The record., 1911-05-25
OPENING CAMPAIGN SPEECH
STANDS His Ground on Tobacco Cues
tion--Uses Plain STo%cn Words
on County Unit siii-As'Cs
What's the Meter With
Old Kentucky.

Judge Edward Clay O'Rear opened
his campaign for the Republican nom
nation for Governor OF kentucky in
an address az Hopkinsville. in which
he elaborated the views briefly out
lined in his earlier formal announce
ment. He spoke to a great gathering
Of citizens OF Christian and adjoining
counties in which all political Gle
ments were represented.
Judge O'Rear began by pointing out
the folly of confusing State and ma
tional politics and injecting into the
campaign in Ker;ucky this year
questions that might properly bo
raised in a Presidential contest involv-
ing all the States. tie paid tribute TO
the growing spirit of independence
among voters and declared that in
these days the personality of the can
didate and his individual tendencies
were often OF even more importance
than formal party utterancCs.
He who aspires to lead a party"
added the speaker. should not be
afraid to venture an opinion concern
ing the public questions with which he
and he should not be afraid to suggest
remedies for existing evils"
After discussing this progressive
phase of the political situation gCler-
ally, Judge O'Rear dwelt at some
length upon what he regarded as a re-
n,arkable reversal of conditions in
Kentucky. which once proudly came
near the head of the procession of
States, but had now fallen far to the
rear. He reviewed in a philosophic
and nonpaTtisan vein the causes to
which he attributed this great change.
Following up this line OF argument.
he said
Going to the Root Of the Trouble.
There is a school OF thought that
believes in treating an ailment by
treating the symptoms. hold for
The idea az. gong 70 the cspse ct the
iregh'e ,semove 81 ard THO laSsl
81 nature viii effect cure u tne
patient Is not too lar exhausted.
Il Is foolish to say that this political
party or that is the cause. Human
nature is not differentiated upon party
lines. Politicians have long played
upon the string that the other partys
being in power is per Sc ruinous TO
the welfare OF the country. We have
grown old enough 10 be wise enough
not to be fooled any longer by such
twaddle. Fact is, IL is being demon
strated all over this land year by year
that a party is no better than It's
pending policies. and the policies are
no more efIicacious than the worth CT
the men entrusted with their execu-
ton; that IL does not matter so much
90 the people which party is in power
as what they propose then to do. and
the kind of men they propose'to do 1t
with.
Equality Of Representation is Funda-
mental.
Ours is a representative popular
government Equality is the keystone
of the political arch. He who denies il
is a tory, IL not despot. He is of
the class who would take more than
his share, and to do so rob a weaker
neighbor of his. He belongs TO the
predatory tribe, actuatod by greed and
sustained by his own multiplied
wrongs. II given the license he would
subjugate the rest of the world 10 his
service. The people OF Kentucky re-
alize as fundamentally true that the
right OF government depends not only
on the consent of the governed, but
upon each member of society having
identical political power I'm the gov.
ernment. Hence Il is Incorporated in
the Constitution Of this State that
the legislative department. composed
OF the Senate and the House of Repre-
sentatives, shall be apportioned among
the people, according to population
and territory. being as nearly equal
and uniform as may be possible and
rested upon the Federal census. Sec
tion 33 of the Constitution reads:
Number OF Distrlcts-A9portIonm
of Representation. The First General
Assembly after the adoption of this Con-
stitution. shall divide the State into
thirty-eic'ht Senatorial districts and one
hundred Repre- sentative districts, as near
ly equal In population as may De with
out dividing any county. except where 4
county may include more than one dis
trlct. which districts shall constitute the
Senatorial and Representative d'scTicts
for ten Years. nor more than two coUus
ties shall BE- Joined together TO form n
Representative district: Provided. in dot
ing so the principle requiring every dis
trict TO BE- as nearly equal in population
a NAV be shall not be violated. AZ the
cNpira ton Of that time. the General As
sefnbly shall then. and every ten years
thereafter. redi~trict the State accOrdine
10 this rule and for the purposes exi
pressed In this section. II. in makisy
l'cd distItcts. irc1uliitv Ct pcpulu.ion
should be unavoidable. any ADVANTAGE re-
sulting therefrom shall he given n dis
tricts having the lar~--f TERRITORY No
part Of a county shah he added to an
other county 10 make q district and the
counties forming a district shall he con-
tiguous
lniquitous Political Apportionment
The Constitution was adopted IN
1891. A census had been taken in
1890. That provision was tLel
ignored and pullihed by the politicians
composing ihe dominant party in tie
Legislature that first convened after
the Constitution was adopted pls.
lricts were created Wi.h more regand
10 their political complexion than for
the Constitution which the people had
just adopted In short, the distFictins
was so arranged that q community
which was composed of a majority Of
Democrats was favored, while one
composed % : majority af Republicans
was d.siascg.d. Tie result was, H.
f0ne instlpcCs SIX times as 1cn
voting sIrSlstA VAS aCCOIdC0 IhS
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