The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-04-02
TIRE UTAH GERRYMANDGR.

S0 Al 50 oiten The HERALD raves at
sNe uuiairness OF the commission in redistrict-
ing this territory after the last cansrs Over
anu over again the Tribune has shown that there
never was more honest, or a more successful
ehort made 10 do the square thing. than was
zone by the commissioners. and still with its
oiu pertlnacity THE HLRAAp returns to the
SUBJECT every few months AS to following
unit boundaries" there is not the slightest
ground Tor complaint; there never has been
Tribune
And about once in SO often THE HER
AID" proposes to ''raven over this in
EQUITY, than which there never was a more
outrageous one in the history of partisan
politics.
ine act OF Congress of March g. 1891, i'm
posed the duty upon the Utah commission
10 redistrict the territory for members of
the council and house of representatives on
me OASIS OF the census Of $780, to provide
as near as may be for an eoual representd-
t'on OF The people, excepting Indians not
! taxed, according to numbers and bu dis
tTfcts as nearly compact as possible.n The
pain meaning of this was. after
ascertalning the total population of the
territory and the number of members
OF each House of the general assembly. to
make as many districts for the Council
and for the House as there were members
OF each-in this case twenty-four repre-
sentative districts and twelve council dis.
trlcts, as compact and nearly equal in pop
ulatlon as possible. Instead of this the
commissioners arbitrarily settled upon
seventeen representative and ten council
I nlGTr1nTG 50
ground" to question what this was done
for 1t was bald partisan motive, and
related, not to the convenience of the
voters, as the act Of Congress intended,
but to how to circumvent and harrass
them. Whether such an apportionment is
valid or not, as to the grounds mentioned,
we leave to the lawyers.
The commissioners found they were to
0pportion twenty four representatives
among zOf,9Oo people, which was the CEN
sus enumeration of 1890. The ratio there
fore was $500. The first thing was to give
Salt Lake city six representatives with a
population that entitled it to but five. The
next was to give Ogden two. whereas it
lacked 2,435 Of the requisite number of in
nabltRnts. By this sort of manipulation
less than 10000 people in the two cities
named have voting strength equal to
oO,OOO In other portions of the territory.
Parts OF Salt Lake county are united with
DAVIS and Morgan to make one district,
with parts of Utah to make another, and
parts or Juab aud Tooele to make q third.
whilst other parts make two INDEPENDENT
districts. Utah county with %, 76S popula-
ZION could properly have been given three
districts with nearly 5000 people to each,
instead Of which portion is saddled on to
one precinct Of Juab and four precincts of
Sanpete. The two independent districts of
Salt Lake county are based one on 9,O24
population ana the other 9,179, whilst the
six districts of the city contain an average
OF 1916. Davis and Morgan together are
within 131 of the full ratio. Yet three pre-
| clncts of Salt Lake county are taken off and
added. making the population Of the district
9O24. Whilst the average population to
district is 7,4f6 and 7,445 respectively in
Salt Lake and Ogden, it is more than 5000
In nine districts and more than 10000 in
i've The same proportion prevails in the
council districts. An Illustration is found
IN the fact that whilst IA, $50 are enough to
elect member of the upper house in Og-
den, it takes q 900 in Wasatch, Grand, EN-
cry, Willard and Sewer counties. Of the
whole number of council districts. there
are but three conforming to the rule of
unit boundaries"
The HERALD repeats, therefore. that
nowhere in the United States has there
been a more partisan and wicked violation
OF the principle of observing primary unit
boundaries and drawing election lines than
In this territory, under the Utah
commission" Measured by the late de-
cision of the Wisconsin supreme court it
would not stand a minute, and measured
by any standard Of fairness, not to saw
decent regard for political propriety, it is
worthy only of the severest reprobation.
1t is impossible not to believe that the ap
portionment was made with tables of cleo
ton returns before the commissioners
The evidence of this is too plain and con-
vlnclng to admit of any question whatever.
NO pains are taken to conceal the fact.
Nor can it be supposed that the commits
sioners themselves are familiar enough
with the voting strength of parties in the
territory to have drawn the party lines in
so sklllful manner. The map of Utah
they constructed is a curious looking dia-
gram of zig-zags and wonderful geometri-
cal forms. The sight of it would have
driven the original inventor and patentee
OF such coDtrivances- Hon. ELBRIpGE
GEREY, OF Massachusetts-int commissions
of envy