Litchfield enquirer., 1881-02-10

Here, then, are eighteen towns numbering but thirty fourth of the population of the state, sending as many representatives as eighteen other towns which contain more than half the population of the state! Here are aS,096 people in certain favored localities given as many representatives as over.three hundred thousand residents of other towns.
 We have further computed the population of S5 snalit"wns which have population of 1O5, TS6. and elect l24 representatives -iust one-half of tue whole House. This popula. tion, it will be observed, is but one sfrth-and almost the exact sixth -nf the entire popula
 tion of thu" State! ',''' ..g.... .,..-.v
 Now how long can injustice so gross as this
 be allowed to go on, growing worse and worse
 with every succeeding census? Has Connec- lieut. a, state government that can be called republican In any true sense when the doc urine of town representation is allowed to over ride all considerations of fairness and de. cency in this gross way The claim that our towns are small sovereignties bearing any such relation to the, state authority as the
 states'o the Union bear the general govern: alent is an sbsurdty., Our Supreme court
 have expressly repudiated that theory, and the ! town is just as completely the creature of the State authority as the borough or the school district. In other words the specter of town sovereignty is a. phantom conjured up to di. vert attention from an injustice that none un derstand better than those who profit by it.
 The other conservative pretense: that of
 making peoples house of Senate of Fl or "A members, while an overgrown Town House of 24S members fills the larger cham ter of the Capitol Is absurd on the face of it, It ssema still more ridiculous when we ob. serve that the constitutional requirement. of two Senators to each county makes an equal apportionment upon population impossible.
 Another reason which we used to hear ad-
 vanced in favor of the Town House system was the claim of superior morality for the country towns. Mr., William H. Barnum,
 with his Salisbury Plan. has demonstrated that there is nothing tha. favors political cor. ruptt'n soi thoroughly as the existing system.
 The history of the past dozen years has shown
 that the small towns, with their large repre- sentsiion and Heir small voting lists, have
 been the chief theatre of operations for cor
 ruptionists having an United States Senator
 ship in view. In fact, no, candid, well.in. formed persm win deny. tha, tue most cor rqpt Senatorial District in the State is the Seventeenth, though it has no city nor large village within its boundaries; and that in the Fourth Congressional District .the most cor
 rupt in the State--it is the rural portion which lqis worst demoralized. Superior virtue, ,here-
 fore, can hardly be the claim upon which the country tnwassill deny the cities their fair
 share of representatives at this late date.
 F What aslonisbes us more than anything is
 the sapinepeas with which our cities and large
 towns submit to disfranehissmsns, In 1873
 good deal of effort was made to procure the
 call of convention Prominent New Haven linen organized a Convention party, aud the
 Hon. Henry B. Harrison presented their views
 to the legislature The plan failed because
 it asked too little to satisfy anyone who want cd genuine reform. and because i,s promot- 1 CTS showed too little spirit to scare those who
 proas by the. existing abuse into anything re.
 sembling sense of justice. At one of fhe
 Republican State Conventions of last wear.
 Mir. Joseph Sheldon claimed a representation for New Havsa sonswhs. proportionsd ts her