The Globe-republican., 1890-02-26
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY %. 1880
NOES WESTERN KANSAS WANT a
aoNsrIrUrl0NAL CONVENTION

CONSTITUTIONAL COW HN1AVNs
There seems to be little doubt but
what there will be special session Of
the Kansas legislature, judging from the
tone of the press of the state. The farm
ers are calling loudly on the governor to
call the law-makers together to pass
stay laws, so that they can have further
time to extricate themselves from the
difficulties resulting from debts contract
ed during the boom. Without express
ing an opinion as to the benefits to flow
from stay laws, which the farmers seek,
it is fact that when the legislature is
once ia legal session it can do as much
or little law making as it pleases. and it
will be besieged with the friends of ev-
ery scheme or measure that wants relief.
Chief among those who will be on
hand will be the PrOhibitiOnist and the
Constitutional Convention crowd; the
Prohibitionist to get the laws amended or
more stringent ones passed relating to
the sale of Intoxicating liquors, that re-
bellious localities like Wichita eau be
made to respect the laws; the constitu-
tion makers to have convention called
to frame a new constitution, Ostensibly
to fix up the constitution SO cOurts-par-
'ticularly the supreme cOurt-can be in
creased, and that representation can be
had by the nineteen counties that are
now unrepresented, but in reality to get
q chance to have the whiskey question
before the people again. 1t is therefore
in our judgment, time. in view of prob
able session of the legislature in the near
future. that the west half of the state
should know the probable effect of a
to our interest and instruct our represent
tatives accordingly.
The one great question We should con-
slider is representation. The heavily
populated counties in the state have al
ways had the lions share of everything
in the state, and as settlements have adj
vanced well westward, fearful that they
might lose the balance of power, have
not only gathered unto themselves every
thing that they could get, but have shown
a strong disposition to disfranchise the
west altogether. The constitution dur
ing the existence of the state up to 1873
recognized territorial representation.
Each organized county was entitled to
one representative.
ARTICLE 1, Section 10, Constitution
In the future appOrtiOnment OF the state
each organized county shall have at least
one representative.
In 1873, the constitution was changed
so that it reads upon the subject:
That from and after the adoption of
this amendment the House of Represen-
tatives shall admit one member for each
county in which at least two hundred and
fifty votes were cast at the next proceed
ing general election; aud each organized
county In which less than two hundred
legal votes were cast at the next proceed
ing general election shall be attached TO
and constitute part of the representa-
tive district lying next adjacent to it on
the east.
This was the first attempt to disfan-
chise the western counties. Prior to 1873
the only requisite was that county be
organized that it be entitled to rep
resentative. After 1873 1t must have
east tive Aundred and fifty Sotes at the
election the year before, or be attached
for representative purposes to the dis
trict east, IL the county adjacent on the
east, abolishing territorial representation
entirely. This aided the more populous
counties. There are now nineteen eoun-
ties in the state unrepresented, in viola
ton of the present constitution. as al of
them have the requisite number Of votes
to entitle them to member, end Il the
constitution remains as it il, under the
next apportionment of the state for sep-
resentatives they will of necessity have
allotted to them each q representative.
The consultation, as it now stands, pre-
vides ''that the House of Representatives
shall never exceed one hundred and TWEEN
ty-five members, and the number Of SEN
avis Cu0Ah nVS CAOCCO AVAkys 6vC1y
seat is now filed, and nineteen counties
of the west are without representatives
at all; in truth the larger counties have
these nineteen representatives, and 1t is
plain to be seen. too, that the counties
that are calling the loudest for consti-
tutional convention are the ones that
have them. They well know that under
the next apportionment these nineteen
representatives will be taken from them
and given to the west, decreasing their
number and strength In the house nine
teen, increasing the number and strength
of the west nineteen, an increase to the
west half of the state in an amount
equivalent to thirty-eight members.
And unless they can get constitutional
convention called and fix the represen-
tation In that convention to suit them
which they have the power to do now by