Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1920-01-20

be determined opposition to making
any reduction, and, indeed, the CEN
sus committee will have to listen to
much argument in favor of holding
the number up to what 1t is under
the present apportionment or even in
creasing 1t to 40.
Since 1870, when the first count of
the people was made, the house has
taken a jump upward in membership
every ten years, with two exceptions.
The first house of representatives,
which was created by constitutional
apportionment, contained only 65 mem
bers. The apportionment under the
census of 1890 increased the member
ship to 106, and the growth by decades
since that date has been as follows:
1900. PIP members; 1910, 1856 mem
bers; 1920, 213; 1880, PAP; 1910, 232 ;
1850. 237 Tin these two decades the
house: decreased in membership from
what it was in 1890 1860, 243; 1870.
293; 1880, 1872; 1890. 357; 1900, SOL +;
and 1910, 435
Gain for States With Big Cities.
The greatest increase in representa-
lion 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 43 seats In the house. Penn
sylvania, started off In 1870 with ID
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
representatives. Ohio was represent
ed by one member in 1900, and, through
increase in population has gained %
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 Oh 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 5. 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 ID, and a little later back to
the original number.
National Forest Policy Needed.
The American Forestry association
is calling of 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 81 the paper
| problem is to be found in refOresta-
/ ton on a 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 1,986,000 cords of wood, that ten
years later it used 100000 cords and
that for the last five years the aver
100000 cords year. During the last
! nine years, according to his figures,
the mills have used 9,264,OO0 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 a form
serviceable for products other 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 APP
preaching exhaustion. Evel 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.
governments fASLiOH INCC0COs
In the early years of the present
century it looked as though the man.
agement of forests as permanent pro-
ductive properties might be voluntarily
undertaken by private owners on a
large scale, but since then the situa-
ton has materially changed. The need
for the adoption of an enlarged pro-
gram of acquisition, the forester points
out, has become increasingly urgent
More than twenty years ago the divi-
sion of forestry, as 1t was then called,
offered to give advice and assistance
to private timber owners who might
wish to consider applying forest man.
agement to their properties. By the
middle of 1905 requests had been re-
ceived for the examination of private
holdings, large and small, comprising
in all 100000 acres of land. Many
of these requests were from large lum-
Der companies and other owners of
extensive timber tracts. On the
strength of the showing made by the
preliminary examinations. number of
these large owners entered into CO.
operative agreements for the prepare
ton of working plans.
But private forest interests failed
to follow up the beginning, and the
government and the states, in the
opinion of the forester, must join
hands to work out a program that
will correlate public and private eff
forts looking TO the protection and
proper administration of forests. The
function of the federal government,
in addition to handling the national
forests, it is suggested, would be to
stimulate, guide and coordinate state
action and conduct necessary inyesti-
cations regarding the best methods of
forestry, to assist the states in the
classification of land, and to harmon
ize action between the different states.