How to Save $20,000

The State of New Hampshire last week was asked to cut a slice off its own overfat parliamentary rump. New Hampshire's Constitution provides one representative for every town (or city ward) of 600 inhabitants, one more for every 1,200 additional citizens. When the Legislature is in session, say old New Hampshiremen, with tongue in cheek, there is a scarcity of labor in the State.

The 1940 census gave New Hampshire a population of 491,524, raised the number of seats in the House of Representatives from 423 to 443. Thus New Hampshire's 1943 House will be the second largest parliamentary body in the world.*

After four days of nasal argument, a Constitutional Convention in Concord last week voted to cut the House to a maximum of 400, a minimum of 375 members. New Hampshire's citizens will vote on the amendment Nov. 3, 1942. If a two-thirds majority approves, after 1943 New Hampshire's bill for the upkeep of its lawmakers will come down $20,000 a year. But even New Hampshire's politicians did not relish the idea of saving a lot more--at the sacrifice of a lot more jobs.

* Largest: Great Britain's House of Commons, with 615 members. The House of Lords, with 788 members (mostly hereditary), is not an elective body, does little more than endorse the laws that Commons makes. The U.S. House of Representatives has only 435 members. After New Hampshire, the States having the largest legislative houses are Connecticut (272), Vermont (246), Massachusetts (240). Smallest: Delaware (35), Nevada (40), Nebraska's unicameral Legislature (43).

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