St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-09-21
FOR PRESIDENT
GROVER CLEVELAND,
FOR VICE PRESIDENT,
kDLAI E. STEVENSON.
WHAT 1T ALL MEANS.

When two years ago the Democrats
carried the country by such an over
whelming majority, il was the general
desire of all fair-minded men to allow
them to reap the benefits of their vic
tory. They had the governors and leg
isiatures in nearly thirty states, and
they set about Reproducing the IegiS-
lative districts. In some states there
had been DO changes made in district
boundaries for twenty-five or thirty
years, and the differences in population
between districts had become outra-
geouSly unequal; but in all cases where
the inequalities had existed the legis-
latures, or. at least one branch of
them, had been continuously in the
hands OF the Republicans, and
they made no attempt to right
the outrage upon popular suffrage
because any change based upo any
thing like justice would at the frs
election result in placing the Democrats
in power. This was true of the ttate of
New York in a striking sense. For
more than twenty years the Republicans
of the Empire state fraudulentlv kept
district the state, AT the general cleo
ton year ago the Democrats wrested
the state from the Republicans. in spite
of the grotesque gerrymander. At that
election, and these figures are taken
from the official returns, 5000 votes in
Putnam county and 3,7G0 in Schuyler
were each awarded q, an assembly
man, whereas the Twenth-third as
sembly district of New York, cast
ing 24,50O votes, was allowed only
one assem5lyman. Dozens of other
cases, only slightly less outra-
geous, existed throughout the larg-
est state in the Union, and the Demo-
cratic legislature promptly set about
righting the great wrong as soon as the
people Of the state could be counted.
Tie number Of districts of the state.
12S, was neither increased nor dimln-
lshed, but in cutting the state up into
districts of nearly equal size the great
Democratic cities of New York and
Brooklyn were given so large a share of
the members that in all human prob
ability the Republicans would fail to
secure another United States senator in
the next halt-century. With this awful
fact staring them in the face the Repub-
lcans set about trying to set aside the
apportionment on the ground that the
districts were slightly unequal in popula-
ton. Did anybody ever hear of ANYTHING
so sublimely ridiculous? The Republican
party, which was making 5000 votes
in one county equal to 24,5OO in another.
l.
clared unconstitutional on the ground of
Inequalities in population. And vet. in
all seriousness, that is Just what thew
are doing, and being backed up in it by
Doth Republican state and national com
Aittees. Moreover, they have found
Judges who are willing to decide with
chem, and the new apportIonment has
.9een decided unconstitutional in both
the district and the supreme court, in
both OF which the judges are Repub-
llcans; and the law would be put on the
shelf enti1ely if it were not for the fact
that the court of appeals, the court of
last resort. is Democratic, and Will
doubtless prevent the Republican trick
sters from carrying out their scheme of
saving d senator.
In many other states, however, the
Democrats are Lot SO fortunate. They
have the legislatures and have redis-
tricted the states, but in most cases the
Republicans have the courts, and they
are using them to knock out the reap
portionmentS SO as 70 secure the election
of the legislatures under old apportion-
ments, because the latter give far better
prospects Of Republican success. In
the state of Indiana, which has had a
Democratic legislature almost contin-
uously for the last ten years, Repub-
lican judge has just declared the ap-
portionment acts of 1886 and 1891 I'M
constitutional, and ordered the election
notices issued under the appo rtionment
of 1879. This last act, although thirteen
years old, is considered a fairer law to
act under. because, forsooth, it was en-
acted by Republican legislature.
A similar farce is being enacted in the
state OF Wisconsin. Republicans have
been gerrymandering that state since
the early seventies, but nothing was
ever said until the Democrats took a
hand at redistricting. Now a unaml-
nous howl goes up from Republicans
that they want the state divided fairly.
While all this is going on. however,
nothing is heard in the Republican