Arizona republican., 1921-07-24

tO1, west ana WISCONSIN,
 When the report of the census
 committee was laid before the house | during the last session, the commit tee strongly urged that congress adopt constitutional amendment to limit the size of the house to not more than 800 members. Early action on this was urged in order that the state legislatures could have the constitu
 tional amendment before them for : ratification to the end that the amendment might be part of the law of the land before a new apportion-
 ment of congressional seats became necessary following the 1s30 census. ! 1t is generally conceded that the
 house does not function as we'll with
 a big membership. as with . small one. However, the census commit tee quickly discovered that to reduce
 the apportionment would arouse storm of protest from the states
 which would be cut Another fight has developed over the efforts of some members to cut the size of the
 congressional representation in states
 where, it was charged before the : committed. the right to vote was de- , nied or abridged in the case of some
 qualified voters Denial or abridg- ment of the voting privilege. under the fourteenth amendment to the 7 cOnSlltutlO1, may De puHiSHdbio Uy { that states having it's representa- 5 tion in the house reduced in the pro- portion which those citizens denied . the voting right bear to the whole body of voters in the state. The committee decided that it had not s the time at it's disposal to so into . this question.
 southern states. many conflicting U statements having been submitted.
 Presidential Elections Affected n One of the strongest reasons why e the states fight so hard against re- e duction of their congressional repre- sentation is that it has an important
 bearing on future presidential cleo
 tions. The number of electoral votes :, possessed by each state corresponds ;. to its rpresentation in both branches of congress. Should the southern . states, or any of them. lose con- ' gressional seats, the stronghold of ' Democracy would be weakened in
 presidential elections in the future, ! | and carrying the south would not weigh as heavily in the balance ss
 is now the case.
 The size of the house has in- '7 creased steadily since the birth of ! the country except in one instance. : Originally it consisted of 65 mem . bers, one to each 30,000 of popula- tion. In 1793. on the basis of one - member for each 33.0oo people, the
 size of the house became 106. On
 the same basis, 10 years later the n house membership numbered 1s2. '- Tke increase continued. with the h number of representatives being . checked only by increasing the num- e Der of pe",Jns each was to represent. " :D 1S43, however. congress reduced - the size of the house, the ,.nly time l. recorded in history. The ratio Of IT people was increased from 47,7O6 to
 70.6S0, and this decreased the number y of representatives from PAP to 232. IT In 1883, after the tenth census, con- r. gressional representation was based . on one for each 15l,s11 pers sons. and . this increased the size of the house III from 293 to 332. Ten years later 1t
 became 357, 10 years after this 391,
 and after the thirteenth census the
 house grew to its present size of 435
 members, on a basis of one member v to every 211,S77 persons.
 Sentiment for limiting the house at r least to its present size is fairly IS strong. This would be accomplished e if the ratio of people for congress $ sional districts was fixed at 242.415. q or any major fraction of that num- 5 Der of people. The difficulty is that l. while the total membership would
 remain the same, eight states would IS gain members and eleven would lose. h The total gain and loss would be 12 seats. California gaining three, IF Michigan and Ohio two each. while r Connecticut, New Jersey. North Car
 olina, Texas and Washington each .o would gain a seat.
 Offsetting this gain, Missouri "a would lose two seats. while one seat " would be lost in Indiana, Iowa, Kan
 sas, Kentucky. Louisiana Maine, -e Mississippi, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Vermont.
 I The members who urge that there m be no increase declare that there is no duty that 4S3 members can ac- ar complish which 435 cannot do as e we'll that the house will be more )- unwieldy and cumbersome than ever is if increased in size. and that increas- Is ing the membership to 4s3 will re- of suit in additional salaries, clerk Id hire, mileage, ct cetera, amounting
 to more than a million dollars an-
 nually. Six members of the census ., committee took this view at the last r session and brought in minority re- :, port to that effect.