The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-11-08
THE GERRYMANDER


ton OF this territory by the minor suhdi-
visions having been received it furnishes
material Tor an interesting study in con
nectlon with the recent division and appor
tlonment by the Utah commission for
legislative purposes. The commission
never undertook to defend the partisan
arrangement but accepted the criticism at
the time IN stubborn silence being content
with the resul of its contemplate work
1t was alleged that the governor arranged
the districts to suit himself and his
masters and the commission simply
went through the formality of
adopting the executive'e mutilation of
the map and political morality.
Whether or not the charge was
true, in his annual report recently pub
Hshed the governor devoted good deal of
space to this superintendent, say 1.-THE work
was done in a careful and conscientious
manner and with due regard for the in
forests OF all L do not think there is on
the statute books of any state or territory
OF the union fairer apportionment." This
lnclines US to the belief that the apportion-
ment was by the governor, and not by the
commission at all, for it has come to be
pretty well understood that his ex-
cellency's ideas OF fairness are neon
liar to himself-and the party bosses who
own and manipulate him. An examination of
the districts and apportionment in connec
ton with the map and The census returns
and with knowledge ofsthe politics of the
voters in the several localities, will con-
vince one that the arrangement is probably
the least fair and most radically partisan
apportionment in the United States. IF
there is one that is worse the men making
it ought to De indicted for conspiracy to de-
prive the people of their rights To mark
the districts on the map in different colors
would make highly ludicrous aud one
which would be inexplicable to the
stranger, though well enough understood
by one acquainted with the politics of The
voters in the various towns.
Just what the commission and the gov
ernor call fair" in apportionment is seen
when we refer to some Of the districts.
The population of the territory being 2o7.
800, and the number of Representatives in
the legislature twenty-four, the territory
DrlnD
S,662 people into district aud the district
be contiguous and compact, geographically.
according to the reading of the law. Rnt
what do we findl Take the Ninth distric,
for instance. That is made m of
Juao county. except one -precinct-Mona
with population Of 469-and one precinct
Salt Lake county. the
whole comprising population of 62l4. or
only about Il per cent of the legitimate an
Everybody here can readily
see through this. The governor and the
commission figured it down closely
and concluded that by taking
out Mona precinct, which is in
the very centre of the district and
the big precinct of Bingham
which had always been solid for the gov
errors party, member of the legislature
would be stolen. The scheme didn't WORN
however, Notwithstanding the clever but
gerrymandor. There were
Democrats in Bingham and others in
Tintic, hence the commission might better
have been honest and really fair in making
up the district. But if the Ninth district
was .cunningly made small In the
hope of getting member, what
must be said of the Twelfth
which we find contains almost double
the population found in the first-named and
is made up OF precincts carefully selected
from those counties, the voters usually
voting the same ticket and that not the |
commissions ticket! Another extraordi-
nary distr ct is the Thirteenth, with bod |
ulation of 10, I'll, few of the people sympa-
thizing with the commission. But here is
Salt Lake city, which might be relied upon
to return representatives of the commits
'ion's political faith, was given six mem.
oers, although the population was "A. S43 or
equivalent to 7,47S for representative.
And so one may run through all the dis.
riots and he will find almost everywhere