CHAPTER X
THE TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS
The House of Representatives.—The Constitution provides that the national house of representatives—the lower house of Congress—shall consist of members chosen every second year by popular election. Under the Articles of Confederation members of the old Congress were chosen annually, but that term was too short to enable them to acquire that familiarity with their duties which is essential to efficient legislation. The term of a representative begins on the 4th of March in the odd-numbered years, though Congress does not meet until the first Monday in December following, unless the President calls it together in extraordinary session earlier.
Sessions of Congress.—There are two regular sessions of every Congress; the long session which begins on the first Monday in December of the odd-numbered years and lasts until some time in the following spring or summer; and the short session which begins on the same date in the even-numbered years and lasts until the 4th of March following, when the terms of all representatives expire. Each Congress is numbered, beginning with the first, which began March 4th, 1789. The sixty-seventh Congress began March 4, 1921, and will end March 4, 1923. Extraordinary sessions are sometimes called by the President to consider matters of special importance which need to be acted upon before the meeting of the regular session. From 1789 to 1921 there were only nineteen such sessions, the last being that called by President Harding to meet in April, 1921, to consider tariff and revenue measures and readjustment of international relationships.
Number and Apportionment of Representatives.—The Constitution provided that the first house of representatives should consist of sixty-five members, but that as soon as a census of the inhabitants should be taken the number was to be apportioned among the several states on the basis of population, not exceeding one for every 30,000 of the inhabitants. After each decennial census is taken a new apportionment is made by Congress on the basis of the new population. The total number of representatives at present is 435,[25] being in the proportion of one member for every 211,877 inhabitants, which is known as the congressional ratio. The largest number from any one state is forty-three, the number from New York. Pennsylvania has thirty-six, Illinois twenty-seven, Ohio twenty-two, and so on down the list. Five states are entitled to but one member each, namely, Arizona, Delaware, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming. As the population of several of these states is less than the congressional ratio, they might not be entitled to a single member but for the provision in the Constitution which declares that each state shall have at least one representative.
Election of Representatives.—The Constitution provides that representatives shall be chosen in each state by vote of such persons as are qualified to vote for members of the lower house of the legislature of that state. Thus it happens that the qualifications for participating in the choice of national representatives varies widely in the different states. But the choice must be made by the people, not by the legislature or by executive appointment, and, under the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution, the states cannot, in fixing the suffrage, discriminate against any class of persons because of their color, race, or sex. Subject to these restrictions the states are practically free to limit the right to vote for national representatives to such of their citizens as they may see fit. It is true that the Fourteenth Amendment declares that whenever a state shall limit the right of its adult male citizens to vote except for crime its representation in Congress shall be proportionately reduced, but this provision has never been enforced. Some statesmen hold that it was really superseded by the Fifteenth Amendment.
United States Senate Chamber
