Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-08
ODD CENSUS METHODS.

The officials experimenting the taking
of the United States census for 1890 are
endeavoring to collect vast mass of statis-
tics through the unreliable method of
volunteer" or rather Solicited contri-
button. Thus, Office men, journalists,
bankers, city officials, State officers, insur-
ance agents, teachers OF schools, directors
of school districts, Postoffce clerks, and
small army of Others, have received bulky
bundles of blanks with the request to fill
them out to the best of their ability on
hundred or more of subjects, and return
them to the chief census officer at Wash
ington. One package received at this Of
fee would command the exclusive labor of
skilled clerk and accomplished Stats
tician for two weeks to fill. That is to say,
to ascertain the facts asked for in these
blanks would necessitate long search of a
score of official records, and a longer time
for intricate calculations concerning NUM-
cipal expenses, debts taxation, division of
expenses among institutions, and so on,
from the year 1880 down to the present
time, and for each year separately in that
decade. One set of blanks shown us asked
citizen to furnish statistics of corpora
tons doing business in Sacramento, that
could not be gathered, much less calculated
in months time, if ten hours day were
devoted to the task.
Ifthis is the method the Superintendent
of the Census is employing throughout the
whole country, the statistical reports of
the census of 1890 will not be worth the
paper on which they will be printed. Sup
pose all the citizens who are asked to do
this gratu1tous work for the Government
respond fully with reports, what is the
Superintendent going to do with them
when he receives the returns? How is he
to determine which to reject and what to
accept? What knowledge can he have of
the reliability of the returns made, and
how is he to ascertain that the work has
been done thoroughly? The whole scheme
is bad. The one and one only method of
collecting official statistics is to appoint a
thoroughly competent person in every sub
district, to pay him well for the service
and require his report to be made from
facts gathered between exact dates, and
those should be as close together as cir
cumstances permit.
If the census gatherings outside of the
enumeration of population are to be Sc
cured in the manner that the circulation
of these volunteer" blanks would indi-
cate, we repeat that it will be reckless
waste of money on the part Of the Interior
Department to order the statistics printed.
The nation is not so poor that it needs to
resort to these "Cheap John methods of
ascertaining the statistics of national
wealth, State and city production, manu-
features, educational facilities, municipal
systems, etc. As we understand the mat
ter it was not the intention Of Congress
that there should be anywhere near the
detail entered into in the taking of the
census in this year that was employed in
1880. 1t is probable, therefore, that the
new Superintendent is endeavoring to
gather matter for which no financial pro-
vision has been made, and hence he is re-
sorting to the method Indicated If so,
the sooner it is abandoned the better, for
any aggregates ascertained from the free
sources referred to will prove valueless to
the general public and will not be consid-
cred worth farthing by statisticians.