The Ocala evening star., 1922-10-04
REINFORCEMENT

The Star advises the citizens of
Marion county to vote for the reap
portionment amendment in the No
vember election.
Reapportionment will be to the di-
rect advantage of Marion county, as
it will make it state senatorial dis
trict in itself. The Star, however,
would not advise the people of Mar
ion to vote for reapportionment for
their selfish advantage alone. 1t be-
lieves reapportionment will improve
legislative affairs for the entire state.
1t will give Florida larger senate,
and a senate of thirty-two members
for state of million people is too
small. Also, the smaller our senate
or any other legislative body may be,
the less it represents the people and
the more it resembles a closed corpor,
alton or a club. The evil of our too
scarce senate has been felt for the last
chance to enlarge it. There are other
large counties beside Marion that
should each be senatorial district.
Also there are counties-Duval and
Hillsborough-that should each have
three representatives, and Dade should
have two, and there are probably
others that have grown so much in
population that they need another
representative apiece.
There is no good argument against
reapportionment. The proposed reap
portionment is not what the Star
wants. 1t is not fair and square to
all the state, but it is better than the
apportionment we now have, and we
should therefore adopt it-and as
soon as possible adopt another and a
better one. This can be done. If the
people put pressure on the legislature
of 1925, they can compel it to submit
another amendment in 1926. In fact,
the legislature of next year, whether
this amendment is adopted or not, can
call for another to be submitted to
the people in 1924. But it is very
likely that if this amendment is re-
jected, there will be no change for
ten or twelve years.
There has been no sensible argu-
ment advanced against reapportion-
ment. A number of South Florida
newspapers and politicians, because
the amendment is not framed exactly
to suit them-because it does not put
their section in the saddle and make
all the rest of the state walk-are act
ing like a spoiled little boy who
won't play unless his playmates play
his way. Oblivious to the fact that al
improvements in government have
been made by compromise, they insist
that the control of the state be put ir
their hands at once, or it all be left
in its present ill-proportioned condi'
tion. They are acting in the manner
best calculated to anger and frighter
West Florida into retaining its unfail
hold on the state as long as possible
Anybody to read some of the Soutl
Florida papers can't help feeling thai
if the power swings into their hand:
they will boss the state as unmerci
fully as West Florida does now.
The Star doesn't believe in any sec
tion of the state having a dispropor
tionate advantage over the others
but if one section is to have a monop
oily, we can't see that South Florida
would be any better than West Flor
ida. The Star doesn't believe in sec
tionalism in the state any more thar
it believes in it in the United States.
The Star has never known any
party, faction, clique or section tc
voluntarily give up power. The Stal
doesn't expect West and North Flor
ida to hand the full control of the
state over to South Florida The Stal
believes, however, that the public mer
of West and North Florida have
some sense and some public spirit II
fact, we don't see as they differ from
men of other parts of the state. We
don't believe they are going to be as