Proportional Representation: A Study in Methods of Election

by John H. Humphreys

CHAPTER XI

OBJECTIONS TO PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

"The party agents and political men opposed to the very last the introduction of a system of proportional representation."—COUNT GOBLET D'ALVIELLA

The question of practicality.

Although the fear lest proportional representation should weaken the party system is now the most serious obstacle in the way of its acceptance by the practical politician, yet there are others who warmly approve of the principle, who regard proportional representation as the ideal, but still entertain some doubts as to its practicability, and therefore shrink from a whole-hearted advocacy of the reform. Nor are these doubts entirely removed by the conclusion arrived at by the Royal Commission on Electoral Systems—that the three systems of proportional representation examined by the Commission are quite feasible. The sceptics need to be convinced that the intelligence of the ordinary English elector and the capacity of the English returning officer are equal to the requirements of the new system; its practicability has in fact to be demonstrated afresh. It is granted that the more complete adaptation of the machinery of elections to the true representation of the electors must involve some departure from the simplicity of present methods, and in order to gauge the value of the objection that the change proposed is so great as to render its introduction impracticable, it will be well to consider once more the character of the tasks which the new system will throw upon the elector and the returning officer.

The elector's task. In criticizing the mechanism of the single transferable vote a Member of Parliament, at a public meeting in his constituency, declared that the act of voting ought to be made so simple as to be intelligible to a child of the second standard in a public elementary school. The reply might very well be made that such children are capable of indicating a choice amongst those things in which they are interested. But this assertion raises the question whether the method of voting for the purpose of selecting the members of an assembly, to which the affairs of an empire, a nation or a city, are to be entrusted, can only be regarded as practicable if it is adapted to the capacity of the least intelligent of the electors. Must a nation continue to suffer all the evils which arise from an imperfect electoral system because some of its citizens may be so unintelligent as to be unable to make use of an improved method? A secretary of the Liberal Unionist Association has declared that in some constituencies hundreds of electors are so ignorant as not to know the name of the Prime Minister, and has even advanced this fact in order to show that it is unnecessary to trouble about the true representation of the electors. Even were this statement not exaggerated it would but furnish an additional argument in favour of proportional representation. The votes of such ignorant electors, not being given for political reasons, are far too easily bought by that indirect corruption which takes the form of subscriptions, charitable donations, gifts of coals and of blankets; and yet, with the present system, these votes may decide the result of an election and completely nullify the votes of intelligent citizens.

With the single transferable vote all that an elector is asked to do is to number candidates in the order of his preference. He need do no more than place the figure 1 against the name of his first choice. It is desirable that, he should proceed further, but abundant assistance, if he needs it, will be forthcoming from the party organizations and the press. But is there any considerable section of the English electorate that cannot perform this new duty? When being examined before the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Municipal Representation Bill, Mr. J. J. Stephenson, a member of the Executive Committee of the Labour Party, was asked, "Do you think that the system of voting proposed in the Bill would offer any difficulties to working men?" His reply was emphatic. "No. I have had some experience of working men, and I have never found them any slower in intelligence than any other part of the community—there are few working men who could not tell in order of merit the men they wanted to vote for. That is my personal experience gained after some years of work." Apart from this expression of opinion, we have this convincing testimony to the capacity of working men electors that they have been among the first to put improved electoral methods into practice. The Northumberland miners and Canadian Trades Unions are familiar with the use of the single transferable vote in the election of their officers; the Labour Party in Victoria has made use of preferential voting in the selection of its parliamentary candidates. Moreover, the daily work of artizans enables them readily and quickly to grasp the fundamental idea of proportional representation—the representation of parties in proportion to their strength—and the discussions on this question in Labour organizations have been at least as keen as, if not keener than, those in other political associations.

The doubts entertained as to the capacity of the electorate are not shared by those who have been officially responsible for the conduct of elections. Mr. S. R. Ginn, Clerk of the Peace for Cambridgeshire, in giving evidence before the Royal Commission on Electoral Systems, declared that "after one or two elections proportional representation ought to work as easily as the ballot. When the county electors got the extended franchise we had some difficulty with the ballot, but now it is simple, and proportional representation would be much the same." Speaking of the elaborate precautions taken in the organization of elections he expressed the opinion that the voters were more to be trusted than our machinery trusts them. It is difficult in the face of such evidence to understand on what grounds the English electors should be regarded as so greatly inferior to the electors of other countries that they cannot be trusted to make proper use of an improved electoral method. The charge of incapacity can only apply to the least intelligent section of the electorate, and it is astonishing that those who are so anxious to preserve the electoral privileges of the unintelligent voters should be supremely indifferent to the representation of the abler sections of the electorate. At present at every election the votes of thousands of intelligent citizens count for nothing. The electors who voted for Conservative candidates in Wales at the General Election in 1906 might have saved themselves the trouble. Their voting papers, although not spoiled in the technical sense, had no value. Proportional representation would have given a value to all these votes, and even if its introduction should result in an increase in the number of spoiled papers, this would be as nothing compared with the number of votes to which, for the first time, a value would be given. The Australian advocates of proportional representation aptly describe the reform as "effective voting." The elector knows that his vote will count, and thus every inducement is offered to him to take part in the choice of a representative. The vote becomes a more valuable possession to the elector under proportional representation than under the single-member system.

