Evening star., 1921-10-09
HOUSE WILL DEBATE
ADDING Is MEMBERS
Effort to Be Made This Week to Pass
Reapportionment Bill-Arguments
For and Against Measure.

North Carolina, one; Ohio. three;
Oklahoma. one; Pennsylvania, two;
Texas, two. and Washington, one. The
reapportionment is figured on total
population of 105.70s,771 and ratio
of 22S.SS2 constituents for each rep
resentative.
Cost OF Proposed Increase.
Roughly figured from actual appro-
priations, the first cost of maintain
ing each of the 435 present members
of the House is $17.4ss for such items
as salaries of members, secretaries
and clerks, printing and binding.
maintenance of House office building.
and the Houses share of these other
expenseS-Capitol power plant, Cap
itol police. legislative drafting serv-
care Of the Capitol building and
grounds.
Those on the census committee, un-
der the leadership of Representative
Louis w. Fairfield. republican, of In
diana, who are opposed to the in
crease and who contend that the
House should remain at 435 men,
bers. have figured that the proposed
measure would. if adopted. increase
the salaries for members $1S7,500 an
nually; clerk hire, $4,000 and adding
to this the mileage, franks telegraph
and postage). stationery allowance,
etc, an additional force for mainte
Of RI 70
expense on account of the additional
members would be in the neighbor-
hood Of 100000.
They also emphasize that today,
both in the Capitol and the House
Office building, conditions are such
that additional members cannot be
conveniently provided for in either
building The increased membership,
if authorized, must undoubtedly Sc
cure quarters elsewhere, and any
makeshift arrangement would be only
temporary. The erection of new
office building at a cost of $4,000,00O
or s5,0O0,OOO would be a possible ne
cessity.
When the proposal is made to au-
! thorize the election Of twenty-five
new members Of the House the pub
| lie generally does not appreciate OFF,
| hand what it will mean in actual cost
A carefully prepared bill shows that
on actual prices for furnishing Of
| fees with desks, chairs, typewriters
filing cabinets, rugs, electric lamps,
telephones and stationery allowance,
! the bill for twenty-fi new members
would be about s65.oO0. These are not
guess figures-they are actual cost
| figures taken from the accounts o.
the House.
Other Expense Involved.
| But even this additional burden U.
| cost on the government is not tn.
| keep their pledge to the people for
1 reduction rather than increase OIL
government expenses are opposed to
legislating twenty-five new repre-
sentatives into seats in the House.
They realize that there would be
| twenty-five more to frank out farm
ers' bulletins, year books and other
! government publications. 1t is esti-
mated that this little service alone
| costs Uncle Sam more than $1,000 per
| congressman. The big point raised
| by those who claim they are speaking
the wishes of the taxpayers of the
country in opposing any increase in
| the size of the House is that the con-
| templated bill would mean twenty
| five more making various dsEiands
for river and harbor improvements,
| for new federal bu .ldings. for bridges.
for highways and for all forms of
patronage. 1t would mean twenty
five additional men scheming new
ways in which to inveigie money out
of the United States Treasury.
! Additional clerical force and equip
ment allowed to the members since
the beginning of the world war Is
| costing annually ia the neignbornouu
| of $1,Uue.OUU.
| Those who are opposing an in
| crease in membership point out that
| without an increase the states wal
still maintain That proportional rep
i resenIatlUn to winch tney are entitled
| accoruINg TO population and pro-
vlslons oI the Constitution. I1ence nv
injustice would be done. Eighteen
| states have heretofore mad their con-
gressional representation reuuced Dy
various apportionment acts, several
of them more than once. Inc membe. =
| shop of the House was reduced IN
| 1S4U.
| 1t was not until 1880 that the prac-
tice of apportionment so that no stauc
| would lose any of its representatives
became an apparent policy Of Con-
| gress. Prior to that time it Was
common to reduce the number of rep
lresentatives in various states. The
, result of this policy of taking care
| of the states SO that none of tlsem
| would lose representatives is that the
| House has reached. if not passed, the
| opponents of increased membership
argue. its extreme limit in member
ship for proper functioning.
l