St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-03
CENSUS ETHICS.

CENSUS ETHICS.
The ethics of census taking is some
thing peculiar, particularly here i'll the
United States. f-glorifcation is the
weak spot in American character, and
as result everything must move III ac-
cordance with that spirit. Hence the
trouble In so many sections OF the
country relative to census taking.
Whatever we Americans do, the prime
effort is to make the biggest possible
showing. Our rapid growth has stimu-
lated the desire for still faster growth,
and when census year comes around
everybody seems to be inspired with
the belief that it is patriotic duty to
swell figures to a fictitious proportion,
in order that the grand census total
shall make magnificent showing for
the country.
This may be patriotism, but is it
right? Is it in accordance with sound
ethics to be more dishonest in public
matters than in private affairs? Isn't
it just as absolutely essential to be as
just and accurate in the handling Of
lations? These questions occur to us in
consequence of a case we have in mind
of a certain prominent citizen, not
thousand miles away from here, whose
public-SplritedneSS ran away with his
religion. This gentleman is prominent
in business and social affairs. He is an
officer in an orthodox church, and prides
Il nf no mo in,
pillars of the edifice. He is too good to
read Sunday paper, or to admit
one to his house. He frowns
upon secularism, in whatever form
it presents itself, and is such a strict
Sabbatarian that he would deem 1t a
violation of the divine law for man to
kiss his wife Sunday. Yet we have it
upon the authority of high railroad
official that this same gentleman visited
his office with request for copy of
the pay roll of the company. When
asked what he intended to do with it,
he said he wanted to turn in it to be
listed in the census enumeration, and
justified his strange request on the
ground that he deemed it patriotic
duty to make the enumeration as large
as it was possible to swell it. tits need
less to say that the request was not
granted, and that deeply pious man
went away under the impression that
the railway official was not a public
spirited citizen.
This illustrates how that in a great
many instances men draw distinction
hQt nj
What they would scorn to do in private
affairs they consider perfectly legiti-
mate when it comes to handling public
matters. AS we have stated, it is queer
kind of ethics, yet the prevalence of
this new school of morality is never so
forcibly illustrated as in census years.
The census bureau is founded On this
false ethical principle. Its ostensible
object is to obtain an exact enumera-
ton of persons and property and to give
the most accurate statistics relating to
all branches of business. This is rarely,
If ever, done. 1t is a notorious fact that
there has never been an absolutely cor
rect census since the government
adopted the practice of census taking,
nor has there ever been one as correct
as it could have been made. There is
always somebody or some branch of
business with an ak to grind, and this
particular interest usually manages to
obtain manipulation of census figures
to suit its purposes, The present CEN
sus is likely to be the worst of any, for
the simple reason that the manufacture
ing industries and the trusts have COM
bined to procure manipulation in
| their interests, and it looks as ii they
were going to succeed.
The hubbub in the various cities over
the inaccuracy of the census enumeIa-
ton, so far as it relates to the popula-
| ton of these cities, IS small matter in
comparison with the howl that will 60
up when the statistical part of the cen
susreturns is made public. 1t is said
that over fifty cities have already made
complaint to the census bureau respect
ing the inaccuraey of their returns.
There are others from which no com.
| plant has come where the census super.
intendent has found sufficient discrep-
| ancies on the face of the returns tC
warrant an invest e ltion. A Ii this
trouble has come from that queer ETH.
cal notion so prevalent among the
| American people, that it is necessary tC
make figures lie in order to create pros.
perity. 1t is wrong principle, yet il
| is not so hurtful as that other which
animateS the protected industries, to
twist census statistics into shape tC
suit their selfish purposes.
The disposition to swell population
beyond its legitimate limits will not re-
suit in serious or permanent harm.
Further than making us appear ridicu-
lous in the eyes of other nations, nothing
will come of it. But in order to sus-
tain their demand for protective tariff,
the manufacturers must show that their
industry is in langulshing condition
Instead of booming figures upward they
| Will boom them downward. The census
will probably give us comparatively in
| significant manufacturing record, when,
as matter of fact, the corporations
engaged in manufacturing control the
business of this country. They are
| Samsons in strength, yet for the sake
OF an argument to sustain the protective
tariff policy are willing to appear in the
census as nothing more than infants
struggling to stand alone.
What we need most of all in this
country is a moral sentiment which vii
place public affairs strictly on basis
with matters of private concern. The
ethics of one should be the ethics Of
the other. When that is done we will
be able to get reliable census.
POWDERLY'S POPSHOT.
"There Is more intimidation contained
III four lines of that bill than all the
| Southern outrageS that have taken place