reason they could not on the face of the returns be given representation in the convention that would correctly express their real strength. One effect of such a rule would be to decrease to some extent at the next convention the representation from states like New York and Illinois, inas- much as both conmonwealths in 1892 cast their electoral vote for Mr Cleve- land. Such strong republican states as Ohio, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania would retain their present representa- tion, if in some cases, they did not ex- ceed it. The proposition is, therefore, an interesting one, and it is predicted that the committee will expend more time in its consideration than would be given even to the question as to which city shall secure the honor of holding the convention.