The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-30
RIVAL APPORTIONMENT MAP.
90 DISTRICT LEADERS CONFAB
WITH ODELL ABOUT 1T
And DO Not Invite Chairman Parsons-Fear
1t Will he IA for Many OF Them n the
Apportionment Is Made According TO
the Census-OpposItion Programme.

A~pportiOnment Is Made According 20
the Census-Opposition Programme.
Many Of the Republican district leaders
are afraid that IL the ideas Of Chairman
Parsons Of the Republican county com
mittee about reapportionment are carried
out some half dozen or more Of them will lose
their leaderships. Mr.. Parsons holds, on
the census returns, that the number OF
districts in the lower part Of the city should
be lessened and the number above Four
teenth street increased. Also II his counsel
Is followed there will be no increase in the
number Of Assembly districts in thiso county.
His scheme is to cut down the thirteen
districts on the East Side Of the city below
Fourteenth street and on the West Side
below Twenty-eighth street to nine dis
tricts and to divide the four districts thus
left among the population north OF these
points.
Mr.. Parsons made his plan known at a
meeting, held a couple of weeks ago, OF the
executive committee OF the Republican
county committee and it met with instant
opposition. The result OF the meeting
was that Mr.. Parsons was directed to ap-
point a special committee to draw up a
report for presentation to the Joint Cities
Committee OF the Legislature. Mr.. Parsons
did name such a commit tee, cut as it vas
made up in the ina iority OF members who
are known to be friendly to him the men,
bers OF the county committee who are
afraid that they will lose their leaderships
appealed to b.. B. Odell, Jr., to take a hand.
He did 80 by calling a meeting yesterday
Of the district leaders. Twenty-three out
Of the thirty-six leaders responded. The
conference was held in the Fifth Avenue
Hotel.
The downtown leaders pleaded that II
they were left to MIR. Parsons and his COM
mittee at least four of them would be de-
prived of districts, while some Of the up
town leaders asserted that the plan would
freeze them out.
The outcome Of the conference was q
decision to draw up an opposition plan
for reapportionment, which provides for
three safe Republican Senate districts and
for two reasonably safe. 1t was generally
agreed that the plan should provide for
as little alteration as possible Of the boun-
diaries of the present Assembly districts. in
spite OF the enormous shift OF population
northward, and the suggestion that II
necessary to prevent the ousting OF any
Of the existing district leaders there should
be one or two more Assembly districts
laid out met with favor. These sugges-
tions are to be embodied in a map to be
drawn by the men who attended yester-
days meeting. So there may be two sets
OF recommendations sent to Albany.
Lemuel f. Quigg at the close Of the oon-
ference said: aMr. Parsons has prepared a
map suggesting the lines for the new dis
triots, but this map has caused a%pprehen-
sions in the minds Of several OF the district
leaders that they will be injured should 1t
be adopted. If Mr.. Parsons's plan should
be carried out in several instances two or
three leaders would find themselves in one
district and they would have to fight 1t
out among themselves. The fundamental
idea expressed at to-day's conference was
that the reapportionment should be so
made that at least three Senate districts
would be assured to the Republicans and
that as nearly as possible the lines OF the
present Assembly districts should be ad-
hered to-
Neither Mr.. Parsons nor William c. Will
son, leader Of the Twenty-seventh district
and chairman Of the Parsons committee
on ortionment, was invited to the
meeting. When Mr.. Parsons was seen
afterward and asked If he felt that there
had been a disposition to affront him he
replied:
Il would not like to say that the meeting
was meant as a personal %affront, but l think
it was an u~nfriendly act. / have for sew
eral weeks past been working early and
late in helping to solve the problem as to
how best conserve the interests Of the Re-
publicans in this county in the mapping
out OF the new districts"