, 1876-02-20
THE COMING CITY ELECTION.

The municipal charter now in force in the
City of Chicago provides that the whole
number Of Aldermen of the city shall be
thirty-six. Ill Of whom have to be elected at
the first election, which takes place in April
next. The charter provides that the Council
may divide the city into one-half as many
wards as there are Aldermen, and that two
Aldermen shall be elected from each ward
OF, failing any such division, the whole num-
ber must be elected by general ticket We
do not suppose that the present Common
Council has any intention to let the people OF
the city elect a new Common Council by gen.
eral ticket We think the election Of Com
mon Council on that plan might be an i'm
proyement on the ward system. There have
never been in this city any particular ward
interests which have required special
defenders and champions, the inhab-
itants of each locality sharing alike in
the general representation The ward
plan Of selecting Aldermen has been
mainly kept alive for the benefit Of
ward politicians, who, however conspicuous
in their Own localities, would be overlooked
by tho people Of the city generally. To elect
tile whole Board at one time, on one ticket,
would require each candidate to be voted for
or against By the public generally; md, while
this plan would most probably secure bet
ter selection of Aldermen, it would remand to
private life large number Of aspiring states
men whose services might be dispensed with
by the city without any serious loss. We
may, therefore, look to rediVision of the
city into wards by the Common Council
For this rediyision there have been several
plans proposed The wards are directed to
be rs nearly equal in population as may be.
But there has been no census of the city
since 1870. A school census taken in Ooto-
Der, 1874, uno6iciallyreported the whole pop
ulation then as 395,40s. An exact opportion-
meut would require each ward to have q, ,9G7
population. By this ratio the several divisions
would be allotted:
sonth D,vision-Four wards and {: :;o3 surrlns.
North Diysion-~Tarcc wards, ard II, GSo surplu1.
West Di7ision--Ten wards, and ,a04 surplus.
On this hypothetical basis the North Di-
vision, having more than one-half the whole
surplus, would be entitled to four wards. The
present division Of wards is: West Side, 8;
South Side, 6; North Side, j. This would
require the setting of Of q new ward in the
West, and the e1tinguishment Of one ward
in the North, and Of two in the South Di-
vision. Another plan is to leave the West
Division with its present nine wards, and,
uniting the First and Second Wards into one
ward, and the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Wards into one ward, thus reduce the whole
number to the charter number,-eighteen,- -
leaving a more equitable arrangement until
after the census of 1880.
1t is claimed that this would more equally
represent the population Of the city as indi-
Gated by the vote cast last fall, which was
equally full in each division, and YVES Us fol-
lows, taking the vote for County Treasurer as
the test !:
South Dlviston.
North DIVISION.
Tota1 South and North Divisions ,g57
Taking these figures as the basis, the South
Division should have five wards, North four,
md West Division nine wards. We presume
this would be satisfactory until the census
four years hence, in 1880.
The charter enumerates the city officers to
he chosen bv the neonla md thew ara 1f8yor