The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1890-11-07
secRe RAY xoeL r,s RepLY.
A scathing Letter to Governor Hill On
Census Matters.

A scathing Letter to Governor mn On
Census Matters.
WASHINGTON, Nov. A. Secretary Noble
has addressed the following communIca.
tion to Governor Hill in reply to his re.
cent letter urging recount Of the city of
New York;
WASHINGTON Nov. 8, 1890
DEAR SIR-Your communication OF the 3ist ult
was duly received. There had already been deliv-
cred 10 me letter from the mayor OF the city
OF New York on the same suhject-the claim OF
that city 10 a recount of It's population bv the
United States census authorities While you
have added the weight Of the governors of1ice
10 the complaint, you have failed TO add TO
those already presented by the mayor a single
suggestion OF the slightest value II was wholly
unnecessary for you 10 remind me Of the pro-
visions Of the constitution Of the United States
relating TO enumeration and spportionmeut OF
representatives or the electoral college; or that
provision Of the census law allowing amend.
ments and recounts. All Of this very FAINT
liar law to me, and your quotation Of IL might
have been copied from my last opinion delivered
TO the mayor and which you state you had read
In the newspapers.
No ExhortatIon Needed.
Neither did need any exhortatou upon the
subject of fair apportionments, as an equal ap.
portionmeut throughout the United States, and
the perfect freedom and equality Of the indiyid-
ua elector is a reform to which have given my
earnest support, and which is worthy that Of
every public officer and every Individual citizen
Had you read the corresponce with the mayor
whose immediate concern this business has been
you would have found your topic already ex-
hausted Such appnrtionment you may, how
ever. be reminded would cert,snly and perma-
nently promote the success of the party to which
you incorrectly say all the enumerators Of tho
city Of New York belong.
The 1mputations of Fraud.
1t is much to be regretted that in a letter to me
when acting upon a purely official matter you,
as governor, should speak as a partisan and i'm
pute corrupt purpose to the census enumera-
tors to secure party advantage by diminishing
the count of the city of New York
Your imputation against the enumerators and
the census work is so entirely gratuitous and un-
founded as TO be slanderous as you should know
that your abusive course could not tend to pro-
mote that fair and judicial consideration have
been disposed TO give TO the application Of the
mayor. Your charge imputng fraudulent mo-
tves to others rather suggests that as your party
thinks an increased population would inure TO its
advantage the count Of the police (taken as it
has been since the police board Of New York has
been made partisan) needs the very closest scru-
tiny and analysis The charges being made
in New York against the city government by
Democrats are not of a kind to relieve any work
done by it from the gravest suspicion Of reckless
partisanship
He Holds the Governor Responsible.
Your accusations, heretofore confined 10 in
terviews and stump speeches, began even before
the enumeration was announced. Some Of the
Democratic newspapers in New York aud else
where made the census enumerators' work very
difficult by exciting the prejudice of ignorance
against IL, and it is to be remarked that you, as
early as the 1st of July last, made an address
before the Hendricks club, at indianapolis, in
which you bitterly assailed the census office and
its work, and asserted without any knowledge
whatever, the same evil purpose you now send to
me officially. You then repeated the newspaper
criticisms and spoke of the great army of in
qusitors sent pryinG into our houses asking i'm
pertinent questions, making false records, -" ETC.,
and you did not fail to notice the possible effect
of all this in raising popular distrust and disin-
clination to respond to the enumerators. You
did not succeed in these efforts to any consider
able degree but you are largely responsible for
any inaccuracies that may exist
Continuous and Partisan Assaults"
You set the example by denouncing q law of
congress- and thus suggested its violation by
your less acute political followers. Your early
and continuous partisan assaults upon the census
have had necessarily motive which is easily dis.
cerned That motive points to an unjust end
which certainly shall not promote. II is but
just that there should be no delay in completing
the census that the purposes for which it is in.
tended may be accomplished.
You further asserted in the speech mentioned
that lit the Republican party will not repu-
diate that even more plainly declared policy Of
breaking the power of the solid south in presi-
dental as well as congressional elections by de
liberatey ignoring the vast increases of popula-
ton in that section of the country during the
last decade" The truth is, complaint what
ever has been received from any southern state,
as state, against the census; and the only
serious claim of an erroneous diminuton of pop
ulation and representation by state came from
the Republican state of Oregon. Out of the
27s1 counties in all the states and territories
there has been no complaint whatever, save from
Multnouah county In Oregon. There has not
been a complaint from any southern city that
has not been promptly and satisfactorily adjust
ed without recount, save at Columbus Ga, and
there was found an increase of l13e only.
| A Question of Patronage, He Says.
You seem to be against a census to be taker
| even by your own state, for you vetoed bill
/ passed by its legislature in 1885, and which wa!
l required by Its constitution. 1t is reasonable L
i suppose that the patronage you seem to think 81
/ influential In political affairs would not havt
fallen in your hands, or, judging you by th'
standard you apply to others, your official actor
would have been just the opposite of what
i was
| AS have demonstrated, the great body of tn
| people of the United States content with tn
| census, and are uninfluenced by partisan assault
I such as yours,
Sorry He Had to Do 1t.
| Sustained by their confidence shall procee
| with the discharge of my official duties in thi
and all other business coming before me, care
| fully and justly, correcting what l may be cor
vinced is wrong, and fearlessly adhering to wha
believe to be right. regret the necessity c
addressing the chief magistrate of the eadin
state of the Union in the terms have employed
but find my justification in the reckless inten
| perance Of language you have seen fit to us
| language which is lacking much in truth as
is in the dignity beftting your great office, whc
| in the past has been filed by eminent men
both political parties of New York. Upon II
merits of the mayors application shall reply
him. Yours truly, JOHN W NOBLE senrafsrv
FOUR WERE KILLED.