Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1889-02-01


No. wss ther.upon offered and passed both
houses, submitting to the people proposition
restriction. That amendment having been
adopted at the Late election the legislation there
By contemplated EhOuld be enacted at once.
MINING LAWS.
A serious disaster occurred recently in q coal
mine at FrOntenac, Crawford county, whereby
nearly a half hundred men at work in the mine
through an explosion, the precise cause or nature
OF which seems to be matter Of dispute and
ested and well informed persons. Regret and
sympathy are universal over the sad event; and
OF immediate responsibility, attention is chsl-
lenged 70 the more profitable inquiry, whether,
mtsfortunes in future may not in q degree be
reduced If not largely removed. The mining
the Importance Of proper Isgislation regulating
the subject Of min and mining cannot be over
tt1l IN the mines Humanity demands for them
every, possible protection. The law should
willfully neglect or fail to observe any precau-
ton required and imposed by che Legislature on
legislation Is urged upon your early attention
Frequent complaint is heard by coal miners
in regard to the manner Of adjusting coal screens
whereby their msager earnings are reduced and
ships. It Is believed that a law prohibiting
mine superintendents, operators or fOremen from
tion OF screens after contract with the miners
would remedy this evil, and I urge the matter
DEATH PENALTY.
The death penalty for murder in the first de-
gree should be either abolished IN express terms,
made Elective. The present state of the law
neither does one nor the other, 1t seems to
have been lngenlOusly devised TO make the Gov
ernor a public ezecutiOnsr shifting uLon him
the responsibility of courts, and constituting
h1m thirteenth jurynan in such cases. AS re-
suit, there is now in the penitsntiary a large
nqmbaI OF convlcts under sentence Of death,
with the prospect Of remaining there. for no
thus sentenced since the present law was enact
ed has been executed.
believe in the death penalty in extreme cases,
victiOn and execution but Recognize the fact that
public opinion on that question is much divided.
1t should certainly b abolished in express terra
or the duty Of its enforcement imposed where it
belongs.
APPROPRIATION BILLS.
The rules Of your resr ective branches require
Inat the important appropriation bills shall be
Introduced on or before hzed day OF the ses
am sorry TO say, more honoIed IN the breach
than in the observance" Usually these meas
ures. apprOp rating large sums OF money, in
making provision for the support of the State
Government. IN ali Us various departments and
public in tltutiOnss come IN late or lag at the
heel of the Ca endar until the closing days of the
session, and are crowded through u der the whip
and spur OF necessity with a haste that is absO-
lutely unseemly and unwise, not to say unsafe.
These measures sho I'D be framed, introduced,
carefully considered, passed and out OF the way
as early as ls PRACTICABLE and 1t Is to be hoped
that you will rigidly enforce and observe the
rules spoken Of above. Members will find 1t Of
great advantage TO themselves in securing at
tention to other matters of legi- lation which
are often lost by having to give to the be-
lated appropriation bills, coming along in the
hurly-buIly OF the closing hours.
CONSTITUTIONAL REVISION.
It, detracts nothing from the acknowledged
Eisoo Of ehe IfGmeTs OF our oo5s[t1flon
Our marvellous development and changed con-
ditions, impOssi bic Of Rnticip atiOn when it
devised, calI now Tor revision. Kansas has out
grown many of its provisions and limitations
State did not excasd 10000. There were but
thirty organized counties and fVe judicial dis
tricts, each with a population OF about q, coo.
Inc Legislature consisted OF one hundred mem
bers--tWenty-hVe Senators and ssVenty-fve Rep
resentatiVes. If based on population, each Rep
FesentaIlYe would nave represented aDo-C sixteen
hundred people. linen there was not a mile OF
in operation. with population aDproximating
one million and three quarters; with tWenty-nine
about 90, 600. There are in the State one hundred
and ak organized counties, maintaining sep
thousand common schools supported and sue
cesstully conducted Under our grand system of
free popular education. The Kansas Of to-day
has reached the vast proportions Of empire
requiring a readjustment Of her organic law TO
suit the present needs.
UNEQUAL REPRESENTATION.
The constitution limits the number Of Repre-
BentatiVes to one hundred and twenty-five.
Eighty eight only of the organized counties are
Insmbers each. An apportiontuent can be made
only once in i've years. and no organized county
cast at least $50 legal votes at the general election
next before the superintendent is made.
porGonment in 1886, with a population OF not
less than seventy i've thousand people, casting
at the late election nearly fifteen thousand votes,
are thus excluded from representation by the
Limitations Of the constitution and must so re-
give them representation in 1893, unless the rem
edy be sooner applied by amendments to the
Again, as between the counties entitled to rep
resentetion, no just apportionment was possible
based on the census Of 1885. On the basis Of
population if such had been possible, each Rep
usncy OF 1910 But that apportiOn-
ment gave a Representative TO each OF
quired by the inhexible rule of the Consti-
sutton. whose population, respectively, ranged
IN round numbers from 1.5O0 to s, $50, averaging
less than 1000 each, and i've of them having less
than 1000 each. In other words, out Of the then
tWenty-eight counties were allowed tWenty-eight
Representative, while the remaining 1,1z1,5OO
every L, or.
These ninety-seven Representative districts
embrace hfty-nine Counties and between these
the greatest inequality exists in representation,
as no district can be created comprising terri
of the then organized counties having the requt-
cite number of voters one Representative thirty
population, OF which few instances are given
for illustration: Leavenworth county with a
one to every 10, 200; Shawnee, with population
of A05 500. has three Representative one to every
1895 while 1abetue has three Representatives,
Cne for every 97l4 people; Jefferson county, with
1925 population has Two Representatives, one
q
1908, has but two. one to Il, 600 people.
Against the tWsnty-eight counties hereinbefOrs
mentioned, having an average population of less
than 4, 900 to each Of which Representative was
given, may be set over seventeen counties, each
OF which had then over coo PEOPLE and was
allowed but one member, and the population of
eight of these ranged between Ii, 600 aud I6 900,
one having ,875. another Il, 956, and another
17,157: These gross inequalities, it is proper to
say are unavoidable under present constitution
81 restrictions, and must be borne until the
needfol changes in the fundamental law shall
bring relief
APPORTIoN1IENTs
No change may be made in the apportionment
eWCept the time urescribed nv the Conafff1-