REPRESENTATIVES, HOUSE OF 4974 



REPUBLIC 



If during a decade a new state is admitted, 

 the whole number is increased by that state's 

 allotment. 



A member of the House, by Constitutional 

 provision, must be twenty-five years of age, 

 must have been for seven years a citizen of the 

 United States, and must be a resident of the 

 state from which he is chosen. The term of 

 .re is two years; the terms of all members 

 expire on the same day. for the House is not a 

 continuous body, as is the Senate. Elections 

 occur in the autumn of even-numbered years, 

 and Representatives then chosen assume office 

 on March 4 following, although unless called in 

 special session Contrress does not meet until 

 December, over a year from the date of elec- 

 tion. The long interval between elections and 

 the meeting of Congress was necessary in the 

 early history of the country, for months were 

 required to travel from the Western states to 

 the national capital. The question of changing 

 the present order has been seriously considered, 

 but for a more important reason than the 

 above. When the people vote for a change of 

 governmental policy it is now usually thirteen 

 months before members elected to put that 

 policy into effect can begin their work. 



The powers and duties of members are named 

 in the Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 8. The House 

 has two distinct powers that are denied the 

 Senate ; all bills for raising revenue (tariff bills) 

 must originate in the House, and that body has 

 the sole power of impeachment. For various 

 rates of pay of a Representative in Congress, 

 see CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



State House of Representatives. In every 

 state legislature the house of representatives 

 is the lower house, as in Congress; it is often 

 called the assembly. The states have patterned 

 their legislative departments after the national 

 law-making body; the differences in them are 

 slight, principally relating to the number of 

 members, length of term and amount of salary. 

 The membership in the House of Representa- 

 tives of a state will vary from fifty to about 

 200; the compensation from $3 per day, for 

 services actually rendered, to about $1,200 per 

 year. The term of service is usually two years, 

 but is four years in a few states. E.D.F. 



Related Subjeota. In connection with this 

 article on the House of Representatives, the 

 reader is referred to the following articles in 

 these volumes : 

 Congress of the United Impeachment 



States Legislature 



Constitution of the Senate 



United States Tariff 



REPRIEVE, repreev', the suspension to a 

 certain future date of a sentence of capital 

 punishment passed on a criminal. Reprieves 

 are usually granted to allow inquiry into the 

 legality of the conviction, or to give time for 

 examination of alleged fresh evidence. The 

 power to grant a reprieve is vested in the chief 

 executive of a state or nation, but a state ex- 

 ecutive's power to grant a pardon is sometimes 

 limited by the superior authority of a board of 

 pardons. See PARDON. 



REPTILES, rep'tilz, a class of cold-blooded, 

 scaly vertebrates, which wriggle along on the 

 belly or crawl on small, short legs. The snake 

 is not, as many suppose, the only reptile. The 

 family is much more numerous, and is repre- 

 sented on the earth at the present time by 

 lizards, turtles, crocodiles and alligators, as well 

 as by snakes. In the remote early period when 

 the earth swarmed with huge, ungainly mon- 

 sters of all sorts, the reptile family was repre- 

 sented by forms even stranger than those of to- 

 day such creatures as the ichthyosaurs, dino- 

 saurs and the pterodactyl. The last of these is 

 especially interesting because it shows the early 

 kinship between reptiles and birds, for the 

 pterodactyl (which see) had wings and flew. 

 The young of reptiles, in nearly all species, are 

 hatched from eggs, and differ little from their 

 parents except in respect to size. They have 

 no gills like the fish, but breathe altogether 

 through the lungs, though many of them spend 

 much time in the water. 



Related Subjects. A detailed and systematic 

 knowledge of this class of animals may be gained 

 from a study of the following articles 

 Adder Gila Monster 



Alligator Glass Snake 



Anaconda Iguana 



Asp Leatherback 



Black Snake Lizard 



Boa Milk Snake 



Box Tortoise Moccasin Snake 



Chameleon Monitor 



Cobra Mud Turtle 



Copperhead Python 



Crocodile Rattlesnake 



Dragon Terrapin 



Garter Snake Tortoise 



Gavial Turtle 



Gecko Viper 



See, also, BIRD. 



REPUBLIC, re pub' lik, that form of govern- 

 ment in which the supreme power rests in the 

 whole body of its citizens, or, technically, in 

 that part of the whole body which possesses the 

 right to vote. Control of the affairs of such a 

 government is exercised through citizens elected 

 by the whole people, who delegate to such se- 



