The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-12-19
Both Parties in State Face
the Apportionment Task
= in Worried Mood.
LAST CHANGE IN 1911
Twelve Districts Will Re-
place Thirteen With
100000 Each.
BY BEN STERN.

Under the new superintendent
plan, the thirteen Indiana congress
sional districts will be divided into
twelve, with approximately 300 600
inhabitants each.
Gerrymandering of the state in
order to create districts which will
be permanently Republican is the
problem Of Eliza Q. Rogers, G. o. P.
state chairman, and his advisers,
and the reverse is true of r. Earl
Peters, Democratic chairman.
When you have completed the
gerrymandering, what have you
got?" is the question. v
Democrats Sought Control
In 1911, when the state was last
zoned, the northeast corner was
carved into the Twelfth district with
the intent of assuring its permanent
control by the Democrats. In the
election of 1912 Representative
Klein, a Democrat, was reelected,
but in 1914 the district went into
the Republican column and has re-
manned there.
The results of the last election
have "gummed up the works." it is
said. Districts which always have
been safely Republican, went Demo-
cratic and the previous lineup of
ten Republican and three Democrats
was reversed.
Can this change be permanent"
is the problem of @. G. P. leaders
and with this in mind, they are
approaching the task of rezoning
with trepidation.
The opposite is reflected by the
Democrats who feel that the 1880
election showed the true state of
affairs and the results can be used
to their advantage.
Unique Possibility
Here, for instance, is d possibility,
but not a probability of redistrict-
ing: IN the event that members
of the apportionment committees
would want to mix up the situation,
they could put Marion county into
six districts. Center township has
a population of slightly more than
100000. That could be one district.
The statutes provide a county may
be divided in any manner for re-
distrtcting purposes as long as pre-
circt and township boundaries are
followed. The southern half of
Marion county thus could be split
up SO Decatur township would be
in the Second district and Perry
township in the Fourth district.
Lawrence, Warren and Franklin
townships could be in the Sixth dis
trict; Washington township in the
Ninth district, and Pike and Wayne
townships in the Fifth district.
| OF course, such a partitioning of
Marion county is not likely, but
it presents a peculiar angle of the
problem.
Because of its population, 422, 666,
Marion county must be divided.
This could be done by creating one
whole district and part of another.
If the Republicans can control the
I situation they will, it is intimated
take the northern half of the coun-
ty, which votes Republican except
in rare intervals, and make that
one district. The southern half,
normally Democratic, could be cut
of and made a part of the consis-
tently Democratic Fourth district
The Tenth and Thirteenth dis
tricts must be reduced because they
are diversified. In that event, Lake.
Porter and Newton counties could
be made into one district; which.
but for the exception of this year,
have always been in the Republican
column.
1t is safe to say that the districts
north Of Marion county have con-
sistently returned Republican con-
gressmen.
North Republican
The majority Of the population of
the state outside of Marion county
lies north Of it.
In rezoning a majority Of the
districts must necessarily lie north
Of here and that section, unless
more skillfully divided than before,
can be all Republican.
st. Joseph county, which in the
past twelve years has gone four
times Democratic and three times
Republican, is the disturbing fac
tor TO the G.. o. P. strategists in
remeking the Thirteenth district.
That county alone has population
Of 160,033 and can be formed into
the nucleus Of a Democratic dis
trict.
By simply taking the consistently
Democratic counties of Wells and
Adams and the usually Democratic
county of Jay from the Eighth and
adding them to the Twelfth, that
district could be made Democratic.
BY shutting pocket counties, the
First district can be made perma-
nently Democratic without impair
ing the usual lineup Of either the
Second or Third district.
Countless possibilities on the other
hand are offered from the Repub-
lican viewpoint for giving their OPP
ponents but two districts out Of the
twelve. Because of the small popu-
lation in the Democratic Second,
Third and Fourth districts, which
added together do not total 100000,
they can be sliced into two con-
gresTional zones
\. re about this will be heard
wi the general assembly gets
w derway and both parties viii be
graphing for favorable holds
There is, Of course, the possibility
that in order to gain passage Of de-
sired measures, the reapportionment
proposition may be traded about and
end UP as simply means Of fur