Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-16
THE ST. PAUL CENSUS
The Way Bill Washbur,,.s Nam cou,.,,
This Ctty.
Minneapolis Pioneer Press


This, City.
Minneapolis Pioneer Press.t
No one in st. Paul seemed to caro- nv ,birl,.
about the census. No one, 80 far as can be
learned, took ths slightest interest in the an
pointment of asupervisor. a No one in ST
Paul was ever consulted about the appoint
ment.s At whose instance Gen. Andrswa
was appointed no one knows. He il a very
excellent and scholarly gentleman, who
1iled the diplomatic post of minister 10
Sweden very creditabiy; bnt more unfit
man to take the census of st. Paul could
hardly have been selected. He was a com
paratlve stranger, having only recently be
come resident of the city. He had hardly
any acquaintance with its peopIe, or
the Topographic or ethnographic distribution
of its population. Wholly without experience
III this sort of business, he went 70
work wholly in the dark; nor does il appear
that he took any pains to supply his own
lack of Information by asking the aid OF CO.
operation of the better informed. He TAD
no adequate appreciation of the importance
or difiicaliy OF the undertaking. 1t resulted
that he was very unfortunate in the han
hazard selection of enumerators. Some OF
them were intelligent men, but some of them
were stupidity incompetent. Several wers
women. Nearly all were entire strangers to
the localities and people to which they were
assigned. They sought the places for the
small pay attached to them, and did the
work In purely perfunctory, routine fash
ion, often with extreme carelessness
and stupidity. From his ignorance of the
city Gen. Andrews made some grave mis-
takes in his sub districting. Some of the
districts contained a population largely in
excess OF the maximum number for which
the enumerators received pay. Beyond that
amount they worked for nothing and board
ed themselves. johnson started with twenty
eight districts and enumerato1s, Andrews
with only twenty-five, afterwards increased
to twenty-five.
But this was not the worst of it. When
the enumeration was about completed, il be-
came notorious from the multitude of onis-
sions within the knowledge of many citizens
that it had been very loosely made. When
Gen. Andrews attention was called to this
fact he was disposed to resent it as an impu-
tation on the fidelity and competency of his
enumerators, and by consequence on
his own Judgment in selecting them.
He would not believe that there
was any large number unennInerated.
He met all suggestions of that sort with an
air of offended dignity. The same spirit
was diffused among the enumerators. As
the lists were about to be filed few leading
citizens undertook to secure the co-ope9
ration Of Gen. Andrews n & general move
ment for the correction OF the lists. The
suggestion was resented by nearly all the
census officials as a reflection on their CON-
potency and accuracy. Three weeks time,
at the least, was necessary for O recanvas.
Gen. Andrews refused to extend the time of
filing of the lists Whatever
was done was required to be done within the
five days allowed by law for the in
spection of the lists. AT q slimly attended
meeting of business rnen committee. was
appointed to dc what could be done in this
brief time. ALI that could be done was to
obtain from the business houses, nanufac-
turing establishments, corporations, ETC,
lists of their resident employees. In this
way they obtained list of 10000 names.
They employed large force of clerks to
check off such names as were found on the
enumerator's lists. Out of tbs 10000 they
found 1900 which had been omitted,
or twenty-five per cent. of the
ndInioo--, wh!ek =ors turned over to tha
enumerators for verifcation. This was
the work of three days. After that the
lists went into the hands of the enumera-
tors, who were far more anxious to vindieate
their own correctness than to add any new
names to the schedules. They we're scru-
tinized with jealous care and no new names
admitted to the schedules till they had been
thoroughly verified. There was such lack
of hearty cooperation on the part of
most of the census officials that the few citi-
zens who undertook the task of siding in the
correction of the lists became thoroughly
disgusted and abandoned the work in de-
spalr.