Daily Kennebec journal., 1893-03-02

men have such confidence As they pretend
in their people, thsy would not be coming
lsere and asking for ibis thing ,oisy.
Where else do yon fini this principle ap-
piled that they ask fvrs The whole tendency
Of mo.iern times is tending towards decisions
by plurality instead Of majority Why
sssould this thing he changed in this case
and not in others: Ii devoives upon them
10 present strong reasons Why IT
si,ouia be done, particularly as
they claim that the only reason
they have for il is that by means thereof
tl,.as may be able 10 prevent n change IN
the ward lines of the city which no man
i'll say should not be made. Ii they are
askipg You TO violate well established
principle, TO pass general law TO cover a
specific ease, then ask you To vote this
thing down AMI let them go back TO their
peo; lie and tight out their municipal battles
among themselves, and not come here aud
waste the time of tins Legislature iii asking
i, to do for them what they do not dare at
tempt TO do for themselves Applause
Mr.. Emerson of Portland: | desire to
correct misapprehensisn which the soniie-
man from Patten has of course uhcan-
seiously passed upon the Mouse. In regard
to the title OF this act su5aiil that " hoover
prepared ii could not have stated the 'itle
in any other words. There is no other title
to chap. !, of the Revised Slaiutes than the
words relating to towns. In regard To rsiI'"
rosding-this bill came before the commit
tee one week ago yesterday IN regular order
on the docket At that time there was a
gentleman representing the Democratic city
government of Portland in the State House
and he desired to be heard, and there was
an imprompte hearing given one week ago
Yesterday on the bill. The question OF
raIlroading was brought up by nv friend
from Pstten and BY iny colleague from
Portland Mr.. Bird.
Mr.. Bird of Portland; | wonld like to
have that expression corrected. Ito Mr..
Emerson Do YOU mean to state that use,i
that expressions
The Speaker: The gentlemen will pro
coed in order.
| Mr.. Emerson will say that the wort
| srailroading" has been used here to mean
undue haste; il is simply question OF
| terms between me and the gentleman from
Portland, Mr.. Bird. At the request of Mr..
| Bird this committee assigned a hearing ON
| this bill for last Thursday. The question
of title was brought up and it WAS decided
| BY the committee that while this title was
absolutely correct the committee desiring
| to be perfectly fair would state in the no
tices that were ordered exactly the question
that was involved in the BILL aud that was
| done by the secretary. The question of
change of ward lines should be so perfectly
fair, so evidently just, that not a majority
| of the voters who may be out at meeting
| -, 81, ,f ba rnJisfpral
of the city should approve of that change.
| That is the question for you to decide.
Mr.. Brown of Watervile The discus
sion so far has been has as though the only
city interested was the city of Portland.
| Here is general law in which every city in
\ the State is interested and while it may be
true that somebody notified the city of
| Portland, my city had no notice. ! do not
understand that any other city had any
notice.
Mr. Emerson The notices were given
in the papers of all the cities.
Mr.. Brown: | understood the gentle
man from Patten to say that there was but
one days notice, say that we have had
| no notice in fact
The first question that addresses itself To
me is whether this matter can be discussed
here fairly, or whether we will shut our
| eyes To the reasonableness of one side or
the other and vote blindly simply because
our political friends may urge one
proposition or another. If | felt
certain that tins House was to be
divided politically on this question: should
| feel that was acting the part of "a fool III
irving to discuss it. assume that here is
II body of men who are honest, men who
intend 10 he jair, men who want to vote as
reason and plain fairness will dictate. not
for the furtherance of some little petty par
tisaa scheme which may last for day and
perhaps come back to plague the inventor.
As has been said ever since we hal an or
ganizaton as q State, the law provided
that the wards might be changed whenever
a majority of the voters of any city said
that they would have them changed, Il ma
iority of those citizens who saw fit to take
interest enough to come ont and vote
That has seemed 10 be the sens. of the
people of this State and also IN
regard to other matters. Why is there any
necessity of making different rule in this
case? Do you want to lend yourselves 10
carry ont little scheme in one corner of
this State when there is no reason for il? In
my city we want to change our ward lines.
Politically they are satisfactory to the party
belong to, but some particular wards have
grown and some have not. You know that
the voters do not all come out at spring
election. In cities where the party vote is
pretty evenly divided Won never can get a
ma jority of the registered voters to vote
npon any one proposition, and the effect of
this law will be that in no city in this State,
where there are but few hundred votes
between the two parties, can you ever
change your ward lines under this law.
Who is asking for this law? Has Il anger
asked for it, or Calais, or Belfast, or Water
vile, or Lewiston, or Biddeford, or Auburn,
or Augusta, or any other city: No. DO
YOU want it? No, you don't need it. No
city wants it. They tell us that Il ma jority
of the people of Portland who will vote
next Monday don't wan, it. In Gods namc,
Who does want il! A few politicians ii
Portland who have become frightened.
They tell us that this oil Republican party
which once belonged to and which loved
so well and so many of the members of
which are my friends to1ay--;hat this Re
publican party of Hamlin and Blaine AMI
Reed, is scared. and that they do not dare
to submit their case to the majority
of the people of Portland that will be ,Ii,
posed to come out next MONDAY and vote.
Are you frightened or have yon been
coaxcd or driven into it. when you believe
and know that the reason is because o tew
frightened politicians have said, "Our
party is gone to thc dogs unless you giycus
this exiravagant and foolish enactment :"
ask you. Democrat or Republican. az
men of fairness whether you are going 20
be frightened because few of these fel-
lows in Portland are frightened? Lct theti
decide the matter in their own city and n",
ask us to enact general law that nobody
in this State wants. Applansel
Mr, Higgins of Limerick We haye
been told by the gentleman from Patton tiat
The Democratic party was not prepared tn
discuss this measure, and the gentleman
takes an hour and half on ihe question. /
think we have reason to congratulate our
selves that the gentleman from Pat'en Is
not prepared Laughter. } The gontle-
man from Watertille says ie does not look
On this quite as party measure. have
here paper giving report of the meeting
held in Portland last night AMI here ret.
that the gentleman from Watcryilie sal
that ''if We, the Democrats in the Icgisa-
-ture, can prevent this bill from bcins
passed, you have them C'he Korug.i
cans and You have them forever" {Ap
pause) THIS matter has been talked in ii.,.
city of Portland for - year. and tl4ey say
they are not prepared. They say
that in no other ciiy in the State has
asked for this law, and it is true.
because there is no other city where an at
tempted gerrymantlcr has lccn thougl.t Of
The Democratic cIty gbyernm,n NJ of Port.
land, placed i'll power by on accpleni, inim,-
diately upon taking possession Of the ci's
L