The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1920-12-17

editorials expresses the attitude OF the
number OF people. This would give
Chicago seventy representatives at
present and leave 80 counties with no
representatives. New appointments
to be made every ten years would add
to Chicago's representation and IN
crease the number of counties down
state with no representatives provided
Chicago continued to grow faster than
the rest of the state.
Committee Representation Favorable
to Cook County
There were in the last session of the
Legislature thirty-two committees,
some OF them important, some OF them
relatively unimportant. The appor-
t1onment according to the down state
plan would give enough Cook county
representatives for an average of two
members on each one of these conf
mittees except two. No other county
would have more than three members
OF the Legislature. Eighty-nine coun-
ties would have only one member each
to look after It's legislative interests.
Is it right to give the state any less
representation?
All States with Large Cities Have
County Plan
But Cook county delegates and the
Chicago newspapers are not satisfied.
They want thirty~three counties to be
without representatives i'll order that
Chicago may have about twenty more
representatives i'll the Legislature than
it has aldermen in the city council.
The Chicago newspaper editorials
are not frank in arguing the case as
these editorials would lead one to be-
lieve that the down state delegates
were advocating something that had
never been heard of in Legislative his
tory. But county representation in
the state Legislatures is older than
the Federal Constitution. Seventeen
states at the present time have county
representatives. Among them are
New York, Pennsylvania, Iowa, 1ndi-
ana. Missouri, and Ohio. Several
other states have town, township, or
parish representation. Those states
which do not have county or town or
parish representation have no great
cities.
There is much history to show that
communities have always been recog-
nized in forming representative as
semblies in this country. Joseph
Choate, than whom there was no
greater constitutional lawyer, sum
marizes history in his address on this
very question. He says:
Territory Must Qualify Rule of Num-
bers is Cardinal Principle
Representative government is not,
never has been and can not be based
upon division OF political power by
exact equality of numbers. Territor-
ial considerations, as a qualification of
exact numeral distribution OF popu-
lation, have always been recognized as
an essential element of apportionment,
as the cardinal rule in respect to rep
resentation of counties already stated
shows. 1t has, therefore, been adopted
by all enlightened states as a cardinal
rule OF apportionment, necessary for
the just preservation of the proper
balance between the crowded urban
districts and the scattered rural dis
tricts, that some consideration shall
be paid to extent of territory as a
qualification of the rule of numbers,
nor has this ever been regarded as a
departure from Republican or Demo-
cratic principles, or any invasion Of
the rule of the majority"
A differentiation should be kept in
mind between the right of the indi-
vidual to vote for an individual Office
holder as governor or president and
the right of communities to elect rep
resentatives. An individual in voting
for representatives casts his vote not