The returning officer's task.

With regard to the duties of returning officers, which in England fall upon the sheriffs of counties and the mayors of boroughs, it should be remembered that in the performance of these duties they are invariably assisted by an expert staff, and in judging of the difficulties which would attend the introduction of a new system, the fact that this expert staff would be available for the purpose of carrying out the details of an election must be taken into consideration. There would probably be no more difficulty in the introduction of a system of proportional representation than was experienced in introducing the greater change associated with the Ballot Act. On that occasion instructions as to their new duties were issued to returning officers, and similar instructions would no doubt be issued as to the practical organization of elections under a system of proportional representation. In Belgium a department of the Ministry of the Interior is set apart for the administration of electoral affairs. Complete instructions are issued from this department to the returning officers throughout the country, and the supervision which the department exercises over the conduct of elections doubtless contributes to the facility with which returning officers have carried out their duties under the proportional system.

The fears expressed lest returning officers should not be equal to the duties which would fall upon them under the system of the single transferable vote are not shared by the returning officers themselves. Mr. H. R. Poole, Under Sheriff for Somerset, who has had thirty years' experience in the conduct of elections, stated, in evidence before the Royal Commission on Electoral Systems, that were Somersetshire treated as a single constituency under the system of the single transferable vote he would be able to make the necessary arrangements for the counting of the votes with a staff of the same class of men as had assisted him hitherto. Speaking on behalf of the Under Sheriffs' Association, he added that "they saw no difficulty in carrying out any new electoral law which might be passed, and that they would always be glad to give their assistance and work as loyally as they could in support of anything which might be done." The officials of urban constituencies are not less competent. Perhaps the largest urban constituency which would be formed under a system of proportional representation would be that of Glasgow, and Mr. Alexander Walker, the Assessor of that city, who for twenty-four years was intimately associated with the organization of elections, has, after a careful examination of the details of the single transferable vote, stated that there are no practical difficulties in the way of applying the system to a constituency of the size of Glasgow.

The doubts as to the capacity of returning officers spring from an inadequate acquaintance with the difficulties which they already overcome in the conduct of elections. The duties which would devolve upon these officers under the single transferable vote system are not greater than have been undertaken and are undertaken in Great Britain to-day in connexion with the use of the cumulative vote. The Scottish School Boards are still elected under the latter system, and the following particulars of the elections in Glasgow on 2 April 1909, illustrate the admirable manner in which returning officers in this country, as elsewhere, carry out the tasks assigned to them. The whole city was polled as one constituency; fifteen members were to be elected, and each elector had fifteen votes, which he could distribute or cumulate as he pleased upon any of the twenty-one candidates nominated. There were on the roll 157,194 electors, of whom 40,778 took part in the election. The returning officer, in this case the Treasurer of the Glasgow School Board, had therefore to deal with over 600,000 votes, but he had to make provision for counting a much larger number of votes. Yet he had no difficulty in accomplishing successfully and expeditiously this gigantic task. He enlisted the services of over 250 clerks, and the whole process of extracting the details of the ballot papers was completed in the course of about five hours. Had the single transferable vote been employed the number of votes to be dealt with would have been 40,778 only, and although the papers would have had to be counted more than once, the task would not have been so large as that entailed by the cumulative vote, nor would it have been necessary to have engaged so large a staff. It is sometimes forgotten that returning officers take a pride in the perfecting of their arrangements for counting the votes. In introducing new methods into the counting of votes in the Glasgow Municipal elections, Mr. Walker prepared and issued very complete instructions to his staff, and took pains to see that the staff were fully prepared for its work, and there is not the least doubt that the town clerks and under-sheriffs would meet any changes in electoral methods with the determination to carry out their part of the work as successfully as possible. The first elections in Tasmania and the Transvaal with the single transferable vote proceeded with perfect smoothness, and this was due to the excellent preparations made by the returning officers.

Time required for counting votes.

