Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1910-09-20
BY Associated Press

of the first questions with which
the approaching session of congress
will be called upon to grapple will
be to determine when the next ap-
portionment of members of the
house of representatives under the
recent census shall be made.
While it is not actually required
by the constitution, that instrument
implies that a reapportionment shall
follow each decennial enumeration
of the people, and accordingly a.
redistribution of seats in the house
membership has taken place hither-
to soon after the conclusion of each
census.
Up to 1890 the reapportionment
was uniformly postponed until the
first session of congress succeeding
! the enumeration, but after the
eleventh census change was made
and the apportionment bills for the
eleventh and twelfth census were
brought in and passed in each case
during the short session of the cur
rent congress immediately following
the census. 1t will rest with the
approaching session to determine
whether it shall follow the old or
the new precedent Politics may
determine the choice.
Before the time for the meeting
OF congress the result of the No
| vember elections will have become
known. If the Democrats should
come into control Of the house for
the sixty-third congress they would
naturally resist any effort to haro
the change made by the present
Republican congress, swhile the Re-
publicans would be as anxious to
have the service performed while
1they were in control of legislation
in both houses.
Apportionment in itself can be
used for party advantage only
through the manipulation of pop
ulation fractions in the various
states. If the present-day plan of
fixing upon a definite number of
members as the first step in the
distribution is followed many states
will be found to have a consider
able number of citizens over the
number necessary to give them the
number of members assigned them.
The size of the house once deter
mined, the representation of each
state is arrived at by dividing the
aggregate population of the country
by the total membership of the
house and then dividing the pop
ulation of any given state by the
quotient thus obtained Almost in
evitably there ensues upon each
of such divisions a remained, large
or small. Aside from arbitrarily
fixing the representation on the
voting rather than the actual pop
ulation, this remainder, or fraction,
] affords the only base of manipuIa-
!, tion of the apportionment of mem
bers.
Ir used to the extreme it might
be an important factor, as no fewer
than twenty-three representatives
now hold their seats on fractions.
, That they should do so is strictly
in accordance with the law that pro-
vides that any deficiency occurring
on an even division shall be sup
piled from the states having the
largest remainders on the division
This rule was strictly followed in
the last apportionment in all allot-
ments except those made to Maine
and Nebraska. In both these states
congress exercised somewhat arbi-
trary power by giving each a rep.
resentative on a fraction less than
the fractions of other states which
received nothing because of theil
own fragments. This action wa.
taken to prevent the loss of rspre
D sentation by any state.
If that policy should be accepted
in the approaching apportionment
it could upset the plans of some O
the house leaders who are mos
anxious to avoid any appreciabl'
= increase in the size of the house
e The census experts already under
: stand that when the figures ar
= made public some OF the smalle
\ eastern states will be found to hav
Jailed TO keep pace In growth witt