National Republican., 1883-01-29
COMING TO HIS CENSUS.
Gen. Walker Will Resume Charge of the
80 Work this Morning. M n
ne Denies that It y In Coufnsio" or
that u ues Rec" Delayed.

II Ut CCO.LL-r7lA ~
when will you take. charge of the census
Gen. WalkerY asked REpu BIrcAN reporter
Of gthgt, famous rublicist last, night ID. .
~ have placed myself entirely 10 The
handsof the secretary of the Interior" wa'
the reply. al shall he at the Office to-
morrow
y Have g9p ifoFmulated any plan for finish
ing the work?'
g "The work will be finished in exact accord
ance with my original plan ON which it wa.
commenced" OF 'r''f'nf 't ..
Glow about the 'tanglo in which it /,
said to beT i au. ssi..esi ,at...,
"There was no 'tangle2 Any such idea 4.
erroneous The superintendent for the past
six or eight weeks has been TOO ill TO do any
thing" f-'-'
"when will you finish the work."
t"I will send the compendinmto the printer
tomorrow and it will be issued in week or ten
days. Within the next two weeks | shall send
20 the printing Office three quarto volumes on
Population Agriculture and 'Manufact.
urcs.' The one on population, which will
make about $50 or 700 pages, will be deliv-
cred TO the Vconipositoi on Friday. This vol
ume contains the name, age, sex, and condi-
ton of every person in the country, with sta
tistics Of occupation aud offofeign pareIftage.
The latter'h has never been done before, but is
very important 1t gives not only the num-
bcr of those born in foreign countries but the
percentage of foreigners children born in the
United States. The other, two volumes will
make L. 100, or POO pagesPl u NI
"Will each Of the volumes ON special topics
be as full as was originally intended2"
I'VE shall reduce 20 the extent Of about
5000 pages the whole humber Of pages orlgi-
Na1. lion Ntftn L..
Has the work bech conducted, since you
resigned the Office of superintendent, in ac-
corlancc with your plnn2p
"Yes. would say here that the work is
very laborious, and cannot be done in n
minute, i wish, also to say that Col Scaton,
the present superintendent, is tho best stats.
ticlan have ever seen. As such l have rec
ognizcd him my superior for the last two
years He has not had as much experience as
some other authorities GU that subject, but Is
inarvelUusiy clear, profound, and accurate.
He is singularly conscientious, and the IA
tigrilig labors he has. Undergone. have, conf
plctcly prostrated him. Not only is his eye
sight impaired. but he is Threatened with dis
ease of the brain"
'clIow long will it take you to finish up the
entire work 2" y i''I' iaI"rH
al shaU have every volume but two, perhaps
three, in the hands OF tho printer by the first
of May. The exceptions are the volume on
Vital Statistics of some 100 pages, which,
from tho nature of the work, cannot be
hurried, and u volume on another subject
which don't care TO name just now. The
entire work of the tenth census will be done
and its results printed before the end of tho
calendar year,
And the office closed2r
There will necessarily be small force
LETT i Fll8'alF
:" IL is the general impression that the work
has cost great deal Of money"
|" want to say on that point that, exclu-
sive of cost of printing and engraving, which
is distinct from the census work proper the
total cost of the ninth census was nine cents
per head of population. The cost of the pres
cnt census, exclusiveof printing aud engrav-
ing, Is niilc and one half cents. The half
cent increase represents, therefore the cost of
tho additional work j include in this state
ment the 500, 900 deficiency and the 100000
appropriation for the next fiscal Year, -
If then" persisted the reporter 81 the
work has been done we'll and done in accord
auce Withyoup original plan ,rand, no tangle
exists, why has the impression gone abroad
that the eXpidentures have been great and
tho results iiiadequate%' > r- '1 rf, HG tgu.g
Much of this impression is due to the nat
ural impatienee of the people TO behold re-
suits. 'rhisNmiIclI adverse criticism can be
made on the management Of the CENSUS, and
only stliis9 muehv Instead of concentrating
the labor on special topics, thereby bringing,
out volume aftcrvolmne, and thus gratifying
the people with tangible evidences that the
work was being diligently prosecuted, the
plan has been pursued af running .thc work
abreast of itself; that is say, the work in all
the divisions has been carried equally along,
until all of it is IN the sahie state of near
completion. This is only an error of judgment,
lift be anetfor, 'T'Fa TTcr rTLrF .--r.a|-, d
UAnd ,n,v ycncrat bo,,, nh.ut A+I,o AZ, 49,,
that has been made of manipulation of fgures,
that statistics have bconi onimanifhcturcds &C. 2"
:" am glad you have asked that question:"
replied 'Gep.WalkeT, "lor it, enables mc to
answer that no manipulation of figures, no AZ
teraton of returns, no manufacturing of sta
tistics, has been done in the office except in
that almost iHfinitosimal percentage of cases
where, according to the universal practice of
stutisticans, omissions have been supplied and
palpable errors corrected. | have been through
the offices of the leading, English and German
statsticans, Dr.Willam Farr, of London and
DIR. Engcl, of Berlin, and the supplying of
omissions and the correcting of errors in the
census work lnder their charge, have been
much more extensively than with us. | clal-
lenge aryy nantto put his. finger upon a single
change, either of adding or taking away or of
alteration, in the figures of this census,
except, as IL say again, such as are
customary and necessary in statistical work.
fof example, III JOhn smith, aged 20 years,
blacksmith, lis entered, under the sex column
asa female II is so palpably aslip of the pen
that statisticians quietly correct the mistake
without waiting foran explanation. No rer-
son acquainted with the details of compiling
statistics would thinis, this other than custom
ary--even necessary F Hai f,,fr..-. ~ t.rrf
"Well, Gbout the tiinetho work has been in
progrcssY Yu,.r .y.,. "a
The census of 1860, under Mr. Kennedy's
supeiintendence, issued its first two volumes
in 1864, the second two in 1865. The census OF
1870 bears the imprint of 1S72 but was really
bound and circulated in the early part of
1873 The compendium of that census was 4
published later in the year 1873. You SEQ
therefore that no waste of time has been
made'"y4A o14 Jg,ss An3 a. al. ruusrr
Proposes 10 Run His own Bureau.
A history Of the proposition to transfer the
signal corps to the Interior department has
just been published in pamphlet form by the
chief signal officer Of the army Gen. Hazen
evidently does nOtipTopose to allow his bureau
to be run the way itwas run by Howgate. He
says at the closeof the pamphlet. "On ASSUME
ing this Office found its discipline and spirit
so far as referred 60 small portion of the en- 1
listed men, the most willful and dinsubordinato
possible, the Myor, Capital letters, written
in the Office, fairly illustrating il. Thesomen
had tlkon advantage Of GeiL LBIypr'stwo years /
of illness, and the decentralization iucidcnt to /
the conduct and imilucnec Of Howgate, TO in !
augurHte u plan for carrying on the bureau in |
their own way, and they showed q contempt |
for prOuerF allthOpit ". anplVinu LhiR pnutennt !