The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-02-20
The Census of 1850.

It is to be hoped that the new Census bill
may become law before the close of the
session, with such amendments as may be
deemed expedient. No really intelligent and
unprejudiced person who is conversant with
this class of subjects thinks that another
census should be tolerated under the defec-
tive law of 1850 The machinery provided
by that law for taking the census is
inadequate, its methods are Objectionable
and the objects at which it aims insufficient.
1t is behind the intelligence of the age and
the improvements which have been adopted
in taking the recent censuses Of the most
advanced nations of Europe, where matters
OF this kind are best understood. Without
going into minute details we insist on these
indispensable points,
/. It would be absurd to pursue the uni
form plan prescribed in tho law Of 1850.
There should be one method for the cities
and populous villages. and another method
for the spnrsely settled rural and mountain
GUS districts. In cities the enumeration
should be completed within q week, and if
possible, within single day, as is done in
England. BY making the subdivisions
small enough week would be ample time
for ascertaining the number of inhab-
itants in any city, and the sta
tistics would not be trustworthy if
two or three months were allowed
for their collection. So large n part of the
people of cities live in hotels, boarding
houses and tenement houses and make such
perpetual changes of residence that it is
impossible for census takers to trace
them unless the whole enumeration is
made ct substantially the same date.
So many changes of residence take
place between June and August that
thousands may be enumerated twice or
thrice and other thousands escape enumera-
ton at all. In the country it is different.
The residence Of rural people is more fixed
and permanent, and the few removals are
so we'll known to neighbors that there is no
difficulty Of keeping track of every inhab-
liant for an interval of three or four
months. In the country it is easy to
ascertain in August who dwelt in
any particular house on the LIST Of
June; but this is impossible in a
great city where people take no note of
their neishbors. 1t is therefore indispen-
sable, if we are to have correct census, that
the enumeration should be almost simulta-
neous in every city, while very little will be
lost in point of accuracy by nding it
through the summer months in the country.
The law Of 1850 is Questionable because it
applies the same method to both.
2 There is required very different
method for the mere enumeration of the
inhabitants, with their ages, nativity, sex,
color, &C., from the one which is requisite
for gathering authentic, valuable and COM
plete statistics of the great branches of
manufacturing and mining industry There
is needed no other qualifications than mere
painstaking industry to 60 from house to
house or from tenement to tenement
and record the number of inhabitants. A
much higher order of intelligence is
required for investigating the business of
great industrial establishments. This part
of the census should be put in charge of
experts not encumbered with the petty du-
ties of an ordinary enumerator. A very
large discretion should be commit
ted to the Secretary of the Interior
in the management of this branch
of tho census. He should have. carte
blanche as to the selection Of agents,
their number, their compensation and the
assignment and distribution of their work.
They should form separate corps devoted
to special service, and should have no con-
nection with the ordinary enumerators.
The law of 1850 is fundamentally defective
in jumbling the simple duties of IN
enumerator of inhabitants with the higher
duties of skilled collector of industrial
statistics. The two functions are incom-
patible even If the qualifications were
equal They should be entirely separated.
We shall be comparatively indifferent