ever been nominated by a Republican National Convention who did not
finally receive a sufficient number of votes from all sections of the
country to make his nomination practically the choice of the party
without regard to sectional lines.

If, then, it be a fact that in 1908, for instance, delegates to the
National Republican Convention were elected and controlled through
administration influences in the interest of any one candidate, such
influences were no less potential in Republican than in Democratic
States. Outside of the administration candidate there were at that
Convention five very important States that presented candidates of their
own. They were New York, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
That the delegation from each of said States were practically solid in
the support of its "favorite son" was due largely to the wise decision
of the managers of the administration candidate to concede to each of
said "favorite sons" the delegation from his own State without a
contest. But for this decision, which was wisely made in the interest of
party harmony, no one of those "favorite sons" would have had the solid
delegation from his own State. As it was, a large majority of the
delegates from the five States named was not unfriendly to the
Administration candidate. These delegates voted for their "favorite
sons" simply because they knew that in doing so they were not
antagonizing the administration. There never was a time, therefore, when
they could have been united upon any one candidate in opposition to the
one that had at his back the powerful support of the Administration. Our
government has reached that point in its growth, where it is not only
possible, but comparatively easy, for an administration to secure the
nomination of the one by whom it desires to be succeeded,--especially
under the present system of electing delegates. It was in anticipation
of this, and to prevent any one man from perpetuating himself in power,
that Washington established the precedent against a third successive
term.

If the advocates of this proposed change are to be believed, and if they
wish to be consistent, they should include the National Committee. The
composition of that body is somewhat similar to that of the United
States Senate. In the Senate Nevada and Delaware have the same
representation as New York and Pennsylvania. In the National Committee
each State, territory, and the District of Columbia has one vote