The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1920-11-05

if he met him iii the street. His
neighbor is somebody who lives four
or FIVE miles off whom he meets at
church, at a club, at a directors meet
ing, or perhaps in a labor organiza-
ton, or in one OF the various associa-
tons which make UP the busy and
complicated life OF great city. Lo-
cality counts for nothing in d great
city. Livery man who IS sent to the
Legislature from great city repre-
sents rot this artificial territory, this
territory artihcially defined; that is
but means of determining what vot-
ers shall pass upon the question OF
whether he or another man goes to
the Legislature. Now, sir.
we are to compare this compact body
of men with the reprcsen-
tation OF Putnam county, St. Law
renee county, Oneida county, Catta-
raugus- county, Monroe county-gen-
tlement representing entirely differ
ent interests and responsible to en-
tirely different stituencics. with no
cohesion, no common bond, except
as they may happen to have spoken
upon a subject which comes before
the representative body. And | sub
init that upon sound principles the
comparison between these separate
bodies and their representatives and
this one great consolidated body is
not, and can not be, mere numerical
comparison. Carry this to its logical
conclusion, if you please. Take the
view taken by our friends on the
other side. See the city of New York
growing year by year. adding Brook
Ign perhaps to a Greater New York,
and, within the allotted space of life
of the majority of the members of
this convention, holding within its
limits majority OF the people of this
state; she sends to your Legislature
majority of all its members, re-
sponsible to one political organization
in that one acknowledgements bic,
if the present system of political dom
nation which now obtains in that
city is continued, to ONE MAN for
their votes and their actions-and tell
me whether, for the government of
this state, it is right and just that the
comparison between all the other rep
resentations OF this state, all the other
counties, and all the other cities, ex-
tending over half a thousand miles
from east to west and from the ocean
to the St. Lawrence river, with their
varied interests, with their widely
scattered centers of population
whether the comparison between the
representation and this one control
ling power should be solely on the
basis of population. If that principle
be pushed to its logical conclusion,
every county, every city, every town,
every village, every man in the state
Of New York becomes subject to the
absolute domination and control of
the delegation from New York. l
for one, sir, New Yorker as I am,
beholden for almost thirty years of
kind treatment to that city, love too
dearly the state of my birth and life
to contemplate such result with
equanimity. And I insist, sir, upon
the principle which has been adopted
in large number of the states of
this Union, in almost every state
which has had to deal with the prob
lem of great city within its borders,
and the relations of that city to the
agricultural community, that the prob
lem which they have had to deal with
shall be dealt with by us upon the
same principle; that the small and
widely scattered communities, with
their feeble power comparatively, be-
cause of their division, shall, by the
distribution of representation, be put
upon an equal footing, so far as may
'lsN,n.st..