St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-24
WHERE THE FAULT LIES.

The story which comes from Wash
ington that Census superintendent
PORTER has revoked the commissions
of certain Minneapolis enumerators is a
little fiShy, and yet it is about in keep
ing with everything that is being done
in this census business. The story is
that some of the enumeratOrs confessed
to Special Agent BoUDINoT that they
had placed names on the census lists in
violation of law, and that when the spe-
cial agent communicated this fact to the
census bureau the order came back to
deprive the law-breaking enumeratOrS
of their commissions. Horrible punish
ment! A government official to be de-
priyed of his commission after he has
served out his term. The man who
took the precaution to lock the stable
door after the horse had been stolen ex-
hibited about the same kind of wisdom
that Superintendent PORTER is report
ed to have shown in this case.
AS we have said, the story is a fishy
one, and yet this whole census taking
has been conducted on such plane OF
inetficiency and in utter disregard of
the public interests. The duties of an
enumeratOr are made plain enough by
the law so far as they relate to the
enumeration of persons. He is assigned
a certain district to go over, and it is
made his duty to see that every person
living in that district is counted once
and no more. 1t must be an actual
count, and be made by himself. The
duty of the supervisor is TO see that each
enumeration performs his duty according
to the stricteSt requirements of the law.
There ought to be no difficulty in OBJ
tanning an honest count under such cir
cumstances. But the trouble has been
that in many localities the appointment
of supervisors was made as the reward
for partisan political services. These
machine supervisors in turn appointed
their tools and henchmen as enumer-
ators, and as result the governments
interests have been subordinated to
local or personal interests.
If the census bureau were being con-
Quoted with an eye single to the public
service, the census superintendent
couldn't content himself with an order
revoking the commissions Of enumer-
ators whom he had reason to suspect of
unfaithfulness to their official trust.
He would order their immediate arrest
and prosecution under the section OF
the law which prescribes pains and pen
alties for it's violation. That is the way
the head of the census bureau would
proceed if he had it in his heart TO give
the law All honest enforcement.
The first serious mistake that was
made in this census business was in APP
pointing ROBERT P. PORTER to super
intend the taking of the census. In
stead of selecting a man of thorough
business training and approved execu-
tive ability, the president selected Mr..
| PORTER because he had proved himself
| nimble in manipulating tariff statistics.
| The one object of the census, accord
ing to President HARRIsoN'S narrow
view of it. was to demonstrate
to the world the Importance of
American manufacturing industries as
an argument in support of the protective
policy. AS secretary of the tariff COM
mission and as statistical clerk of the
| Republican campaign committee, Mr..
| PORTER had won distinction as padder
of tariff statistics. And this was his
sole recommendation for the Office of
census superintendent.
The result is that the census of 1890
will be the most unsatisfactory and the
most unreliable we have ever had.
Ever since Mr.. PoRTER's appointment
the GLOBE Office has been flooded with
| circulars from the census bureau urging
(! the Importance of working up manu-
| featuring statistics, and we have no
| doubt the other newspaper offices
throughout the country have had the
same experience.
1t would have been much better for
the public service if, instead of devot-
ing his time exclusively to the manu-
featuring industry, Mr.. PORTER had oc-
cupied his time in studying out a de-
| tailed plan Of census taking, and thus
! have had some system and efficiency in
the work. AS it is, everything has run
at loose ends. In localities such as ours,
where the supervisor was an expert
enced man and had some practical
| knowledge of his duties, he managed to
| get through the work after fashion, in
| spite of the difficulties that beset him.
But in other localities, where incapable
and rascally fellows were made super
visors, the government seems to be prac-
tically powerless to either undo their
wrongs or to punish the wrongdoers.
If the right sort of man were at tie
| head of the census bureau, there could
be no monkeying with the census re-
turns.