The Western outlook., 1916-01-01
NOT A RACE QUESTION AT ALL
[NEW YORK WORLD.

Delegates to the national Repub-
lican convention, to be held June 7
at Chicago, will be chosen upon
basis of representation never before
recognized al American political
affairs Until now all parties have
provided that in national conven-
tons the number Of delegates from
each State should be twice the
States total representation in both
houses of Congress. Next years
Republican convention will have
four delegates from each State.
doubling the number of Senators.
a delegate from each Congressional
district, and an additional delegate
for each district in which the
Republican vote in 1914 exceeded
1900.
This is the so-called reform that
resulted from the srlit IN the party
in 1919 when Roosevelt denied the
validity of a Presidential nomlna-
ton secured bv votes of delegates
from the South A committee OF
eminent LAWYERS. Chas. B. Warren
of Detroit being chairman. decided
that only national convention had
power to make this change in the
representation. but it has been
brought about. nevertheless, by the
national committee, supported by
the favorable action of Republican
conventions in 22 States i'll which
the chief strength of the party is TO
be found
As national conventions are laws
unto themselves. we shall hear no
more of the legal aspect of the case.
The thing is settled. and under the
new system about 90 delegates will
be missing from future Republican
national conventions, all but few
of them from the South, the few
Northern absentees, singularly
enough. being from New York.
Nobody in or out of the Republican
party has ever denied that this
reduction of Southern representa-
ton is due to the conviction that
delegations from that quarter COM
posed chiefly of colored men are roo
easily controlled FROM Washington
when the party is in power and too
susceptible to corrupt influences
whether it is III power or not.
Such al indictment of race BY
a political machine which cherishes
the memory Of QUAY and Hanna
need not now be discussed What
is more to the point is that an
organization calling itself the Re
publican party wipes out in its own
behalf the 18th amendment, which
the supreme court of the United
States. presided over by former
Confederate soldier, recently re-
affirmed. Even more significant is
the fact that in normal times there
are half a dozen great Northern
States in which the Republican
party would be in hopeless minor
ity except for the colored vote.
The reform adopted by the
Republican national committee is
the reform" proposed by Matthew
S. Quay. the Pennsylvania boss.
when he used tt as club in 1900
to compel the Mckinley administra-
ton to accept Theodore Roosevelt
as candidate for Vice President.
That is the paternity of the most
revolutionary change made in the
organization of Republican national
conventions since the nomination
of Abraham Lincoln.
If the World were not openly
supporting President Wilson, it
would be surprising to see it trying
to make race issue out of the
action. 1t is not race
question at all, or one which should
cause the least dissatisfaction to
colored voters. Every sane man
knows or should know that the
Southern Federal office holder usu
ally delegate to national conven-
tons has no business 10 vote for
of candidate fol- PreSi-
dent when bis constituents cannot
vote to elect him. The action of
the committee does not in the least
affect the coIoIed vote n the North,
East or West -AMSTERDAM News.