The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1910-07-08
MONSTER PETITION
FILED WITH ROACH
Secretary of State Has the Prayer Of
Thousands.
From Every Dis,ric, and County Voters
Petition for Submission of Sena-
torial District Amendment.
Special correspondence.

Special Correspondence.
Jefferson CEy, July 7.-If the
ini.i.tive law adopted by the peo
pie TWO years ago an1 made eff
fec.ive 9y an ac: Of she logisla-
ture cf 1899 sands she tast tC
which /: will be subjected he Dem
o.rats will never again De able &c
hold he Sta4e Sena in their
grasp against the popular vii as
they have dioae heretoefor.
1: is the duty Of Con. c. Roach,
Secretary CT State 20 place en-
the nallot 20 be used a: the No
vember election the amen1men: &c
the constitution proposed oyI
Governor Hadley and other Re-
publican leaders and promoted by
the Republican STATE C'ommi tee
under 5he leadership of Chairman
Walter S. Dickey and Secretary
Rush c. Lake. This amendmen:
provides fer a division of :he
counties of the s5a:e into twenty
four senatorial districts, Kansas
| City and Jackson coun Y into
three and the ci&y Iof (. Louis into
seven. The twenty-four distr.c5
made up of counties are described
and fixed in the amendment, hav
fng oeen arranged SO as to e com :
pact, and SO as that each, as nearly
as possible may contain approXi-
mately 100000 population and with
out reference specially to whether
a majority of the people therein
may vote the Republican or che
Democratic ticket at senatorial
elections. The city districts are
to be arranged by the Circuit
Judges in ST. Louis and Kansas
City-and these Judges will fol-
low the example set for them IN
the amendment and be governed
by purpose 20 make the city dis
tricts comp"c', orderly and rep
resentative ins.ead of mere divis-
ions of party majo,i S.
Since June 20 thousands upon
thousands of the qualified voters
of the state have signed Letitions
for the submission of this amend
ment to vote of the people in
! November. The initiativel aw re-
quires shat a petition for submit
ting a cohstitut onal amendment
shall bear the signatures of not
less than"five per cento of ;he legal
|, voters of at least two-thirds of the
congressional districts in the
state" Although the first printed
forms of the petitions for this
amendment were not sent ou; till
June 20, by June 80 from all but
two of the sixteen congressional
districts petio:ions had been re-
ceived by Chairman Dickey bear
ing the signatures of more than
five per cent of legal voters in
each district, and in some of the
districts more than ten per cent
of the legal voters had signed
By July the districts had all re-
: ported and the number in each
district was in excess of what the
law requires. After carefully ex-
am ming ohe peti' ions, setting
aside all THAT were nos in lega
: form and counting the names or
a those ready for filing it was founc
that he monster array of sigma.
lures far exceeds the limit of the
4 law and represents the best citi-
zenship of the state, including
: democrats, Republicans Sogiali is
Prohibitionists, Labor Union ant
Independent voters. Among tn,
S names are those of men high il
: in political, business and social lif,
as we'll as thousands of humbli
citizens. 1t is mot likely that
II more representative petition ha
ever been deposited in the offic
of Secretary of STATE. And it j
beyond peradventure that it is il
every way legal and sufficient un
e der the initiative law. II il is no
then that law is farce. Wha
Secretary Roach will do with j
cannos be determined at this writ
It ing but this much is cersain-i
IS muss be accepted in good faith
or rejected on reasonable an
1t clearly legal grounds, else its dy
manic force will make it dan
d gerous thing for public men t
1t handle. 1. indicates most forciol
a general demand for the chang
e proposed in the amendment. Tha
" demand will not decrease in fore
~ Chairman Dickey and Secretar
De Lake have worked most earnes.l
n and necessarily in preparing tn
monster petition, and have ha
the assistance and cooperate
of devoted party leaders and CON
mitteemen throughout the stat
The success of the undertaking
= an omen of the success of til
ne campaign to be conducted by RI
is publican leaders and workers ne,
fall. Party workers are organize
at alert, enthused and harmoniou
When they are called upon to pc
pit form party or public service the
l,eGnontl Such men cannot be ca