Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-11-13

The Charge Of Census Padding
tor Political Purposes"
Superintendent Porter's Reply
to the Critics.

4 HE Says Partisan Census Is an ImpOssi-
biIity and That the Charges Made tc
That Effect Were Based Upon Ignorance
Does tho Great Increase Percentages
Indicate Politics?
New YORK, Nov. 13. Frank Leslie's
Of this week, prints long article on the
eleventh census from Superintendent
Porter. in which, among other things,
| Mr. Porter, replying to critics, says:
A partisan census is an impossibilitv.
The eleventh census is not the work Of
one man, bnt will represent the united
labor or $4,000 persons. To assault the
census. therefore, is to iinpeach the hon
esty Of a vast army of intelligent and
conscientious men and women, The as-
sumption that it would be possible Ia
depress the returns in one section of the
country and initiate them iii another. ii
based alike upon Ignorance Of census
methods and lack of knowledge as to the
results thus fan published.
The enumeration Of the people thor.
onghly and honestly conducted was
hedged and guarded by law passed by
the same party that now SO maliciously
assails it; and was supervised BIZ experts
and special AGENTS. nine.tenths of whom
performed the same work ten Years ago,
and not one of whom was appointc,i 5a-
cause Of his political faith,
Tire census Of New York was taken
June I and the results made pirblic in
July. No complaints of the enumera-
tion We're filed Until September With
out attempting as other cities had done,
to point out omissions the local author
tiles, ignoring the fact that Federal
census should be al of the lst of June,
proceeded to take census of their own
in October No one supposed that tho
two enHinerations would correspond.
And no one has thus tar been able to
ascertain whether the discrepancies ont
side ot those which may readily Ia ac-
counted for are due to the careless olnis-
sions of June, OF the intentional add.
tions and Implications of October.
The Federal enumerators were paid 10
much name. They We're under oath
to enumerate the people in accordance
with law 70 omit names which
should have been enumerated made
enunerators liable to fine and ilnprison-
mont. On the other hand, the police
We're appointed for the sole purpose of
finding in October more population
than the Federal enumerators found in
June Five doubtful cases in each 100
would mean an addition Of 10000, and
ten doubtful or improper enumerations
10000 To abandon the Federal count
merely on the ground that the mayor of
New York had written a brief letter
stating that an enumeration thus con-
Quoted had been made, and Offering no
proof, would have brought the census
Office into ridicule
In other cities the police merely asked
of householders ii they had been enaln-
Grated June l. The names of those who
claimed they were not enumerated were
forwarded to the census office and COM
pared with the schedules Had this
method been adopted in New York at
the proper time the snbstatial accuracy
OF the Federal census would have been
established to the satisfaction of all fair
minded citizens.
Was 1t partisan motives that prompted
the superintendent to urge, in spite OF
powerful protests, a recount in the two
largest cities III Republican Minnesota,
we'll knowing that it meant reduction
in population Of 10000 on $4,000. or that
refused d recount IN spite of the tte-
mendous efforts made 70 discredit the
census in Republican Oregony
Does This Indicate Poiitics9"
Those prejndiced paltisans are to be
pitied who can see politics in the fact
that Texas increased 1924 per cent. dur
Ing the decade, aud California 80. "a;
Arkansas 4023, and Wisconsin 279O;
Florida 44.ss, and Kansas 1891; Georgia
1895, and Ohio 14.Gj; Kentuely 1864,
and New Hampshire s.3l; Mississippi
13.54. and Maine 1.75; Maryland 1923,
and Indiana 1866: South Carolina 1928,
and Vermont decrease of 0.2: Virginia
9.0l. and Nevada d loss of 1881 per cent.
Ii these percentages indicate politics
to the minds Of the American people,
then the republic is indeed in danger,
for average intelligence il at low ebb.
III the still more remarkable percentages
of growth iii the northwestern aud Pa-
cific states are to be attributed to CEN
sus padding for political purposes, then
cur growth and prosperity is myth,