The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-16
Seventh Would Gain Three
Votes in the House.
OTHERS WOULD LOSE.
Cut Off Two I'm First District
Counties.
Indications Of Fusion of Demo
Gratis and Square Dealers.

Scott county, has introduced in the
house the legislative apportionment
bill. which will be of special interest to
the people of western Kansas.
Rochester's bill proposes to separate
the Greeley Wichita district, now rep
resented by j. NJ. Holden of Leoti; the
| Gray-Haskell district, represented by
j. J. Miller and the Meade-Seward
district represented by S. D. Adams.
| The Grant-Stanton and the Norton
Stevens district are still lacking in pop
ulation necessary to secure separate
representation according to Mr.. Roch-
ester.
The changes proposed in Mr.. Roches-
teC's bill are, arranged in congression-
| al districts, as follows:
First district; Brown and Jefferson
counties. each reduced from to /.
Second district; Franklin and Doug
las, each reduced from to I; Allen in
| creased from 1 to 2. and Wyandotte
from to 4.
Third district Montgomery and
Crawford each increased from 2 to 8.
Fourth district; Usage, reduced from
2 to l..
Fifth district; Marshall, reduced from
2 to /.
Sixth district; no change.
Seventh district; three new districts
created.
Eighth district; Butler, reduced from
2 to /.
The chief beneficiary of Scott's plan
of reapportionment is the Seventh dis
trict, which will gain three votes in the
legislature. The Third district will gain
two. and the losses will be distributed
as follows; Two in the First, and one
each in the Fourth, Fifth and Eighth
It is expected that other reapportion-
ment bills will be presented within a
short time.
W. NJ. Chatten of Barton county is
the new chairman of the legislative
apportionment committee. which will
have a great deal to say about the
proposed readjustment of legislative
districts within the state.
The other members of the commit
tee are Skinner of Lincoln, Sticher of
of Chase, Schmidt of Geary, Boyle of
Sherman, Rochester of Scott ingalls,
of Atchison, Milligan of Anderson,
Helmick of Neosho, Rockefeller of
Rockefeller and Hendricks are the
Democratic members of the commit
tee.
Contests Before Elections Committee.
Representative Chatten, in addition
to getting the Craftsmanship of this
very important committee on legisla-
tive apportionment, is the second man
on the committee on elections, which
means that in the absence of Davi-
son, the chairman, he is acting chair
tee on elections Will hear the contests
which have been filed, chief of which
is the Wilcox-Inga1ls contest. There
may also be two other contests; the
Guilbert-Price contest from Logan
county and the Bryant-Sherer contest
from Kiowa county.
The Wilcox-Ingalls contest will be
hard fought and it is likely that be-
fore it is over with, charges of fraud
will be made concerning the lottery"
which was held, and resulted in the
selection of ingalls,. The vote in the
election was a tie, and the election
H. cd q contest T
straws Ingalls, was declared the
lucky man. and the certificate was is
sued to him. He holds the seat.
J. s. Price, Democrat, beat E. ].
Guilbert Republican, in Logan county,
by 13 votes. Guilbert hled contest,
various technical grounds
The Kiowa contest was filed by W.
B. Bryant Republican, against ]. A. |
Sherer, Democrat. Sherer was elected
by thirty majority. Bryant bases his
contest on the alleged illegality of the
returns from Martin township, where
Sherer lived, and which gave him so
na mai aiority. Bryant claims that the
Judges and clerks did not sign the re- /
turns and that the whole business will |
have to be thrown out.
Indications OF Fusion in House.
There are indications of the forma-
ton Of a Legislative alliance" between |
the Square Deal Republicans and the
Democrats in the house of representa-
tISes. Stubbs, Ham, Bergman, stone |
and other leaders in the square deal |
were given the cold and for
bidding stare by Speaker Simmons in |
his committee assignm ments, and in
spite of the fact that these men, and !
other square dealers. are among the |
strongest members of the house, they
are raiegated to the rear by the Lane /
county ruler of the house. Naturally, /
they are sore, and will try to slap back |
at the source of their indignity.
One of the first evidences that the !
SQUARE dealers and the Democrats will |
work in harmony was given when Ham
of Rocks called the speaker Sharply I
to account on Tuesday for wasting the !
time OF the session In HoJ appointing |
committees so that the house might I
motion before the house to call the
speaker upon the carpet. and make :
hir, explain his delay. but a motion to
q diourn was where the test vote w6 q
taken. The Democrats and the square /
deal lers lined up side by side, and the |
friends OF the speaker only managed |
to save him from humiliation by the
narrow margin OF votes.
simmons is said to be opposed to
the primary election law and other
square deal measures, and there are
likely to be some lively times before
the session is over, in which the Dem
ocratic members will play leading
part.
constituents They know that the man
The representatives and senators
from Sedgwick county are very much
perplexed about the separate school bill,
which they are pledged to introduce at
the present session for. the purpose of
the races at the Wichita
schools
The bill for the separate schools has
been prepared, and a copy is in the
hands OF Senator Stewart and Repre-