Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-12-29
THE NEXT CENSUS.
W0lEer'S WOrE and Plans.

The Washington correspondent of the
New York Times says: Few persons are
aware of the work which has already been
quietly done in the census Office, or of the
magnitude and excellence of the plans
which Superintendent Walker has devised
and is carrying out by the aid of assistants
who are eminent as investigators and
students of social and material phenomena,
for the purpose of making the tenth cen
sus more comprehensive and valuable than
its predecessor, which was far in advance of
anything of the sort previously accomp-
lished in this country. At the beginning
of the year Gen. Walker still held tho
| position of superintendent of the ninth
census without salary, and was
conducting at his home in
New Haven, the correspondence arising out
| of the publication of that census. The act
providing for the tenth and subsequent CEN
suses was passed on March 8, 1879, and on
April ~, 1879, the census Office in this city
was organized by the appointment of Super
lntendent Walker, who at once called to his
assistance Mr.. @. W. Seaton, who had been
| a chief of division in the work of the ninth
census, and the superintendent of the New
York State census of 1875. force of clerks
was secured, and the work was at once begun
in the large structure on Pennsylvania ave-
nue., at the corner of Thirteenth street,
known as the Republican building. At pres
ont thirty or forty clerks are employed, and
the first and second floors of the build
ing in use. The number of clerks
will not be increased before June. The
office has been occupied to some e1-
tent in preparing for the enumeration
of the population, which will begin
June l, 1880. Schedules have been pre-
pared, the country subdivided into super
visors' districts, thousands of applications
for appointments answered, and large cor
respondence conducted. But the greater
part of the work done thus far has been in
relation to the collection Of certain classes
of statistics for the year ending on the GEN.
sus day, June l, 1880. By the act of 1850
all the statistics were to be gathered by the
enumerators in their house toulouse can
vass the men who counted the people were
to ascertain also the facts relating to mining,
fisheries, agriculture, manufactures, NOR
tally, and many other subjects of social and
industrial interest. The statistics thus OBJ
tanned in relation to these subjects were 50
inadequate and inaccurate, and sometimes
SO positively discreditable, and even
disgraceful to the census, their only
possible effect being to mlslead the reader
and misrepresent the country, that, in the
act of March 3, 1879, provisions were made
for the withdrawal of certain classes of sta
tistical inquiries from the ordinary enumera-
tors, and the placing of them in the hands
of experts and special agents. The superin-
tendent has set on foot several important in
vestigations in relation to special topics. The
results of these will make the census of 1880
peculiarly valuable, and the adoption of this
plan of obtaining very important knowledge
is long step in advance in tho hist,ry of
census making in the United States. It is
in preparing for the collection of these
special statistics by appointed agents, and in
classifying and tabulating the results of the
agents wo7k which have already reached the
Office, that most of the work thus far has
been done.