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Show APPORTIONMENT PROGRESSES. Wo sec that Senator Slookey's legis-'lativo legis-'lativo apportionment bill is making progress in the Senate. It was reported favorably to that body on Thursday with an amendment increasing the number num-ber of Senators from twenty-two, as it first, proposed, to twbnty-thrco. 7t changes tho original scheme in some cases; detaches Box Klder county from Tooele, making Box Elder a separate Senatorial district with but 13,801 population, popu-lation, being far short, of the general average. Jt places Tooele county in a district with .luab and Millard counties, coun-ties, giving that district two Senators. The. Twelfth Senatorial district, comprising com-prising Cnrbon, Emery, Grand, San Juan and Uintah counties, with 27,270 population, popula-tion, is accorded two Senators, this district dis-trict and the district; comprising Box Elder county being tho lightest in population popu-lation of any in the State, with the .lunb-Millnrd-Tooelo district a close third. Tho increase in the number of Senators is five, from eighteen as at presont to twenty-three proposed. The number of Representatives to be elected is retained at fifty-five, as first proposed by Senator Stookey. This is an increase of ten in the number of Representatives, being just double the increase in the Senate. But, on tho aver age ratio, as fdrst defined in the State constitution, there arc five Representatives Representa-tives to two Senators. There should, on that basis, bo an increnso of at least thirteen Representatives where there is an increase of five Senators. The bill as reported also accentuates tho over-representation over-representation of smaller populations above that already secured by constitutional consti-tutional provision, inasmuch as there is ample room under the constitutional scheme of apportionment to give tho proper representation to population as well as to counties, as such, the number of Representatives ought to be increased in-creased materially over that proposed in tho bill. Taking Salt Lake county, for instance, wc are accorded but seventeen seven-teen Representatives in this bill, which is materially less than one-third of the whole house; but Salt Lake county has materially more than one-third of the population of the State, and therefore should have more than one-third of the Representatives. With this scheme for the lower house of fifty-five members Salt Lake county should have nineteen of thoso members. But the constitutional constitu-tional requirements that each county shall have a Representative disarranges in some degree the Representative ratio; yet there is no reason why the Representative ratio should not bc made to apply to the whole State instead in-stead of being confined alone to the counties that have more population than suffices for one Representative. With the number of Senators fixed at twenty-three it would bo constitutional to have a lower house of sixty-n'mo members, or fourteen more than the number provided in this bill. It would, perhaps, not. bo feasible to go to the constitutional limit in fixing the number num-ber of Representatives, but certainly tiiero should bc some approach made thereto, and we should say that it will bc a fair compromise as' botween county coun-ty representation and population representation rep-resentation to fix the membership of the lower house at sixty-three. This would give full play to the requirements require-ments of the constitution in both directions, di-rections, county and population, and wc should bo glad to sec the principle of popular representation given more consideration con-sideration in the apportionment than it is given in' this bill. . , |
