The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1910-07-15
MAJOR and ROACH
PLAY THEIR ROLES
Officials Whose Power Is In DANGER
Oppose the People.
Senatorial Districtina Amendment
Petition Rejected by Roach on
Advice of Attorney-G General.

Jefferson City, July 12.-When
Walter S. Dickey, chairman, and
Rush c. Lake, secretary of ehe Re-
publican State Committee, APP
peared before Cornelius c. Roach.
Secretary of State, last Wednes-
day to file the petitions for SUD-
hitting 10 vote of the people the
proposed amendment to The con-
sti .ulion relating 20 senato,ill dis
tricts, they found that official
ready, with a well devised plan.
to prevent the amendment going
on the November blllo.. They were
tod, very sweetly and blandly, by
Mr.. Roach that he would consult
the Attorney General and be gov
e1ned oy his advice. OF course he
knew what that advice VIC I'D be-
even thc newspapers knew that
mu1h-and HE knew whaS his own
course would be, for he admitted,
in "a later written 9ommunicat on,
that he had been carefully study
ing me law in anticipation of Nhe
coming Of the petitions. No douot
he and Major had been carefully
planning The rejection CT The pc
ti!ion ever since ehey heard shat
it would contain mora signatures
than necessary TO make IL legal.
Major gave Roach a written
op on Thursday when Roach
gave 10 Homer Hall, attorney for
the petitioners, a written refusal
to file the petition. Majors op.n-
ION, in brief, was simply chat the
proposed amendment to The con-
stitution is unconstitutional! He
recited a number of reasons for
such a conclusion, not one OF which
seems plausible, even 10 a layman.
His chief contention was that the
proposed amendment repeal5 Sec
tion ii of Article 4 lof che consti-
tutGon, which section has been
imperative for 29 years, and vi
olates the provisions of Section
? OF the same article, which is the
sec ion under which senatorial dis
tricts are created every zen years;
but he fails to cite the fact that
the proposed amendment creates
a new section II in language which
would invalidate, though it does
mot directly repeal Section I. That
section provides that the legisla-
ture shall district the state in5o "a
senatorial districts, of as nearly
equal population as may be, after
each decennial census, and that
if +he legislature fails Or refuses
to do it The division may lie made
by The governor, the attorney
general and the secretary of state.
The proposed amendment pro-
vides that, after each decennial
census, the legislature or the peo-
pie ehall create the districts, and
create districts so stand till the
census of 1920, the population of
the proposed districts having been
Appropriated as nearly as posi-
BILE without the figures of The cen
sus ,of 1910. OF course this, if
adopted, would prevent Che Dem
ocratic senate from :hrowing che
work of re-districting the STATE
into the hands of Major and Sec
rotary Roach by refusing to pass !
any re-districting bill that the
Mouse OF representatives of 1911
may adopt. This has been the
practice of the Democratic senate
for three successive decades and
senatorial districts have been ger
rymandered by Democratic state
officials.
It will be seen, therefore, that
Messrs. Major and Roach are the
two men in the entire state most
interested i'm the defeat of this
amendment. If they are
to DE permitted to gerrymander
the senatorial districts in 1911 they
will save the senate TO their party
and be lionized for It. 1t is a
any partisan official
would cling TO tenaciously. The
prospect that they will have that
privilege, in case no change is
made i'm the law by the people, is
not remote-it will be cerain if the
is Democratic in 1911. Hence
the extraordinary efforts of Ma
jor and Roach to keep the pro-
posed amendment away from the
Under the circumstances,
their motives are subject 20 sus-
and their lame contentious
are open to ridicule if not to con-
They might have avoided
their present predicament by per-
mitting three disinterested lawyers
of good standing at the bar of the
Supreme court to pass upon the
questions they raised instead
of foisting their own interested
opinions upon the people who
promoted and signed the rejected
Secretary Roach said his chief
motive in rejecting the petition
was to save the people the cost
Of submitting and voting on a
doubtful proposition. That's rich
The additional cost of printing
10 -nx~nuol ~-o4-I-4- Tic |