One of the minor objections urged against proportional representation is that a considerable time must elapse between the close of the poll and the declaration of the result. It will not be possible to announce the figures on the day of the election. It is doubtless desirable that the result of an election should be ascertained without unnecessary delay, but it is far better to wait a day in order to obtain a true result than to adhere to an electoral system which gives a false result, and on which a government may have to be based for a period of five years. With most proportional systems only one day's delay occurs. The Under Sheriff of Somerset has estimated that it might take him two days before he could complete the return for that county, as it would probably take half the first day to verify the contents of the ballot boxes. On this point the verdict of the Royal Commission on Electoral Systems is as follows: "On the whole it is probably safe to say that in a constituency where 60,000 or 70,000 votes are cast, such as would have to be contemplated in this country, the results should be declared with efficient arrangements in the course of the second day after the poll. Where the constituency was compact, e.g., in the case of a large town like Birmingham or Manchester, the count of first votes could be finished on the night of the election, and the remaining operations of elimination and transfer completed in a long day's work on the following day; but a longer time would have to be allowed in the case of extensive rural districts."[1] It has also been alleged that there may be a greater number of petitions for the recounting of votes under the transferable vote system. But neither Tasmanian nor South African experience gives any ground for this statement, and as the Tasmanian Agent-General has pointed out, there is as much difference between the counting of votes under the improved system and under the existing rough and ready method as there is between book-keeping by single and book-keeping by double entry; the sorting of the votes is carefully checked at each operation, and all errors in the counting of votes must be rectified before any new stage in the process can be entered upon.

Fads and sectional interests.

The objection that a proportional system is too complex for English electors and returning officers thus completely breaks down. But it remains to consider whether the other objections which have been raised against proportional representation are of sufficient weight as to render its introduction undesirable. It is repeatedly asserted that proportional representation will encourage the undue representation of faddists and of sectional interests. For example, Professor Edward Jenks alleges that, "If we had such a vast constituency as Manchester, or Liverpool, under the proportional system we should certainly have a member for teetotalism, a member for vegetarianism and the like, and each of these, in all probability, would be instructed rigidly to oppose everything inconsistent with the special ideal of its constituents."[2] Now under a system of proportional representation a candidate in any constituency, were it Liverpool, Manchester or Glasgow, would have to secure about 10,000 votes before he could be sure of being returned, and it is incredible that in any of these constituencies so large a number of voters would support candidatures such as those described by Professor Jenks, or that political feeling is so weak that Liberal, Conservative, and Labour candidates would be set aside in favour of candidates standing for a single interest only. The character of the objection shows that the true working of a system of proportional representation is completely misunderstood, for a proportional system reduces fads and sectional interests to their proper proportions; it is the existing system of single-member constituencies which confers excessive power upon insignificant sections of the whole. Were there 10,000 electors in Manchester who, as suggested, would regard vegetarianism as of greater importance than any other political question, and were these electors scattered throughout the city, then there would be an average of more than 1500 such electors in each of the existing divisions. A body of 1500 voters in a division of Manchester prepared to place their particular fad above all other political questions have now the power of determining the result of the election in that division; the 10,000 electors similarly minded would have the power of extracting a pledge in support of their proposals, and probably an effective pledge from the successful candidate in each division. Under a system of proportional representation they might possibly secure a few seats, but under the present system they can affect the election in every constituency. It is well known that a large number of members of Parliament pledge themselves at election time to the support of movements with which they are not fully in accord. Probably their seat depended upon the answer which they gave to the leaders of some small body of electors holding the balance in the constituency.

Mr. Henry Vivian, M.P., thus refers to the pressure which small groups of voters bring to bear upon parliamentary candidates: "One serious evil which he hoped might be abolished by a change of system was the ragging of constituencies by a comparatively small number of busybodies interested in some particular fad. A large number of members of Parliament really had to bend to some two or three hundred electors, although there might be 20,000 in the whole constituency. He had the misfortune to be elected by only a gross. It was strictly true that in many cases a candidate was compelled to consent to support something that he felt strongly against, merely because a certain percentage of the electors insisted upon it. He was not suggesting that proportional representation would entirely get rid of this evil, but he was satisfied that proportional representation rested on a larger basis—that they would have larger constituencies and a number of men from whom the elector might make selection; and therefore there would be a possibility of their lessening, if not altogether getting rid of, this most intolerable evil. He was not at all sure that he would not at times rather be out of political life than in it; it became so threatening that he absolutely refused to reply to the letters at all, or to be dictated to, in the way that these people attempted to do. He would venture to say that with a system of proportional representation they would be able to get rid of some at least, if not of most, of the objectionable features of the present system."[3] The same feature of our electoral system has been condemned in the strongest terms by Mr. Balfour. "Everybody," said he, "who has watched the actual course of a contested election in a constituency where parties were fairly evenly balanced, knows perfectly well the monstrous power which is given to a very small minority to exact a pledge from the candidate, not that he should support this or that great policy, but that he should help their small and particular interest. I know nothing which is more corrupting, both to the electors or to the elected, than that process; and although I have fully seen the difficulties which attach to what is commonly known as minority representation, it surely is an extraordinary criticism upon our existing system that, while a small handful of interested people can turn an election one way or the other on their own personal issue, huge minorities, like the minority of the Unionists in Scotland, are utterly and grossly unrepresented. We give every privilege to the little knot of people in the individual constituencies; we ignore the great mass who under our existing system find no representation at all comparable either to their numerical strength or to their public spirit, or to any other quality which makes them useful, able and independent citizens."[4]

