The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-19
HOUSE GOES HOME ID DELIBERATE ON
 INCREASING SIZE
Such a Storm of Protest Is Raised That Leaders Pre- dict Defeat of Reappor-
 tionment Bill Today
By Associated Press

By Associated Press
 Washington, January ls.-After five hours. of argument and oratory the House, like jury not required to be locked up, went home tonight to delib- crate over the proposal to increase it's membership from 485 to 4sS.
 Such storm of protest was raised, however, to the bill that the House leaders predicted the verdict tomorrow would be against the increase and for an amendment holding seats to the present total The debate touched on every possible point, although Represen- tative Clark, former democratic leader. declared it was not diffrent from that heard after every decennial census for the last half century.
 Rising to speak in opposition to the bill, Representative Esch, republican,. Wisconsin, who failed of reelection last year after continuous service of z years was greeted by demonstration by republicans and democrats alike. Then when he had the undivided atten- tion, Mir Esch declared the House could not justify it's action in adding to the membership simply to save one seat in Maine and another in Missouri.
 Why can't this House have the cour- age 60 say it will not do that?'' he asked. 's'The people of your state not so much concerned with the number of rep resentatives as they are with the ques- ton of ability and efficiency. It is not too difficult to remember the time when Maine, with four members, had more influence here than New York with it's 30"
 TOO BIG NOW
 Nearly everybody had chance to re- port his views. Representative Mon tague democrat. Virginia broke into the discussion iri its early stage to declare that it was shockingly obvious to the House as it was to the country, that the House was too big now to legislate effectively Representative Clark, who goes out of office in March, indorsed the increase, but announced he would fight for constitutional amendment which would hold the total to 5D0 for all time. Representative Mondell of Wyoming, the republican leader, joined with those op- posing an increase in membership, de- claring that If this body is to remain what the fathers intended, a deliberatve body, it must be kept reasonably small
 Some members even from states which stand to lose represent tation through adoption of the bill, insisted on an mendment proposed by Representative Barbour republican. California which would keep the total as 1t stands today. This was particularly true of Mississippi, slated to lose seat, three of its rep resentatives-- -Sisson. Humphreys ana IStephens-fi fighting for the 4snailer num- Der.
 There was however, plea from Rep tfra IntIiaIanH. whose state would lose one member, that reduction should not be cut down at the time women were starting to vote, and warning by Representative sims, dem ocrat, Tennessee, that it was easier for big interests to control small than q big body. Taking up the latter state ment MT. Sisson said all the world knew how big cities were bossed, and that the charge never had been made that there was such a being as the boss of q village.
 An amendment applying the provisions of the fourteenth amendment to reduce the representation of these states which have abridged the right of suffrage will be offered to the re-apportionment bill tomorrow. Representative Tinkham Massachusetts, notified the House dur ing the debate He will ask for vote on the amendment, which is said to be directed chiefly at the southern states.
 ALREADY TOO BIG The House had already reached that point where it has become unwieldy,' declared Representative Larsen, dem ocrat, Georgia, closing the debate for the democratic opposition to any increase in membership Members now have no op- portunity to get time necessary to dis cuss the merits of any measure, he con- tinued.
 "There is no popular demand for this increase" Representative Larsen assert ed Several members have said they had received petitions and requests from peo- pie against any increase, but no one has mentioned any request to increase the membership. MT. Larsen declared. This was evidence, he added, of the lack of support for the increase proposal. Representative McArthur, republican, Oregon, presented the argument that un- der the increase the republican party automatically would gain 10 votes in the electoral college. The question of proper |represent ation. he asserted, should not be settled in a spirit os partisanship. Mr. McArthur declared to add IS members to the House would mean tax on the people of s1.C0).o09 annually.
 Under the Barbour amendment. the House would be re-apportioned by shift ing l2 seats from Il states to S. States gaining would be California, Michigan. Ohio. Connecticut. New Jersey, North Carolina. Texas and Washington. List ed in the losing column were: Missouri, Indiana Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky. Louis jana. Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Vermont.
 After the debate had ended for ths day and the House had adjourned. q movement was started by members from some of the states that would lose under the Barbour amendment to present q mo- tion tomorrow to strike out the enactin < clause of the pending bill. This would automatically kill the measure and per haps cause reapportionment legislation to go over to the next Congress. Rep resentative Bland. republican. Indiana leader in the movement. said he would present the motion. which, under the rules, would be privileged and come to an immediate vote. Democratic mem- bers to whom overtures on the subject were made. were understood to have in- dicated that they would vote against the motion.