Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-10-17
Speech of the Hon. j. B. Niles in
the Legislature on the APP
rortionment Bills There
in Pending.

in Pending.
| On Monday evening, lst inst, in the
House of Representatives, Hon. Jerome
B. Niles, of Tioga county, Republican
candidate for Auditor General, ably de
fined the position of the two parties OF
the question of apportionment. He
said:
propose to show by an analysis Of
the Senatorial and Congressional bills
pending that from the standpoint of the
Governors message the bills advocated
by the Republicans should be adopted
by the Legislature and the present
farcica session ended. The Senatorial
bills will first be discussed. They are
substantially the same as passed by the
House April 10 and the Senate May
%, and which fell in Conference Com
mittee June 5, 1888. At the special
session the sarne bill in substance pass.
ed the Democratic House and was
again amended in the Republican Sen
ate, and some time in July last again
fell in Conference Committee. What
is the difference between the bills
Let us see. There are forty Senatorial
districts substantially alike IN both ;
the only difference that now occurs to
me is the arrangement of the four Dem
ocratic counties of Lycoming, Montour,
| Columbia and Northumberland, which,
| however, make no difference In the dis
tribution of political power, as they
constitute two Democratic Senatorial
districts in both the Mcnamara and
Longnecker bills.
In both bills forty-fve counties are
put into forty districts, and are the
same and make twenty -four Republi-
can and sixteen Democratic districts,
calling Lackawanna and Montgomery
Democratic.
As before stated, there are forty-fve
counties arranged into forty Senatorial
districts, and being the same in both
Democratic and Republican Senatorial
bills, leaving % counties and 10 Sena-
torial districts to be provided for. So
far as forty districts are concerned we
stand upon common ground. In rela-
tion to them we are free from all diff
Guilty; the differences exist only in
reference to the % undisposed Of coun-
ties; four-ffths Of the districts are ar
ranged the same by both parties. The
difficulty is in the arrangement of %
counties into the remaining ten Sena-
torial districts. 1t is not in reference
to the Republican territorial arrange
ment of these % counties. An eXami-
nation of the map of the different bills
will show that the Longenecker bill has
the greatest respect for compactness
and contiguity of territory In that
respect it fully comes up to the Gov
ernor's notion Of the constitutional re-
quirements.
If then our bill agrees with yours in
As counties and 40 districts and in the
undisposed balance conforms to the
language and spirit of the Constitution,
why do you not accept it and make the
extra session success so far as this
question is concerned? ? Let us make
careful analysis of the % remaining
counties and see which bill makes the
fairest disposition of them. They are
divided politically as follows: Demo
Gratis 10, Republicans II. The popula-
tion of the % counties is 624,372, and
divided as follows: In the II Repub-
lican counties 393, $50; in the 10 Dem.
ocratic counties 332,l32, making a
majority in the l2 Republican counties
Gl,l1S. The aggregate Republicans
majorities in the II Republicans is
9,097 Democratic majorities in the
10 Democratic counties 1859, being an
excess of Republican majorities of 409.
AS result, we find in these % coun-
ties Republican excess of population
of 62,llS, and Republican majority of
votes of 4O8, showing the Democrats
in the minority both in population and
political majorities. When we are
considering things in spirit offarness,
will any one say that in these % coun-
ties containing an excess of more than
GO, 900 population, that the Republicans
should only have three Senators and
the Democrats should have seven? Is
that what should be called au honest,
just and. true npportionmcnt? And
yet that is precisely what the Demo
ocrat bill does. On the subject of
Congressional apportionment he said :
Applying the principal Of population
to the Republican and Democratic
counties, then what is fair distribu-
ton? There are in the State G7 coun-
ties. In the 36 Republican counties
there is a population of 2,Sl2.24l. In
the 81 Democratic counties there is q
population Of l,470,445, making the
whole population of the State 4,2S2,-
1856 The excess of population in the
3G Republican counties over the 81
Democratic counties is 1851 ,G96. The
ratio for member of Congress under
the present law is 1872, $50. If We
divide the population of the 36 Repub
lican counties, 2,3l2.24l by 1925
the ratio of II member Of Congress, we
find that-th Republicans are entitled
to Is members and surplus of SO,
If we divide the population of the 81
Democratic counties by the same ratio
we find that the Democrats are entitled
to nine members of Congress with {
surplus of 93, ,949.
There are four bills which have beer
seriously-discussed during the regula
and special sessions. Let u5 apply t.
; them the rule of equality of in
habitants demanded by the act of Con
gress and the equality of mujorities a
,, enunciated by the Joint Congressiona
Conference Committee, and see whicl
of the four best comes up to these re
quircments. The first is the Nicholson
bill of the regular session, which pro
fessed, as stated by his friends, to b
Is Republican and l3 Democratic, bu
which in truth, as then attempted t
D show, was IA Democrats and IA Re
publcans, with the chances all in favo
of our Democratic friends. But for tn
r | coLa nf tho arUumant LET uG call IL