Evening star., 1925-11-30
CONGRESS IS FACED
BY OLD bUGABOO
Reapportionment About to
Come to FOre-PreSent
House Size May Stand.

The old legislative bugaboo of reap.
portionment of representatives in Con
greSS is about to bob up a again-with
timely interest stimulated by the fact
that special recess committee of the
Massachusetts Legislature is working
on rearrangement of the congress
Sional. legislative and councillor dis
1riCts. Several members of the Massii-
chuSettS delegation in Congress, who
nave just returned to the CAPITAL.
think that the Massachusetts Legis-
lature will not redistrict the congress
siOnal districts in the BAY State
there are now l6-while there is poSSi-
DllltV Of reapportionment legiSla ton
by Congress.
The Constitution provides that
Representatives shall he apportioned
among the several States according
to their respective numbers. counting
the whole number of persons in each
state. This was done so that every
citizen should have as nearly as posi-
bic equal voice in the Government
through the law-making body The
Constitution provides that the census
or enumeration of citizens shall be
taken every 10 years. but the Consti-
tutt"n fails TO say definitely how soon
a r." ,ne enumeration the reapportion-
ment must be made.
Five Years Since Census.
There are now 435 members in the
National House of Representatives.
based on the decennial census of 1910.
1t Is NOW five years since the 1920
census was taken and as yet there
has been no reapportionment.
The MasSa ChusettS members argue
that if the Massachusetts Legislature
should go ahead without waiting for
and that if Congress should later
change the number of House mem
hers from MaSsa Chusetts. the work of
State rediStriCting would have TO be
done all over again.
1t is extremely doubtful however
that Congress will authorize any in
crease in the present size of member
ship, which is already recognized as
Icing unwieldy. The chances are that
any legislation passed will keep the
membership at its present figure.
While this Will inCreaS So the repreSen-
tation from some States and decrease
the representation from others. on aC-
count of shifts in populate it will
make no difference in the particular
case OF Ma ssa chusetts. The Bay
State will still have I6 members of
the House. SO the committee of the
State Legislature will not be risking
much proceeding with its work in the
congressional districts.
Losers Fight Move
Congress has failed to make n re
apportionment since the 1920 census
chiefly because Senators and Repre-
sentatives from those States which
would lose members have combined
and succeeded in holding up legisla-
ton. In July. 1921. the House census
committee. seriously divided against
itself, reported a plan to increase the
size of the House from +35 10 400
members on ratio of one Represent
ative To 22S,SS2 citizens. Under this
plan 80 States would retain their pres
ent number of Representatives. Six
teen States would gain in representa-
tion California. four more; Michigan
and Ohio. three each; New Jersey. New
York, Pennsylvania and Texas. two
each. and Arkansas, Connecticut.
Georgia. Illinois, Massachusetts. New
Mexico. North Carolina. Oklahoma
and Washington. one each. Two
States Maine and Missouri, would
each lose one.
Later the House census committee,
in an attempt to please every one.
brought in q bill to make the total
membership 4SS, an increase of AS,
under which plan no State would have
lost Il Representative. There was such
strong opposition. however, to making
the membership larger that the