“ Each voter casts as many votes as there are representatives to be chosen, distributing them at will, but not cumulating them on any one candidate. The number of votes necessary to elect is determined by dividing the total vote cast by the number of places to be filled. The total vote cast by each party is then divided by the electoral quotient and the result is the number of representatives to which each party is entitled. Any deficiency is supplied from those parties having the largest fractional quotas. This plan possesses the advantage of economy and secures proportional representation. ”

“ With regard to the principle of representation it may be said that the civilized nations have reached a consensus that the distribution of representatives, in one branch of the legislature at least, should be on the basis of the whole population, though some regard is frequently paid to permanent administrative or local divisions, partly for historical reasons and partly as a concession to local consciousness. ”

“ By the present system, the political party having a minority of voters in a given electoral district is generally unrepresented in the government, notwithstanding the fact that its numerical strength may lack but a few votes of equaling the party which secures the entire representation. As a result of this system, it frequently happens that the minority party in a State is inadequately represented in the State legislature or in Congress. ”

“ In political science, the agency through which the collective will of the people is exercised. In the city States of Greece and Italy, where pure democracies prevailed, all the citizens, in theory at least, attended the public assemblies. The comparatively small geographical area of the city State and the relatively small number of persons vested with the full rights of citizenship made it possible to govern without resort to the agency of representation. ”

“ What is known as the Hare or Andræ system, so called because proposed by an Englishman named Hare, and introduced into Denmark by Andræ, provides for the election of representatives by general ticket, and allows each elector to vote for one candidate or for a limited number, but permits him to indicate his second and third choices, etc. ”

“ Moreover, their own local interests are to be preferred to those of the country at large, and it is his first and foremost duty to champion those interests in preference to the national interests. A sounder view regards the representative as the interpreter of the common consciousness of right and reason. ”