Evening star., 1940-12-08
House Of AIT Needed
# States Are 10 Avoid
Representation Loss
Census Bureau Expert
Makes Calculation on
Reopportionment
By OLIVER MCKEE.


II Congress decides to enlarge the
size of the House, so that no State
will lose representation under re-
apportionment based or the 1910
census. it will bf necessary to in
crease its membership from 435 to
ATT.
This was the estimate made yes
terday by Dr. Calvert L. Dedrick,
the Census Bureaus expert on ap-
portionment and chief statistician
of its division of statistical research.
Under the method of major frac-
tions. which was used in the last
reapportionment, 10 States will each
lose a House seat. They are Arkan-
sas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kan
sas, Massachusetts,, Nebraska, Ohio,
Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. These
States have a voting strength of
149 in the present House.
Arkansas, by the method of ma
jor fractions. would regain its lost
seat if the House were increased
by one member. The other States,
according to the computations of
DR.. Dedrick, would be spared the
loss of Representative if the House
membership, respectively, were as
follows: Iowa, 439; Indiana 442: IL
linois. 443: Massachusetts. 444;
Pennsylvania, 447; Ohio, 448; Ne
braska, 452; Kansas, 476, and Okla
homa, ATT.
Size Reduced in 1910.
Though the use of the method of
equal proportions would result in
somewhat different order, the men,
bership of the House must be raised
to ATT before Oklahoma regained its
lost seat, if apportionment is made
by the equal-proportions formula.
Each new appointment pre-
sents to Congress the question as to
whether 1t would be better to in
crease the size of the House. so
that no State would lose a seat. or
whether the number of seats should
be held constant regardless of the
effects of this action on any State"
Dr. Dedrick said.
This decision is weighty one.
fraught with many theoretical and
practical considerations. Particu-
larly in States with nearly equal
number of votes cast by each party
and in States where one or both
houses of the State Legislature are
controlled by party different from
the majority of its Representatives
in Congress, the action to decrease
the number of Representatives from
a State and thereby force a redis-
tricting of the State may mean al
most certain defeat for several Con-
gress members. though the State
may lose only one seat"
During the last $50 years Con-
gress has increased in membership
from 106, following the census of
1870, to 435, following the census of
1910 Only once has its membership
been reduced This was in 1910.
when the number of Representatives
was cut from 242 to 223.
Pressure on States Losing.
The eight States gaining repre-
sentatlon will face no serious prob
lem in reapportionment, DR.. Fred
eriCk pointed out. If the State Leg
islature fails to redistrict, the addi-
tional representatives may be
elected at large. Connecticut, New
York, Ohio and Oklahoma have so
far failed to set up congressional
districts for the additional members
which they gained after the 1880
census.
The 10 States which lose repre-
sentatlon will be under greater pres
sure to take some action" DR.. Ded-
rick said. Three of these States
Illinois, Ohio and Oklahoma-have
one or more Representative at
large and can eliminate a Repre-
sentative at large without disturb
ing the existing State disticts. If
the other seven States take no ac-
ton before the elections for the
Seventy-eighth Congress. however,
their entire delegations to that Con-
gress must be elected at large.
The Legislatures of all the States
which lose Representative, except
Massachusetts, meet regularly only
in odd years. In Massachusetts, the
governing body meets annually and
If no action is taken in 1941 the
State may be redistricted in the
early part of 1912.
IF the Legislatures of the other
States adjourn before the end of the
60-calendar-day period and a So
called automatic appOrtiOnment be.