The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1920-01-17

lelHbeTS, iTbbdDlN W f'o. Ihtl' WIZ
,e determined opposition to making |
my reduction, and, indeed, the cen |
us committee will have 10 listen 70 |
much argument in favor of holding |
he number up 70 what it is under |
he present apportiOnment or even in |
.reasing it to 40.
Since 1890. when the first count of |
he people was made. the house has
aiken a jump upward in membership
very ten years, with two exceptions.
rhe first house of representatives,
which was created by constitutional
contained only 60 mem
hers. The appOrtiOnment under the
census Of 1890 increased the member
ship 10 100. and the growth by decades
since that date has been as follows:
1900, 142 members: 1910. iS6 mem
bers; 1920, 213: 1890. go; 1910, go
1850. 237 lin these two decades the
house decreased i'm membership from
what it was in 1890 1860, 243; 1870.
DOB; 1850. $50; 1890, 357; 1900. sol;
and 1910. 49,.
Gain for States With Big Cities.
The greatest increase in representa-
ton has taken place in the states in
which large cities have sprung up dur
ing the last century. For instance, New
York state started off in 1870 with
only ten representatives. Today that
state has AZ seats in the house. Penn
Sylvania, started off in 1870 with l3
members of the body and now has SO;
Illinois was not represented at all in
the house until 1910, and then by one
member only. That state now has 81
Ohio was represent
ed by one member in 1900, and through
increase In population has gained 22
seats in the house.
1t is interesting to note that some
of the states have no more represent
atives than they had when the first
house assembled. One of these is
Connecticut, which had five members
of the house that was created by the
constitutional appOrtionment. In 1910
that state had Z representatives, and
in 1920 and 1880, 6. but now it is
back to 3. Virginia also has the
same number of representatives to-
day that she had in the first congress.
10. In 1910 that state occupied %
seats, but along about 1910 the num-
Der went down to 10. and ten years
later to Is, and a little later back to
the original number.
National Forest Policy Needed.
The American Forestry association
is calling of a national forest pol.
icy that will provide for the re-
fOrestatiOn of all cut-over timber
lands on the public domain and
also all such lands as may be owned
privately. Charles Lathrop Pack. presi-
dent of the association, believes the
only permanent solution of the paper
problem is to be found i'm refOresta-
ton on broad scale He would begin
the work on the lands from which pulp
wood has been taken. He points out
that in 1889 the pulp wood industry
used 1,9S6,OOO cords of wood, that ten
years later it used 100000 cords and
that for the last five years the aver
age consumption has been around g.
100000 cords year. During the last
nine years, according to his figures,
the mills have used 9,264,00O cords of
| imported pulp wood in addition to the
enormous cut in the United States.
According to the view of the Ameri-
can forestry association, foresight
would have dictated the refOrestatiOn
of every acre of the cut-over land in
| the United States. The annual report
of the United States forester just is
sued shows that the rate of depletion
| of the forests is more than twice
probably three times, what is actually
being produced by growth in form
serviceable for products ether then
firewOOd. That government official calls
attention to the ever retreating sources
of timber supply. He notes that al
ready the supplies of all the great
eastern centers of production are ap
preaching exhaustion. Even in the
South, he says. most of the mills have
not more than ten or fifteen years sup
ply of virgin timber ahead of them.
Government Action Needed
In the early years of the present
century it looked as though the man
agement of forests as permanent pro
ductive properties might be voluntaril!
undertaken by private owners on ,
large scale, but since then the situa
ton has materially changed. The neet
for the adoption of an enlarged pro
gram of acquisition, the forester point
out, has become increasingly urgent
More than twenty years ago the divi
sion of forestry, as it was then called
offered to give advice and essistanc
to private timber owners who nigh
wish to consider applying forest man
agement to their properties. BY tn
middle of 1905 requests had been re
ceived for the examination of privat
holdings, large and small, comprising
in all 100000 acres of land. Man
of these requests were from large lum
Der companies and other owners o
extensive timber tracts. On tn
strength of the showing made by tn
preliminary examinations, number O
these large owners entered into &C
operative agreements for the prepars
ton of working plans.
, But private forest interests faile