The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1901-01-12
Party Advantage the
Lever Used.
Before Holidays Maine Would
Have Been Beaten.
ESPECIAL TO THE rREss.l

Washington, January 1.-The passage
of an apportlonment bill favorable TO
Names preservation OF her representa-
ton for another ten years is matter OF
interest enough TO attract attention even
now, when the bill has passed the SEN
ate. 1t was as pretty piece OF legisia-
tive management as has been seen In the
House for long time. 10 begin with.
the Speaker and almost all the old and
prominent leaders OF the House were
against increasing its size. 1t is already
unwieldly, and the addition OF thirty
additional members will make IL still
more unwieldly. This fact was of itself
strong buttress against the states likely to
lose. and had TO be overcome by the
hardest and most skilful kind Of work.
All the Maine members, both In the
House and Senate, did hard and efficient
work. They were the leaders Of the light,
1t is true that Kansas, Nebraska and
Virginia were menaosd as well as Maine,
but 1t was not such life and death mat
ter with them as with Maine, because
they all had larger delegations, ea9h In
oIuding men of both parties If Virginia
had to lose a member the Legislature OF
that state would see that the one Repub-
loan district OF the state should be the
one to suffer In Kansas and Nebraska
the Republicansi could probably see that
the losses fell TO Populists. But in Maine
a decrease In the size OF the House. meant
not only u great proportionate decrease
for the state representation. but con.
test In the legislature between men OF
the same party, all friendly to one an
other, ard dislikinG the prospects OF q
fight over redistricting.
There was another reason why Maine
was In the thick of the fight, She was
shs only one of the four states menaced
which had a member on the committee
on census. At the first of this congress
Governor BurIeigh was made member
OF that committee. Even then he had In
mind the fact that Maine might be in
danger of suffering by the apportionment,
and considerable influence was used to
get him a place on the committee. Sena-
tor Hale went personally to see the
Speaker, while the committees were be-
ing made up, and through his and other
influence the apportienment was brought
about. This made MI. Burleigh the or
ganizer or the movement to enlarge the
membership of the House.
In the first place he tried to get a ma
jority OF the census committee to report
a bill in favor of enlargement, He failed
in this by only one vote. There is said
to be an interesting inside history to this
feature of the con6est The way the mat
ter shaped up gave Mr.. Burleigh the
right to expect that certain democrat
would naturally favor enlargement. But
to his surprise he found him in favor Of
the Hopkins bill. The reason attributed
is a queer ons. The state or Nebraska
would be one of the benetiiariss of en-
lar0ement, ana the Democrat was said to
be so angry with that state for going
back on Bryan that he did not propose to
vote for anything that would benefit her
This may, or may not, be SO. But at
any rate, MIR. Hopkins secured the ma
jority of his committee against enlarge
ment OF the House, and MIR. Burleigh
was forced to ffis minority views. He did
this in the form of what became known
as the Bnrleigh proposition.
Having his proposition before the
House the next thing was to organize to
put 1t through. His capital for this en-
terpriss was good, but not large at first.
He could rely on the splendid oratory Of
MIR. Littlefield, and upon the wide no.
qusintanoe and judicious labors of MIR.
Allen with the leading members. These
alone were hardly enough for fight with
the potentates of the House.
MIR. Burleigh went to see Senator Hale
and they went over the ground again.
They found that their lighting material
was good, but that they were likely to be
short OF votes. The great states had the
votes although Maine might have the
oratory and industry. II the great states
could be shaken then there might he
hope.
The Maine men were meeting Senator
Hale at Mr.. Burleigh's rooms in the
Hotel Richmond nearly every evening
and they soon discovered that under the
Burleigh plan the Republicans would be
gamers over the Democrats as compared
with the HOPKINS bill. This gain was not
large, but 1t was worth considering.