Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1908-03-12
LEGISLATIVE OUTRAGE.

of the most reckless partisan bodies
that has ever met in the Capitol of the
State. When it was announced that
VIM. +. Rhea had been confirmed as
member of the State Corporation Com
mission intense Indignation was aroused
throughout the Commonwealth, even
many of the Democrats declaring
the act a political crime. 1t was re-
freshing, however, to find that twenty
SIX Democratic Members and Senators
refused to yield to the party lash, and
voted according to the dictates of their
consciences, rather than by the com
mand of the machine. Such action was
well calculated to inspire good citizens,
among all political parties, with hope
that vicious partisan legislation was to
cease in Virginia. But that expecta-
ton was soon to be destroyed.
Last week the Legislature, or rather
- the Democratic members of that body,
committed one of the most atrocious
acts that can be found in the legislative
records of the State. 1t was what they
brazenly called a reapportionment of
the Fifth and Sixth Congressional Dis
tricts of Virginia. No effort was made
by those who concocted the scheme, or
by those who supported it, to conceal
the real, vicious intention of the meas
ure- 1t was done for the sole avowed
purpose of depriving the Republicans
of any possible chance for carrying the
Fifth District in the coming Congress
ional election. This was accomplished
by taking Floyd county, a strong Re-
publican county, from the Fifth and
attaching it to the Sixth District.
The Constitution of the United States
provides that the representation in
Congress in the several States shall be
based upon their population; and it nee
essarily follows that the districts in the
State shall each approximately have
the same population. The Constitution
of Virginia provides as follows for ap-
portioning the State into Congressional
Districts:
q Sec. SIS. The General Assembly by
law may apportion the State into dis
tricts, corresponding with the number
Of representatives to which it may be
entitled in the House of Representa-
tives of the Congress of the United
States; which districts shall be composed
of contiguous and compact territory con-
tanning, as nearly as possible, an equal
number Of inhabitants
1t is plain that the Democratic men,
bers of the Legislature of Virginia
completely disregarded the law when
they redistricted the Fifth and Sixth
Districts.
We will ask all of our readers, who
can do so, to spread out before them a
map of Virginia and trace out the ter
ritory from which these two districts
were composed prior to the redistrict-
ing bill; and also to trace the districts
as they have been reformed under the
recent measure. The Sixth started at
New River on the west and took in the
counties of Montgomery, Roanoke,
Bedford, Campbell, Charlotte and Hall
fax. 1t extended east something over
one hundred miles in string land in the
middle the string was nearly severed,
Roanoke and Bedford counties being
united by line of not more than four
miles long. At the east end the dis
trict abruptly veers to the South, TAX
ing in Halifax county. The district in
outline roughly resembled boot, with
Montgomery, Roanoke, Bedford and
Campbell forming the leg, and Charlotte
and Halifax the foot of the boot-the
leg being nearly cut in two in the mid
die. This typographical monstrosity,
made then in defiance of the law, called
q Congressional district, was formed for
purely partisan ends. The Fifth Dis
trict was formed as shoe-string dis
trict for the same purpose. 1t began
on the west at the Tennessee line and
was composed of the counties of Gray
son, Carroll, Floyd, Franklin, Patrick,
Henry, Pittsylvania and the city of Dan
vile. The district was about one hun
dred and fifty miles long and did not
more than average twenty-five miles in
width So, both of these districts as |