The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-10
PRESIDENT BY NATIONAL GER
RyGANDER.

make the districts so fair in their relation
TO the political division of our people that
they will stand until new census is
taken"
The Republican legislature has scorned
this patriotic counsel, and the bill rear
ranging the congressional districts OF
Ohio is an outrageous gerrymander. As
laid out the districts, in an ordinary cleo
ton, will choose fourteen Republican con-
gressmen and five Democratic congress
men. and two districts are made doubtful.
At the best, the Democrats could not hope
, to get more than one-third of the delega-
ton, although in the last election they
cast 365, 22S votes to the Republicans 1885,
739.
This result has been obtained by dis
torting the boundaries of districts and
wrenching counties from their natural
connections, just as was done under the
present Democratic gerrymander. The
proposed Fifth district has population of
POI, 900, or s., 600 above the basis of 1900,
on which congress apportloned members
among the states, while the proposed Four
teenth district. which lies Immediately by
the side of the Fifth district. has popula-
ton of only 10000, or $4,000 below the
official basis. The difference in popula-
ton between these two districts is $1,000.
The city of Cleveland has been divided
on most arbitrary plan, without regard to
the future growth in population Of the
city.
1t is no justification or excuse for such
Republican outrages to quote the gross
gerrymanders performed by the Demo-
cratic party whenever they redistrlct a
state. The state of Indiana is good
illustration of the gerrymander in its
worst form.
At the election of 1855 the Republicans
of Indiana cast in the aggregate 265, 365
votes for congressman; the Democrats 259,-
9S7-a difference of 1913 in favor of the
Republicans. And yet the Democrats
elected ten congressman and the Republic
ans three. The Democrats had one con-
gressme for every 25,99S votes cast by
them; the Republicans one for every S.
AS. At the election of 1890 the aggregate
Republican vote for congressman in the
same state was 216, 765; the Democratic vote
$50, 25S; Democratic plurality of 22,49l.
The Democrats elected eleven representa-
tives, being one to every 21,750 voters of
that party, while the Republicans elected
two, being one to every 10S3S
In Ohio in 1888 the whole number of
oof
was 4l6,520; of Democratic votes, 395, $40,
showing Republican plurality on the ag-
gregate vote of 20,S91. But while the Re-
publicans elected sixteen representatives,
or one to every 26,O32 votes, the Demo-
Gratis elected only five, or one to every
1925 votes. The next year the Demo
cratic legislature redlstricted the state so
that at the election of 1890 an aggregate
Democratic vote of 361 $50 elected fourteen
representatives to congress, or one to
every %, S25 votes, while an aggregate Re-
publican vote of 362,625 "a plurality of
1,0S6) elected only seven represen tatives,
or one to every 81. sos votes.
This is the kind of Democratic outrage
which the Republican party this year in
stead of fairly correcting proposes to re-
peat for their own benefit. Governor Nc
Kinley cannot prevent the wrong because
he has no veto. Both parties by this rec
ord have been guilty of gross disfran-
chisement of the minority through the
gerrymander. A gerrymander is stuffing
q congressional district, which is just as
dishonest in morals as it is to stuff bal
lot box. At the South the Democrats not
only gerrymander the districts but stuff
the ballot boxes too.
The gerrymander executed by the DEM
ocratic legislature in Michigan illustrates
the possibility of capturing the presidency
by legislative enactment. The sixteen old
slave states, including West Virginia, have
159 votes in the present college of electors
1t requires only sixty-four more votes to
elect Democratic president, and Robert
5. Taylor in the current number of the
arena shows that it is entirely possible to
obtain these sixty-four votes by an extern
sion of the Michigan method to a few
other close states.
Connecticut has six electoral votes, and
it would be easy to make three electoral
districts in that state that would be sure
10 return Democrats.
New Jersey has ten electoral votes. 1t
is represented in the FIfty-second con-
gress by five Democrats and two Repub-
turn six Democratic electors without fail.
New York has thirty-six votes in the
college, and twenty-three Democrats in
the present House of Representatives. 1t
could be so districted as 10 make twenty
three sure Democratic electoral districts.
Add to these six out OF fourteen in Mich,
igan, ten out of fifteen in Indiana. fourteen
out of twenty-three in Ohio, fifteen out OF
twenty-four IN Illinois, and seven out OF
twelve in Wisconsin, and the required
number is made up, with twenty to spare
for miscalculations.
1t is reported that the Democratic legis.
lature of Nebraska will initiate the ex.
ample of Michigan and provide fol
choice of presidential electors by districts
instead of upon general ticket.
There is no intrinsic objection to the
choice of electors by districts; many Re.
publicans think it would be a fairer
method, if adopted by all the states, than
the method generally in use, but the
adoption Of this method in the divided
states and the retention of the Old method
in the solid states results in a national
serrymander, which destroys the fairnes.
of the election. Furthermore. of the 15G
electoral votes which stand for the solid