Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-07-30
CENSUS slurr1sG AT TIE SOUTH.

A dispatch yesterday stated that much
suspicion is being aroused by the extraordi-
nary exhibits made by the census enumera>
tors at the South. :" In nearly every
Southern city," says the dispatch, "an
average increase of from 80 to 40 per |
scent. is reported in ten years, while IL
SIS generally known that with the excep-
60 ton of some towns in Virginia, Florida,
Georgia, Arkansas and Texas, there has
.sbeen no increase IN the South by immi-
grafton, either from the North or foreign
"countries and it is also known that the
natural increase of the population has
+" been discounted by deaths and removals.
The suspicion that census-stuffing has been
practiced in wholesale way at the South
| follows inevitably upon this statement,
and we have no doubt whatever that this
kind of fraud has been deliberately en-
ployed. Indeed We pointed out the ex-
treme probability of such an event before
the census was taken, basing our conclusion
upon the general practices of the Southern
Democrats in all political matters. 1t
would in our opinion have been very re-
markable had the census been taken hon.
estly in the South. Such a contamination
could probably have been reached in no
other way than by appointing as enumera-
tors men who had no interest in poll
tics, or who were not Democrats, and
under the circumstances this would not
have been possible without larger ex-
penditure than the Census Bureau was au-
thorized to make. The Southern leaders
have long since abandoned those orderly
and equitable political methods which
recognize the sovereignty OF opinion.
They have for years been accustomed to
trample under foot the most fundamental
principles of democratic government, and
to seek the maintenance of power by the
exercise of tyranny as INSCRIPTIONS and
arbitrary as has ever been welded by in
dividual despots or oligarchies. To such
men the taking of a new census could only
appear as an opportunity TO carry their
familiar methods into fresh field. They
at once perceived that if the census was a
fair one the result must be to diminish
their political strength, since nothing
is more certain than that the popu-
lation of the South has failed to keep
pace with that of the rest of the country
during the past ten years. In that
I'LL hoo 4 70 nal a
work. 1t has driven out the more enter
prising and industrious elements. 1t has
prevented immigration and investment.
1t has hung as curse over the whole
South, and has retarded its growth. The
consequence is that the Southern States,
which even in 1870 possessed larger
representation than they were fairly en-
titled to, taking the ratio of the North as
a standard, would have lost several Con-
gressmen and votes in the Electoral College.
At present the average ratio Of Southern
representation gives that section an adj
vantage over the North, the fact being that
the South has a representative for every
20, 600 voters, while the North has one for
every %, 600 voters, in round numbers.
The census would, if honestly taken, have
probably shown an increase of not more
than ten per cent, if go much, throughout
the South, and it might have demonstrated
even positive falling off since 1870. That
it should exhibit such gains as are now
being claimed is wholly unreasonable, and
they can only be accounted for by the
/ theory of svtemati, fraud