certain comparatively small number of Republican votes, regardless of the number actually cast, the white Southerner of independent mind, the educated negro, and the settler from the North, who would vote contrary to the prevailing party, are all sacrificed together on the altar of fraud.

In these two ways citizens of the United States are continually being deprived of their rights unjustly (and suffrage is a right, not merely a privilege, when one has earned it and deserves it)-one by the extraordinary law of a State that provides an unusually long period of probation; the other by the lawlessness attending elections, in which the registrars and election officers are shielded, and in certain cases even abetted, by the State gov

ernments.

The proposition to curtail the representation of Southern States by arbitrary enactment on the part of Congress, which has been proposed from time to time, is hardly likely to meet with much favor even among leaders of the dominant party in national affairs. It would be exercised, if at all, in the nature of a punishinent, and that course would receive scant support from the public at large. Furthermore, it would not reach the root of the matter, for though in theory it is the States rather than the people that are represented in Congress (both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate) and that elect the President and Vice-President, still the measure in which the voting right is enjoyed by opponents to the dominant political party is a widely variable one, and in some instances the State government has no real responsibility for frauds that may be perpetrated. There are some communities in certain Southern and Middle States where colored citizens and other Repub

licans vote as freely as they do in any Northern community, while there are also communities in the same States where the most intelligent colored citizen is able to register no choice of public officials. It is often stated, and truly, that a voter in certain Southern States has seven times the power in national elections that a voter in certain Northern States has, but it is also true that the suffrage is so unequally exercised within some States that certain Congressional districts poll twice the votes that other districts in the same State poll-and this not because of the neglect of qualified voters to vote, in those districts polling a small vote, but because registrars of voters or election officers, or both, take liberties in the exercise of their duties which they have no right to take, depending upon local popular sentiment to support or protect them.

What then is a possible means of improving the present deplorable conditions? The remedy for prevailing inequalities does not lie in an amputation of power from certain States that have more closely restrictive suffrage laws than have other States, nor from States where gross election frauds are known to be in vogue. The regulation of national representation should have respect to both the legal and the illegal modes of disfranchisement. The various Congressional districts throughout the country should also be brought to uniformity. The district, being the unit of representation in Congress, should be made to conform to a standard of size established by Congress, and in the light of the provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment the size of a district should be determined not alone by the extent to which citizens are disbarred from voting by illegal means, but also by the extent to which citizens are denied the opportunity for reasons legal and just,

such as illiteracy, pauperism, and other

reasons.

one

The adjustment of representation to the various standards for the exercise of the franchise as held by the individual State would not properly dispose of the real problem. There would still remain the great inequalities between State and another because of their varying codes. And the serious feature of the matter would be, that a premium would thereby be put upon an ignorant and promiscuous electorate. That is, the State granting universal suffrage to its citizens would have a larger representation, at Washington, in proportion to its population, than one that restricted the voting right, demanding a certain standard of intelligence or thrift, or both.

The ultimate solution of the problem would thus seem to be the adoption of an entirely new basis of opportionment for the entire country. By the adoption of the second section of the Fourteenth Amendment the original plan of basing apportionment on the whole number of the population was superseded, in theory, by making the number of suffrage holders the basis of representation for those States which did not grant universal manhood suffrage. But since in all subsequent apportionments no cognizance has been taken of this clear provision, the article has come to be, and apparently remains, a dead letter. But by that single section the theory of a universal democracy in the United States suffered a marked modification. The qualified voters, under State laws, become the units of voting

power for their government representatives.

To bring about a definite settlement of this vexing problem, legislation should be enacted by Congress setting forth in precise terms the qualifications for voting for President, Vice-President and Representatives in Congress, the regulations to be the same for the whole country. A clear understanding of what constitutes a citizen's rights and privileges is greatly to be desired. Let the government require a reading knowledge of English; let it be necessary for a voter to be first a fully naturalized citizen of the nation. If deemed advisable a small property or income qualification might be imposed. A State desiring it could share its suffrage with its

women.

This standard having been established, the bounds of a Congressional district should be determined by a fixed number of qualified voters, either duly registered or voting at a given election. The electorate of the country would thus be put on a more elevated plane, the power of the various localities would be leveled, and the value of one intelligent American vote made the equivalent of every other.

A great stimulus would be given each State, and indeed every community, to furnish as good educational advantages as possible, to reduce the percentage of illiteracy to a minimum, so as to enable as large a portion of its citizens as possible to qualify for the suffrage.

American citizenship so far as pertaining to one's influence in government, would then have a definite meaning.