St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-07-30
INTENDED CENSUS FRAUDS.
How They Look at Them in the
Cities Of the East.


Cleveland Leader.
The worst fault possible In census
taking is not the accidental or negli-
gent omission of names, but the delib-
crate and wholesale Justification of re-
turns to secure a fictitious total. When
a census is honestly taken all places are
pretty certain to fare about the same,
the count everywhere falling somewhat
below the true population. On the
other hand, when the manufacture of
bogus names begins, the frauds are
likely to be on a scale far larger than
any errors of the opposite nature, and a
gross injustice is done to all other
places and sections of the country. We
are moved to these observations by the
following extraordinary editorial utter
ances of the Minneapolis, MIMI, Trib-
une:
Suppose St. Paul succeeds in keeping this
city down to l85, 900 people. because her
Pioneer Press? These two sums make $685.
900 people in both cities. Suppose st. Paul
had kept her hands off and had attended to
her own knitting and had reachad $50, 900
people. Then suppose. Minneapolis had
would have made 100000 people. If this
had been so every bond of this city and st.
Paul would have been worth just 20 per
cent more in the markets. of the world than
they will be when this Kilkenny cat fight
shall have closed.
This seems to be equivalent to con-
feSSiOn that Minneapolis intended to put
about 81, 900 bogus names on the census
rolls. and was willing to let st. Paul do
likewise. on the principle of addition,
silence and division of the money of the
investors s'rOped in" by wholesale
frauds. Of course the difference be-
tween the population of $4,000 with
which Minneapolis is likely to be finally
credited, and the 220, 600 which the Trib-
me thinks she might have had but for
the meddling of st. Paul, must repre-
sent the possibilities of intended cheat
ing. 1t is inconceiyable that st. Paul
could prevent the rival city from get
ting So, 600 or So honest names upon her
census returns. st. Paul simply failed
to go into the plot and an exposure was
the result.
Such a conspiracy to add 25 per cent,
to the reported population OF any city is
deliberate and cowardly attempt to-
wrong all other towns and to cheat the
whole country in the apportionment for
the national house Of representatives
and the electoral college. The purpose,
DIS Vic ldSb pdTt VI tll0 paragraph QuOb0u,
from the Minneapolis Tribune clearly,
shows. is simply fraud in money mat
tiers. The hope of the men responsible
for the padding of census returns is
that by causing all official publications.
and the press of the whole country to-
credit their city with fictitious growth,
and false population, capital can be-
drawn in from other parts of the
United States, real estate sold at "Doom'',
prices, and the swindling of outsiders
carried On . in divers other ways. In
politics. moreover, such frauds help to
secure congressional representation, to
which the state, where city like Min
neapolis Is located, has no just title, and
thus to increase the power and oppor-
tunities for securing Office enjoyed by
its people.
In fact, the consequences of false
counts in a United States census are SO
many and so far-reaching that scarcely.
any other fraud is more important to
guard against and punish. 1t is a matter
of congratulatIon to all other American
cities that Minneapolis was not able to
add 25 per cent to the value of her
bonds by putting $4,000 bogus names in
the census returns. For once the bitter
jealousy between the Twin Cities of
Minnesota has done the whole country
good turn.