Word: censuses
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...President revived an old, familiar problem: gerrymandering in congressional election districts. Last week he asked Congress to lay down a strict set of rules for redistributing the states' allotted Representatives more equally among their populations, as tallied in the 1950 census...
What President Truman wanted was specific legislation outlawing the gerrymander and requiring the states to divide their districts into compact units of between 300,000 and 400,000 people (the census basis on which seats would be apportioned ideally). While few Congressmen would argue about the unfairness of the existing system, there was little chance that they would enact the anti-gerrymander legislation in a hurry. The hard political fact was that too many of them owed their jobs to the shoestrings and saddlebags...
...census of the cosmos was taken at the College Observatory, of which Shapley is director...
Besides its value to businessmen, economists and government planners, the census will have one important political effect. When the new 82nd Congress convenes in January, the House will have just 15 days to decide what to do about it. Each state's membership in the House is in proportion to its share of the U.S. population. The House can satisfy the states which have grown bigger by increasing its membership (pegged at 435 since 1911) or by taking away Representatives from other states.* Nobody really wants to increase the size of the House; it is already unwieldy enough...
...when the Drys controlled the House, they refused to reapportion because they were afraid of losing seats to the Wets. It was 1929 before a law forcing reapportionment was pushed through, just before a new census would have required another change...