Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-14
LEADERS DETERMINED
Proposed Reduction of South
ern Representation.
DENIAL OF SUFFRAGE
FIGHT BEING PLANNED FOR THE
NEXT LONG SESSION.
Public Discussion of the Matter in the
Late Political Campaign-Speaker
Cannon's Arguments.

Late Political Campaign-Speaker
Cannon's Arguments.
1t is we'll understood among a number of
republican leaders in Congress that an eff
fort will be made at the next long session
to reouce the representation of states in
the House of Representatives in proportion
to the extent to which the suffrage is de-
MED their citizens. Massachusetts and
Mississippi would receive relatively equal
treatment in the reduction. If an eXtraor-
binary session of the Fifty-ninth Congress
should be assembled, the subject would
probably be taken up then.
The conviction has been growing in re-
cent years. stimulated by a number of
close congressional fights, prior to the land
slide, that the situation is intolerable, with
respect to the misrepresentation of the
southern states in the House. The north
ern republicans have been demanding that
one or two things shall be done-and they
don't very much care which is adopted
namely, that the negro vote in the south
be counted or when excluded the represen-
tation in Congress shall conform to the ac-
tual vote cast.
Ine f1SnC HOSLpOneQ.
For the past four Congresses the subject
has been discussed in earnest. The leaven
set to work by a little coterie of republi-
cans has been doing its work, and in the
last session resulted in formal caucus of
republicans of the House. 1t was then
determined to be inadvisable to take up
the fight Congress wanted to get away
and go to work on the campaign 1t was
i0nI hat n,I ffn,- Guhf
would have to be made to get the desired
legislation, and men In neither body were
ready to undertake 1T.
During the campaign there was a great
deal of discussion of the subject among re-
publicans in their private councils. When
the congressional campaign committee
started in to figure out the prospect, the
first thing they ran up against was that
wall of 126 representatives in the House
from the solid south. There was no similar
situation in the north There they stood,
a nucleus of 128, around which to gather
a possible democratic HOdse. Chairman
Cowherd of the opposing committee knew
1t, and it comforted him exceedingly until
he went to New York and tried to make
the Belmont t-Sheehan-McCarren outfit dis
gorge some campaign funds, and they re-
minded him that he had 126 members sure
and ought to be able to pick up the rest.
The republican national committee took
cogniZance of the evil of over-representa-
ton. and of the few campaign docu-
position of the extent and scope of the de-
privation of actual suffrage and the false
representation in Congress. Many speeches
made in the campaign took that issue as
their text.
Speaker Cannon's Arguments.
A great deal of the press matter fur
nished by the national and congressional
committees bore upon the subject. Speaker
Cannon, in his campaign in New England,
paid great deal of attention to it and ad-
dressed his remarks mainly to New Eng
land democrats, pointing out how they did
themselves and the interests of their sec
tion injustice by helping to swell the
democratic representation in Congress that
was based upon erroneous election statis-
tics.
In New England he showed the voters
how single congressional district up
north would cast greater vote than the
vote of eight or nine representa- tives from
a southern state and how the industrial
output of that district would exceed the
output of state in the south, the idea be-
Ing to contrast the relative political power
OF the sections and the relative importance
of Industries.
In the middle west the same leaven has
been working. 1t is all for the purpose of
awakening the voters to the evils that the
leaders see. 1t was determined that edu-
cation was necessary Some of the leaders
in the caucus last session pointed out that
an awful stir would be made in the middle
states and even In the east. They said the
American people were a kindly and gener-
Gus folk, good natured, and not inclined to
bear down upon their neighbors. A "Iorce
BILL, as such a measure would instantly
be dubbed by the southerners, would sound
harshiy IN the ears of people Of the central
sections
Attitude of the South.
But these same leaders resolved that It
was time to do something. They pictured
the south as sitting by its plantation fire.
side, gazing into the dying embers of the
past while smoking the corn-cob pipe Of
retrospection. and were determined that
the march of progress of the east and
north should not be arrested by the Bour-
bon spirit. Every time economic meas
ure came up In Congress there were those
126 inflated votes. solidly arraigned against
the rest OF the country, stubborn, unsus-
ceptlble to reason dead set In their BOur-
bonism. They knew that down south the
business interests were stirring uneasily
but the Bourbons controlled the ballot box
The agitation has been renewed since
election day. The solid south has been
compressed into even narrower space by
the pressure of progress on Its northern
borders The republican leaders are ask
ing themselves now, shall we permit this
narrowed and restricted area to continue
to hold such a mighty balance of power in
Congress? Suppose. it is asked that the
negro vote in the south could have been
counted in this election; would not the en-
tire Union, with the possible exception of
Texas, voted the republican ticket, with
it's principles of progress and prosperity?
The leaders realize that 1t is no easy
task that is before them. They do not
know whether it can be ACCOMPLISHED In
the coming Congress or not. 1t is yet to be
determined whether the good -natured. easy-
going people of the middle section have been
sufficiently aroused to the situation to in
dorse stringent measures
But the effort will be made The men
who have the case in hand have been pre-
pairing for the fight, and whether 1t is won
not IN the coming Congress- it is to be
waged with all ardor.
Death of Consul Touvelle.