National Republican., 1883-02-20
THE CENSUS is SAFE.
Gen. Walker Says Everything is in Shipshape
in His Office.
Hc VIII Now Turn Ont the Work as Fast
as the Printer Can Handle II.

"How is the census work progressing, gem
cral 2" asked REPUBLICAN reporter Of Gen.
Walker yesterday.
Rapidly toward completion" was tho
reply. 1--WE can furnish the government
printer with more matter daily than he can
set up"
General, have you examined the different
branches Of the census and the condition Of
the work therein since you have resumed
charger
"Yes"
"Have you found the work in all the divis-
ions satisfactorily performedH"
Perfectly son
There has been no slurring or manipula-
tion of returns ~
None at all The work, find, has been
conscientiously performed. 1t has, moreover,
been correctly performed so far as the nature
itself of statistics would permit"
"Do you propose to cut short the execution
of the original plan of the workW
"Only so far as economy may require, es-
pecially economy in time. We shall give In
full all the subjects treated Of by the last CEN
sus, and for additional matter as much as cir
cumstances will allow. There is, as you are
aware, a fascination about some branches of
statistics that calls for the exercise of sound
| judgment when to stop. All is important,
but the question may be, which is the most
important2 We shall complete the census, l
repeat, in accordance with the scope of tho
original plan, only condcnsing here aud there
to meet the requirements of economy in eN-
pense and time, especially time. With regard
| to the correctness of the work. / am satisfied
! it Is as correct us II could be made. The em-
ployes of the census hnye worked unilagingly,
scalously, and honestly. As have remarked
before, the work has been carried abreast Of
itself in all its branches, and this, perhaps,
might have been an error of judgment, so far
as gratifying from time to time the popular
| demand for information on the various results
attained by the census was concerned, but
| perhaps Is the word to apply to this policy.
One result of il was simply to delay gratify-
ing the popular curiosity. Another result,
however, is that the work, as u whole, has
been carried almost to completion, and in its
entiraty will soon be before the people.
"Now, general said the reporter, 81 here is
n slip cut from a newspaper, where the guam
| titles of agricultural products in 1850 are
shown to be from 30 to nearly 100 per cent
greater than those of 1870 yet their value in
the latter year is much greater than in 1880
| For example, the value of these products in
1870 was S2ii7,53s, $50, while those of 1880,
although vastly greater in quautity, amounted
to but $2,2l3, ,i02,564, apparently $23l, ,136,066,
less in value than the smaller quantities Of
the previous census year. Can you explain
this9"
Certainly and am very glad you have
asked the question. There is large increash
in the quantities, but, as regards values, the
comparison cannot properly be made until the
| figures for 1870, which express currency
values, have been discounted to correspond
with the premium on gold at that period.
The values for 1880 you see, are ex-
pressed in gold rates, those of 1870 in
currency rates. In the census year 1870 the
average premium on gold was 20 3-lO per cent.
| This would require the currency values of
that year to be discounted 20 per cent. That
| is to say, in the instance under consideration
the 2,Ii7a millions currency of agricultural
| products of 1870 were worth in gold but 195S
millions. The values for lSeO consequently
show gain of 25j millions instead of the ap-
parent loss of 23l millions appearing on tho
slip you have shown me- Now the value of
our wheat crop, for example, is determined
/ by the price at which that portion is sold
which is exported. That is to say, the
price of wheat in Mark lane, London, fixes
the price at which the whole wheat crop of
the United States is sold, expense of transp0r-
tation of course being taken into account.
The English prices are always gold prices.
They We're so in 1870, and so in 1880 Conse-
qucntly the home currency prices of the for
mer period must be discounted by the pre-
be made"
"But," said the reporter, "as the quanti-
ties of agricultural products in 1880 have in
creased over those Of 1870 at greater rate
per cent. than 10, the rate of increase of the
values of 1880 over those of 1870, must not
prices of agricultural products have decreased
since 1870 in order that the symmetry Of
your adjustment may be prescrved?"
"Thore is q notorious tendency" replied
Gen. Walker, toward reduction in the prices
of agricultural products in general the world
over through the enormOust extension of the
use of agricultural machinery. II used to be
said by political economists that the value Of
agricultural products tended to rise from
generation to generation because Of the very
limited application that could be made il
agriculture of machinery and the very narrow
range which could be given to the division o.
labor. But the mechanical improvements o.
the last thirty years in agricultural imple
ments, since Mccormick first exhibited hi
reapers at the worlds fair in London, hav,
vastly reduced the amount of labor required
in the production offs bushGl of wheat or corn
What, with horsepower mowers reapers, ant
tedders, and with steam threshers and plows
agriculture has protted almost as much b,
mechanical invention during the last twent,
years as manufactures.