160 



CONGRESS. (TnE APPORTIONMENT.) 



1903, the House of Representatives shall be com- 

 posed of 357 members, to be apportioned among 

 the several States as follows: 



"Alabama, 9: Arkansas, 0; California, 7; Colo- 

 rado, 2; Connecticut, 4; Delaware, 1; Florida, 2; 

 Georgia, 11; Idaho, 1: Illinois, 23; Indiana, 12; 

 Iowa, 11; Kansas, 7; Kentucky, 10; Louisiana, 7; 

 Maine, 3; Maryland, 6; Massachusetts, 13; Michi- 

 gan, 12; Minnesota, 8; Mississippi, 7; Missouri, 

 15; 'Montana, 1: Nebraska, 5; Nevada, 1; New 

 Hampshire, 2; New Jersey, 9; New York, 35; 

 North Carolina, 9; North Dakota, 1; Ohio, 20; 

 Oregon. 2; Pennsylvania, 30; Rhode Island, 2; 

 South Carolina, tf: South Dakota, 2; Tennessee, 

 10; Texas, 15: Utah, 1; Vermont, 2; Virginia, 9; 

 Washington, 2; West Virginia, 5; Wisconsin, 10; 

 Wyoming, 1. 



" SEC. 2. That whenever a new State is admitted 

 to the Union the Representative or Representa- 

 tives assigned to it shall be in addition to the 

 number 357. 



" SEC. 3. That in each State entitled under this 

 apportionment, the number to which such State 

 may be entitled in the Fifty-eighth and each sub- 

 sequent Congress shall be elected by districts com- 

 posed of contiguous and compact territory and 

 containing as nearly as practicable an equal num- 

 ber of inhabitants. The said districts shall be 

 equal to the number of Representatives to which 

 such State may be entitled in Congress, no one 

 district electing more than one Representative. 



" SEC. 4. That in case of an increase in the 

 number of Representatives which may be given 

 to any State under this apportionment such 

 additional Representative or Representatives 

 shall be elected by the State at large, and the 

 other Representatives by the districts now pre- 

 scribed by law until the Legislature of such 

 State, in the manner herein prescribed, shall re- 

 district such State; and if there be no increase in 

 the number of Representatives from a State the 

 Representatives thereof shall be elected from the 

 districts now prescribed by law until such State 

 be redistricted as herein prescribed by the Legis- 

 lature of said State; and if the number hereby 

 provided for shall in any State be less than it was 

 before the change hereby made, then the whole 

 number to such State hereby provided for shall be 

 elected at large, unless the Legislatures of said 

 States have provided or shall otherwise provide 

 before the time fixed by law for the next election 

 of Representatives therein. 



" SEC. 5. That all acts and parts of acts incon- 

 sistent with this act are hereby repealed." 



Mr. Burleigh, of Maine, brought in a minority 

 measure, enlarging the membership of the House 

 to 386, and making a different distribution of 

 Representatives. A bill was also introduced by 

 Mr. Crumpacker, of Indiana, granting to every 

 State a full proportion of membership according 

 to population, except South Carolina, North Caro- 

 lina, Mississippi, and Louisiana, in which repre- 

 sentation was to be cut down, under the pro- 

 visions of the fourteenth amendment to the Con- 

 stitution, on the ground that they have disfran- 

 chised 40 per cent, of their people. 



The matter was taken up in the House on Jan. 

 4, 1901; and on that day Mr. Shattuc, of Ohio, 

 presented the following substitute: 



" Whereas, The continued enjoyment of full rep- 

 resentation in this House by any State which has, 

 for reasons other than participation in rebellion 

 or other crime, denied to any of the male inhabit- 

 ants thereof, being twenty-one years of age and 

 citizens of the United States, the right to vote for 

 Representatives in Congress, presidential electors, 

 and other specified officers, is in direct violation 



of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution 

 of the United States, which declares that in such 

 case ' the basis of representation therein shall be 

 reduced in the proportion which the number of 

 such male citizens shall bear to the whole number 

 of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such 

 State,' and is an invasion of the rights and dig- 

 nity of this House and of its members, and an in- 

 fringement upon the rights and privileges in this 

 House of other States and their Representatives; 

 and 



" Whereas, The States of Massachusetts, Maine, 

 Connecticut, Delaware, California, Louisiana, 

 Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Wyoming, Oregon, and other States do, by the 

 provisions of the constitutions and statutes of 

 said States, and for reasons other than participa- 

 tion in rebellion or other crime, deny the right 

 to vote for members of Congress and presidential 

 electors, as well as the executive and judicial offi- 

 cers of such States and members of the Legisla- 

 tures thereof, to male inhabitants twenty-one 

 years of age and over and citizens of the United 

 States; and such denial in certain of the said 

 States extends to more than one-half of those who 

 prior to the last apportionment of representation 

 were entitled to vote in such States; and 



" Whereas, In order that the apportionment of 

 membership of the House of Representatives may 

 be determined in a constitutional manner: There- 

 fore, be it 



"Resolved by the House of Representatives, 

 That the director of the census is hereby directed 

 to furnish this House, at the earliest possible mo- 

 ment, the following information: 



" First. The total number of male citizens of the 

 United States over twenty-one years of age in each 

 of the several States of the Union. 



" Second. The total number of male citizens of 

 the United States over twenty-one years of age 

 who, by reason of State constitutional limita- 

 tions or State legislation, are denied the right of 

 suffrage, whether such denial exists on account of 

 illiteracy, on account of pauperism, on account of 

 polygamy, or on account of property qualifica- 

 tions, or for any other reason. 



''Resolved further, That the Speaker of the 

 House of Representatives is hereby authorized and 

 directed to appoint a select committee of five mem- 

 bers from the membership of the Census Committee 

 of the House of Representatives, who shall inves- 

 tigate the question of the alleged abridgment of 

 the elective franchise for any of the causes men- 

 tioned in all the States of the Union in which 

 constitutional or legislative restrictions on the 

 right of suffrage are claimed to exist, and that 

 such committee report its findings within twenty 

 days from the date of the adoption of this resolu- 

 tion to the said Census Committee, and that 

 within one week after the said report shall have 

 been received by the Census Committee the Census 

 Committee shall return a bill to the House of Rep- 

 resentatives providing for the apportionment of* 

 the membership of the House of Representatives 

 based on the provisions of the fourteenth amend- 

 ment to the Constitution of the United States." 



Mr. Hopkins, in presenting the argument for 

 the majority measure, as reported, began by giv- 

 ing various reasons against an increase in the 

 membership of the House of Representatives, and 

 declared that his committee had determined upon 

 357, the number under the former apportionment, 

 as a limit beyond which it would not be well to 

 go. Having chosen that number as a basis, the 

 committee adopted, he said, the method recom- 

 mended by Gen. Walker in 1881 : 



" Some time before the convening of Congress 



