New Britain herald., 1927-12-09
ANOTHER CONGRESSMAN, RJT NO GERRYMANDER

BUT NO GERRYMANDER Representative F. Hart Tenn Of 4hi. district has been reported as keen to push through his plan for reapportionment of Congress-some- thing which, according to the Con- .titution. should be done every ten years after a new census is taken, but which has not been done since the 1920 census.
 Mr. Fem and many others claim and with justice-that the pres ent alignment 0, congressional representation in many of the states is all out of proportion to the true population, and that a true re- apportionment would increase the coneressmen from some states which are not inadequately represented.
 Among these states is Connecticut If the districts were reapportioned in this state according to the 1920 census there would be six congress- men from the state instead of five.
 All of which, We trust, is now per fectly clear From this point one be- gins to view the dark animal in the woodshed.
 Redistricting the state honestly IS one thing; gerrymandering it is an- other. Republican politicians are in favor of a plan whereby the gerry mandering Is done with a view to- ward making it impossible to elect a Democratic congressman, even in the one district in which a Demo- cratic city always makes it pos sbility that some Democrat might bring home the bacon.
 This city, of course is Waterbury. The fifth district has given q Demo crat the opportunity to sit in Con- gress, and this terrible thing, ac- cording to the gerrymanderlng ex- perts, must not be permitted in flu trre. It is easy to avoid such a con- tingency. of course no matter how many embattled citizens in Water bury vote the Democratic ticket. Just hook up that section with few honest goodness Republican dis tricts, and the trick will be done.
 The proposed gerrymandcr--in polite political lingo called q 'redis- tribution'-w would be as follows, quoting from the official grand old party plans:
 "under the proposed rear
 rangement, Waterbury and Vol
 colt, from the present fifth dis
 triCt Meriden from the fourth,
 and Bristol, New Britain, Plain
 vile Southington. Berlin, Bur
 lington Pennington and Avon,
 all now in the first district,
 would constitute the new sixth
 district"
 Other districts affected by this redistribution would be juggled "a la the same," and the state would present q stone wall to the pretensions of the Democrats, They would be in such terrible straits so far as d congressional election it concerned that they might as wei stay home on election day.
 Such gerrymandcring is undemo- cratic in the extreme. The record. show that during the last election ar average of about 192,hoO persona voted the Republican ticket in Con. uecticut, while an average of abou 107,oOO voted the Democratic ticket This is q proportion Of less than 10 1. Under system of proportion" repr"sentation-wh which nobody cal claim is not dcmocratic-ther, should he two Democratic congress men rom the state on that showing but the districts already are 50 care fully drawn that only in one distric the fifth-is there an opportunity for the rarty that can poll mor' than 100000 votes in the state r. gain a representative in Congress Under the new proposed reIistribu ton the more than 1oo,0O0 Demo crats would be entirely hors de com bat.
 The gcrrymandermg business, widespread method adopted b, dominant politicians wherever the, have the power, is a serious blot ol politics as we have it. Its application is widespread. and many q stat which is credited with sending superabundance Of repreeentativ, from the dominant party 10 Con gress-thLs having the reputation o being q rock ribbed G. 0. [. state