The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1900-12-26
CONGRESSIONAL
REAPP0RTI0NMEN
Majority of Census Commit
tee Favors Present Mem
bershlp.

Washington. Dec 20 -Represesta,
tive Hopkins. chairman of the commit
tee on cersas, today filled in the house
the msjori;y report the respportioa
mens bill reported BY bis committee.
6xiug too membership Of .be house of
the mex. decade a s57 Represents.
tive Burleish Of Maine dled mioori-
sy report signed by Elk members. 10
favor Of house to be composed CT 1856
members, ard Representative Crum
packer of Iodiaua. who sigoea the
Burleigh report also submitted 40 iode'
pendent report in favor OF reducing the
representation 10 the southern States to
the extent of toe abridguens OF The
suffrage. His independeosreport favors
q boase to be composed Of 374 men,
bers. Mr. Hopkins, in the majority
report. cites instances to show that
the loss Of seats BY States under
the responsiveness: bills was not
uncommon. Massachusetts, for 10
stance, which uader the third cen
sus had 20 members. was -edaced
to 10 under the sixth, seventh and
eighth, sad Virgiois. which bad % in
the third, had but nine uudef the clnts.
The report ssys the committee followed
the plan adopted uoder the sixth census
and followed continuously since Il has
tho sanction aud approval Of sixty years
Of oatioua! existence. The plan is to
divide the constitutional population BY
357, the proposed membership. The
quosiect 208, 1868 is the ratio of repre-
seu.atives to population. This ratio ap.
piled to the population of each State
vii! yield iu .sshe aggregate a number
scmesaat less than 357, she number
determined upon ss the membership
of the house. The difference is made
up by assigning to the States having
the largest majority fraction additional
representatives. until sufficient number
have been assigned to bring the total
up to 357. A membership Of uore
than 357. the report says, would make
the house uawieldly.
The minority report is sigued By
Messrs Barleigb, Russell, Heasw ole.
Csuupacker, Griffin and Wilson R.fer-
ring TO the Hopkins apportionmeat tie
minority report Gays:
"rhe anomalous character of this
proposed apporsiouusns as we'll ss lis
obvioas Injustice is clearly demonstrated
by the fac. that it is necessarily based,
10 part upon majority fractions. eod yet
Colorado With nejorisy f,act;ca of
IlO,807, and North Dakota With
majority fraction Of los. .58S, do cot re.
ceive reurese eu,a,ive based upon such
majority fraction. vhilc eve:y other
State With q majority fraction resolves
q representative for such msjority frac
ton.
"We believe that every State should
be trea:ed alike With reference to lis
mcjorisy fraction. as no valid reason has
been or eao De assigned for toe
between them. We also
believe that 10 the cev arpostioaoent
90 State should lose representative.
We therefore recommend g house con-
s,sticg CT $50 members.
'Iu reaching this number we have
adopted toe method used bV the COM
mistee and havs followed the precedent
es:abllshed oy the house 10 1872, when
the house added to tie whole Duuber os
representatives representative escb Fcr
the States of New Hampsbire sod
Florida BY reasco of the fact that ,hey
each aad almost majority frscsioa
after the whole number OF representa-
'ives rad been a2porsioued.
Eve maize the compusa,lop based
upon 3S4 representatives upon ratio
of ore representative for every 1874,
1872 of population. Nebraska. with
m.jorisy fraction OF 97,e29 aud Vir-