te? Securing the best
interests of all may mean at times, also, the sacrifice of mere party
principles.

Who May Vote for Representatives.--By the words _people_ and
_electors_ is meant voters. With the desire to make the House of
Representatives the more popular branch, it was decided to grant the
right of voting for a representative to any person who might be
privileged to vote for a member of the lower house of the legislature of
his State. The freedom of a State to determine what these qualifications
are is limited only by the provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment:--

Amendment XV. _The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude_.

This amendment was proposed by Congress in February, 1869, and was
declared in force, March 30, 1870. It was for the purpose of granting
more complete political rights to the negroes, recently declared, by
Amendment XIV, to be citizens.

Method and Time of Choosing Representatives.--The Constitution
prescribes that representatives shall be elected by the people.
Congress has provided that representatives shall be chosen on the
Tuesday next after the first Monday in November of the even-numbered
years.[11] Congress has also decreed that representatives shall be
chosen by districts; but the State legislature has complete control of
the districting of its State. However, Congress has declared that these
districts shall be composed of contiguous territory, and contain, as
nearly as practicable, an equal number of inhabitants. Now, usage has
defined territory to be contiguous when it touches another portion of
the district at any one point. As a result of this questionable
interpretation, some States have been divided into districts of
fantastic shapes, to promote the interests of the party having the
majority in the State legislature.[12]

[Footnote 11: The only exceptions to this rule are: Maine holds its
election on the second Monday in September, and Vermont on the first
Tuesday in November.]

[Footnote 12: This process is called "gerrymandering." See, also,
"Government in State and Nation," pp. 135, 136.]

Proportional Representation.--Proportional representation,
which is coming into favor in these days, would doubtless do much
toward remedying this abuse. According to the present system of
electing representatives by dist