The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1920-11-22
Congressman at-LargG
In 1922 Will Attract
Many High C|assers

Special Dispatch to the Intrlligrnccr.
Washington. d. C. Nov. 2l.--The COM
mittee bill for the rropport'onmcnt OF
tative Siegel. Of New York. chairman Of
the committee whose duty II Is to pre-
pare and Introduce such n bill. an
nounccS. will provide for an addition OF
4S new members. No state Will lose n
member AMI n majority Of them Will
gain one or two seats. West NirG tnia.
under the committee bill. will gain 4
member. bringing tho number of its
house members up to seven. 1t now has
The committees bill rcapportiOns tho
membership upon the basis of the 1920
census. providing one representative for
each "llTg7 of the nopulatiun Chairman
Siegcl announces that he Will introduce
the bill at the short session starting
next month and cndeav"r 10 rush It
through To forestall opposition. How
ever. there will be- opposition. but to
what extent is only Euessahlc. The
question of southern representation IS
almost certain TO develop in Il most acute
farm. In some Of the states Of the
south the total vote cast for tn" entire
congressional delegation Is frequently
less than the total vote cast in one con-
reason for this is that the negroes are
not allowed TO vote. But they are in
cludcd in the population basis upon
which apportionmcnt of the number OF
COngrcSSmcn to 4 state Is maze.
No New District Now.
The forthcoming session of the West
Virginia legislature will have to provide
for the additional congressman that will
be given TO that state. 1t can either re-
district the state. adding new separate
district, or it may decide not 10 rcdis-
trict Ia this time, but provide that the
additional congressman shall hc elected
as n congrcsSman-at-larE 1t seems
probable that the latter course Will be
taken. as there is 4 pronounced senti-
lnent among Republican leaders against
redistrtcting now. They think that it
should he postponed.
This was what WAS done when an ad-
ditional congressman was given West
Virginia under the congressional re-
apportionment act passed after the 1910
census, and Senator Howard Sutherland
was elected to the SiNty-third congress
as a large. and rc-rlcCt-
ed to the sixty-fourth congress in 1914.
1t was one of the big and important
factors which aided him into the United
states senate. He cncrEctically dcvel-
opcd the office to be In fact what It's
name implicd--a congressional represent
tativr for the whole state Of West Nir-
g!nia-and got in personal touch through
CORRESPONDENCE with thousands of pro-
nlr in tho state who had business with
the government. which he transacted
with success and despatch. The impress
sion became statewide that when you
wanted something attended 10 at WASH
ington, write Sutherland and he would
attend to II. and he fully meritcd that
good opinion, SO it came about that
when he hitched up his ambition
notch and decided to make try for
promotion to the senate. lie had per
sonal Following scattered from one end
of the state to another that few mon in
Tho modern history of West Virginia
politics ever had.
with the memory OF what the Hon. H.
Sutherland did with the office Of con-
observation-disclosures still fresh. should II
come OF clectlnE 4 congrcssman-at-la large
In 1922, as it is likely TO. there will be
some high-Gradr men offering them
hone that history may repeat the Suth-
erland incident