On motion of the same gentleman, the resolution was laid upon the table to be printed and to be referred to the appropriate committee when announced. The same gentleman offered the following amendment to the Constitution: The legislature shall have full power and authority to establish more than one place of public meeting within the limits of each town or ward in the state for the casting of votes, and the election of officers under the Constitution; to prescribe the manner of warning, holding, and conducting such meetings and for that purpose may divide any town or ward into voting precincts. Any provision of the Constitution of this state inconsistent herewith is amended to conform hereto. Upon motion of the same gentleman, the amendment was laid upon the table to be printed and to be referred to the proper committee when appointed. Mr. Woodbury of Woodstock offered the following proposed amendment to part second, sections nine and ten of the Constitution: Resolved, To strike out part of clause beginning in the fifth line of said section nine and reading as follows: "And wards of cities having six hundred inhabitants by the last general census of the state, taken by authority of the United States, or of this state, may elect one representative; if eighteen hundred such inhabitants, may elect two representatives; and so proceeding in that proportion, making twelve hundred such inhabitants the mean increasing number for an additional representative," and insert the following: "And wards of cities having one hundred and sixty-five legal voters at the preceding biennial election, may elect one representative; if six hundred and ninety such voters, may elect two representatives; and so proceeding in that proportion, making five hundred and twenty-five such voters the mean increasing number for an additional representative." In the fourteenth and fifteenth lines strike out the word "census and insert" biennial election." In article ten, in the second and fifth lines, strike out the words "six" and "inhabitants" and insert the words "one hundred and sixty-five" and "voters." So that said sections will read as follows: ART. 9. There shall be, in the legislature of this state, a representation of the people, biennially elected, and founded upon principles of equality, and, in order that such representation may be as equal as circumstances will admit, every town or place entitled to town privileges, and wards of cities having one hundred and sixty-five legal voters at the preceding biennial election, may elect one representative; if six hundred and ninety such voters, may elect two representatives; and so proceeding in that proportion, making five hundred and twenty-five such voters the mean increasing number for an additional; provided, that no town shall be divided or the boundaries of the wards of any city so altered as to increase the number of representatives to which such town or city may be entitled by the next preceding biennial election; and provided, further, that, to those towns and cities which since the last biennial election have been divided or had their boundaries or ward lines changed, the general court in session next before these amendments shall take effect shall equitably apportion representation in such manner that the number shall not be greater than it would have been had no such division or alteration been made. ART. 10. Whenever any town, place, or city ward shall have less than one hundred and sixty-five such voters, the general court shall authorize such town, place, or ward to elect and send to the general court a representative such proportionate part of the time as the number of its voters shall bear to one hundred and sixty-five; but the general court shall not authorize any such town, place, or ward to elect and send such representative, except as herein provided. The same gentleman moved that the resolution be laid upon the table to be printed and referred to the appropriate committee when appointed. Mr. Chandler of Concord moved that the above resolution be referred to Committee of the Whole and made a special order for Thursday, December 4, at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, and Mr. Woodbury, withdrawing his motion to lay upon the table, the motion of Mr. Chandler was stated and prevailed. The following communication was presented by Mr. Thompson of Warner: CONCORD, N. H., December 3, 1902. To the Constitutional Convention of New Hampshire: We, the undersigned, general officers of the Woman's Suffrage association of New Hampshire, respectfully request your honorable body to confer the privilege of suffrage upon women by striking from article twenty-seven of the existing Constitution the word "male," and by such other amendment thereof declaratory of this purpose as may be necessary. We further request that the Convention, at the close of its session Tuesday afternoon, December 9, grant us a hearing in Representatives' hall at the state house; provided, that this request does not interfere with the work of the Convention. If it does conflict with the afternoon session, then we request that a hearing be given us on the evening of Tuesday, December 9, in the same hall. MARY N. CHASE, President, Treasurer, N. H. W. S. A. On motion of Mr. Thompson, a hearing was granted to the Woman's Suffrage association of New Hampshire, to be held in Representatives' hall on Tuesday, December 9, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. Lyford of Concord offered the following amendment to the Constitution: Resolved, That the Constitution be so amended that the house of representatives shall consist of 300 members, which shall be apportioned by the legislature, at the first session after a United States census, to the several counties of the state, equally, as nearly as may be, according to their population as ascertained at the next preceding United States census. The county commissioners in each county, or in lieu of the county commissioners in each county, such board of special commissioners in each county, to be elected by the people of the county, as may for that purpose be provided by law,shall on the first Tuesday of June next after each assignment of representatives to each county, assemble at a shire town of their respective counties and proceed, as soon as may be, to divide the same into representative districts of contiguous territory, so as to apportion the representatives assigned to each county, equally, as nearly as may be, according to the relative population in the several districts of each county, and such districts shall be so formed that no town or ward shall be divided therefor. Districts may be formed for one or more representatives as the contiguity of territory or the physical and social relations of the towns or wards may warrant. The legislature at the next session after such division of the counties into representative districts may, upon appeal by a town or ward, examine the classification of that town or ward and change the district lines of that county, in accordance with the provisions of this article, if it shall appear that injustice has been done. The same gentleman moved that this amendment be considered at the time of the special order for Thursday morning, December 4. Mr. Lyford of Concord-I desire to make one explanation: If you will read this resolution, it will correct in the minds of a number of the delegates of the Convention an impression that has gone abroad. There appeared in The Manchester Union recently a classification of the towns into districts, and following that was the map showing this classification. As I understand, that classification and the purpose for which it was prepared was educational, and to show that districts could be formed of nearly equal population. That was prepared by a representative of The Manchester Union and has no connection with the resolution I have offered to-day, or with the opinions I have expressed in the press on this subject. The impression has gone abroad that that classification in The Manchester Union represented in detail the plan favored by me in districting the state. That is not the case. The detail of the district plan I propose to leave to be worked out by the county commissioners, or by a special commission authorized by the legislature in lieu of that. On motion of Mr. Chandler of Concord, the two last amendments were ordered to be considered a part of the special order for Thursday, December 4, and also any others on the same subject that might thereafter be introduced. On motion of Mr. Kent of Lancaster, Mr. Kidder of Groton was given leave of absence from Wednesday to Monday forenoon next, on account of sickness in his family. Mr. Chandler of Concord introduced the following proposed amendment to the Constitution: ARTICLE 82, at the end thereof add: (Individual enterprise and competition in trade should be protected against monopolies which tend to hinder or destroy them.) It shall be the duty of the legislature to limit the size and functions of all corporations, to prohibit fictitious capitalization therein, and to so provide for their supervision and government that they will be the servants and not the masters of the people. On motion of the same gentleman, the foregoing amend |