The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-21
MORE LEGISLATORS UNDERC0NST|TUT|0N Miller Points Out Nothing Has Been Done to Cor
 rect Situation
To the Editor of The Age-Herald.

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 The present session of our state legis. lature is drawing to close If it has LII to the present time taken any action look. ing to the fixing of the number of repre- sentatiyes in the legislature of the severa' counties of the state according to the federal census of 1910, it has escaped my attention.
 Our state constitution, section l99, re- quires the legislature after the taking of the decenial census of 1910. and after every subsequent decenial census Ito fix by law the number of representatives and appcr- tion them among the several counties of the state, according to the number of in- habitants in them respectively; provided that each county shall be entitled to at least one representative"
 It thus became the duty of the last leg islature. sitting in 1911, to have appor- toned the representatives as directed by the quoted provision of the constitution butthat legislature having failed in that regard, this duty now devolves upon this legislature. In fact, there has been nc reapportionment since our present consti- tuition was adopted in 1901.
 The house of representatives consists of 106 members, 1o5 as declared by section 19S, and an additional one for the new county of Houston making 1O6 The num- Der of inhabitants of Alabama, according to the federal census of 1910 Is 2,13S, ,O3S which, divided between 1O6 members, makes the unit of representation 20,110; but 1t is provided that no county shall have less than one. There are 67 coun- ties, and 1o6 members. thus giving one to each county, leaving 39 to be distributed to the larger counties according to the number of inhabitants
 The following counties have less than the unit of representation. 20,l70 and under this constitutional requirement are, never- theless, entitled to one representative each, viz: Autauga, Baldwin, Choctsw, cleburne, Coosa, Esca mbia, Fayette Franklin. Lamar, Marion, Washington and Winston. Total, 12.
 The following counties have less than the unit, but not sufficiently large nurn- Der to entitle them to the second represen- tative. viz: Bibb. Blount. Bullock But Ter, Cherokee. Chiffon, Clay, Coffee. Gel bert, Conecuh, Crenshaw, Cu'lman Dale. DeKalb, Fillmore, Geneva, Greene, Hale. Henry, Lawrence Limestone, Macon, Marshall, Monroe, Pickef1s. Randolph. Russell Shelby, St. Clair Sumter, a total of 30 counties and 30 representatives.
 Those having less than two full units. but with fractions over one unit large enough to entitle them to the second rep resentative are: Barbour. Calhoun. Cham bers, Clarke, Covington. Etowah, Hous- ton, Jackson, sLauderdale, Lee, Lowndes. Marengo, Morgan, Perry, Pike, Talladega, Tallapoosa, Walker, Wilcox, a total of I9 counties, and 3s representatives
 Those having more than two full units. but with the fraction over too small to en- title them to the third representative, are Madison and Tuscaloosa-two counties and four representatives.
 Dallas only has more than two and less than three full. units, but with suffi- ciently large fraction over two to entitle it to the third representative-one county 3 representatives.
 Of the three remaining counties, Jeffer- son with 226,476, is entitled to H. with a fraction over too small to get a twelfth representative; Mobile, with S0,S56 to f. and Montgomery, with S2.17S to 1; a total of three counties and 19 representatives,
 Making the grand total of e counties and 106 representatives. Bullock county has the largest unrepresented fraction viz, 10026, and Pike the smallest repre- scented fraction, viz, 10.645
 The counties that gain on the reappor- tionment are Covington 1. Houston l. Jeff ferson f. Mobile l. Total gains, '. SThe counties which lose are Bullock l. Butler 1. Elmore 1. Hale 1. Henry l, Rus sell 1, Sumter 1. Total loss. |.
 Counties affected by the change, H. un- affected. 56.
 As Jefferson county is the greatest gainer it would seem to be 'up to- the representatives from Jefferson to 'get busy" Yours truly.
 NATHAN l.. MILLER.
 Birmingham. August 20. 1915.