Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1922-04-21
COW COUNTIES
WILL FIGHT PALMER
REINFORCEMENT BILL

Should the legislative re-appor-
tionment bill, proposed by State
Senator E. b. Palmer of Seattle and
circulated for signatures in Seattle
and a few other communities, be-
, come law, Whitman county, with it's
two senators and four representa-
tives, would be eliminated from the
senate. given one representative and
a fighting chance with Asotin and
Garfield counties to get a second
member of the house. If Whitman
won, Asotin and Garfield would be
memories they would not have any
body to speak for them. Or it might
be that Whitman had to depend up
on one representative while a fluke
member of the house from an OBJ
scure corner of one of the other
counties tried to represent all three.
Palmer's bill ignores the unwrit-
ten law that every county should
have at least one member of the
house and as this rule has endured
since statehood, it probably is the in
depreciation that the members of the
placed upon the section that gov
erns membership in the legislature
Only once, in 1901, has the legisla-
tive apportionment been changed
and then the King county idea of
centering control in that county was
decisively beaten.
The Palmer bill gives King
county, with an area of Pill square
miles, six senators and 1 8 represent
tatives, or % per cent of the mem
bership in both houses. Whitman
county, which only lacks three
square miles from equaling King
and which has been the father of
most of the east side counties, would
not amount to more than a whisper
in the legislature if the Palmer-Se-
attic scheme prevails. The Palmer
bill would give King county as much
representation in the legislature as
all of eastern Washington, exclusive
/ of Yakima, but including Skamania,
would have; that is 20 counties with
land area of 38,931 square miles,
would have no greater vote than
King with 2111 square miles.
Palmer proposes to put all of Spo-
kane county outside the city of Spo-
kane, all of Whitman and the coun-
ties of Asotin and Garfield in one
senatorial district and give this area
| three members of the house, the
Spokane territory to elect one, a part
of Whitman second and the rest of
Whitman, coupled with Asotin and
| Garfield a third. This would mean,
roughly, cutting the legislative vot-
ing strength of southeastern Wash
ington to about one-fourth it's pres
ent showing.
In the working out of the Palmer
Seattle scheme even greater Unequal
tiles are shown. For instance,
Adams, Grant, one-third of Douglas,
Lincoln, Ferry and Stevens counties,
with landed area Of 22,265 square
miles, or almost 10 times that of
King county, is given just one-sixth
the membership in the Legislature
that King would have.
The Palmer bill appeared as an in
itiatiye measure just after L. D. Nc
Ardle, director of efficiency, had is
sued a statement showing that the
city of Seattle has $1OS,00O, 900
worth of taX-exempt property-that
/ is held by municipal corporations.
Immediately after the Palmer bill
was filed came a bin from ". D..
Lane, who year ago filed a couple
/ Of reterendums as attorney for the
Non-Partisan League and who still is
a member of that organization The
Lane bill would give wide home rule
powers to Seattle and permit that
city to engage in taxexempt enter