The organizations of different branches of the Civil Service have, in furtherance of their interests, sought to bring pressure to bear upon members of Parliament, and in consequence of this action it has been suggested that civil servants should be disfranchised. In other words, it is proposed to meet an evil encouraged by defective electoral methods by inflicting a gross injustice upon a large body of citizens, the majority of whom, like other citizens, consider political problems purely from the point of view of national advantage. The true remedy for the unfair pressure of small sections must be sought in such a change in the method of election as will allow the country to appraise them at their true value. Direct representation, by means of which sectional interests can, if necessary, be defended or advanced within the House of Commons, is far less injurious to the State than a system which allows such interests to bring unfair pressure to bear upon a considerable number of members of Parliament, or to enforce their demands upon the nation by linking themselves to a national party. There is, however, but little danger of any large number of members being returned in support of single interests only. The results under systems of proportional representation show that the members elected are returned upon political grounds, and when any question has attained such importance as to command the support of 10,000 votes in any constituency, doubtless that question has become ripe for discussion in Parliament, and can no longer fairly be described as a fad.

It is, however, said that the direct representation of sectional interests will enable these to exercise in Parliament the same pressure that they at present exercise in the constituencies. This statement also is based upon a misconception of the changed conditions which would result from a system of proportional representation. A small body of electors can at present exercise pressure in the constituency, because the result of the election is in their hands. A small group of members could only exercise the same influence in the House of Commons if the large parties were willing to bid for their support and were, at the same time, able to enforce upon their followers the observance of any agreement entered into. The great difference in the new conditions of party discipline will here come into play. Members of a party who have been able to win elections in spite of the opposition of sectional interests, would be able to withstand pressure in Parliament. They would know that they could appeal with confidence to their supporters in the constituency to endorse their action, and, indeed, they would much more likely lose their seat if they acted contrary to the wishes of those who had returned them. Any sacrifice of principle by a party for the sake of conciliating a small faction would cause a loss of support greater than the gain. When proportional representation is established such grouping as may take place within the House of Commons will be based upon political affinities.

The representation of localities.

Another objection which is often brought against proportional representation is that it will destroy the intimate relation which exists at present between a constituency and its representative in Parliament. Here the arguments used are not only as a rule self-destructive, but they are obviously in conflict with the suggestion that proportional representation would give undue weight to sectional interests. "Parliament," said Burke, "is a deliberate assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where not local purpose, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed, but when you have chosen him he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of Parliament. If the local constituent should have interest, or should form a hasty opinion, evidently opposite to the real good of the rest of the community, the member for that place ought to be as far as any other from any endeavour to give it effect."[5] Were the primary duty of a member for any constituency to consider the special needs of that constituency, local considerations would outweigh national interests.

Yet Burke's declaration is not intended to relieve the representative of a constituency from the duty of attending to its administrative necessities. "Only members of Parliament," said Mr. Gulland, M.P., "appreciate how largely their time is taken up with local matters. They have to approach the different Government Departments upon an endless variety of topics." But Mr. Gulland proceeds: "These matters as a rule have no reference to existing Parliamentary divisions, and in a city it would be very much better if a man were member for the whole city rather than for a division. And in the case of a county, including burghs, it would be better that the general interests of the county should be attended to by members representing the county as a whole than by a member who is only the representative of the burgh."[6] It is also possible that the interests of some division of the city or county might be opposed to the interests of the city as a whole, and this is an additional reason against the subdivision of such constituencies for the purpose of parliamentary representation. An admirable illustration occurs in a speech made in the Canadian House of Commons by Mr. F. D. Monk, K.C. "In a very large constituency," said he, "say of the size of the entire island of Montreal, it would be impossible to resort to the promise of a great many small public works, which by the admission of everybody are not at present advantageous, when we have such large problems to solve in connexion, for instance, with the problem of transportation. Nobody in a constituency such as I have just indicated could advocate the construction of a small wharf or a small public building, but would be obliged to consider the relation of such a large territory as the island and city of Montreal to the all-important question of transportation. He would be obliged to lay before the electors, not promises of small and very often useless, though comparatively costly improvements, but the necessity of carrying out such a plan of transportation as was laid before the country and the Government some years ago by a commission composed of very experienced men, who after considerable labour had in my opinion solved that very vital question in every part of the country."[7] If local representation is necessary it would therefore appear to be most desirable that the representatives should be able to speak in the name of the whole of the town or of the county, as the case may be, and that is the kind of local representation which a system of proportional representation provides. The members for the larger area can and do take a wider view than the member for the smaller electorate.

