Connecticut western news., 1888-02-29
THE ELEVENTH CENSUS.
Its Special Interest as the Centen-
 nial Census.

The Fiftieth Congress must prepare the plan and make the preliminary appropriations for the census to be taken during the year 1890. On the first day of the present session Repre- sentative s. s. Cox of New York; who has made special study of this question, introduced bill providing ing for the appointment of % com possesses an unusual interest from the fact that it will also be the centennial enumeration; and numberless important comparisons will be based on it's statistics, not only soon as these shall have been completed, but from time to ascertain and set forth the details of tho growth of the American Union during its first hundred years of existence under our present form of government.
 come to avoid the numerous and mortifving mlshaps, shortcomings, and failures which marked the preparing and publishing of the tenth census. The fundamental need IS not to undertake more than can be reasonably | carried out so that there may be no repetition | of that dragging along of published results years after their nominal date, and when they had become quite stale, which formed lead | ing feature of the tenth census. The managers of that task were evidently overwhelmed with their work. The eleventh census cannot afford to yield to all sorts of requests from in- dlvlduals, corporations, and public conven- | tions to compile and tabulate facts which will add enormously to the contemplated labor and
 
 | amiable cranks, who think Governments are | largely established for the purpose of satisfy. ing their personal curiosity for the solution of l comparatively unimportant as well as difficult | questions. In other cases those who want iri- | formation are engaged in occupations in which minute statistics of various sorts can be ttirnT | cd to their personal emolument, if collected | free of cost to them.
 The machinery of the tenth census was overburdened The cost of taking and pub l fishing it was in excess of what had been e3 pected, because it covered so much ground, | and Congress was continually called upon for extra appropriations. Its publication dragged on for years, and some of them have not been made yet. The three quarto volumes of the ninth census bear date 1872. The first vol | umes of the tenth census did not come along until 1888, and then formed only 8 small part, although, it is true, much the most important fortunately supplied portion of what was not given in full until year or several years later. An article by Gen. F. A. Walker, in the current number of the Quarterly Journal | of Economies, gives 8 list of these belated publications.
 l s'The issues of 1884 were volumes and 6, comprising the result of great statistical az ricultural, and economic investigation of the cotton culture of the United States (the bare figures of acreage and crop having been con- tained in volume 3; volume 2, Variation, Taxation, and Public Indebtedness; volume 8, Newspapers and Periodicals, Shipbuilding, Alaska and the Fur Seal Islands; volume g., Forest Trees and Forest Wealth; volume 10, l Quarrying Industry.
 1 ssThere were published in 1885, volume Ii, Mortality, Statistics, Part 1; volume 13, Statis- tics and Technology of the Precious Metals; duction of Coal. Copper, Iron, and the other Useful Metals; volume 16, Water Power en- ployed in Manufacturing, Part 1. Published in 1886, volume 12, Morality Statistics, Part ?; volume IS, Social Statistics of Cities, Part l; volume 20. Wages, Trade Unions, and Strikes. The four volumes remaining unpublished in 1887, for which an appropriation has been asked Gas hereinbefore recited), are as follows: Vol ume IT, Water Power, Part 2; volume 19 So- cial Statistics of Cities Part 9; volume 2l, Statistics of the Defective, Dependent, and De- l linquent Classes; volume 9, Reports on Ma chinery used in Manufactures"
 Some portions, then, of the results of the tenth census are still unpublished. while the | eleventh census is already under consideration. l The deficiency appropriations made necessary l by unexpected expenses have been dropping in upon every Congress for half dozen years. l Gen. Walker gives this as the comparative l cost of taking and compiling the tenth census, wholly exclusive of the expense of printing, 1 which last was necessary to make it useful: | s'The cost of the ninth census, 1870, was in round numbers, $3, ,36O, ,OO0, exclusive of print ing and engraving. With the population of that period, the per capita cost was therefore s.71 cents per head. The cost of the tenth census, including both enumeration and con- pilation, but excluding as in the former case, printing and engraving, was S4 ,S5S, $50, which, with the population of 1880, yields 8 cost per head of 963 cents.
 s'The cost, per capita of inhabitants, of the last four censuscs, exclusive of printing and | engraving, was as follows:
 Seventh census, 1850. 50................ 5.S4 cents Eighth census, 1880. ............ 6.25 cents | Ninth census 1870. 70.............. S7l cents | cpD tG
 There is no reason why the experience of the tenth census should not be sufficient, if proper ly used, to avoid repeating its mistakes One advantage is that some exhaustive and valu- able papers prepared for it can be used over again by merely bringing current statistics ur to 189O The tenth census was too ambitious and comprehensive. It lacked proportion. It was case of being overwhelmed with ma terial. With the eleventh census the first need is that of comprehensive organization by men who can fully grasp and control their work and lay it out completely. It should undertake only what can be done thoroughly and we'll and published pr mptly. Then it will be a worthy 1 centennial census.