National Republican., 1883-01-27
A SENSELESS CENSUS.
An Immense Mass Of Statistics in an Appar-
emily Hopeless tumble.
How Incomplete Returns Have Becn Conn
pIetcd by Vivid Imnginntions.

from the work the senate appropriations COM
mittcc yesterday agreed to report the joint
resolution appropriating 100000 to con-
tinuc the census, with an amendment re-
ducing tho amount to 100000 Tho orig
inal amount was made up of 100000 to con-
tinuo the work during tho current fiscal year,
aud the remainder to be applied to next
years work. The committee have found the
census in such an unsatisfactory condition,
however. that they are unwilling to recon-
mend the appropriation of any considerable
am mount without assurance that tho money
will not be wasted. and this assurance they
have thus far failcd to obtain, notwithstand-
ing the fact that they have twice had be-
foro them the secretary of the interior
and acting Superintendent OF the
Census Richards. These officials at
tended the committees meeting yesterday
morning and endeavorcd to explain the state
of affairs in the census bureau, hut their state
ments only confirmed the opinion of the COM
mittoe that the work of the census was in such
n state of confusion that congress would not
be warranted at this time in grantinga greater
amount than just enough TO keep the bureau
running. 1t is not unlikely that this action
of the committee will be followed by u bill
providing for tho early termination of the
work Of collecting and Publishing, within
limits considerably narrower than as now
contemplated by the scicStifc gcntlenEn who
have charge of the details.
The manner in which the details of the
tenth census have been arranged, and
THE FIGURES DocToRED,"
seems, from tho latest information, to have
been carried on with n charming abandon, n
graceful negligc, perfect looseness, so to speak,
hitherto unusual in the compilation Of statis-
tics. The revelations that have been made
about the plan pursued in at least several
divisions of that Office throw doubt upon all
tho work Certainly from the evidence
given by a number of persons interviewed by
REPUBLICAN, reporters during the past two
days, the figures in certain branches arc
worthless, either rs census returns or as q
basis for future estimates. The very large
amounts appropriated and spent in tho work
should show some results of value, but it is
questionable if any of the reports arc free
from the faint of suspicion. lmagina-
tion, not fact, has been the agent to produce
statistical tables, and the researches of the
political economist been changed for the
fine frenzy of the poet. Not since Coleridge
sought to clothe geometry In metrical dress
or Mark Twain reduced the "whcrenses !"
and "aforesaids " of warranty deed to the
acataleCtic measures of iambic verse has such
u feat been either attempted or effected But
while poetry is high art and imagination a
noble faculty, yet statistics have their uses,
and facts are sometimes valuable.
IN THE DIVISION OF VITAL sTATIsTGcs,
q very important one, where reliability of
statement is essentially desirable, the plan
pursued of compilation, as alleged by former
employees Of the bureau, was at least evidence
OF u brilliant fancy on the part of its chief, it,
also, testimony that the figures were untrue.
For example: In many thousand returns
al ne sat Il
fail to schedule the sex, age, or cause of DEATH
the name only being furnished. In this case
the following ingenious plan was pursued :
If tho name, for instance, was "Charles
Smith, age 10 years." the nationality was pre-
sumed to be American, as were also his
parents, and this inserted us n genuine re-
turn. The boy might have been born in
Saxony, his parents in Brunswick, and their
name been originally Schmidt, yet down they
went as "nativc and to the manor born"
The cause of death being unreturned, the dis
ease was guessed ut from the time of year when
IL happened. Did the death occur at the time
of the festive green apple or the potential
cucumber, then IL was gravely inferred that
the lad died of the gripcs, and the United
States census tackled on the end Of his epitaph,
" Death by cholera morbus" Did the un-
timely taking Off occur in the winter, visions
of rye and rock probably danced in the mind
the innocent lad with IN overdose of pneu-
monia or phthisis pulmonalis, As n matter of
fact the boy might have died of spinal menin-
gifts or u bad case of mumps, yet the future
statistician is bound for all, time to come to
hang another wreath on dysCntery or con-
sumption and reason from an nilamed omen
tum to tuberculous lung. Sometimes the
initials of the name only We're given,
and the census determined the sex from
fNNat ttan V..V.l,,
other guess. An Irish name suggested
Irish nativity, German cognomen, Teu-
tonic birth, and SO on. SO Timothy
O'Shaughnessy was invariably credited to
County Cork and Leopold Won Rosenbaum to
Birmarck's landed property. If Timothy
was an infant or Leopold very young they
were generously accorded chance to be
president by being scheduled "native born"
but their fathers and mothers invariably
credited to the could Country" and tho
Faderland." So all through the divisions
Instead of compelling the enumeratorS to
correct their returns the census drew upon
its imagination, and the draft was always
promptly honored.
IN THE DIVISION or MANUFACTURES
like system obtained and the returns of
enumerators who should have been well in
formed upon the special industries for which
they were employed to investigate We're to-
tally ignored and the figures supplied in the
Office in this city. They were afterward in
serted in the schedules of compilation mt the
whim of the clerk doing that particular work.
MIR. RICHARDS, THE ACTING SUPERINTENDENT
OF THE CENSUS,
has written letter to the chairman ofthe sen-
ate select committee ON the results of the cen-
sus, in which he says that after the COM
pendulum shall be finally adjusted there re-
mains to be done the final quarto volumes of
the report, These comprise, first, general
statistics of age, sex, agriculture, manufacture,
occupation, and mortality; second, the compi-
latOn of reports of special agents on
fire, and marine insurance, private
schools, libraries, churches, idiots pau
pers, and criminals; wages in manu-
featuring industries, forestry and lum-
bering, cotton culture, cotton manufactures
and ginning, resources of Alaska. social sta
tistics Of cities, mechanical power, Indian
statistics, tobacco manufacture, orchard fruits
and hops, fisheries mining two rcports), and
wealth and taxation. These reports are all
commenced, and can be finished, if money
enough is appropriated, in four months.
There have already been published twenty
quarto volumes Of 2,55i pages nine volumes
of 26l5 pages are in the hands of the printer,
the manuscript Of nineteen volumes of Las
pages is ready for the printer, und thirty-two
volumes Of IL $50 pages are yet to be received
from the special agents. The total amount
necessary to be appropriated is estimated by
Mr.. Richards at 100000,