Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1884-10-23
lie assembly, divided as follows:
Representa- Representa-
County.

The foregoing statement presents
the singular fact that the county cast
ing the largest vote, ana being, as will
be seen by the annexed schedule of
the controller of the Territory, the
largest taxpayer, and containing prop
erty whose assessed valuation is much
greater than that of any other county,
has the smallest representation in the
Legislature. The governor of the Ter
ritory i'll his last biennial message to
the legislature called attention to the
inequality of representation from the
reapportionment. The legislature fail
ed to perform this duty, and Congress
is now asked to correct the failure of
the Territorial Legislative assembly.
In this connection, desire to call
your attention to the fact that out of a
total membership of thirty-six in the
last Legislature, ten were Mormons.
Thus it will be seen that almost a
third Of the representation is in the
full coptro! of the Mormon Church
This element, always immical to the
mining interests of any section in
which they may be located, and al
ways the enemy to progress, with no
fixed political affiliations excepting
such as they may make for the time
being, whereby the Mormon Church
may obtain an advantage, combined
some of the smaller counties which
have Il large representation in the leg
islature, and thus prevented reap
porton,nent, and also any legislation
looking to correction of the Nor.
mon evil
The increase of the Mormon power
in Idaho during the past zen years has
been very great. From one member
of the legislature, ten years ago. they
have increased until they now have
ten. 1t is to their interest to prevent
a reapportionment Of the Territory,
for the reason that it will reduce their
representation. l may cite one III
stance to prove this fact, viz: The
counties of Bear Lake, Cassia, and
Oneida (the three Mormon counties),
have an "assessed valuation" of
$3,O5S,321 and representation of
four members of the council, and
seven members Of the house, while
Alturas county, with an assessed val
uation of 1851, 365.57, has a repre-
sentation of one half member of the
council and one member of the house.
The county (Alturas) which the
proposed ieapportionment of the Ter
ritory will benefit contains one sixth of
the population of the entire Territory.
1t contains a vast area of agricultural
and grazing lands, and its mines are
among the best and most productive
in the United States. Vast amounts
Of capital have been invested in min
ing industry in this county. Numer-
Gus smelling works and quartz mills
have been erected, employing a large
number of laborers. 1t contains about
400 miles of railroad and telegraph
lines. The volume of business trans
acted in this county is as great as hat
OF any other three counties in the Ter.
ritory.
An apportionment bill similar in
character to the one proposed was
passed in the Forty-sixth Congress,
applicable to the Territories of Idaho,
Montana, New Mexico, aud Wyoming.
Also, one applying to Montana in the
Forty seventh Congress.
Our population has more than dou.
bled since the census of 1880, and is
rapidly increasing. The centers of
population have shifted, and counties
which at that time had comparatively
few Inhabitants have now grown to be
the most populous.
have submitted the original bill