Mower County transcript., 1890-11-26
THE BUNGLING CENSUS.

THE BUNGLlN6 CENSUS.
There has never been a census taken in
this country about which there has been
so much complaint as the recent one
taken under the supervision Of iucom.
petent Porter. The prominent newspa-
pers all over the land have shown the
conspicuous inaccuracies and defects of
what is claimed to be an official state
ment of our population and other sta
tistics The latest exhibition of Porter's
stupidity is the publication. last week. of
what he calls bulletin on the financial
condition of municipalities.
What is attempted to be shown in the
statistics is the statement Of financial
condition of all important cities in the
United States, showing the bonded and
floating debt, the sinking fund, cash in
treasury, and other available resources
upon which table of figures can be
made up showing the probable indepted-
ness of the cities in each state and of all
states of the Union. This, of course,
would be valuable work if it was re-
liable, but few comparative instances
will tend to show how utterly useless
this statement is as showing the actual
debt of all cities in any state or group Of
states. The statistics for Minnesota
show how carelessly the work was done,
and how utterly unreliable 1t is for any
practical purpose.
In Minnesota the cities given in detail,
and upon which the financial condition of
the cities of the whole state is based, and
upon which the comparative tables with
other states and groupes of states in the
Union are made, as follows: Albert Lea,
Austin, Brainerd, Duluth, Faribauit, Has.
tings, New Ulm, Red Wing. Rochester, st.
Paul, st. Peter Stillwater-twelve cities
in all, some of them. of course, the most
important in the state but other large
and important cities are entirely omitted,
no mention being made of such cities as
Minneapolis. Mankato, Winona, Waba-
sha Lake City, Fergus Falls, St. Cloud,
Anoka, Litchfeld, Luverne, Worthlng-
ton, Weseca, Blue Earth City, Crookston,
Noorhead and a score of other cities in
Minnesota which are fully as important
as some of thoses included in the list
printed in this bulletine. After the state
ment from these twelve cities, the bonded
debt of the Minnesota municipalities is
given at IS, 735, 44O. and in all the COM
parative tables in groups of Western
states, and all the states together, the
municipalities of Minnesota is placed at
that figure
In this bulletin we find that Austin had
in 1880 a debt of 81, ,157 and available
resources amounting to $lO6. In 1880
the debt of our city is given as $75, ,0CO
with no available resources. :According
to the same table Albert Lea in 1880 had
a debt of $39, 385 and no available re-
rources and in 1890 $1.51S of debt and
1868 of available resources. Every
one knows that if these figures are a
sample of the accuracy of the whole
bulletin that thew are utterly false, un-
reliable and misleading. OF what value
can such statistics be? Their publication
is an injury and libel. There is no pos
sible excuse for such stupidity which
allows these false statistics to 20 abroad
with official sanction. The Pioneer
Press we'll saws: In the name of
decency let US shut up the census bureau,
if possible, and pay all the employees to
do nothing, If we may be spared the ma
tional humiliation of such an exhibition
of ignorance and general incompetence
as this country has never before seen in
place of equal responsibility and trust.
THE