, 1890-11-13
WANTS MORE DEATHS
Superintendent Porter Not Salts
fod With the Work of the
Enumerators.
They Must Find Moro Deaths or
They Won't Get Any Pay
for Their Work.

Tie census onumerators of Spo-
kane Falls are having no end ol
trouble with Superintendent Porter
over their returns of the death rate
in this city, and their accounts,
with the exception of EnumeratoI
Frank Howard's, have been sus.
pended pending an adjustment ol
the deficiencies in their reports.
James w. Horner, enumerator OF
District No. "a, is in receipt of the
following communication, which IL
in substance the same rs those re.
ceived by the other cnumcrators in
this city:
DEPARTMENT or THE INTERIOR, CEN
sUs OFFICE, WAsHiNGroH, ID. c., oct. 90.
Sir: 1t appears upon examining the
mortality schedule returned by you that
you have reported but three deaths
thereon
Your district contains, according to
your population returns, about 1850
people, and IL Is wholly unreasonable to
suppose that tho deaths reported were
all that occurred within the same during
the census year. At the usual death
rate In your locality there should be
ABOUT twenty deaths reported from your
district.
Such wholesale ON ission of data re-.
CURED can not be overlooked, and must
Oe considered the work of negligence.
You are, therefore, directed to make a
careful investigation for the purpose OF
supplying omitted cases, and to return
the same to this office upon the incloscd
schedule u. the earliest possible date.
/ H. Al.
page OF the schedule aud follow tho
same carefully. All the details should
be supplied tor each death enumerated.
Your account has been suspended and
can not DO adjusted until the deficiency
set forth Is properly supplied
Fin the heading of the schedule cor
rectly. Very respectfully,
ROBERT u. PORTER
Superintendent of Census.
Mr.. Horner Is very indignant over
the failure to allow his accounts and
the demand made upon him for
further work. He said to II REVIEW
representative yesterday: ''It Is
absolutely impossible for me to sup
ply the omitted cases unless / re-
port cases of death already reported
in Mr.. Howard's enumeration.
Three cases were all that were re-
ported to NE in my district. All
the deaths that occurred in the city
are reported to the health officer.
MIR. Howard went to the health
officer and secured an enumeration
of all the deaths that had occurred
in the city-about l40-and reported
them in the enumeration of his dis
trict. This, of course, LETT the
enumerators of the other districts
few deaths to report.
"Of course If we had known
where the deaths occurred we
would have apportioned them
among the various districts, but no
record was kept in the health oili-
GERS office of the districts in which
people died, because there were no
districts ut that time. My district
was composed largely of lodging
houses, and the deaths which had
occurred were mostly transient,
hence the people seen when | made
the enumeration had no knowledge
of them. | am now asked to go
over the entire district again and
dig up twenty deaths, whether they
can be found or not. 1 can get
twenty deaths all right enough, but
l will have to get them from the
health officer from among those al
ready reported by Mr.. Howard. In
this way the same deaths will be
enumerated twice, and the death
rate in Spokane Falls will be made
to appear much larger than 1T
really is"
The enumerators in this city have
now been kept out of their money
nearly four months, and there APP
pears to be no prospect of their get
ting it, unless they can find some
more deaths somewhere. Superin-
tendent Porter probably does not
know that the death rate of Spokane
Falls Is lower than that of any city
in the country, being only 1920 for
each 1000 inhabitants. The death
rate in st. Paul per 1000 inhabitants
is 1868; indianapolis, 1905; Provi-
dcncc, r. L., 1892; Detroit, Mich.
20. 46; Newark, n. j., 22,59.