The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-02-12
THE FORTHCOMING CENSUS.
The Various Omcials who Will Man
age the Business.

The Various Omclals Who Will Man
age the Business.
The original scope of the decennial
census went no further than the obtain
ing basis for political representation
and direct taxation. This, however,
has been gradually enlarged, until now
it is intended to include all manner of
social, vital and Industrial statistics.
Heretofore the United States Marshals,
whatever might or might not be their
qualifications for this particular work,
performed this duty Of supervising the
census, and the ordinary enumerators
were charged with the collec-
ton of special statistics as well.
This method resulted in 1870
in such imperfect returns and
obvious errors that many of the
statistics collected were rejected as
utterly untrustworthy. Under the new
law special supervisors will be appoint
ed to take general charge of the census
districts, and many classes of statistical
inquiry will be placed in the hands of
experts and special agents. General
Francis A. Walker, Superintendent of
the Census, began, the work of organi-
zation in April last. His chief assistant
is c. w. Seaton, who was Superintend-
ent of the New York State Census of
1875. At the Office in Washington
thirty or forty clerks are already en-
ployed in the preliminary work for the
enumeration next June. Professor
Baird, Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution and President of the United
States Fish Commission, will have the
direction of a comprehensive investiga-
ton into the statistics of the fisheries
and the fishing population of the United
States. w. Clarence King has the
scientific direction of the investigation
into the gold and silver mining Of the
country. General w. p. Trowbridge,
Professor Of Engineering in Columbia
College, New York, is the special agent
for the purpose of obtaining the
statistics of power and machinery
employed in productive industry. Fred
H. Wines, Secretary of the Illinois
Board of Commissioners of Public Char
tiles, has charge Of a special enumera-
ton of the deaf and dumb, blind, insane
and idiotic, and the criminals and pau
pers. The collection and coordination
Of the social statistics has been intrust-
ed to Colonel George E. Waring, Jr.,
of Rhode Island. The collection of sta
tistics in relation to manufacture and
agriculture has been assigned to special
agents, as follows: The manufactures of
cotton to Edward Atkinson, of Boston;
the manufactures of wool, to George
William Bond, of Boston; the building
stones of the United States and the
quaErying industry. to Professor J. S.
Newberry, of New York; the manufac-
ture Of iron, to James NJ. Swank, of
Philadelphia; ship-building, to John
Lynch, of Portland, Me-; the manufac-
lures of glass and of coke to j. D.
Weeks, Of Pittsburgh; the manufac-
lures of silks to w. c. wyckoff, of
New York; the numbering indus
try to Professor C. s. Sar-
gent, of Brookline, Mass. The
subject of cotton culture has
been intrusted to Professor f. w. Hill
gard, of the University of California,
who is assisted by several eminent agri-
culturists and geologi>ts; that of the
production of cereals to Professor w.
H. Brewer, of the Sheffield Scientific
School of Yale College; that of forestry
to Professor G. s. Sargent, of Brook
line, Mass; that of orchard fruits, to-
bacco and hops to j. X. Dodge, of
Washington, d. c., and that of meat
production in the grazing States and
Territories to Clarence Gordon, of New
burg, N. Y. Special attention will be
paid to the obtaining of vital statistics.
This is to include information respecting
range and degree of virulence of certain
fatal diseases, and the rate of mortality
in one section as compared with adjoin-
ing sections. The cooperation of
physicians and surgeons throughout the
country is solicited in this department
OF inquiry. Press.