But what kind of local representation does a system of single-member constituencies provide? A large number of constituencies are represented by members who have no connexion with the locality other than that of being its spokesman in Parliament. Mr. Winston Churchill, defeated in a division of Manchester, is elected member for Dundee, a Scottish constituency. In what sense is the local representation of Dundee preserved? What were the special qualifications possessed by Mr. Churchill for giving utterance to the needs of a Scottish constituency? Doubtless Mr. Churchill made every effort to become acquainted with the local conditions of Dundee, and the necessity of doing so must have made considerable demands upon his time and energy. Yet it is more than doubtful whether Mr. Churchill can ever be an ideal representative from the standpoint of locality of a constituency to whose local life he is a stranger. Mr. Churchill's experience is in no sense singular. Mr. Gladstone found it necessary to leave Greenwich for Midlothian; Lord Morley to leave Newcastle for Forfarshire; Sir William Harcourt to leave Derby for Monmouthshire; Mr. Balfour to leave Manchester for the City of London, and, however honoured the new constituencies might be by the distinction of their members, it cannot be said that the intimate relation between the representative and the constituency was maintained. Under proportional representation the representation of localities becomes much more real. Excellent examples can be seen in the working of the system in Belgium. Before the introduction of the new methods leaders of political parties in Belgium were compelled, as in England, to leave the towns with which they were identified and to seek election for constituencies, in which, comparatively speaking, they were unknown. Here the cause was not the subdivision of constituencies but the absence of any provision for the representation of minorities. M. Anseele, the leader of the Socialists in Ghent, and intimately acquainted with the life of that city, had to seek entrance into the Chamber of Deputies as one of the Socialist representatives of Liège. Similarly, M. Vandervelde, whose activities had always been identified with Brussels, had to proceed to Charleroi in order to secure election. But on the introduction of the proportional system, M. Vandervelde returned to Brussels and was immediately elected as one of the Socialist members of the constituency, of whose special requirements he could, if need be, speak with effect in Parliament. M. Anseele returned to Ghent and was elected as one of the members for the city with which the whole of his life had been associated. He was relieved from the double burden of continuing his work in Ghent and of acting as the representative of a constituency in another part of the country. It is abundantly clear, if it is desired to maintain the local character of representation, that a proportional system secures such representation in its most efficient form.

So flimsy and contradictory are some of the arguments brought against proportional representation that it is not surprising that certain critics, impressed by such facts as are recorded in the previous paragraph, have alleged that the system will so favour the representation of localities that no one but a local candidate will ever have any chance of success. The conclusion is drawn that proportional representation will militate against the return of eminent politicians, and is, for this reason, undesirable. But the facts cited as to Belgium bear no such interpretation. It is true that under all electoral systems the local candidate has, other things being equal, an advantage, and rightly so, over candidates who are not directly connected with the constituency, but it is also true that under all systems local candidates give way, if necessary, to distinguished statesmen. In Belgium the Socialists of Liège and Charleroi willingly accepted as their representatives M. Anseele and M. Vandervelde when these failed to secure representation in their own towns. So welcome are eminent politicians that there can be no ground for supposing that they will suffer from a proportional system. Indeed, large constituencies returning several members give to these a much surer foothold in Parliament than they can possibly secure with single-member areas. The distinguished candidate can appeal almost with certainty of success for the "quota" of votes which is sufficient to secure his election. The only change that will be made by the proportional system is that he will be able to retain his seat in the constituency with which he is really identified; he will no longer be compelled to wander from place to place with every swing of the pendulum.

The member and his constituents.

