The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-12-03
Coming to Their Senses.

The recent adoption in Mississippi
| and South Carolina Of state constitu-
tional amendments so restricting the
large percentage of the male citizen
ship of those states has had one uneX-
pected effect. 1t was done largely with
view to perpetuating Democratic SUI
premacy since the disfranchised ele-
ment was mainly Republican, and it
was doubtless supposed that the entire
South, being hitherto soiidly Demo-
cratic, would as matter of course
| cheerfully acquiesce. But 10 and be-
hold! the decent states of the South
are beginning to perceive that such an
arrangement is unfair all around and
are already protesting against it.
For example. the Galveston News,
one of the most influential journals in
what extent the educational and poll
tax voting tests in Mississippi and
South Carolina have reduced their vote,
contends that the fourteenth amend
ment to the constitution of the United
States makes it mandatory upon con-
gress that Mississippi's representation
in the national house of representatives
shall be reduced from seven to two,
and South Cardinals from seven to
three. Likewise Mississippi's repre-
sentation in the electoral college should
be reduced from nine to four and South
Cardinals from nine to five. The News
says congress should take this action
under the constitution in Justice to the
states of Texas, Missouri, North Caro-
lima and the other commOnwealths
where there Is no restriction of suf-
frage."
To show how unfair the pres
ent arrangement is, few fig
ures are interesting. In 1894 the
average vote for congressman
in South Carolina per district was
9,092; in Mississippi it was 5,655. The
Texas $4,000; in Illinois $4,000; in Ken
tucky 32.5OO; in North Carolina, 3O,5OO;
in Connecticut $500; and in Pennsyl-
vania, about $1,000. The congressional
returns from the presidential election
are not all in yet. but it is safe from
what are in to conclude that the dis
proportion IN 1896 was fully as great as
in 1894. The mere statement of the
case shows on it's face that something
is radically wrong in a system which
permits less than 5000 voters in Miss
issippi to exert the same power in
choosing a president or in making fed
eral laws that is exerted by 10000 to
10000 voters in the more thrifty and
intelligent Northern states.
Heretofore, whenever q Northern
journal or speaker has called attention
to this gross and glaring disparity he
has been howled down by the cry that
such protest is the prompting of par
tisan and sectional prejudice. 1t is
therefore prophetic of better things
that the first objection entered this year
to this manifest inequality of repre-
sentation should come from a Demo-
cratic source in the South itself. We
undoubtedly owe much to Southern
Populism for thus breaking down the
old barriers and letting in the light.
But whatever the cause of the South's
present renascence Of sanity and fair
ness. the next administration should
not fail to look for a remedy for the
existing dispropOrtion. Perhaps no
other cure would be more efficaciOus
than to base the ratio for congression-
al representation not on population but
on the number of votes cast at the last
prior general election.