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The urban-rural fight over representation is not in reality a conflict between farmers and city citizens. In the States where the issue has been drawn the sharpest, few real dirt farmers actually sit in the halls of the legislatures.

The so-called urban-rural rivalry for legislative representation is largely a smokescreen. As Dean McHenry has pointed out with regard to California in the National Muncipal Review:

"Certain business interests in the State have found it easier to make their influence felt in the legislature through senators from rural areas. Privately owned utilities, banks, insurance companies, and other concerns with crucial legislative programs have discovered some 'cow country' legislators more responsive to their demands and less committed to contrary points of view on key social and economic issues than are urban representatives." 5

The vigorous opposition of the California Chamber of Commerce (not a dirt farmer organization) to a change in legislative representation more favorable to the cities seems to bear out this view.

Speaking on this issue in 1948, the Los Angeles Daily News said:

"The State chamber of commerce's charge that reapportionment would 'disenfranchise' the rural counties isn't borne out by analysis. Far from 'unbalancing' California's Legislature, the proposed measure, if approved next November, would actually restore some semblance of democratic balance to what has been plainly an unbalanced, undemocratic legislative body ***. Obviously what opponents of reapportionment are trying to do is to manufacture a bit of smog."

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Respect for American democracy, both at home and abroad, as well as its ability to fulfill its basic purpose, demand the end of unrepresentative government.

The States are a good place to begin, since it is there that the rotten borough system grows the roots which eventually envelop even our Federal Congress. It is true that the United States Congress itself can end the evil of rotten borough in its own House of Representatives by enacting the Celler proposal to establish Federal congressional districts of reasonably equal size.

5 Dean E. McHenry, "Urban Versus Rural in California," National Municipal Review, July 1946. 6 For an explanation of the Celler bill, see CIO Economic Outlook, July 1953.

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Similarly, the State legislature can alleviate some of the gross injustice of unequal representation by reapportioning State districts as their own constitutions prescribe. It is also within their power, and sometimes solely theirs, to initiate basic revisions of State constitutions in order to bring their representation system up to date.

But there is a tragic dilemma in this situation. To end the minority stranglehold over our legislative bodies we are largely dependent on the initiative of these elected representatives themselves. Yet, the reluctance of legislators to vote themselves out of their own jobs, the pressure of party and special group interests, and the sheer force of inertia perpetuates the evil of misrepresentative government year after year. Since the courts won't act to destroy this veto power

what then can be done?

Public opinion when sufficiently aroused can ultimately become an overwhelming force.

In three States-Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin-the combined pressure of patriotic citizen groups has set reform movements in motion during the last 12 months.

These efforts include proposals to secure basic constitutional changes which will revise or scrap altogether the outmoded "area" system of representation; to take from the legislatures their power to control reapportionment or, if the legislature fails to act, to give reapportionment powers to an "ex officio" committee which would be subject to the discipline of the courts; to establish maximum limits that the population of legislative districts can deviate from the statewide average, like the 15 percent limitation for Federal congressional districts suggested by the Celler proposal.

The people still retain power to secure reform by effective use of the ballot box. In some States, a constitution which has become unworkable due to changing times can be amended by a petition of the people. Initiative measures, in those States, provide one form of action that can be used to escape the vice of minority rule.

In all States the governors at least, are elected by the ballots of all of the people; in this case the votes of the city dweller and the urban resident count alike. Before elections all candidates for Statewide office, and the political parties as well, can be forced to commit themselves to constitutional reform and reapportionment if an outraged public would demand it.

Certainly it appears to many, if not yet to the United States Supreme Court itself, that the Constitution of this land is being trampled upon when the vote of any citizen counts for but one three-hundredth of the vote of another when electing the government that passes laws affecting both.

The 14th amendment to the Constitution of the United States specifically proclaims that:

"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.'

When, as in California, the people of the urban counties, who pay almost 70 percent of the State's taxes, are allowed only 5 senators in the legislature and 14 senators, who represent only 6 percent of the entire State population, enjoy a veto power over the State's billion dollar budget-it appears to many including the United States Conference of Mayors-that the Constitution of the United States is being violated.

The duty to restore truly representative government to the people is the responsibility of all of us. Both as individuals and to the groups to which we all belong―church, patriotic, professional, civic, labor, farm, business, Republican and Democratic-we must unite to win this battle. Even the most conservative citizen-the one who really wants to solve community problems "at home" rather than to content himself merely by making States' rights speeches-has a place in this crusade.

In the effort to make the 48 State legislatures and the United States Congress truly representative of the people as they live today, the men and women of the CIO will give their complete support.

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Dates of last reapportionments of State legislatures, by house

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1 Council of State Governments gives last date for Montana-House, 1951.

2 Each town and city has 1 representative according to State constitution.

NOTE.-The fact that a reapportionment was carried out recently by no means indicates that it necessarily was carried out equitably.

Source: Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library and Citizens Bureau questionnaire, March 1952.

STATEMENT OF PUBLIC MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS OF THE FEDERAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

(Excerpt on benefit standards)

The interest of the Federal Government in employment security has been evidenced by the billions of dollars appropriated by Congress to alleviate unemployment distress during the 1930's, by the passage of the Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 to promote the development of a nationwide network of State and local employment offices, by the adoption of titles III and IX of the Social Security Act in 1935 to stimulate State governments to enact unemployment compensation laws, and by titles IV and V of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 and titles IV and VI of the Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1952. The broad interest of the Federal Government in minimizing unemployment and maximizing production, employment, and purchasing power has also been expressed in the Employment Act of 1946.

The major concerns of the Federal Government in unemployment insurance seem to us to be the following:

1. The instrument of unemployment insurance has become the accepted first line of defense against loss of income due to unemployment, and provision should be made that it will be so used in all parts of the country. This interest stems from the Federal Government's concern with the well being of the working population and with the maintenance of a minimum flow of purchasing power to promote economic stability.

2. The investment and liquidation of sizable unemployment insurance reserve funds has a significant impact upon the functioning of the banking system, the security markets, and the fiscal policies of the National Government.

3. The Federal Government has a direct responsibility for and interest in carrying out the national obligation to veterans for the payment of unemployment benefits for readjustment to civilian life.

The national interest in the employment service grows out of the following considerations:

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