Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-12-09
The Methods of The Census.


employed IN the United States for any
official or semi-oficial purpose, have
never yet made provision for the most
important Of all the classes Of errors
to which they are liable. that of sim
pie omissions. This is constant and
unavoidable cause, present in every
case Of enumeration or count Of num-
bers, and in every canvass which by
personal examination makes record
of facts, however simple, IF the re
cord made is complicated or difficult
the proportion of omissions is increas-
ed, but to appoint agents of census
simply to enumerate the cotton mills,
the iron works, or any class of manu-
featuring establishments in State or
city, will amply illustrate this law of
inevitable omissions In the census
of population taken by enumerators
who 60 from door to door, the difficult
ty is greater and the proportion Of
omissions is greater. No census of
population ever was taken with &C
curacy at the first motion or by single
canvass without revision. Capable
enumerators, assigned to very small
divisions, say of 1900 TO 1900 persons
each, reduce the proportion of omis-
sions to the minimum, which minimum
may be taken at per cent; but un-
practiced enumerators, with districts
somewhat larger, will omit to 8 per
cent. on an average. Ana this rate Of
omission is still more decidedly appli-
cable to inquiries not easily responded
to, as Of manufacturing or business re-
turns. where the proprietors or persons
applied to are unwilling to give infor-
nation. These returns. if not revised,
first by the canvasser himself, and sub
sequently by supervising expert, will
as certainly be at least twenty-five per
centum short Of the true return
This greater loss is due to the fact
that in all cases the canYasser is forced
to return to an establishment at least
from one to ten times, and to encounter
a variety of evasive efforts, usually
directed toward partial or complete
concealment of the real facts, which
most canvassers are not qualified by
experience or education to meet, and
after two or three trials they
usually give the case up if they think
it not important. And when they are
beaten by any cause, or omit by any
accident. they never report the failure.
The Uuited States census is a great
work, and every person connected with
its duties should have been prepared,
both by instruction and by practice,
before he is charged with responsible
duties which cannot be done over
again, and must be done right in the
beginning, 1t is the rule with the
English government, at least, that the
enumerators of the census are trained
to their duties, and although the
enumeration there is made at one mo-
ton, or in one act, it is SO prepared
against the contingency of omissions,
that error from that cause is reduced
to the lowest point. With their at
tention fixed on their duties, and
fully prepared for all the contingencies
of error from omission or otherwise
the census enumeration in England
does his work better than any other,
probably. and obtains return which
is close approximation to accuracy.
But the census enumerator in the
United States has, in most cases, not
a day warning that he will be chosen
over a dozen or twenty competitors,
nor has his supervisor any warning
that he will be chosen. Either or
both may find the serv ice quite the
opposite of what they expected, and
may heartily wish himsef released
after being fairly launched in his new
duties.
And these are not new or exception.
al difficulties surrounding the present
as distinguished from any previous
national census in the United States
They were as plain in 1860 and 1870
as they arc in 1880, and it is now
conclusiyely shown that the popula-
ton census of 1870 was grossly in
error in nearly every part of the
country. The causes of error then
was aseribed to the defects Of the
census law of 1850, but the elaborate
bill enacted for the present census has
not effected the reforms then shown to
be necessary and reasonably anticipat-
ed. The officers who actually
conducted the canvass have had DO
nranaration in the Dresent case nr