The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1921-07-15
Majority Voted Before Adjournment Favoring AT Least One
Representative From Each County
TWENTY THREE STATES HAVE ADOPTED THE COUNTY
AS LOGICAL UNIT OF PROPER REPRESENTATION
County Representation League Gives Reasons In Support the County
Unit Plan
CONSIDERED BEST TO PREVENT EVILS IN LEGISLATION

The question OF apportioning legis-
lators will be one OF the most impor-
tant under consideration by the Con-
stitutionai Convention of all dues-
tious affecting the future OF Prohi-
bition legislation The County Rep
rescntatior League of Illinois has
issued the following statement rea-
tive to the county unit plan of legis-
lative representation.
The constitutional convention BY
majority vote before adjournment
last December carried the PROPOSE
ton that every county in the state
should have at least one representa-
tive i'll the legislature and that it
should have additional representatives
on thc basis of one for each addition
al fifty thousand population or major
fraction thereof, after the first fifty
thou sand This would work out on
the basis OF the present population
"a ~ ~ ~ liOti AOoh NOulllA
and ll2 representatives from the re-
naming 101 counties of the state
There is io other proposed limitation
upon Cook county in the lower
branch o. the legislature. All the
limitation is summed up in the prop
ositlon to give each county at least
one representative.
Many States Have County Unit
The above provision for county
representation is in harmony with
what cthe, states have done. twenty
three states have county representa-
ton, among these are the two largest
and Wealthiest i'll the union. Fennsyl-
vania and New York, and also such
representative states as Iowa and
Ohio. Most of the states of the cast.
the south and north recognize the
county as the basis of representation.
Some OF the western states where the
counties were laid out in advance OF
population for surveying purposes
have not yet adopted county repre-
sentation. Some states that formerly
did not have county representation
later on adopted it, notably Pennsyl-
vania and Ohio.
Reasons for County Plan
There must be some reason for the
selection Ct the county as the unit
of representation when so many state
constitutional conventions have come
to the conclusion that while il may
not be theoretically perfect yet from
a practical standpoint it is the unit
best adapted for the purposes of
Legislative apportionment.
Some OF these reasons are: The
county is usually social and political
unit, it is the seat of the local gov
ernmcnt, il is the seat of most OF the
political power and activities with
which the residents of the county are
familiar. Most people know very few
people outside the boundaries of their
own county, the neighboring county
is practically as far away IS the
neighborirg state and there is very
little intercourse between thepi.
County is Community Center
The county fairs, farmers institutes.
teachers institutes, county conven-
tions, all tend to develop county wide
acquaintance and county wide COM
munty interest. Any one sent to the
Legislature from a county would more
than likely have personality known
to nearly everybody in the county.
This is not true in a great city. Very
few in the city know who their rep
resentatives are or even in what dis
trict .hey live and there is practically
no district community interest in the
city as in the country. Therefore it
is easier to mass intelligent public
sentiment for the support of good
representative or the elimination of
bad representative in the country
than in the city
For all of these reasons the farmers
of many state constitutions have
come to the conclusion that it would
be harmful to break down county
lines in forming legislative districts
as proposed by the minority.
County Unit Prevents
Gerrymandering
In reading the debates of the Penn
sylvania Constitutional Convention
of 1872. in which the present consti-