New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-03-09
ALBANY.
RETURNS.

THE NEW-YDRk CENSUS XII OhNo'
wK pAvENPoRTs STATEMENTS 1HE RESULT OF A
BLUNpgR-TRE ERRORS COMPLAINED OF COR
REcrED AT 1HK CENSUS BUREAU-HOw THEY
OCCURRED.
IBY TELEGRAPH To THE TRIBUNR1
A,nASY. March S-The statement of John l.
Davenport in this mornings TRIBUNE, charging
frauds in the census by implication, and announcing
his intention to lay the facts which he had dlscOv-
cred before the Senate. excited considerable
interest here. An examination Of the census re-
Turns shows that Mr.. Davenport has made an
astonishing though amusing blunder, and that MS
indirect charges Of fraud melt away into thlh ar
His statements that in his own house his WIFE, ms
four children and his female servants were returned
M voters; that the wife and nephew OF Luther IL.
Marsh were returned voters that in the house OF
Hugh j. Hastings, his wife, daughter, and TWO
hoys. sons of q servant, were also returned as
yoters; that in the house of Joseph r.
Howard his wife and six children, including
a baby 10 months old, were returned az
voters. and that some errors were to be 1ouhu
IN numerous election districts In other wards-all
tbeae statements are strictly true so far as they 60
Rut if Mr.. Davenport had come to Albany and ex-
amined the returns as made here before publishing
his implied accusations of fraud, he would nave
found that these entries were merely the mistakes
of inexperienced enumerators which were all, WITH
ont sxcention corrected at the Bureau here 1t liz
easv 70 see how the mistake was made. The
broad sheet on which the returns Of the enume-
rators are made contains, among its numerous
columns one for native residents and under the
heading Of voters one column headed native and
another headed naturalized." Evidently misled
nv the repetiion of the heading native" the emu
merator after once entering the figure one opposite
zach name of q native under the heading of native
Ipr he haaU of
in the double column of voters There are copies of
these preliminary and often imperfect lists on file in
the office of the County Clerk in New-YOrR, and it
was upon these lists that Mr.. Davenport based his
statements
Only one thing remains to be said to show the
error into which Mr. Davenport has so easily fallen.
None of the work of adding up the columns III the
tables which the enumerator prepares Is done by
him. so that such totals as Nv Davenport has given
he obtained evidently by making the additions hlm-
self After the entries alone have been made by the
enumeration the sheets are forwarded to the Bureau
here, where such obvious plumbers as those
lust described are corrected and the additions
made An examination of q number of the other
districts mentioned shows precisely the same mis-
take. which consisted simply in repeating figure
when it should not have been repeated. and which is
invariably corrected. Mr.. Davenport's dstrict-the
XXyIIth Election District of the XIth Assembly
District-which is mentioned as returning 1109
voters shows in the returns as transmitted TO the
Legislature as having only 43s voters, and the first
figure given is practically the number of native
residents, so that if there Democratic con-
spiraoy to swell the census Mr.. Davenport seems
TO believe the Republican census officials frustrated
1t with blue pencil.
1t has been suggested that the care with which Mr..
Davenport refrains in the interview in The IRIB-
UNE, from charging fraud while implying It, shows
that his statement was made with a full knowledge
of the facts. but with the idea of deceiving the
public But, in any case his misstatements are so
easily corrected that all hope of Overturning the
census on this ground must be abandoned by the
Republicans