The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-02-14
1t Is Thought the Census TAX
en- This Year Will Show the
United States Has Eighty
eight Millions.
EXPANDED CONGRESS
WILL BE A RESULT
At the Existing Ratio 1t Would
Mean an Increase of Sixty
six Members in the House.
Some Figures.
fBY SIDNEY EPSEY.)

Washington, y. c., Feb. 14.-Offi-
Gals of the United States census bur-
eau believe the approaching thirteenth
census will disclose a population in
the United States proper of approx
nlately SS,00O,00O. Should congress
adopt the same ratio for congressional
representation as that used for appor-
tjonmcnt after the twelfth census
that is, one representative to each
194,1S2 population-the house of rep
resentatives will then have 457 mem
bers. exclusive of territorial delegates.
This would be an increase over the
present number of &C.
Section 2, article l OF the Constitu-
ton of the United States provides rep
apportioned among the several states
which may be included in this union
according to their respective numbers.
The first census was taken in 1890,
and others every ten years thereaf
ter, for the purpose of apportioning
the representatives in congress.
1t Is Already UnwieIdy.
The house of representatives is
thought by many to be already too
large and unwieldy for the quick dis
patch of legislative business. An adj
dition of 66 new members would I'M
doubtedly render it still more cumber-
some. The question, therefore to be
decided by congress is: Will the house
agree to any apportionment that will
reduce it's membership? Judging from
past performances it will not. 1t
would be difficult to discover a single
congressman who would be willing to
1egislate himself out of job. hence
there will be, it is believed, no effort
in the house to increase the number
of population of each congressional
district thus reducing the number of
seats in the house. AS for the sena-
tors, the census will have no effect
on their number, there being two
from each state, irrespective of the
size of population of the different
commonwealth, New York having the
same number as tiny Rhode Island.
Census officials believe that con-
gress will make the apportionment ac-
cording to the present apportionment,
or possibly fix the population of each
congressional district at a round 200,-
900. a slight increase. Those states
which have increased in population
some of them enormously-since the
last census. will gain in number of
representatives, while the states
whose population has remained sta
tionary, or practically so, or those
having a slight increase, will have
proportionately smaller increase i'll
the number of their representatives.
il 100000 is decided on as the ratio,
then congress would have 440 repre-
sentatives. Officials of the census
bureau believe that the new census
will not show single decrease in a
single state, and while some of the
states will have a much larger num-
Der of representatives than now, no
state will have it's quota in congress
reduced.
Two More For Indiana.
Assuming that the same apportion-
ment number, 194,1S2 as at present,
will be fixed as the basis for repre-
sentation by congress, the states that
will gain additional representatives in
congress are many. These will be,
with the probable increase in repre-
sentation: New York 8; Pennsylvania
6; Illinois 5: Texas and Oklahoma 1
each: Ohio will gain and Alabama,
California, Georgia, Indiana, Massa-
chusetts. Michigan, Minnesota. Mis-
souri,, New Jersey, Tennessee and
Washington each. The states of Ar.
kansas. Florida, Kansas, Louisiana
Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, North
Carolina. North Dakota, Oregon
Rhode Island. South Carolina, South
Dakota, Utah and West Virginia will
each gain one. The remaining states
will have. the same number as be.
fore.
There are some critics, but they are
not in congress, who believe that as
457 representatives would be UNI.
wieldy, that the opportionment should
be based on larger number, say
225,0oo. BY using this number the
membership of the house would only