The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-13
Concerning the Census.

kTonl the N. T. Tribune.
A special committee has been appointed to
present to the House a plan for taking the
next United States census. So many questions
enter into any adequate report of a nations
growth, and 80 many others are involved in
maturing any satisfactory plan for having that
report accurate, that we are GLAD to observe
that the House has at the head of its commit
tee, In the person of General Garfield, one of
its most studious and sagacious thinkers.
Precisely what information shall be collected
is point on which we trust the committee
will not fail to consult the exacting demands
of modern statisticians. 1t adds but trife TO
the expense to include dozen fresh subjects
for the inquiries of the census takers; and we
only need to avail ourselves of the best
methods for collecting and classifying the facts
thus brought in to secure the best, most COM
prshensive, and most minute picture of great
nations condition and progress that has ever
been preserved for the guidance of her states
men and the encouragement of her people.
Two things we want--a system of schedules
that shall be plain enough to avoid bewilder-
ing the census-takers or the people, and so
arranged that their results may admit of the
most thorough classification; and, second, a
system that, while satisfying these conditions,
shall allow comparisons not only with the
data furnished in our own previous census
reports, but with the statistics collected by
imagine that the committee will find basis,
satisfactory in many respects, in the labors of
our late Census Office. In the other, the
problem becomes more complex. Various
congresses of European statisticiRns have been
held to devise means Tor securing uniformity,
at least in the general outline of the systems
adopted by the several governments; and the
results of these conferences should be care
fully studied.
ha offonfa nj tha war ON DOnu alton N in
dustry, on education, morals, distribution Of
land and the like, will be the subjects concern.
ing which the revelations of the next census
will be most anxiously awaited. cOgnate
topic of inquiry will be the effects of emanci-
patton upon the slaves, the masters, the pros
perity of the South, and the prosperity of the
whole country. Scarcely less attractive is
another broad field OF investigation, the bare
outline of which we can only suggest by men
tioning the late thesis OF an elaborate Govern
ment report, that, under the effects of an ex-
banded currency, protective legislation, and
heavy taxation, the poor in this country have
been growing poorer, and the rich richer
labor has been oppressed; the laborer's wages
have not kept pace with the advance in the
cost of his living, and capital has reaped un
inst rewards. On scores OF points like these
growing out of the war and connecting them
selves with every class and every interest, the
next census ought to give definite information
The iudioious preparation OF its schedules
becomes therefore a work of the first impor
tanoe, and to this we trust that the attention
of General Garfeld's committee may be care
fully directed. Legislation at the best car
only map out the outlines OF the work; bu
everything depends on the judgment VIII
which these outlines are marked.
When and by whom the census shall b
taken Ii matter OF scarcely less concern 4