There is perhaps one other aspect of the representation of localities which deserves attention. The fictions are still maintained that a member of Parliament represents and is intimately associated with all his constituents. As regards the latter, it is obvious that only in a very small constituency can a member become personally acquainted with the electors. This might have been feasible in the days of the restricted franchise prior to 1867, but in modern constituencies which, on an average, contain some 11,000 voters it is impossible. Further, in respect of representation, since votes, save those of ignorant and corrupt electors, are given more and more on political grounds, an elector can derive but little consolation from the fact that he is "represented" in Parliament by the candidate whom he did his best to defeat, nor does such an elector, should he take a considerable interest in political work, care to approach the member in any cause; he prefers to seek help of a member of his own party who is the representative of another constituency. If a member of Parliament is elected to defend Free Trade he cannot possibly represent the political convictions of constituents who believe that Free Trade is disastrous to the country. But under a proportional system Free Traders and Tariff Reformers would each have their own representatives, and whilst all the members would be able to speak for the constituency when its local interests were concerned, the various parties within the constituency would find expression given to their views when the question of Free Trade or of Tariff Reform was under discussion. So far as modern conditions permit, the relations between the member and his constituents would be of an intimate character, and at least there would be that bond of sympathy which springs from identity of purpose and of political faith.

Objections of party agents.

Count Goblet d'Alviella has stated that the most strenuous and persistent opposition to the introduction of proportional representation in Belgium came from party agents and from the political men, that is, from the extreme partizans. It is perhaps only natural to expect that party agents should object to a system which would introduce a considerable change in the method of party organization and in the conduct of elections, but a good many of their fears are based upon misapprehensions. It is true that political organizations might not control nominations as much as they do now, but the work of organizers would perhaps be even in greater demand than now. Thus, in Belgium, before the introduction of proportional representation, many constituencies were uncontested, some not for twenty years, and the political organizations of the minority in these constituencies fell into decay, in many places being completely abandoned. Similarly in England, it is often extremely difficult to maintain political organizations in those constituencies in which the position of the minority is hopeless. The new electoral methods have been followed in Belgium with a great increase of political activity; no constituency is now uncontested, and each of the parties maintains an active organization in every district.

The objections generally advanced by party agents are the increased inconvenience and cost which would result from the enlargement of the constituencies. It is alleged that it would be impossible for candidates in country areas to make themselves known to the electors. But to what extent does this objection hold good? Prior to 1885 many of the constituencies were much larger than they are to-day. The county of Northumberland, which is now divided into six divisions, was then divided into two. With the more rapid means of communications and of transit now available a candidate can cover a county constituency with much more ease than was possible a generation ago. The decrease in the size of constituencies since 1885 has not given any greater leisure to the candidates during the period of his candidature. Every moment of his time is filled up and, indeed, there is often an unnecessary expenditure of time and energy upon public meetings, the number of which, owing to an insane competition, has been multiplied to an absurd degree. Candidates are now expected to address meetings at the breakfast hour, meetings at the luncheon hour, and meetings in the evening; if constituencies were enlarged the time of the candidate would doubtless be carefully mapped out to meet the new conditions. Moreover, the constituencies required by a system of proportional representation in the United Kingdom would still be small compared with the constituencies in the Colonies, and even though large electoral areas may have some disadvantages the benefits to be gained from a true system of representation completely outweigh them.

Alleged difficulties in the organization of elections.

Some valuable lessons were learned during the course of the Johannesburg municipal elections in 1909, as to the organization of contests under the system of the single transferable vote. There was no previous experience to guide either the candidate or their agents. The methods pursued differed according to the rigidity of the discipline existing within the party. A committee representative of commercial and other interests, presided over by the Hon. W. A. Martin, M.L.C., selected the names of ten candidates—there were ten vacancies—and this committee asked the citizens of Johannesburg to vote for the candidates whose names figured upon this ticket—the "ticket of the ten good men," as it was called. The committee did not attempt to instruct the electors as to the order in which preferences should be expressed for these candidates. The electors were asked to place them in such order as they pleased.[8] The candidature of the ticket, as such, was in some respects also loosely organized. The various candidates gave separate and special attention to the districts with which they were most closely identified, but they also appeared in twos and threes on the same platform at public meetings. In every district the names of all ten candidates appeared upon the posters, but special prominence was given to the name of some one candidate—the candidate associated with the district. The final appeal to the public, in the form of a specimen ballot paper, had all the ten names printed in bold type. In this way the committee was enabled to appeal to the town to support the ticket as a whole, whilst the individual members of the ticket were free to solicit first preferences in the districts and circles in which they were best known. Such an arrangement shows how easily the difficulties of candidature under the new system can be overcome. If the arrangements outlined above were adopted by party organizers the difficulties of an electoral campaign would be no greater than with a system of single-member constituencies. Each candidate on the ticket would canvass a portion of the constituency—which would be no larger than a single-member area—whilst at convenient centres the members of the ticket would appear upon a common platform. The campaign of the Labour Party was more rigidly organized. The leaders nominated a ticket of three candidates, but instead of leaving their supporters free, instructed them to vote for the candidates on the ticket in a definite order, although this order was varied in different wards. In the official instructions the elector is asked to vote by placing the figure 1 opposite the name of the candidate he likes best, and some risk is run by an organization which advises its supporters to express their first preference for some candidate who is not the party's true first choice. It is sufficient for organizers to advise their supporters to record preferences for all the candidates of the party, leaving the elector free to decide the order in which those preferences should be given.

