New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-04-25
PRICE THREE CENTS.
RICE'S PADDED RETURNS.
THE BASIS OF THE LEGISLATURES CROWN.
ING OUTRAGE
A SESSION OF POLITICAL INFAMY CULNnNATINo
IN THE WHOLESALE THEFT OF LEGIS
LATIvE sEArS-THE PROPOSED
REAPPO RTI ONME.NT.
fFRoaA srAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THR TRIBUNE.

Albany, April 24.-Impudent, tyrannical and
criminal as the conspicuous acts OF the Legis-
lature of 1892 have been, outrage worse than
all is about to be perpetrated. Everything has
been leading TO this. Every fraud and job which
ticllled this interest and brbed that, every dis
play of authority which proved the power Of the
bosses and the utter impotence Of individual
egislators-each and all were steps leading to
the great eliminating usurpation which is to be
accomplished within the next two three days.
Ten minutes before the Legislature adjourned on
Thursday, the Secretary of State submitted few
tables of figures showing the number Of citizens
and aliens in each county Of the State Of New
York according to the enumeration made under his
direction last February. At the same moment an
Executive mt ssagc was read in both houses COM
manding them to assemble in extraordinary session
tomorrow night. There has been no opportunity
and can be none within the time thus allowed, for
| an intelligent examination Of these tables. Nor do
they afford the basis for such examination
even if the time sufficient And yet it is
proposed when the Legislature meets that 1t shall
adopt bill which somebody, hidden behind tho
scenes, has been preparing, creating new appor-
tionment of legislative districts throughout the
State on the basis supplied by this extraordinary
census.
The full wickedness of this proceeding is to
which it has been evolved They began with
the unparalleled crime of the theft of the Legis-
| ature As decrecd by the ballot-boXes the Assem-
| bly, was tie politically, and the Senate was
| Republican by majority Of four. Two seats in
| the Assembly and three in the Senate were de-
| liberately and shamelessy stolen. Scarcely had
the legislature been thus fraudulently organized
when the Enumeration bill was brought forward
as substitute for one previously introduced.
The contents Of the substitute were unknown even
to its introducer. The Republicans were not per-
mitted to read IT, Debate peremptorily shut
off and O vote forced at once. Three Republi-
! can Senator'S who refused 10 vote either for or
against a measure of which they knew absolutely
nothing were suspended. BY methods similarly
outrageous the bill was whiskcd through the
Assembly. 1t provided for a secret, partisan
enumeration. The whole affair given over
10 Frank Rice, the Secretary of State, who, as
member of the State Board of Canvassers, had
be-n one Of the chief actors in the criminal con-
spiracy by which the Legislature was stolen He
had robbed the files OF which lie the sworn
guardian of correct electoral certificate in order
TO count false one under the petence that mono
other existed He had disobeyed two decisions
of the Court Of Appeals, and throughout tho
entire conspiracy had revealed himself as one
whose political iniquitics neither the law nor the
courts could restrain.
To this man the enumeration was committed
He at it in just the spirit that was expected
| Of him. The enumerators confined to Demo-
cratic party workers selected by the local mo
chine in every town of every county. They en-
tered upon their work in the dead Of winter
when an accurate count of the country districts
was physically impossible. Small as are the re-
suits which, yet, the public has been per-
mitted 10 see they are enough 10 prove that the
census from Allegany to Yates Is fraud.
fraud it was plainly intended 10 be, and fraud
IL plainly is. 1t alleges that il twenty -four eoun-
ties there has been decrease of population since
the Federal census Of 1890, although In eleven
Of these counties, from $50 TO 1890, there was
an increase of from ten TO thirty-iive per cent.
The censls law required the enumerators 10 Nle
duncates of their lists with the county clerks
in every county. and the total population was
asccrtained ANA declared from 1lese duplicates two
months ago. II is an amazing tact that III 10
single instance do Rices figures agree with those
yivcn ont by the county clerks. lie added from
lists Identical with theirs but he has been unable
to oorcc with a single one Of the whole sixty Of
Them An analysis OF these differences throws
much light on what Rice has teen doing. In
,ueronv no has counted $50 fewer people
than the County Clerk counted from the same
lists: $40 fewer in Broomc l,j4l in Cayuga;
| LII
Rensselaer,: l409 in ST. Lawrence; s96 III Scho'
harie: l.4i3 in Tompkins. and l,OS6 in Wayne.
Th,s, are Republican counties. His total reduc-
tion from the County Clerks figures in Repubu-
can counties amount 10 1885, while his IN
creases are only lo,3O9, showing n net Muucuon
Of 2.Os6 But. on the other hand, he has ehor-
mouslv increased the results in Democratic coun-
ties He had added 7l99 in Kings; $500 in
New.York: 546 in Richmond; 81 in Rockland.
and II sos in Queens. His net additions IN
Democratic communities are 2O,30l. THESE, %
il understood are simply the differences between
Ricc's arithmetic and the County Clerks, though
all have worked on the same sets of figures
The full effect of this fraud cannot be seen
until the Democratic scheme of apportionmens
has been brought forward, but in the case OF the
Democratic county of Queens, it is clearly IN
tcnded 70 steal an Assemblyman. In 1890. 40
cording to Mr. Porter, Queens County contained
l2s. .O5O pe6pie The County Clerk two months
ago declared that the Rice census gave Queens
a population of 1870, ,007, which was natural ana
rensonoblc But Rice takes these figures and
adds them up 10 make the population l4l.sO5 an
incrase over the County Clerk OF ll,e9s,. ana
over the Federal census of 1915! Inc motive
of this barefaced swinde Is seen IN us RESULT
There are 1881 aliens in Queens County our
orrortionment being based on citizens. this num-
ber must be deducted from the tota ol lhhtplfi'o
If deducted from the total reached by the
Comfy Clerk. il leaves lI2,l76; but if deducted
from Rice's total. it leaves 123,074. n county
il entitled 10 an Assemblyman for every 43,ooo
of IFS citizens Queens is surely Rn0cratic
county WITH at present, two Assemblymen. Dy
no possibility could it claim more with CITIZEN
: population Of Il2,176: but, if, as hce
alleges it has l23,o7i It's fraction for .
third seat is 33, and thereby it Will read is
title clear Long Island City will he one as
trict: Flushing, North lempstead ana Uys'er
| BAY another and Newtown, Jamaica ana ieinp-
. stead thiri-al Democratic
This is one of the petty frauds-nnpor'an'
because so easily distingushable, ana so ciear IN