Litchfield enquirer., 1873-01-16
THE COUNTRY AND THE coMvEM.
 Tl0H

We publish on our outside a communi- cation from Bridgeport and an article from the Farmer of that city with refer ence to the proposed State Convention. Mr. Ankete1 refers to the fear through out the country towns that in case of an apportionnent of representatives on the oasis of population their votes would be swamped by the large delegations from the cities. That the country towns are afraid of that result is unquestionably true; and we think that brief examina- sions of the causes of this rural distrust will convince our city friends that it is we'll founded and will suggest the only common ground upon which city and country can ever meet for representative :eform.
 Aside from the selfish feeling that in- luces the country voter to cling to the unjust advantage our present constitution gives him, there are two just grounds of objection that must be obviated before he country towns will ever consent to equal popular representation in the lower House. The first is political one: Un- Ter the common mode of election, through which maiorities only are represented. a lair apportionment of representatives &C., ,ording to population would give the Democratic party large preponderance n the city delegations. In g House of two hundred members, the members from New Haven, Hartford, Middletown, Bridgeport, and Waterbury, numbering perhaps fifty, might very possibly be three iourths Democratic, leaving the very large Republican minorities without any adequate representation. The second ob- jection is social rather than political and lrises from the just fear that, under the prevailing system of representation, ilit- crate, non-taxpaying >majorities would practically choose the city members, not only leaving the intelligent taxpayer un- represented but flooding the legislature with ward politicians or other purchase lble material. That the country Re- publican is influenced by both these objections, while the country Dem ocrat only feels the latter, accounts for greater opposition representative re- form meets from the Republicans of the country towns.
 As country Republican we feelthe full force of the foregoing objections and hence we venture the opinion that the Repubi- gan party will never yield to the pressure for representative reform, nor the country grant the demand of the city, till some fairer system of representation than now prevails can be discovered. This great want of the times is exactly met by Mi nority Representation. Uniting upon that 'ystem, the unrepresented minorities of the small towns and the unrepresented population of the large towns will not on Y prove irresistible from the weight of numbers, but can offer plan of accom- notation that obviates all reasonable ob- ;ection on the part of majorities in the small towns. In tLe first place the politi- gal objection is fully met by the proposed plan of representation. A lower House of two hundred would give one representative so about 500 votes. Estimating Demo- cratic maiorities in the Democratic cities above referred to at higher figures than they have averaged of late, and we have the following as the result of Minority Representations: