The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-02-25
APPoRTIoNMENT PROGRESSES.

We sec that Senator Stookey's logis-
lativo apportdonment bill is making
progress in the Senate. 1t was reported
| favorably to that body on Thursday
with an amendment increasing the NUM-
Der of Senators from twenty two, as il
first proposed. to twenty three. II
changes the original scheme in some
cases; detachcs Box Elder county from
Tooele. making Box Elder a separate
Senatorial district with but 1884 popu-
lation, being far short of the general
average. IL places Tooele county in a
district with ,juab and Millard coun'
ties, giving that district two Senators
The Twelfth Senatorial district. com
prising Carbon, Emery, Grand, San Juan
and Uintah counties, with 1920 popula
ton, is accorded two Senators, this dis
trict and the district comprising Box
Elder county being the lightest in popu
lation OF any in the State, with the
Juab Milard Tooele district a close
third. The increase in the number of
Senators is five. from eighteen as at
present TO twenty three proposed,
The number of Representatives to be
elected is retained at fifty five, as first
proposed by Senator Stookey. This is
an increase Of ten in the number Of
Representatives, being Just double the
increase in the Senate. But, on the aver
age ratio, as first defined in the State
constitution, there are five Representa-.
tives to two Senators, There should, on
that basis, be an increase of at least
thirteen Representatives where there is
an increase Of five Senators. The bill
as reported also accentuates the over
representation Of smaller populations
above that already secured by consti
tutional provision. 1nasmuch as there
is ample room under the constitutional
scheme of apportionment to give tho
proper representation to population as
we'll as to counties, as such, the number
Of Representatives ought TO he in
creased materially over that proposed
In the bill. Taking Salt Lake county,
for instance, we are accorded but seven
teen Representatives in this bill, which
is materially less than one-third of the
whole house; but Salt Lake county has
materially more than onc-third of the
population of the State, and therefore
should have moro than one third of the
Representatives. With this scheme for
the lower house of fifty-fivc members
Salt Lake county should have nineteen
of those members. But the constjtu-
tional requirements that each county
shall have Representative disarranges
in some degree the Representative
ratio; yet there is no reason why the
Representative ratio should not be
made to apply to the whole State in
stead Of being confined alone to the
counties that have more population
than suffices for one Representative.
With the number of Senators fixed at
twenty-three it would be constitutional
to have a lower house of siXty-ninc
members, or fourteen more than the
number provided in this bill. 1t would,
perhaps, not be feasible to go to the
constitutional limit in fixing the num-
ber Of Representatives, but certainly
there should be some approach made
thereto, and we should say that it will
be fair compromise as between coun.
ty representation and population rep
resentation to fix the membership Of
the lower house at sixty-three. This
would give full play to the require
ments of the constitution in both di
rections, county and population, and we
should be glad TO sec the principle of
popular representation given more con-
sideration in the apportionmcnt than
it is given in this bill