New-York tribune., 1906-04-30
RURAL REAPPORTIONMENT.


A great deal of unnecessary labor is being
expended by some ingenious persons in the dis
covery of political animosities and the explolta-
ton of political motives supposed to have con-
trolled the arrangement of the rural counties
in Senatorial districts for the new apportion-
ment. Because some of the districts happen not
TO be arranged to suit the convenience of certain
Senators it Is assumed that they are being
punished" by somebody else Anybody who
takes the trouble to study the constitution, the
map and the census tables, however, will at
once see not only that changes were necessary,
but also that the particular changes make for
more equal representation.
A Chinese puzzle is easy compared with the
task of shuffiing the rural counties into nearly
equal and contiguous districts. No county may
be divided except to make two more dis
trictS within its own boundaries. Certain coun-
ties stand alone as districts by themselves.
Some two or more counties happen to lie so
that they are the only ones which can be put
together to make contiguous district of suita-
BILE population. Chautauqua County, for in
stance, can by no possibility be put with any
thing but Cattaraugus. With these base marks
fixed of necessity. it remains to apportion the
other counties. They must be grouped together
and there is generally no choice except which
Of two shall be put into particular group and
choice has invariably been made with a view
to equalization and compactness. There has
been no gerrymander.
There were two centres of difficulty which
were responsible for all the changes in the new
apportonment. One was the rapid growth Of
schenectady. Washington had to be taken from
Saratoga and Schenectady. however inconven-
lent to Senator Bracket in obedience TO the
constitution. Otherwise the district would have
far too many people. Washington had to be
put with an adjoining county, either Essex or
Warren; and equality was promoted by associa-
ton with Essex and Clinton In turn Warren
had to be separated from these latter. and
that involved putting it with Fulton Hamilton
and Montgomery, and putting Schoharie. for
merly with these counties, in association with
Herkimer and OJsego. These two counties be-
fore made district far below the normal, and,
with the addition OF Schoharie. make district
of average population. All of these changes
were in the nature of equalization and were
the only ones feasible.
The census also revealed the fact that the
present Both District, consisting of Cayuga and
Seneca, was far below the ratio. With the ad-
dltlon OF Yates. the only county which could
be added without making still greater inequal-
ty elsewhere, it is still the smallest district in
the state. Yates being taken from Steuben. it
was necessary to add something in compensa-
ton. The choice was between Livingston and
Allegany. Perhaps Senator Stevens would have
preferred to lose Livingston, and that combina-
ton would indeed have made the two districts
a little more nearly equal in population But
1t would have resulted in two long. narrow dis
trlcts One would have been a shoestring run
ming almost from Lake Ontario TO the Pennsyl-
vania line The other would have been formed
or two counties which have only a few miles
of common boundary, without the necessity
which forced Washington into association with
Essex because it touched no other county with
which 1t could go TO form a district of suita-
BILE size. In place of Alegany, the Wyoming
Livingston district received Genesee, taken with
out compensation from the Niagara Orleans dis
trict, which was far too large and is still left
as large as Senator Stevens's district would
have been if unchanged and larger than it is
under the new apportionment. Some other COM
bination of counties might perhaps have been
arranged which would have made representa-
ton. on the whole, nearly equal. but it is
difficult to see how ingenuity would have de-
vised plan TO make it more so.