Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1895 — WORLD’S LEGISLATURES. [ARTICLE]

WORLD’S LEGISLATURES.

Differences in the Apportionment of Members. The recently elected Italian Chamber of Deputies consists of 584 members. The present German Reichstag consists of 398 members. The next House of Representatives at Washington, exclusive of lerritorial Delegates, will consist of 856 mem-f bers. The English Parliament consists o 690 members, including those elected in Ireland and Scotland as well as those elected in England. Of these members 465 are chosen from English constituencies. 103 from Irish, 72 from Scotch, and 80 from Welsh. The French Chamber of Deputies consists of 622 members. It appears from these figures that although popular control over the choice of representatives is most general in the United States, the lower House of Congress is a smaller body than the popular branch of the Legislature of Great Britain, Germany, France, or Italy. The Belgian Parliament, prior to the extension of universal suffrage and the adoption of the multiple system of voting, consisted of 124 members, the number varying according to the number of qualified electors in each district. The Hungarian House of Magnates consists of 785 members, and the Hungarian House of Representatives of 445. The Dutch Parliament is constructed on the basis of one deputy for every 45,000 of population. The representation of all the Swiss cantons in the National Council is 135. In the choice of representatives few European governments conform with the American plan of selecting representatives on the basis of the number of voters only. In England, for instance, where the right of suffrage has been extended to the point of being almost universal, or manhood suffrage, as it is called in the United States, nine university districts continue to have representations as such, and the divisional lines of parliamentary districts are such that the representation is unequal, being largest proportionately in the country and smallest in the urban districts. The basis of representation in the United States has varied greatly from time to time. The ratio of representation per population was 80,000 under the first apportionment. It rose gradually under successive apportionments until 1848, when it was put at 70,000. In 1858 it jumped to 92,000 and in 1863 to 127,000. From that figure it grew gradually until 1883, when it was 151,000. The present basis of representation is materially higher—l7B,9ol. Congress fixes the number of members which each State shall have, but the subsequent subdivisions, based on the proceeding national census, is made by the Stale Legislature. The rule of equality of division is not very well preserved, though an effort to follow it is shown generally. The First Congressional district of Texas has a population of 120,000; the Second Congressionol district of Texas has a population of 210,000. That is a flagrant and exceptional inequality. Nevada has a representative in Congress for 45,600 inhabitants., In New York State the district having the largest population is the Fourteenth, now represented by Congressman Quigg. The Fourth district of Pennsylvania, one of the strongest Republican districts of the country, had by the last census a population of 209,000. Ohio had only one district with more than 200,000 inhabitants. Twelve of the thirteen districts of Massachusetts have 170,000 population or a fraction more.