The Marshall republican., 1910-07-15
SQUARE DEAL
in DISTRICTS
AMENDMENT TO CONSTITUTION
To BE SUBMITTED.
Republican state committe. Proposes
New Arrangement Of Senatorial
Districts to Prevent Another
Partisan Gerrymander.

Tee met III 81. LOUIS early III May the
chairman, Walter s. Dickey, vas au
thorized to appoint a subcommittee to
confer with Governor Radley ano
agree upon a bill for dividing the state
into senatorial districts, and to deter,
mine how to get 1t before the people
for enactment under the provisions OF
the initiative and referendum. Mr.
Dickey subsequently appointed C. c
Madison of Kansas City, Lenny Bal
bridge of Milan and H. d. Evans OF
Bonnie Terre as members of the sub.
committee and named Cal. Pierce OF
Maryville, Capt. Henry King, editor OF
the Globe-Democrat, e. e. e. McJim.
-sey, editor Of the Springfield Repub-
lican, 9. D.. Morris, editor of the st.
Joseph Gazette, and Homer Hall of
Trenton Ia member of the revision
board, as an advisory committee to
act with this subcommittee.
These eminent Republican leaders
called to their assistance Hon. John
E. Swanger, Hon. Jesse A. Tolerton
and other well-informed public men,
and at a conference with Governor
Hadley decided, as the first step, to
block out a map of the state showing
"a districts outside of st. Louis and
Kansas City, and to give st. Louis
seven and Kansas City (%including
Jackson county, three. districts-34
districts in all, two more for the
cities and two less for the counties
than under the present rrangement
because the cities now have less rep.
resentation in the senate than they
are entitled to and the counties more.
Senatorial districts in the cities are
outlined by the circuit judges, a ma.
jority of whom are Republicans In st.
Louis at present. The Kansas City
judges are equally divided politically.
1t was determined hat each district
should have approximately 100, 900
population, as shown by the late cen.
sus, in case the census figures could
be obtained; and that the counties
should be so grouped as to be con.
tiguous-not merely adjacent to each
other; and also that counties in each
district should be grouped as far as
possible according to conditions to be
represented. Without determining party
majorities before hand it was found
that such an arrangement gives the
Democrats IL and the Republicans IL
districts, with normal majorities,
based on the last presidential vote,
ranging from about $50 to 1000.
After ascertaining that no advance
figures from the late census could be
had in time for use In determining
the present population of the counties
the committee decided to be governed
by an approximation of population and
the total number of votes cast in each
county for president in 1908. This
work OF grouping the counties having
been completed, Mr.. Dickey invited
members of the state committee to
meet with the members of the sub.
committee and advisory committee at
Jefferson City June Is. Meanwhile
Governor Hadley and Mr.. Hall had
fully considered all legal questions
involved and such matters OF policy as
enter into such an important move.
ment.
When the state chairman and the
committeeman got together at Jeffer-
son City 1t was first decided that in
stead of a bill for enactment by the
people an amendment TO the consti-
tuition should be submitted, under the
new initiative law, and that the
amendment should repeal section IL
OF article Nv Of the constitution, which
originally divided the state into "a
senatorial districts, and that 1t should
repeal, in effect, section z of that
article, under which section the gov.
ernor, attorney general and secretary
state have for 80 years had the
privilege of creating senatorial dis.
tricts in behalf of the Democratic
party, without reference to the popu.
lation or to the number of votes in
any district, but with reference pri.
marily to electing at least twenty
Democratic senator's. The senate has
had 20 to "a Democratic members out
OF "a ever since the constitution OF
1875 was adopted.
Having thus decided upon submit
ting a constitutional amendment Gov.
ernor Hadley, Mr.. Hall and other law.
yers present retired from the com
mittee meeting and drew the amend
as agreed upon. The form of
petition was subsequently agreed upon
and h state chairman and secre-
tary, Messrs. Dickey and Lake. In
behalf of the state committee, began
preparations to have petitions printed
and placed in the hands of party com
mitteemen and workers all over the
state for the necessary signatures for
submitting the amendment to vote at
the November election. The first lot
OF petitions went out from the tempo
rary headquarters at Kansas City
June 20, and by the 25th thousands of
them had been returned, fully signed,
many of them containing fifty names.
What ordinarily would have required
weeks for accomplishment
was done In five days. Chairman
- : AH L#. IL. ~ ~ n VI LE Il