The Portland daily press., 1897-01-12

its goyernm ent, ut least not when CHo
minority is so large as to comprise nearly
half of the voters. nor is it for the clby
best interest that 1t should be, ior Uns
mere presence in deliberative Dooy VI
members of the minority party oi.en
serves as u wholesome cneoK upon ~
majority, Election on general tlcset
is a good thing, minority representation
is good thing, and munioipal reformers
have tried hard to secure both. Ihus.laF
| believe that in no conspiouou instance
have their efforts been wholly successlui.
Several schemes have been tried. one ls
to elect part of the board on O. general
ticket, and the remainder Irom tne
wards. This is the practice in Westbrook
where the board of aldermen consists OF
thirteen mem bers, three chosen at large
and ten chosen two from each of the nve
wards. Another plan Is that or cumuia
tive voting. that is, allowing each voter
as many Votes as there are persons to be
chosen. and permitting him to throw
them all for one candidate, or to dlvloe
them among two or more candidates less
than the wholeRnumber A third plan is
that now In force in the oity Of Boston
where the board of aldermen consists OF
twelve members elected on general
ticket. hut no voter can vote for more
than seven. 1T was supposed when 5nls
change was made that each party woula
nominate3twelve men. The seven pest
ones on each ticket would then get the
bulk of the party vote, and tns choies
would fall.upon five OH one TICKET ana
seven on the other Moreover, II an unde-
sirable man succeeded in getting NOM
ination. members Of his own party could
bring about his defeat at the polls With
ont being Obliged to vote for candidate
of the opposition. But the ieformers
failed to anticipate the shreWd move OF
the politicians who at once saw to ~,
after the new law had gone into effect,
that each Marty should nominate but
seven men. The result has been that
instead of broadening the CHOICE OF alder
men. it has been very decidedly limited.
Only fourteen candidates. seven from
each party, are named on the official bal
lot, and twleve of them are sure OF IAN
election. Nominations too are more
easily controlled by political bosses. and
trading in them IS easier. In CERTAIN
sense the Boston board of aldermen has
become close corporation, for those
mem bers who, in com mon parlanoe, are
"entitled to a denomination" can very
often. by com bining their forces In the
nominating convention, determine who
shall be the successors OF those going
out of office. Boston people are not at al
satisfied with this state OF things, ano
efforts are to be made at the present. ses-
sion of the Massachusetts legislature te
have the law again changed.
On the whole it may be said that nc
system has yet been discovered that Ii
perfectly satisfactory. 1t is generally
conceded that it is better to have minor
ity representation than to have paIti
san board such as election upon genera
ticket may give, and until some plan il
discovered which shall SO combine the
two plans AS to be an improvement upor
what ws now have, it would seem to bt
the part of wisdom1not to depart from
our present custom of eleoting from
wards. and the new charter provides fol
no change in this particular.
RICHARD WEBB,