The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1930-09-01


reau of the census of the 1880 population
figures by states has revived interest in
the subject of congressional reapportion-
ment
The constitution provides for a deem
NAL census and requires that representa-
tives shall be apportioned among the sew
eral states according to their respective
numbers counting the whole number of
persons in each state including Indians
not taxed. Reapportionment has followed
each census except that of 1920.
Repeated efforts were made to secure
Teapportionment on the basis of the 1920
census but if the house was to retain it's
present size of 435 members that could not
be accomplished without reducing the
number of representatives from some
states and increasing it from others, and
such efforts were unaVailing.
Anticipating the 1880 census the Seven
ty-first congress on June Is, 1929, passed
a law providing 70 rthe reapportionment
of the house on the basis Of the 1880 and
each succeeding decennial census. This
act provides the rule to be followed in
making the apportionment after each CEN
Sus until congress shall enact another.
Under this law it will be the duty of the
president to transmit to congress in the
first week in December statement of the
population of each state as shown by the
recent census with the number of repre-
sentatives to which it is entitled in a
house of 435 members calculated by three
methods:
Firstly the same method of calcu1a-
ton used in the last preceding apportion-
ment.
Secondly the method known as the
method of major fractions
Thirdly the method known as the
method of equal proportions"
1t being provided as required by the
constitution, that no state is to receive less
than one member in any event.
Upon the receipt of the report at it's
next session congress may then adopt one
of the three appointments submitted; it
may ignore all of them and adopt new
apportionment based upon house of
larger or smaller membership or it may
disregard the subject entirely. The act of
1929 provides, however, that in the event
congress at its next session passes no law
upon the subject it shall be the duty OF
the clerk of the house to forthwith send
to the executive of each state a certificate
of the number of representatives to which
the state is entitled determined by the
first method i. e., by the method used in
the last preceding apportionment. The
question of the correct method of compu-
tation to be used in determining the ap-
portionment of representation under the
constitution is one upon which eminent
experts in mathematics are in controversy.
To the average man the mathematical
problem is as abtruse as the Einstein
theory. The method to be followed in the
event congress at its next session fails to
act is the same used in 1910 and is re-
ferred to as "the method of major frac-
TONS" There appears to have been varia-
tions in the method of major fractions
since it's first development. According to
the report of the committee on the census
in 1929, for the benefit of those desiring
to make their own calculations, the pro-
cedure used in 1910, to be followed in de-
termining apportionment in the event con-
gress fails to change the law at its next
session, is as follows:
each state is assigned one member as
provided for by the constitution, which
makes 48. The remainder, 387 (435 less 48)
is then assigned to all the states in the
following manner: The population of the
several states is divided successfully by
IL, az, 81, etc. These numbers or quo
tients are then set down in the form of
series, the highest number first, the next
highest second the next highest third,
and SO on, down to the lower numbers.
The number which is first or highest on
the list has allocated to it the forty-ninth
v.o,0,.oco,o+o+iu tho Y1axt highest on the list