Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-20
The Political Mill

The reappCrtionment Of the House
Of Representatives, under the figures
Of the thirtieth census, b likely 10 have
considerable effect politically beyond
the effect &c win have on the makeup
Of the House itself. The electoral votes
Of the individual States In the cleo
toral college, which has the duty Inn
posed upon It Of selecting the Presi-
dent and Vice President Of the United
States every four years, ere based under
the Constitution on the representation
Of the States in Congress. The number
Of electors chosen by each State must
be equal 10 the whole number Of
Senators and Representatives to which
the State may be entitled In the Con-
gress" The political parties have
based the representation of the States
In their national conventions for the
purpose Of nominating candidates for
President and Vice President upon the
superintendent Of representation In Con-
gress, though In the conventions the
delegates from each State are double
the number Of members Of Congress,
a. q general thing.
= 4 +
The new apportionment now an
nounced by President Hoover In ac-
cordance with the law put through by
the present Congress takes ~ seats in
the House from 81 States and gives
those seats to IL other States. Sixteen
States are unaffected by the reappor-
tionment Take for example Cali
fornia. That State in the present Con-
gress has IL members Of the House.
electoral college q total Of 10 votes.
But after the reapportionment has gone
through, California will have 20 votes
in the electoral college. Missouri, on
the other hand, loses three seats IN the
House by the reapportionment. Mis-
souri's vote in the electoral college has
been 10. But this will be reduced 70
IS. Ohio and New York viii gain two
votes each in the electoral college and
Texas will have o gain Of three. On
the other hand, four New England
electoral college, and so will Indiana,
Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas. North
and South Dakota and Wisconsin, for
the West, and Virginia, Mississippi,
Tennessee, South Carolina and Alabama,
for the South. Georgia loses two such
votes and 50 do Kentucky, Iowa and
Pennsylvania.
II q conceivable that under the
changes proposed in the House by the
reapportionnent, the fate Of candidates.
for President may be determined in the
future. Both Republican and Demo-
cratic States, as they now stand in the
political column, gain and lose under
the reapportionment. But the pre-
ponderance Of gain Is after in States
fornia, 1t Is true, went for woodrow
Wilson In 1915 against Charles Evans
Hughes. But that was an exception.
II the new apportionment holds, Cali
fornia Is likely to cast % electoral votes
for President Hoover in 1882 instead OF
IS as It did in 1928. 1t viii have q
greater number Of delegates 70 support
his denomination In 1882, also.
The politics Of the situation may
have an influence on the attitude Of
the present Congress toward the pro-
posed reapportionment of the House.
However, the individual desires Of the
States to retain their present represen-
tation In the House, even though other
States must be accorded an increase
In their representation, are moving
factors in the fight which Is now ex-
pected over the apportionment when
Congress Teassembles December !. The
agricultural States which are due to
lose representation In the House
threaten to attack the reapportionment
from two angles. One Of these 10 to
demand that aliens, estimated to be
some 1850, 900 IN number, be not count
ed in making the superintendent Of the
House according to population Of the
several States. II the aliens. are elm
mated from the count, It Is believed
that some of the increases granted IN
big industrial States ike New York and
Ohio and In California will not be al
loved. The Representatives Of the
States in which these aliens reside, how
ever, are likely to resist strongly the
proposal that they be not counted In
determining the apportionment of the
House. Indeed. the demand will be
made in all probability that If the aliens
are not TO be counted IN making the
superintendent. then the colored people
who are not permitted freely to vote In
some of the Southern States shall not
be counted for the same purpose.
When the new reapportionment law
this character were offered, but all
were defeated. It does not appear like
~ now that any Of them viii prevail
The other line of attack remaining to
the States which lose representation in
the House IL to offer an amendment
increasing the size Of the House so as
to make IL possible for them to retain
the seats which they now lose. But
that is o proposition that was thor
oughly discussed, too, during the consid-
Grafton Of the new law. The determine
House was definitely abandoned, on the
theory that the House Is already large
enough. II not too large to function
eficiently.
Two veteran Republican members Of
Congress came through in the recent
elections. while Republican colleagues
and candidates in their States were
falling before the Democratic attack.
They are Senator Arthur Capper of
Richard Yates Of Illinois. In both
States Republican candidates for the
Senate were defeated, Henry Allen 60
ing down in Kansas and Mrs. Ruth
Hanna Mccormick In Illinois. For q
time It was feared that Mr.. Yates had
been defeated In his Statewide contest
for reelection In his State. Indeed,
his fellow Republican candidate for
Representative at large, Frank L. Smith,
was defeated. Illinois is permitted two
members at large Of the House. If Mr..
Yates had been defeated. the new
House would have an even number of
Republicans and Democrats. His vic
tory, however, has made 1t possible for
the Republicans to claim 218, ma
jority Of ore.
A. y
Both Mr.. Yates and Senator Capper
have strong personal followings In their
respective States. Senator Capper, IS
q matter Of fact, ran far, far ahead of
the Republican ticket, winning by 1885,
900 votes. His opponent was a former
Democratic Governor Of Kansas, Jona-
than M. Davis. But Davis was never
In the running against Capper. AS In
the two previous years he has run for
the Senate, Senator Capper has led the
Republican ticket in his State. This
year he carried 90 Of the los counties
of the State. His reelection returns
him to Congress for another six years.