New-York tribune., 1921-06-07
Republicans 10
Restrict South
I'm Conventions
District Must Have "a Candi-
date for Congress and
Real Organization Before
Delegate Will BE Seated
New Limit ON Negro Vote
Sub-Comniiiee's Solution
of Problem Is Designed
to Please Both Factions
By Carter Field


rary stop gar or the negro delegate
problem at Republican national con
vent ons has been worked out by the
subcommittee appointed for that pur-
pose. This temporary solution will be
presented to the meeting Of the Repuh-
licau National Committee Wednesday.
when the battle which has been going
on for some time in the subcommittee
will be resumed, with both sides heav-
lily reinforced,
The chances tonight seem to be that
the solution proposed by the sub COM
mittee will finally be adopted, simply
because of the apparent impossibility
Of reconciling the two opposing wings
or schools of thought and also because
OF the love of the Harding Administra-
tiou for harmony.
Briefly, the plan is that no Congress
sional district shall be entitled to any
delegate at the next national conven-
ton unless that district shall have a
Republican candidate for Congress
next year and unless it shall have a
bona fde Republican organization.
Would Eliminate Further Cut
The plan has several advantages.
First and foremost it sidesteps the
problem of cutting down Southern rep
resentation ct Republican national con-
ventions. To reduce the number of
delegates further. it was pointed out
heatedly in the subcommittee meet
ings, would be in effect countenancing
the disfranchisement of the negro in
tie South, 1t would acquiesce. as some
of the Republican leaders commented
IN winking at the non-enforcement of
the Fifteenth Amendment to the Con-
stitution, which declares that no per-
son shall be deprived Of the ballot on
account of race.
The alternative, however, if any
positive action is taken, is to wink
at a continuance of the spectacle of
huge blocks of delegates from South
ern states playing an important part
in the selection OF the Republican
nominees for President and Vice-Presi-
dent, although they represent not only
no Republican strength in the South,
desire for Office on the part of a few
hundred individuals.
The gracefulness of the whole sit
uation was aired in connection with
the convention at Chicago last June,
and SO indignant were the Northern
End Western delegates ct the spectacle
that they were determined to do some
thing about it, So they adopted reso-
luton to have the National Committee
60 into the situation and work out
Just plan for the representation of
Southern Republicans at national con-
ventions.
There are two wings. One would
leave the present system intact and
count on building up the Republican
party in the South. The present system
of the Democratic party permits four
oelegates-at- large from each state and
two from each Congressional district,
the practical effect of which is to give
each state twice as many delegates as
i has electoral votes. The Republicans,
in their first effort. to rectify the sit
uation whereby q few shrewd negroes
or whites in Southern states control
more delegates than thousand times
as many Republicans in some Northern
end Western communities, adopted their
present plan. This is just like the
Democratic method, except that if a
district polls less than 1900 Republican
votes in a nationa. election that dis
trict, instead of being entitled to two
delegates to the national convention, is
entitled to cnly one
New York Affected by System
By this rule practically every South
ern state has had its representation at
national conventions reduced. Georgia,
for example, has only seventeen instead
Of twenty-eight. New York, because
OF the small Republican vote in two of
the Tammany districts, lost two dele
gates by this rule, and Massachusetts.
on one of the Boston districts, lost one
The men who wish to leave the pres
ent representation alone and trust to
building up the party are more or less
satisfied with the compromise plan ap-
proved to-day, for the reason that they
believe forcing the Republicans in the
Congressional districts in the South
not only to build up organizations but
to put UP candidates for Congress will
have salutary affect.
The other side believes in recogniz-
ing as true the statement that it is i'm
possible to build up respectable party
IN the South with the negro as a
foundation or with the negro as tho
majority race in that party.