Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-18
CONNECTICUT,S OPPORTUNITY

AoN I1SJ U I'S oIlonI U NII Under the above heading the Boston Herald suggests, in reference to the con-
 memoration next week of the 25Oth
 anniversary of its first written constitu-
 ton, that Connecticut could best of all celebrate it's fifth semi-centennial by liberalizing it's present constitution. The
 nutmeg state is almost if not quite alone
 in its present system of unequal repre-
 sentation, and the time seems particularly
 opportune for change. Connecticut
 should keep up with the procession that
 is moving along the line of popular rights. Comparisons are interesting in regard | to this unequal representation that dis graceS our state. and some of the figures | bearing on the matter are eloquent in 1 their lesson of injustice. In the last cleo
 tion the town of New Haven cast +, 7,S27
 votes and the little town of Union cast 11S votes. The grand list of New Haven
 as given in the Connecticut Register of | 1888 foots up $50 ,03S, ,O99, while Union
 has two representatives in the legislature,
 the same number allowed to New Haven. Waterbury has grand list amounting
 to So. .56S, ,0S4 and at the last election
 cast 5,914 votes. Mansfield, in Holland county, has a grand list of
 S556, ,971 and at the last election cast a total vote of less than 800. But Water
 bury has no larger representation in the legislature than the little town of Mans field. The town of New Haven, casting
 a total vote last November of 17,S27
 votes, has but one senator and two repre-
 sentatives, while the whole of Litchfield
 county, though it cast but 12,200 votes,
 has three senators and forty-one repre- sentatives. Middlesex county has two
 senators and twenty-five representatives ], though it has total vote of SEA. Tol
 land county, with 5,29S votes, has two l senators and twenty-two representatives
 and Windham county has two senators and twenty-four representatives with 2 total vote of 7,57S. Thus we have } seventy-four members to represent the
 21,07O votes of Middlesex, Holland an6 } Windham counties, while the 17,S2' t voters in the town of New Haven vii 7 have three members to represent them : New Haven county, with total vot' l last November of nearly 42 ,000, has bu r thirty-siX representatives altogether a - Hartford, four senators and thirty-twt 0 dlesex Holland and Windham counties e having combined vote of onl, . 33,313, sends 11S representative e in all, or more than thre S times as many as New Haven count, 9 with its greater vote. Statistics like thes k inequality and absurdity of the presen t system of representation ill Connecticut r Are our methods of representation a ). they now obtain fair or just? Is it equi y table that the few voters and small poI @ ulation, the comparatively insignifican r property interests of the small towns O = the state should have a preponderanc Il of legislative strength so great and over
 towering as is shown by the statistics J. Out of thirty-eight states of the Unio e ours stands almost alone in its shamefu Il injustice. Much ado is made by tn iS | press ol OUT tllSScu e and consequent inequalities of repre n sentatlon ill the south, while it is ol
 pressively silent in regard to the greate
 injustice that is done to the citizens (
 Connecticut. If partisanship' is the e, e cuse for this unequal representation-an d no other justification can be brougf l. forward-it would be graceful thin IS for the republican majority in the legi e- lature to change the present system S d that hereafter the legislative assembl d might represent the majority of or n citizens. At present we are not Twin ts according to the true spirit of America n institutions as designed by the founder ly of the American republic.
 . Connecticut should right itself in tl of eyes of the nation, and the present is tl Id accepted time.
 m Reeds Gilt Edge Tonic can be use 10 with perfect safety az 1t contains I
 deleteriOuS matter.