Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-04-15
Gerrymandering as Science.

0erTynanQeflng as Science.
Anderson's gerrymander reported to
the legislature divides Jefferson county
into Assembly districts as follows:
First district, towns ofAzta,an ,Ixonia,
Lake Mills, Milford. Waterloo Water,
town and the village of Waterloo. and
the First, Second, Third, Fourth and
Seventh wards of the city of Water
town. Second, towns of Cold Spring.
Concord, Pennington, Hebron, Jeffer-
son, KoshkOnong, Oakland, PALMYRA.
Sullivan and Sumner.
The First district contains 9 popu1a-
lat1on by the census Of 1890 of 1912,
and the Second 1854, difference Of
512 in favor of the latter. The towns OF
Pennington and Concord are taken
away from the First and tackled on to
the Second, while Lake Mills is taken
from her old place in the Second and
joined to the First. Of course the pur-
pose OF this piece Of political legisla-
ton is quite obvious. is done to make
certain Democratic district out of the
Second, as before it was considered "nip
and tuck" between the two parties.
making it necessary for both sides to
bring forward their best men. Now,
however, anything labeled Democracy
is expected to win and as a conse-
quence the most sanguine Democrat
will never feel assured that the district
will be well represented. The First
district is deemed strongly enough
Democratic to take in Lake Mills and
her Republican majority without dam
ger of Democratic defeat.
For senate purposes Jefferson county
is joined to a portion of Dane county as
follows:
Twenty third, Jefferson county. and
towns of Albion, Bristol, Christiana,
Cottage Grove, Deerfeld, Medina, Sun
Prairie and York, and the village of
Sun Prairie in Dane county. Demo
cratic in 1888; 692. in 1890, l ,768. A
slice of Waukesha county is united with
! Dodge in constituting the Thirteenth
Senate district as follows: Thirteenth,
| Dodge county and western tier of towns
in Waukesha county. Democratic in
1888, 1854; and in 1890, 1920.
An Infamous part Of the gerrymander
is the bare-faced treatment Waukesha
| county receives in order to get rid of a
Republican member of Assembly from
etf0 7e'>'"----1 of f4bnt no,,rtu ro,,z
represented by @. /. Rosenkrans, of
| Oconomowoc. To accomplish the out
rage Dodge and Washington counties
were drawn from as aids in the thiev-
| ing enterprise, which is shown up as
follows:
Dodge coqnty-First, towns Of Ches-
ter, Leroy, Lomira, Burnett, VILLAINS
town, Theresa, Oak Grove, Hubbard.
Herman and South ward of city of
Waupun and the cities of Juneau and
Mayville, 1 ,127 Democratic in 1888 and
! ], ,848 Democratic in 1890. Second dis
| trict, towns Of Fox Lake, Westford,
Calamus, Elba, Portland, Trenton,
Beaver Dam, Lowell and Shields, and
the city of Beaver Dam, and the East
ward Of the village of Randolph, and
the village of Reeseville, COZ Demo
cratic in 1888 and l los Democratic in
1890
Waukesha and Dodge counties
Towns of Clyman, Emmett, Hustisford.
Labanon, Rubicon and Ashippun and
Fifth and Sixth wards of the city of
Watertown in Dodge county, and towns
of Oconomowoc, Summit, Ottawa,
Waukesha county, $50 Democratic in
1888 and ,34S Democratic in 1890.
Waukesha county-First, towns of
Erin, Germantown, Jackson, Polk,
Richfeld, Trenton, -Schleissingerville
in the county of Washington, and the
towns Of Lisbon, Merton, Delafeld,
Genesee and Mukwanago. Second,
towns of Brookfeld, Menomonee,
Muskego, New Berlin, Pewaukee, YER
non and Waukesha.
By this arrangement the Fifth and
Sixth wards are to pull together with
portion of Waukesha county, sections
having about as much interest in COM
mon as the people of the United States
have with the South sea islanders. Per-
haps the gerrymander will work out
the design of its authors, namely, the
impossibility Of Republican to sue
ceed Senator Sawyer in 1893, and then
it may not. 1t is so transparently un
fair that its reputation by the people.
should not be matter of much doubt
The allowance toan Assembly district
is about 16, 900, and yet where it meets
the purpose some districts have only
1900, while others have as high as
23, 900. In fact, one district, made up
from Winnebago and Waushara coun-
ties, has population of 23,679. But
all rules heretofore governing a di-
vision of the state into Assembly and
Senate districts have been ignored in
order to attain Democratic ascendency.
AS to the results from the shameful job
"we shall see what we shall see."