The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-21

i"Deputies sent to the general court
 should be a reasonable proportion to
 the number of freemen that are in the said towns" This applied to towns (which were to be added to the original three, Hartford, Windsor and Wethers- field.
 No one will deny the wisdom shown
 by the framers of our constitution,
 which was the first written constitution
 in history or dsparage work that is
 so plainly the result of the most care ful study, for they desired to see jus >I tice, equality before the law, and the
 rights of property respected Their
 work was and will remain one of the greatest deeds accomplished and hand
 ed down to posterty for from the prin-
 ciples which they enunciated part of
 the most famous document in our whole
 history was indirectly derived, several
 clauses in the constitution of Connec
 ticut that recognized the principle of
 proportional representation were in
 serted in the constitution of the United
 States
 | In ISIS when our present constitution
 was adopted the convention recognized
 this principle of representative govern
 ment and although the state was com posed of country towns with a slight advantage in favor of one or the other this difference was so uninportant as not to jeopardize the principle at stake. Since that time conditions have chang ed radically. Then there were practic- ally no great industries, farming being the chief occupa tion and as a rule there was little change in population. Within the last thirty years these conditions have been materially altered. Our pres ent great manufacturing industries have an important bearing on these changes People living in the country have given up farming, fact which is especially true of Connecticut, and are now devoting themselves to manufac- turing.
 This exodus of people from the small towns and farming districts to the large districts has not been met by a change of representation in our legis- lature, thus of forty-three towns, which by the census of 1890 had a population of less than 1000 each, thirty-eight show a decrease since 1880, the total loss being about 4,600. Yet the repre- sentation of these towns remains the same. The total increase in population of the state in ten years, 1SS0-1S90. is shown to be 129,000 and of this increase 101 ,000 was in towns having a popula- ton of over 10000 each. Yet not one of these towns has been allowed any in crease in representation. a..t
 Can any lucid reason be given why town as. for instance the town of Union with a population of 700, should have as many representatives as the town of New Haven with a population of 11S,000? Surely this is not what the framers of our first constitution of 1889 intended when they provided that deputies sent to the general court should be a reasonable proportion to the number of freemen In the said towns" nor can it be in harmony with the framers of our national constitution who took so many valuable ideas from the instrument of our commonwealth, | still less is it in harmony with the in tentions of the framers of the Connec- ticut constitution of 1918.
 This unequal representation in itself | should demand immediate attention if | it were the only needed reform, but ! there are many more defects that show tllc IlCtCoSIlJ OL l IOll~ vention.
 Connecticut and few other com are the only ones which elect their state officers by a majority instead of plurality of votes. This is :, directly contrary to the constitution of 1639, which provided for plurality cleo tions in the following words: He that hath the greatest number of papers shall be governor for that year" There can be but one way of Interpreting this language for it distinctly provided for plurality elections. Yet in the last twenty years the governor has only been elected in six instances by the people. This is the result of the fol- owing clause in our state constitution 1f 1918 which says "If no person shall nave a majority of the whole number of said votes, or if two or more shall nave an equal and the greatest number of said votes, then said assem- ply on the second day of the session shall proceed without debate, to choose ] governor from list of the names If the two persons having the greatest number of votes, or of the names of he persons having an equal and high st number of votes so returned as
  
 As last resort the obstructionists nay argue that we have lived suc- essfully under the present constitution or many years and therefore need not hange it's provisions. Tn fact the ma ( ority of the people do not seem to ] ealize the importance of this question. 1ery few are familiar with the purport f our constitution. They arise in the morning, transact their business and go 0 bed at night without personal incon- enience and imagine all is well. The people of Connecticut are very conservative about making a change ( ntil danger threatens when they do I 9 with so much alacrity that the rem l dy is worse than the evil. l A written constitution is like a steam l ngine, it needs constant attention and l are. What was considered a good en- inc years ago would not be considered ) now. So with our present cOnstitu- on 1t did very well years ago. but it as not kept pace with the immense rides in our industrial institutions ! nd conditions which have changed so \ idically since 1918. A law that cannot 9 respected surely cannot be obeyed. b r, as Justice Brewer said recently, "A T outburst of virtue is the - OrSt kind of virtue for it is always ar- I.