The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1892-02-12

taken TO EXCLUDE fraudulent Claims, and also
the gratifying fact that the persons to WHOM:
those pensions are going are men who rendered
7ot slight but substantial war service.
The report of the commissioner OF railroads
shows that the total debt of the subs died rail
roads to the United States was, December 81,
1850, SII2, 5I2,6I3 oo. Alarge part of the dehi
is now fast approaching maturity, with no ade
quate provision for its payment. Some policl
for deal ng with this debt with a view to its
ultimate collection should at once be adopted.
1t is very difficult, well nigh impossible, for 50
large body as congress to conduct the neces
sary negotiations and investigations. | there
fore recommend that provisions be made 70
the appointment of a commission to agres
upon and report a plan for dealing with this
| debt
Agricultural Departments.
If the establishment of the department of ag-
liculture was regarded by any one as mere
concession to the unenlightened demand of a
worthy class of the people, that impression has
been most ehectually removed by the great re-
| suits already attained. Its influence has been
very great in disseminating agricultural and
horticultural information, in stimulating and di-
recting further diversion of crops, in decreas-
ing and eradicating diseases of domestic ami
mails, and, more than all, the disclosures, in
formation, and in the formal contact which it
has established and maintains with the farmers
| d stock raisers of the whole country. Every
eluest for information has had prompt atten-
on, and every suggestion merited considera-
| The scientific corps OF the department is
high order, and is pushing its investiga-
IONS with method and enthusiasm. The in
srecton by this department of cattle and pork
roducts, intended for shipment abroad, has
been the basis of the success which has attended
our efforts to secure the removal of the restrlc-
lions maintained by the European governments.
For ten years petitions upon this subject from
| the packers and stock raisers of the United
States have been directed against these restric-
tons, which so seriously limited our markets
nd curtailed the profits of the farm. 1t is a
use of general co. graduation that such has at
st been attained, for the effects of an enlarged
foreign market for these meats will be felt, not
only by the farmer, but in our public finances
nd in every branch oftrade.
1t is particularly fortunate that the increased
lemand for food products, resulting from the
removal of the restrictions upon our meats and
tom the reciI rocal trade arrangements to which
| referred should have come at time when the
grcultural surplus is so large. Without the
| i.ep thus derived lower prices would have pre-
vailed. The secretary of agriculture estimates
hat the restrictions upon the importation of our
ork product into Europe lost us market for
10000, 900 of these products annually. The
,ran crops Of this year were the largest in our
history, it being 50 per cent greater than that
of last year, and yet the market that has opened
and the larger demands resulting from short
crops in Europe have sustained prices to such
IN extent that the enormous surplus of meats
and breadstuffs will be marketed at good
prices, bringing relief and prosperity to an in
| +},,t Eha ,,o1ua
of the grain crop of the United States esti-
mated by the secretary to be this year $780,
300, 900 more than last year; of meats $780,
COO, 900 more, and of all products OF the farm
200, ,ooo, 900 more. 1t is not inappropriate,
/ Think however, to suggest here that our sat-
sfaction in the contemplation OF this marvel
Gus addition to the national wealth is included
Y any suspicion of the currency by which it is
measured, and to which the farmer is paid for
the product of his friends.
The "Gerrymander."
The method of appointment by the states Of
electors for president and vice-president has re
Gently attracted renewed interests by reason OF
a departure by the state of Mich;gan from the
methods which had become uniform in all the
states. Prior to 1892 various methods had
been used by the various states and even by
| the same STATE. In some the nOtlCe was made
by the legislature, in others the electors were
chosen by districts, but more generally by the
vote of the whole state upon general ticket.
The movements toward the adoption of the last
named method had an early beginning! and
went steadily forward among the states until,
in 1882, there remained but single state,
South Carolina, that had not adopted it.
That state, until the civil war, con-
tinued to choose its electors by vote Of
the legislature, but after the war, changed its
method and conformed to the practice of the
other states. For nearly sixty years all the
states save one have appointed their electors by
popular vote upon a general ticket, and for
nearly thirty years this method was universal.
| After full test of other methods without any
| purpose of party advantage, we must believe,
| put solely upon the considerations that uniform
| ity was desirable and that general election in
territorial divisions not subject to change
was most consistent with the popular character
of our institutions best preserved the equality Of
| the voters and efectually removed the choice Of
president from the baneful influences of the
! ''gerTymander," the practice of all the states
was brought into harmony. That this concur
renee should now be broken is, I think an un-
fortunate and even threatening episode, and
one that may well suggest whether the states
that still give their approval to the old and pre-
vailing method ought not to secure, by consti-
tutional amendment, a practice which has had
| the approval of all the states.
| The Michigan statute provides for choosing
what is popularity known as the congressional
electors for president by congressional districts,
and the two senatorial electors by districts Gre
ated for that purpose. This legislation was, of
course, accompanied by new congressional
| appointment, and the two statutes being the
| electoral vote of the state, under the influence
of the 'gerrymander" these gerrymanders for
congressional purposes are in most cases but
tressed by gerrymander of the legislative dis
| trct, thus making it impossible for a majority
| of the legislative voters of the state to correct
| the apportionment and equalize the con-
| gressional districts. A minority rule is
established that only a political convulsion
| can overthrow. | have recently been advised
that in one county of certain state three dis
tricts for the election of members of the egisa-
| ture are constituted as follows: One has 49,
| 900 population, one $1,000 and one 10000,
| while in another county detached non- contagious
sections have been united to make legislative