Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1882-02-16
Tho Apportionmont Bill.

the committee Of the census 10 appor-
ton the Representatives in Congress,
which calls .fur 800 members, and is
one for every l56, $50 inhabitants, the
Washington Post remarks: "lf there
were no State lines each Member would
represent just that number of people
occupying contiguous territory But
as the assignments have to be made to
States, there are fractions always left
after dividing the population of State
by the number Of inhabitants entitled
to Representatives BY thi, plan
/ obviously there are not "A suilicicncy Of
constituencies OF the required .ilr in
the different States 10 include the
whole number of Members to which
all the States are entitled. The method
heretofore pursued has been to assign
the remainder of the Members, SO far
as they will go, to those States having
the largest fractions after the division
referred to-
Under the bill reported by Mr..
/ Prescott, however, new system of
computation, called after it, author,
the "Seatoh method, has been invoked.
An attempt to explain it would take
up too much space, TO say nothing Of
the probable impossibility Of making
it clear even TO the most intelligent
reader BY it but six States are af.
fected, California, Rhode Island, Flo.
rida, New York, Pennsylvania and
Illinois. According to the old plan
The first three States each retain n
member, which, by the new method,
goes to each Of the last three. By as.
signing 32O members to 1891 200
people, it Is intended that every Con-
gresham shall represent n constituency
of lj4, ,2Sj. as near as may be. Under
the old method, California, Rhode l..
land, Florida. New York, Pennsyl-
vania and Illinois would have mem.
ber for population respectively Of
l44,llj. 1926, l34,746. lj4,02G,
l52, $50 and l53, 1898, New York's rep
resentative population being within
259 of the number required. Pennsyl.
vania aud Illinois close up and Flori-
da the farthest of, being l9, 9,539 short.
BY the new scheme the Representative
population Of these States is as follows:
California, 1898; Rhode Island,
276 6,53l Florida, 800 ,493; New York,
lig, 1876; Pennsylvania, l47 $50, and
Illinois, 1856. These last three
States are farther from the required
number by this method than the other,
while of the first three California has
93.26l inhabitants not represented at
all, Florida, 1l5, POS, and Rhode Island
122,246. The fairness Of such an APP
pOrtionment is not particularly strik.
ing.
Another popularity Of the new sys.
tenn is worth nothing. Dividing the
population Of New York, Pennsyl.
vania and Illinois by ljI, ,2s5 snd the
product is respectively 32. ~ aud 10.
Each of these States have an extra
Member. on account Of the large frac.
ton remaining over in the division,
which puts the representation at 32.
2S and 20; but the improved system
of calculation gives these States each
one more, making them 3l, 20 and q.
The three extra members must repre-
sent the 330,715 inhabitants Of Cali.
fornia, Rhode Island and Florida, who.
by this compound aud complex arith-
metic, are left out 10 the cold, for
surely they speak for nobody in their
own States. The aggregate popula-
ton of New York, Pennsylvania and
Illinois is l2,445, 1865, not enough for
81 members, yet the new method al
lows them 81, requiring population
of 514,575 greater than they have.
California, Florida and Rhode Island
are given only z Representatives, al.
though their aggregate population
authorizes o. BY the new method
these three large States obtain three
Members to which they are 10 no way
entitled, the loss falling gupon the three