Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1892 — About Gerrymanders. [ARTICLE]

About Gerrymanders.

While rejoicing over the decision of the Supreme Court of Michigan, which overthrew the Democratic apportionment of 1891, many of our Bepublican

friends failed to note that the gerrymander of 1885, which shared the same fate, was the work of the Bepublicans. There are a good many other Republican gerrymanders that need the services of a court like the Supreme Court of Michigan. Here Is a specimen of the Pennsylvania gerrymander, supplied by the Pittsburg Post: DEMOCRATIC DISTRICTS. County, Population. Senators. Berks 137,327 Luzerne 201,203 Lackawanna 142,068 Totals 430,818 ~3 REPUBLICAN DISTRICTS. Lebanon 48,131 1 Delaware 74,883 . Lancaster .149,095 j Totals 271,909 4 Less than fifty thousand people in the county of Lebanon are represented by a Republican in the State Senate, while moie than two hundred thousand in Luzerne have only one Senator, who is a Democrat. The county of Lancaster, with less than one hundred and fifty thousand population, chooses two Senators, while Luzerne, with over two hundred thousand, chooses only one. The Constitutions of different States have different provisions with reference to the principles that shall govern an apportionment. Hence a gerrymander which appears to have stood the judicial test in Pennsylvania would probably be unconstitutional in Michigan. At all events the gerrymander in Michigan could hardly have been so bad as that in Pennsylvania.