Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1911-07-14
As to Reapportionment.

| LluuSu VI Tue OudIupS tlyS00S, DuC DIS
before noted Rome was not built in a
day.
As to Reapportionment.
| The congressional reapportionment,
| based on the thirteenth census, and
now lying quiescent in senatorial
pigeon hole, is likely to cause pres
| 1dential politicians some perpleXity
If it goes into effect before the lsesi-
Dental election. 1t was the program
Of the stand pat faction to avoid any
action on the bill at least during the
| extra session, but recent occurrences
| in the senate make it probable that
the session will be so prolonged as to
| leave no excuse for letting the bill go
| over
| Probably everybody knows that the
| house bill increases the number Of
| representatives by AZ, and the admis-
sion of Arizona and New Mexico will
| add two more. The AZ new members
| will be distributed among % states,
| leaving "a with their present repre-
| sentation. The latter are thus penal
| lied for failure to grow or for actual
| ly shrinking. Nearly everybody thinks
| the new house will be too large, but
| it could not have been made smaller
| without deprfving some states Of part
| Of their representation.
Now the bearing of this increase on
| the presidential contest rests upon the
| relation that by law exists between
| the representation in congress and
| the electoral vote, and by custom be-
| tween the representation in congress
and IN the nominating conventions of
the two great parties. Each state is
entitled to as many votes in the cleo
toral college as it has congressional
districts and one for each of it's sena-
tors. Thus New York with 81 con-
gressional districts has SO electoral
| votes. But under the new apportion-
ment New York will gain six districts
| and therefore six electoral votes.
Some of the Consequences.
There are dozen states, no one Of
which will have as many votes in the
electoral college as this new appor-
tionment will add to the 80 votes New
York already possesses. In short, the
big state eXerts an ever increasing in
fluence in the electoral college as
compared with it's lesser brethren.
The electoral vote of New York in
1908 offset the total votes of Kansas,
Missouri, Delaware and Nebraska.
Next year it will Offset these and the
vote of Florida or of Maine as well.
1t so happens, furthermore, that of
the "a states to gain in electoral rep
resentation, six are certainly Demo
cratic with a gain of nine electoral
votes, and six with a gain of Is votes
are doubtful, with the chances Demo-
cratic as all elected Democratic gov
| errors Or a Democratic delegation to
congress last fall
In 1876 the votes Of the newly ad-
| mitted state of Colorado tied the cleo
toral college, and resulted in the
strife ending with the election of
Hayes. 1t is little wonder that pres
idential politicians are puzzling over
the "A additional votes in the next
electoral college.
The national nominating conven-
lions, too, will be affected by this
change. Omitting the territories, each
party admits to it's convention two
delegates for each senator and repre-
sentative. Here while % states are
to gain SO votes in the convention, "a
are limited to their old representation.
Missouri and the states adjacent to
| it gain no votes; Ohio gains 2; New
| Jersey 4, New York IL, Massachu-
sets f. Friends of Democratic can
didates in these states may draw their
| own inferences
May End Two-Thirds Rule.
But the Democratic politicians are
perplexed by another untried factor.
| In Democratic conventions for near
| ly 40 years a two-thirds vote has
been necessary to a nomination. In
the Republican conventions a major
| ity suff1ces. But in the Democratic
| conventions the state delegations may,
and usually do vote as a unit. That
! is, the majority casts the full vote of
the delegation. But five states have
adopted the Oregon plan of choosing
| delegates by direct vote of the people.
and three more states are expected to
| join the procession before next
spring.
Minority delegates thus chosen can
not be voted by the majority mem
bers of the same delegation because
their instructions were delivered d.
rect from the people acting under law.
Thus in Oregon, Nebraska, New Jer-
sey, North Dakota and Wisconsin it
is entirely possible that the unit rule
may be set aside. If it Is, the reason
for the two-thirds rule is ended.
The admission of the Democrats
in the house that the money avail
able for present expenses has been
exhausted, and that an emergency
appropriation Of more than $780,
900 is necessary to meet imme-
date needs, has of course awak-
ened savage criticism on the Repub-
lican side. Neither the shortage nor
the criticism is novel. Both have
been the rule rather than the excep-
ton in the past, only as the Repub-
licans were in and the Democrats out,
the former had the shortage to apollo
gize for, and the latter were the
critics
This year the fight on the emer-
gency appropriation is likely to center
about the money expended for the
numerous investigating committees
ordered by the house. No one can