Alleged increase of cost.

These elections threw some light on another difficulty urged against proportional representation by party agents, namely, the increased expenditure involved. Considerable sums of money were certainly spent in the prosecution of the candidature of the "ten good men," but these elections proved conclusively that excessive expenditure had much less influence in determining the result than in our parliamentary and municipal elections. The total expenses of the three Labour candidates in Johannesburg were returned at £18, 5s., and even if there is added thereto the expenditure incurred by the Labour Representation Committee, amounting to £34, 3s. 6d., the total sum cannot be said to be excessive. Two of these three candidates were successful. The expenditure of the successful Labour candidate in Pretoria was practically nil. Further, the Mayor of Johannesburg, who, relying upon his record of past work, personally took no action beyond the issue of a manifesto to the electors, was returned at the head of the poll.

Mr. Ramsay Macdonald also objects to proportional representation because of the cost involved in contesting large areas.[9] Johannesburg, for the purpose of its municipal election, was polled as one constituency, and the evidence furnished by this election is, therefore, of considerable value. Further, this evidence is confirmed by the experience of Socialist parties in Belgium, in Finland and elsewhere, which apparently find no difficulty in fighting large constituencies. The electoral conditions in these countries doubtless differ from those in England, but an analysis of the expenses incurred by Labour candidates at home show that single-member constituencies and small expenditure do not go together. The cost of these candidatures, even apart from returning officers' expenses, usually exceeds £500, and sometimes £1000. Such sums could be spent to much greater advantage in large areas in bringing all the adherents of a party to the poll.

It has already been shown that the practice of "nursing" a constituency is one of the indirect results of the single-member system. Indeed, no system gives so great an advantage to the candidate with a long purse; he can more easily influence those non-political electors whose votes may decide the issue. A consideration of the working of the new system will show that the cost of elections will in all probability be greatly diminished. At present in a city returning seven members a party must find seven candidates each with his separate organization and separate expenses; with proportional representation there will be but one organization for all candidates of the same party, and as no party can hope to monopolize the representation, it is unlikely that any will run as many as seven candidates. A well-organized party will get its due share of representation without subscribing to clubs and flower shows. The illegitimate power of money will be weakened, and the total amount spent considerably reduced.

The accuracy of representation.

A final criticism made against proportional systems of voting is that they do not secure the exact representation of all the electors in a country. Thus the Royal Commission on Electoral Systems, whilst admitting that the new method would generally produce more accurate results, mathematically at least, than the existing method, qualified their statement by saying that their success "in producing in Parliament the 'scale map of the country,' which they held up as the ideal, can be only partial"; and in another paragraph the Report contains this remarkable statement: "On the assumption, however, that proportional representation is desirable, can any system yet invented be guaranteed or reasonably expected to ensure it? In our opinion, only in a limited and generally unascertainable degree." No responsible advocate of proportional representation has contended that proportional systems, save when the country is treated as one constituency, will result in a mathematically accurate representation of opinion. But the close approximation to accuracy obtained in the practical application of proportional systems is so pronounced that the statement of the Commission is wholly misleading. The following figures of the Belgian election of 1910 will show to what extent accuracy is obtained by a proportional system, even when, as in this case, the mechanism slightly favours the larger party:

BELGIAN ELECTION, 1910

Seats Seats in
Parties Votes. Actually Proportion
Obtained. to Votes.
Catholics . . . . . 676,939 49 47.0
Liberals and Socialists . 561,052 36 37.5
Christian Democrats . . 16,170 —— 1.0
Independents . . . . 20,428 —— 1.5

In Finland, where another system of proportional representation is in operation, the result of the election of 1909 was as follows:—

FINLAND ELECTION, 1909

Seats Seats in
Parties Votes. Actually Proportion
Obtained. to Votes.
Social Democrat . . . . 337,685 84 80
Old Finn . . . . . . 199,920 48 47
Young Finn . . . . . 122,770 28 29
Swedish . . . . . . 104,191 25 25
Agrarian . . . . . . 56,943 14 13
Christian Labourers . . 23,259 1 6

The single transferable vote has yielded results which are remarkably accurate. It has been used in Tasmania, with adult suffrage, in the Transvaal, with the municipal franchise, and in the election of the Senate for United South Africa, by members of Parliament. Each of the five constituencies in Tasmania returned six members, and the total result was as follows:—

TASMANIAN ELECTION, 1909

Seats Seats in
Parties Votes. Actually Proportion
Obtained. to Votes.
Labour . . . . . . 19,067 12 11.7
Non-Labour . . . . . 29,893 18 18.3

