The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-14
PLAN TO REDUCE
 REPRESENTATION
Allies" Take Up Matter and
 Will Make a Fight
HIT AT SOUTHERN STATES
Northern Republicans Want To Strengthen Their Power In Con ventions and Overcome Op-
 position In the South.

Chicago, June 1S-Details of the plan of the allies to make fight on the floor of the republican national conven- ton to reduce the representation of the southern states were made public today by Representative James Francis Burke of Pennsylvania. manager for Senator Knox The resolution agreed upon by the allies" and which will be offered on the ton herafter shall be as follows;
 Resolved. That the basis of represen- tation in the republican national conven- ton here after shall be as follows:
 ..Each state shall be entitled to four delegates at large and one additional delegate for each 10000 votes or majority fraction thereof cast at the last preceding presidential election for republican cleo tors; and two delegates from each terri tory. the District of Columbia, Alaska Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippines, and that methods necessary for the en- forcement of this rule shall be provided by the republican national committee chosen by the delegates to this conven- ton"
 The introduction of this resolution is the direct outcome of the dissatisfaction felt by representatives of the allies with the manner in which the recent contests before the national committee were de- cided The charge was made freely by the allies that the rights of northern states, necessarily republican states, were being ignored in the interest of gaining the delegations from southern states, which never give the party any votes in the electoral college to the candidate who eX- ercises control over federal patronage. If the resolution should be adopted it would result in a reduction of about 16O dele gates from the southern states, which in Variably go democratic.
 An increase of nearly 15o would be made in delegations from the northern states and thus would be destroyed the possibility of a few northern states, aligned with the solid delegations from southern states controlling republican conventions in the future. MT. Burke said
 ''The necessity for this change has be- come apparent in the light of recent de- velpments. In the present convention 250 delegates will be seated from states which in 20 years have not even pretended to engage in a contest for the election of republican candidate for the presidency. More than that, the republican vote in these states is rapidly disappearing, while their representation remains as large as ever South Carolina is now entitled to a national delegate for every 136 republican votes it casts, while Pennsylvania re- ceives but one delegate for every 12,S6l republican votes. Illinois one for every Il 316: Indiana one for every 12,276; Ohio one for every 13.O46 and Colorado one for every 1S 46s republican votes."
 The plan proposed by Representative Burke is in all essentials the same as that introduced in the republican convention at Philadelphia in 1900 by the late Sena- tor Quay of Pennsylvania. No action was taken upon it at the time, the resolution being withdrawn by Quay before it reach- ed d vote.