Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-09-18

were governed py motives OF ambition
and vanity, would not be disciplined,
and could not be controlled in any
manner. They set up headquarters at
Newport, Boston, O. icago, San Fran
cisco, or wherever they found it most
convenient; they roamed over the
country at great expense cropping for
inform alton; they muddled what they
got, they disputed among themselves,
grew Jealous, delayed reports, ran to
guess work. and sat down in some cases
Ia fl At dispair before their own piles of
crude and contradictory material.
To take an example: The geological
survey was asked TO furnish the Stats
tics of Indians in their tribal relations
that is, of the wild lEdians not tax
ed and eligible to sitiZenship, For
this item $40, 600 was allowed the sur
vey. Years passed, and nothing could
be learned Of that census of the wild
tribes. Finally Msj Powell sent to
the office one page of manuscript,
which is all the government ever got
for It's $40, 000 Again the geological
survey was furnish a report On the
social statistics of mining. Several
agents of the survey Travelled alb ut
the mines, had a good time, and wrote
out their adventures. When their
note books of camp life came to be
examined for use IN statistical work
they were found TO be utterly worth
less. Their fate is thus described by
gentleman who had a hand in the edit
ing: I'VE threw out onethird as
useless, and sent the rest to Clarence
KING for revision. He threw out an
other third, and turned the rest of the
material over to the geological survey.
and they threw out the last third.
This will explain why the volume on
the social statistics of mining is one
of the seven that will not appear.
When Judge Chenowith gets ready to
make his descent IN the geological
survey he might do we'll to examine
iHto the work of the bureau in conaec-
ton with the tenth census. Another
singular feature of the census is a
universal gazetteer of the 225 priEci>
pal cities OF the United States. The
original mass of guide book AID di.
rectory material that was gathered
under this head has been uns paringly
cut down aud revised ia the Office.
but enough is left to fill two prodigi-
Gus quarto volumes. Each city has
historical sketch and a full description
Of its local industries and objects of
interest from art galleries to sewers
The most important cities were in
trusted to popular authors; New
Orleans, for instance, to Cable, and SO
on. These writers, of course, had their
regulations to look after, and humble
clerks in the Office were not supposed
to edit their beautiful sentences into
the waste basket and leave only the
bare columns of figures for publica-
ton. Distinguished authors resented
such imDertenance in aHgry cores
pendence with the office. The 'mon-
ograpas" have been licked into some
semblance to statistics, however, and
are now ready for the press. Tae New
England cities are already in type,
and it is hoped to get both volumes
cut before March Sd. If so, the pub
lie will be treated to some of TIE
queerest census work since the poet
Coleridge, as kind of amateur spec
ial agent. enumerated the seventy two
''well- dfned and several stinks' of
Cologne.
That part of the census that more
properly came within the scope of a
work of this class, and that was han
died br the expert statisticians in the
office, is said to have been we'll dcne,
and it was substantially finished some
time ago. OF all the volumes yet to
be published, only one-the second
volume of the mortality statis'ics-is
of very direct value. Tue material
touching education and churches is in
bad shape, Or an effort might be made
is recognized as within the legitimate
scope ot q census publication. So,
TOO, of the volume on the deaf and
dumb, blind, idlotic, and criminal
classes. There is much valuable in
formation, of coarse, scattering
through all the jacted volumes, but
II will not pay to try to pick out the
wheat.
O3ly five men are now engaged III
the censas office, where four years ago
as many as seventeen hundred were at
one time borne on the rolls. But the
FIVE know their duty, and do 1t faith =
v. anu So are dO z ~ jIIn Oh
work than as many hundreds of the
cattle that warmed in the long rooms
during the early days of the Office. 1t
was a maxim of that time that the
good clerks were kept busy correcting
the mistakes of the bad ones. And
20 doubt there was an enormous waste
of time and money, due 10 the employ
merit of incompetent clerks. But the
radical evil was in the special agent
section. Had these agents been se~
lected for their familiarity with statis-
teal work, instead of for their scien-
tific standing, and then been regular
ly enrolled on the lists and kept at
Washington under one will. the va
rious collateral inquiries would prob>
ably have been made promptly and
creditably. Some of them were, as it
was, but the symmetry of the design
was destroyed by the absence of uni
ty.
The large bound quarto volumes are
| published in an edition of twenty
thousand copies each. This is in ad-
ditioa 10 the publication in pamphlet
| form of many separate reports. The
| bound editions are much too small to
meet the demand, and all the publish
ed volames are now only to be had at
the second hand book stores, the set
| OF twelve volumes bringing S35 to