These figures speak for themselves. In the municipal elections in the Transvaal each of the parties obtained its fair share of representation. In Johannesburg the elections were fought by a commercial ticket of ten candidates, a Labour ticket of three candidates, and ten Independent candidates; the number of valid votes was 11,788, and the quota—that is, the proportion of votes which would ensure the election of a representative—amounted to 1072. The ticket of "ten good men" polled in all some 6185 votes, or 247 votes short of six quotas, and the ticket succeeded in returning six members. This result was strictly fair, for the deficiency in votes was made up by those supporters of independent candidates who, having failed to return their first choice, had indicated members of this ticket as their next choice. The three Labour candidates polled in all 2126 votes, or 18 votes short of two full quotas, and the Labour Party was successful in securing two representatives. The remaining two seats fell to two Independent candidates, each of whom had a considerable personal following. In the third test, the election of South African Senators, each of the parties obtained representation in proportion to their force in the Parliaments of the respective colonies. The details of the voting have not been published,[10] but the returning officers have all borne testimony to the satisfactory working of the system and absolute fairness of the results.

In the light of these facts, what meaning can be attached to the statement that proportional systems only secure proportional representation in a limited and generally unascertainable degree? The results of proportional systems are seen in a still more favourable light if contrasted with the working of non-proportional methods. Thus the Liberals of Surrey, Sussex, and Kent were without representation in the Parliament of 1910. The Unionists of Wales were in the same plight in the previous one. In the election of the Australian Senate (1910) the Labour Party obtained eighteen seats, all other parties none. In the same year, the Municipal Reformers elected all the aldermen of the London County Council, the Progressives none. In the election of Representative Peers of Scotland no Liberal peer is ever chosen.

Summary of objections.

The various objections which have been raised from time to time against proportional representation have been almost wholly disproved. Before it was put into operation it was said to be impracticable; wherever the new methods have been introduced the proceedings have in every case passed off without a hitch. Proportional representation, it was said, would result in unstable governments; now complaint is made that it has been difficult in Belgium under the new system to effect a change of government, the majority of the electors apparently being content with things as they are. It was alleged that faddists would obtain undue representation; it is now complained, under some misapprehension, that independent political thought will fail to secure an adequate hearing. Objections of a minor character are also raised; that proportional representation will increase the difficulties of electioneering; that it will increase the cost of elections—a conclusion not in accordance with the experience of countries in which it has been applied; or that it will destroy the sporting element in politics, as if the pursuit of politics by itself was lacking in interest. Yet all the time the demand for electoral reform is increasing, and whilst the figures in the foregoing paragraphs show to what extent proportional systems secure accuracy in representation, it can also be shown that proportional representation will facilitate the solution of those other electoral reforms which are also demanded upon the ground that they will add to the representative character of the House of Commons.

[Footnote 1: Report of the Royal Commission on Electoral Systems (Cd. 5163), par. 81.]

[Footnote 2: The Albany Review, October 1907.]

[Footnote 3: Annual Meeting of the Proportional Representation Society,
June 1910.—Representation, vol. iii. p. 79.]

[Footnote 4: Scottish Conservative Club, Glasgow, 5 October 1910.]

[Footnote 5: Speech to the Electors of Bristol, 3 November 1774.]

[Footnote 6: Minutes of Evidence: Royal Commission on Electoral
Systems (Cd. 5352), p. 118.]

[Footnote 7: 15 March 1909.]

[Footnote 8: The following is taken from a letter sent to the press by the Chairman of the Committee: "I am aware that many people are opposed to the principle of a ticket on the ground that it savours of 'dictation,' &c. &c. We are exceedingly anxious that every voter should be in a position to exercise his privilege of choice to the fullest extent…. It is not reasonable to expect him, without advice, to express an order of preference in the case of men he does not know. This is exactly one of the strongest justifications for a representative committee to come forward as we do, to say: 'We have carefully inquired as to the character, capacity, and ability of all the candidates, and having taken everything into consideration we recommend you to vote for the ten whose names are on our ticket, placing them in such order of preference as you please.'">[

[Footnote 9: Labour Party Conference, Leicester, February 1911.]

[Footnote 10: Owing to the small numbers taking part in the election, the publication of the details might possibly have furnished a clue to the votes of individual members of Parliament. For this reason the returning officers and the scrutineers were pledged to secrecy. The fairness of the results were fully recognized by the press, as the following extracts show:

"The result has demonstrated the absolute fairness of the single transferable vote."—Bloemfontein Friend.

"The system proved in practice as simple and accurate as it was scrupulously fair in character."—Bloemfontein Post.]