Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-01-17
REINFORCEMENT PLAN.


1t has decided to increase the number
of Representatives, but at the same
time to increase the ratio of appor-
tionment-that is to say the size Of
the House is increased, but not in pro-
portion to the increase in the size OF
the Nation. In the present House
there are 357 members. Tho ratio
when that number was fixed was 49,
9O1. but at the present time 1t is 2OS,-
S6S, which latter would, of course, have
been the initial ratio under the new
apportionment had the old number of
Representatives been retained. On the
other hand had the old ratio been re-
tanned, the new apportionment would
have brought in the House consid-
erably more than four hundred mem
bers. The plan adopted is n compro-
mise between the two extremes. 1t in
creases thenumber of Representatives
from 357 to 1856. and it also increases
the ratio from nearly 174,O00 to nearly
5000.
To the average citizen and to the
average politician, the most direct In
terest in this plan of reapportionment
arises from the gains and losses of the
various parties and States. So far as
the States are concerned. 1t is to be
observed that net one of them is to suf-
fer loss of representation. Neither
slowness of growth nor disfranchise-
ment of large proportion Of citizens
will avail to take from any State that
which it now has. nor will the latter
circumstance revent any from enjoy
ing the gains to which its growth in
population entities it. There Is, in
brief to be no Denalizaticn. The
gains. moreover, are chiefly in those
States which are evidently growing
most in population and Importance.
The average man. asked which three
States are growing most, would prob
ably answer New York, Illinois and
Texas, and those are the States which
will have three new members each.
AS for the party gains, it is of intere2t
to note that while both parties gain in
probable strength in Congress aAd in
the Electoral College, the party whi2h
is now in the majority, and which Is
more progressive in spirit and infiu-
ence, is the one which gains by far the
more. Taking last years election as
an Indication of the standing of the
States, it is seen that of the twenty
nine new members of the Electoral
College the Democrats are likely to
have ten and the Republicans nineteen,
a net Republican gain of ten. The net
Republican gain in the House OF Rep
re.entatives may not be quite so large,
owing to the difference in electoral
methods between the strong Republi-
can States of the North and West and
the strong Democratic States of the
South. 1t is conceivable, for example,
that some of the new members from
New York, Illinois and Massachusetts,
may be Democrats. but under present
methods there is little if any hope of a
Republican gain in Tex
as. Arkansas or Louisiana.
The general question of the limit OF
the size Of the House remains unset
tied and is deferred for future consid-
Grafton. 1t will. of course, come 10
again ten years hence, and again in
another decade, and so on. For sew
eral decades hence, no doubt, there will
be a disposition to compromise the
matter, as the House has just done.
The number of members will be in
creased and so will the ratio. That can
be done without any radical architec-
tural change in the Capitol. But the
time will come when the existing and
steadily increasing unwieldiness Of the
House will compel a halt. 1t will then
be pertinent to consider the advisable
ity of fixing cOnstitutionally the num-
erical size of the House, as is now done
in this and other States. Certainly
the House cannot go on growing in
definitely. 1t has been pointed out
that it is still little more than half the
size of the British House of Com
mons, while this nation is nearly twice
as large as the United Kingdom. True.
But the British representatives have
no desks. but sit crowded together in
pew-, as in a church, and even then
their hall is not big enough to hold
more than half of them, and as a mat
ter of fact. it is an uncommon thing
for more than half of them to want to
be in actual attendance. 1t is doubt
full if American Representatives will
ever be willing to follow the British eX-
ample in those respects, but until they
do the British example in number Of
cannot be regarded as
pertinent.