The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1910-10-07
POPULATION OF STATE.


and righteous movement to save Ten
nessee from the clutches of roliti
cal machine developed Monday, wheI
it was announced that Tennessee cen
sus figures were not to be given out
until after the election. Upon the mex
legislature will devolve the duty Of
redistricting the State and the ReIub
lican machine does not intend to per
NIT the knowledge of changes of pop
ulation to percolate to the Democratic
and Republican masses.
Already the scheme has been
thought out to shift the counties in the
First, Second and Third Congression'
al districts 80 as to furnish three Re
publican Congressman If possible and
to SO disarrange existing conditions
that the present machine will be able
to GUST all the Brownlow "old guard
and attach the control to the Sharp
Sanders machine.
Their ambitious eyes are being
cast toward the Fourth and Eighth
districts, both of which a complacent
and friendly legislature could easily
gerrymander so as to yield two Rerub-
lican ongressmen-making FIVE in all
to be included in the redemption OF
Tennessee from Democratic rule"
through the fruitful sacrifice Of sup
porting an independent Judiciary
that is if me conspiracy succeeds.
ITO accomplish this it Is designed
to prevent some eighteen or twenty
counties from coming under the
Dortch law which their increased pop
ulation would do for them if the Ten
nessee bulletin should be issued be-
fore the election. The highly moral
coalition doesn't contemplate permit
ting any such operation of the law. 1t
is true that as a matter of fact the law
practically and rightly ought to apply
but what is law if only it can be evad-
ed in high moral way and to promote
the philanthropic scheme of defeat
ing the Democracy and setting up a
foreign oligarchy in it's stead?"
This is not even respectable Ion
sense although it finds place in the
columns of the usually fair and bread
minded Chattanooga Times. The
Times must know that the application
of the Dortch law to additional coun-
ties in Tennessee would add very
largely to the majority against Pat
tersonism and the representative of
that faction, whoever he may be. Even
the rankest partisans OF the Governor
will not deny this. In the first place
the Dortch law robs the Patterson par
ty of it's colored ally to large extent.
If the editor of the Times will ex-
anime the returns of the recent cleo
ton he will find that the anti-Patter-
son ticket made it's best showing In
counties to which the Dortch law APP
plies. In Maury county the Dortch
law applies to every district, and the
anti-Patterson ticket received large
majority In Williamson, an adjoining
county, the law does not apply and
Patterson's puppets carried the coun-
ty. In Marshall, with the Dortch law
the free judiciary got a plurality, In
Giles. ander the old ballot law, 1t did
not. Hardeman county, in the Tenth
district, with the Dortch law, gave
the anti-Patterson ticket a majority,
while Fayette, in the same district and
adjoining Hardeman, went the other
way. Other illustrations could be US
ed to show that there Is no reason |
why the temperance forces should OPP
pose the Dortch law, but on the con-
trary so far as The Herald is concern
ed it would have the law extended to
every district in the State.
As a matter of fact in proportion ,
to voting population the Dortch law
now extends to more Republican terri
tory than lrs does to normally Demo :,
cratic sections. And in the Republican
counties OF Greene and McMinn and
Bradley and Hawkins where the law
was extended for partisan purposes.
the free judiciary ticket made its best
showing and Hooper will receive bis
largest maJorities.
The Times shows its gross ienor-
ance of the provisions Of the Dortch
law when, 1t speaks of census returns
bringing eighteen or twenty additional
counties under Its operation. This
law, as a general statute and unAided