Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-23
REAPPORTIONMENTLINKED
WITH FARM AID AND TARIFF
Special Session of Congress Illustrates
Vital Lines Between Three Pieces
os Legislation.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

II
news is so clearly related to a
long vista Of history that 1t is a
~ pleasure of recognize the kin
ship. Sometimes, too a group
of recent events In the newspaper have
such relation to each other that it
is interesting to observe their unity.
Both these kinds Of satisfaction are
illustrated by the present session OF
Congress.
To understand the session in these
respects one should begin, not with the
two bills it was called to pass-farm
relief and the tariff-but rather with
the measure that was forced upon 1t by
necessity, the reapportionment OF the
Lower House Of Congress. Starting with
that, one can recognize In this session
of Congress such unity as one rarely
sees In a group of current events which
specifically seem only casually related.
Required by Constitution.
The Constitution requires that q CEN
sus of the United States shall be taken
every 10 years and that members of the
Lower House shall be reallotted to the
States In proportion to population as
revealed by each census.
These constitutional provisions were
duly followed every 10 years until 1920.
Since 1910 there has been no reappor-
tionment. In 1920 census was duly
taken, but no reapportionment was
made. As respects reapportionment,
Congress has been in default for nearly
10 years.
FOR this default various reasons have
been given. It was said-and this was
true-that when the census Of 1920 was
taken many soldiers were still away
from home; that, therefore, the census
did rot truly disclose the distribution
Of population and hence that re-
apportionment made on the basis Of the
1920 census would be unfair.
But the deeper thing that the 1920
census revealed-and the true reason
no reapportionment was made-was
that farm States had been rapidly losing
population to States having big cities.
States having prevailing farm pcpu-
lation (Which means practically all the
States In the South and West except
California; had been growing very
slowly. As it was put by Senator Sackett
Of Kentucky, who deplored the fact he
was compelled to recognize:
I'VE ind that there Is being drawn
from the country districts their repre-
sentation In Congress and it is being
piled up In the urban districts and in
the cities Of this land"
States In the North and East having
big cities had been growing very rap
idly This fact was clear In the census
Of 1920. From this fact 1t resulted that
q reapportionment made upon the basis
Of the census Of 1920 would take about
% members Of the Lower House of
Representatives away from western and
Southern States lexcepting California;
and add them TO Northern and Eastern
States having big cities.
Called 70 wet Votes.
spaat;,,c rnue,,Jv fs,,s 1,o,,ld y,ear
23 fewer dry members Of Congress. %
more vet ones. It meant Q shift Of as
votes on all the issues that arise be-
tween farm and city.
This was the deep reason for the re-
1uctance of Congress to make q reap
Representatives from the South and
West dislike q reapportionment which
would deprive % Of them of their seats
and would give those seats to cities.
One can sympathize with their attitude.
One can sympathize with % of them
who as individuals would actually lose
their seats. One can sylnpathize even
more with their irmpersonal reluctance
to see considerable fraction Of politi-
cal power pass away from the farms and
villages and 60 to the cities
But the Representatives who were re-
sisting the plain index Of the census
were resisting. so to speak, the barom-
eter. What they ought to resist, obvi-
ously, Is the condition or conditions that
had caused the barometer to change.
We come now to the first illustration
of the curious and engaging unity Of
the present session of Congress. The
session was called for two purposes-to
enact farm relief and to revise the
tariff. To these two subjects the shift
IN population from farm TO city is di-
rectly related. The cities have been
growing at the expense Of farms, partly
because farming has been q less re-
nuneratiye and less attractive occupa-
ton, compared TO city occupations, COM
pared to non-agricultural industries.
The purpose Of farm relief, as stated
explicitly In the campaign last year and
as stated explicitly In the present farm
. relief bill, Is to bring agriculture to
Ssequa1ity with other industries"
A concrete result Of farm relief, If
4 Is properly carried out and II It Is Is
successful, should be to arrest the drift
Of population from farm to city.
Speculates on Future.
Zone wonders whether a historian
many years from now, reading this
article in the yellowed files of this news
paper, will observe that this farm relief
bin really was successful-that 1t really
did arrest or reverse the draft from
country to city. Has this Congress
really grasped the fundamental social
purpose of farm relief? And has this
Congress taken the right and intelligent
steps to achieve the purpose?)
We come now to the intimately re-
lated subject-the tariff.
One must carefully refrain from say
ing that the protective tariff, as carried
out for some sixty to seventy years past.
has been the sole cause, or even the
main cause, Of the drift from farm
TO city. Other causes have been In OPP
Grafton. The same drift has taken
place In countries other than the
United States.
But it is 3 fact that when the pro-
tective tariff system was adopted
America was more than one half agri-
cultural-and is now only little over
or1e-quarter agricultural. And 1t Is a
fact that the protective tariff system
was adopted for the purpose Of slim
ulating manufactures-"infa indus
tries"-as they were then called. And
1t must be clear that we could not
stimulate the growth Of manufacturing
without taking some population from
the farms to man the factories.
Argument Fills Thousand Of Pages.
One refrains from going further into
an argument which year after year has
Allied literally hundreds Of thousands
including, already, more than thou
sand pages Of the current volume. The
aim Of the present article Is confined
to calling attention to the unity of the
items of business which compose thu
work of the present Congress.
After nearly 10 years of failure II
obey the mandate of the Constitution
Congress began last month the WORT
Of reapportionment. They started b,
conceding that 1t is not desirable to In
crease the present membership of the
lower House, which Is ABS. That wa