Norwich bulletin., 1910-12-30
THE PROSPECTING OF CON-
 NECTICUT.

HE RE- DIS RiC iNO UT OON- NEcTiCUT.
 Chairman Crumpacker Of the house committee on the census, writes The Bulletins special Washington corre- spondent. is struggling with a mass of figures and tables, prepared for the use of the committee by the census office, and showing the various schemes worked out for the next ap-
 portionment. These tables show what
 the unit of representation must be in
 a house composed of 390 members, as
 at present, and up to 440 members,
 and somewhere between these two
 figures will come the next apportion-
 ment. It is generally conceded that
 the next house must be increased,
 and, furthermore. no state is willing
 to lose any of it's members. The cen
 sus committee is composed of sixteen
 members, and eleven of them come
 from states that are likely to lose rep resentation unless the house is made
 to consist of 44O members, according to the figures of the census office.
 A Cornell professor has, however,
 figured out a scheme by which the house can be held down to 435 mem
 bers, and yet no state will lose any
 thing. and Chairman Crumpacker is
 so much impressed by this idea that he is working on this plan The chances are therefore that there will be 435 members provided for by the bill and the unit will be 211,500 for each member The bill will probably be reported soon after congress meets again. and it is expected it will be passed before March 4th, although there may be some opposition to this plan.
 It is easy to see the difficulty in the way of making fair and just bill, pleasing to all, when one commences to look into the apportionment scheme for one state.
 Connecticut will retain it's five mem bers but it is generally conceded that the state will be re- districted. and the member at large done away with. The bill will provide thpt each state should be re-districted as soon as practicable and that each district should be compact and composed of contiguous territory. Of course, each
 state will then have to undertake the
 job of dividing up it's territory into districts as nearly equal in popula-
 ton as possible, and here is where
 most of the state legislatures get into
 trouble
 With a total population of 1,114,756
 for the state of Connecticut, each of the five new districts will have to be somewhat larger than the unit of 211, 800 of the proposed bill, and in order to make them somewhat nearly alike, it will be necessary to ignore entirely county lines, and even sena- tOrial districts. Even at that. there probably will be two districts quite a
 little larger than the other three but
 unless there is to be q general shal1-
 ing up all around this cannot be avoid
 ed.
 In discussing this matter with Con-
 necticut politicians and others. it has
 been generally taken for granted that
 Fairfield county will be made into one
 district. This will be quite large
 district, 245,322 inhabitants Hartford
 county, too, has generally been re-
 garded as likely to be made into one
 district. making that large one. too.
 with 250,182, but in order to make up
 the necessary population in one of the
 new districts, it might be found best
 to take three towns out of Hartford
 county, namely Bristol Burlington and
 Southington, thus taking away from
 the Hartford district 21,337, and mak-
 ing that district 22SS45
 The four eastern counties will have
 to make up one district. and at that
 they will barely reach the necessary
 unit of population. In size it will be nearly one-half of the entire state, but
 the population will be only 211,710,
 divided up as follows: AIfddlesex county, 45,63T; New London county, l 91,253; Holland county, 26 459 and Windham county 4S361
 This leaves two counties, New Ha- ven and Litchdeld, to be divided up into two districts, and here will come i the principal trouble, New Haven | county has a population of 337.282. while Ltchfeld county has 7O.260. ! Together this makes only 4O7,542, not quite enough for two districts of 211,- 800 each. Hence the suggestions that three towns be taken from Hartford county and added to the district com ! posed of Litchfeld county and the 1 Naugatuck valley. These three towns are contiguous to both New Haven and | Litchfeld counties
 This district which might be term i ed the Waterbury district, would l therefore be composed of the follow l ing: Litchheld county, 70,260 inhabit- i ants; Bristol, 13,502: Burlington. 1.319,
 and Southington 6,516, in Hartford l county; and then the following New | Haven county towns: Ansonia, 15,- i 152; Beacon Falls, 1,I60; Bethany. 459 i; 1 Cheshire, 1888; Derby, S991: Middle | bury, S36; Naugatuck, 12.I22: Oxford. ! ,020; Prospect j39: Seymour, 4.78G: ] Southbury, 1,2$3; Waterbury, 73141; 1 Wolcott, 563, and Woodbridge SIS; a 1 total of 2I5,101.
 i This leaves for the New Haven dis | trict the following towns, all in New l Haven county: Branford 6,047; East 1 Haven 1.T95; Guilford, 3,001; Ham | den, 5,S50: Madison 1,534; Meriden, | 32,066; Milford, 4.366; New Haven, 1 133,605; North Branford, S33; North i Haven. 2.254: Orange, 11.272: and 1 WaIlingford. IL, 155; total of 213, ITS. l This division is not suggested as the | only advisable scheme. Indeed, it is | highly improbable that two people can l be found in the state who will abso- ! lutely agree on any appOrtionment for | the state, but the plan suggested is l certainly an improvement on the pres | ent apportiOnment, with a member at | large representing 1,114,756 inhabitants | and the rest of the state divided up
 as follows: First district. Hartford
 and Holland counties, population 271.- | 7Sl: Second district New Haven and 1 MidIlesex counties, population 3S2,- | 919; Third district, New London and ] WiudhaIp committees nop1r1atio e1A ..