New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-04-23
PLAINLY DISHONEST CENSUS.

| praJNLy DISHONEST CENSUS.
The controlling motive Of the Rice census
| : coon in the result Out of an additional
nopulation of $1,000 over that recorded III
| tho Federal enumeration of 1890, 5O5,ol3
are alleged to reside in the safely Democratic
counties of Albany, Erie, Kings New-lo rk,
Queens and Rensselaer,. When the makers OIL
orr State Constitution decrced that the boUh-
diaries of the legislative districts should be re-
arranged by the Legislature at us nrS1 seS-
sion after the return of every enumeration II
was for the very purpose OF preventing inc
| roscalitv which will 90 on at Albany next week
There was no sense in this provision ii 1t ana
NOT contemplate that period of time should
| olonsa bctveen the taking of the enumeration
| and the rearrangement of legislative districts,
and that both these public acts should not DC
performed under the direction OF the same
| legislature The evils of genymander are
| easily perpctratcd when the same power 'haI
makes the census can at once proceed 10 re-
district the State, and the conspicuouSly pam
| effort of the Constitution is to prevent a gcrl! =
mander. The most important provisions OF
Sections 4 and of Article III of the Consti-
tuition have already been ruthlesSly violated
and il is not to be hoped that the Democratic
leaders will have regard for any of those re-
naming. Having stolen the Legislature, they
arranged for the taking of n census under CON
ditions that positively insure dishonest results
in the interest Of their party.
In the figures given out by the Secretary OF
State on Thursday these results are readily seen.
Mr.. Rice has found in the state o,'s''''3
citizens entitled TO be counted for the purpose
| IL - ttfn
are 20 Senate districts and FPS Assembly dis
trctS. The divsor for the Senate districts
will therefore be 1S0, 900, and for the Assem-
bly districts 40 900. The census having been
| taken in February when all the country as
tricts. containing Republican maJorlties' were
covered with snow, and when the natural diln-
culties of obtaining correct census were all
multiplied, the impossible decreases from the
Grures of the Federal enumeration are OF course
found exclusively in these communities
But an increase of . ,G6j is found in Albany,
of 24.447 in Erie, of 156,729 in Kings, OF
o96.437 in New-York, of 2l,74G in Queens
and of 3,4s0 in RcnSselaer-all surely Demo
cratic and all Offering the largest opportunities
for a ecrlymander. With the Senate dlvlsor
of $50, 900 it will be possible to take Tor Kings
County four Senators where now there are
three. and for New-lork eight Senators where
now there are seven. According TO the Presi-
Dental vote of 1883, these counties contained
1904 Republicans, but the Republicans hav'
ing been completely disfranchiscd i'll the Con-
gressonal apportionment. there is no reason to
sIppose they will be more generously treated
in the legislative apportionment IL is in the
Assembly, however, that the most interesting
ttfll lao
The Senate diyisor is too large TO admit Of a
great increase Of Democratic representatives
even with the enormous additions to the pop
ulation which Mr.. Rice has conveniently OBJ
tanned from hotel registers and similar records
in the safely Democratic cities But the AS
sembly dySor, 5000, is more scryiceablc
Il will increase the Erie ASScmblymen from
five TO seven, the Kings from twelve to nine
teen, the Newly Orl from twenty -four 10 thirty
two. and the Queens from two to thrcc-a tota
increase, which, by artful manipulation, may be
made to return an additional Democratic repre-
sentation of sixteen.
These figures tell the story Of this fraudu
lent and unconstitutional enumeration. Ii has
been in the hands of IA partisan who had sacri
feed his reputation As an honest man in the
effort to procure n Legislature which woulo
enable him to create the figures he has just
handed in Frank Rice no less than Isaac ii
Maynard was an active participant in the theft
e of the Senate. With his own hand he re
turned the corrected certificate of the XVII
District TO Storm Emans, after it had been
according TO Judge Cullen'S decision, fully de
, lvercd and when its legal status was idcntica
with the status Of any other return then II
Rices Office. Despite the Court of Appeals
decisions he voted to give a certificate OF cleo
4, ton to Osborne, and to withhold certificate
from Sherwood. His acts were chief among
) those which have brought about all the frauds
1 Jobs and crimes with which tho state has beer
s disgraced since the last election. Although thu
$ Constitution plainly provides that the legis
1 latiye reapportonmcnt shall be made not now
but next January, and although the figures b,
+ civil districts will be seen for the first time b.,
G every member of the Legislature except thu
t two or three who are the chief instruments o
c tho Democratic leaders when the Legislature
, rcassemblcs on Monday night, a gerrymandc
T. bill will be at once presented and driver
t through The indcccncy as well as tho un
constitutionaity of this proceeding has beer
exceeded by no act of this wicked majorit.
since it came into its unlawful being
=, | |