Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-08-20

statlstlcian who uses this system must not only
plan the forms of the tables but the order in
which they are to be compiled and the scheme
OF work of the dials and sorting boxes for each
table to produce the most econo mical results.
In addition to the machines above described
Mr.. holerith has devised several other ingeu-
ious adaptations of electrical counting for stat
lstlcai work. One of these, which promises TO
be OF much use, is what he calls integrating
device, by which a series of values, as Of indi-
vldual farms or of crops, indicated by punch
ing hoies In card for each farm or item, are
summed up on the diais Of the counting ma
chine as the cards are passed through it.
All these mechanical methods of compiling
and computing" he said in conclusion, will
be more important in a permanent census bu-
reau, which is now badly needed in this coun-
try, than they are under the present system,
where they are placed in the hands of large
NUMBER OF people, who must learn how to use
them and are discharged about the time they
have done So"
As DR.. Billings finished the crowd that had
packed the room and extended out into the
hallway beyond the wide door surged around
the doctor as he stood beside the counting ma
chimes and a score Of questions was asked him in
a single breath. He answered them as fast as
ne could and the section adjourned for few
minutes so that every one could examine the
machines and WORK them himself to see just
how such wonderful counting was done by a
simple looking machine.
The interesting subject Of the accuracy Of
the census was treated Of in the next paper,
presented by Alexander S. Christie of this city,
its subject being "A Measure of the Reliability
Of Census Enumeration" The paper was quite
brief and of considerable interest in its pro-
posed plan for an absolutely correct census
enumeration.
''Soon after Gen. Walker retired from the
superintendency Of the tenth census" he said,
pl-n1h I. =
determine the probable error or the numeri-
cal measure Of the precision of the enumeration
of the people He replied that there had been
no such attempt. am not informed whether
any direct or effective indirect method
has been applied during, the progress
OF the eleventh census. The presumption
is that nothing of the kind has been done. /
would suggest that the twelfth enumeration be
taken in a single day. and that the precision of
the result be determined during its progress.
Say by this method: Having taken by random
hundred rural and hundred urban districts,
put into each OF them during the last hour
of the official day of enumeration a dozen
thoroughly reliable men brought from dis
tance, and let them, keeping their presence
unknown to the local enumerator to the very
last moment possible go thoroughly over the
whole ground and make up returns approxi-
mating as closely as practicable to absolute
correctness. comparison of these results
with those Of the local enumerator in each and
all OF the 200 districts will afford basis for
timatins the percentage Of error in tho emu
meration."
PROF. WARDS TWO PAPERS
The next two papers were by Prof. Lester F.
Ward. The first was on "a National Univer-
sity, Its Character and Purpose" The grand
national university recommended by Washing
ton. Jefferson, Madison and many later Pres
ident's and statesmen is, he said, almost
foin 90 hn h.
The university, he said. should be distinctly
national, the creature of the American people.
1t should be located at the seat Of government
and be as representative the government
itself. 1t should be held entirely by Americans
and they should be distributed all over the
country. Scholarships could be allotted by
congressional districts and candidates admitted
by competitive examination: Everything
about the institution should be free from polit-
ical influence. The faculties should be chosen
by commission Of the most eminent scientific
men and scholars in the country who would be
entirely above political bias. He suggested the
National Academy. the board of Smithsonian
regents and similar high authorities. The
''strong chair" of this university should be its
course in the sciences OF the art of govern
ment. Every department OF government busi-
ness should be fully taught. "The admins
tratiye offices of the government" he said in
conclusion, should be filled as soon as
possible from the graduates of the university,
SO that at length the civil service force of the
United States shall consist exclusively of per-
sons who had o thorough training in the
theory and practice OF government.
Prof. Wards second paper, The Science and
Art of Government" dealt with the same gen.
eral subject. He said, in brief:
Government should be looked upon as the
business agency of the nation and the science
OF conducting this business agency. The
various branches of administration have arisen
through pressure from without. Everything
that the people have demanded to
be done with sufficient unanimity and per-
sistence has been eventually undertaken by
the government. One bureau after another
has been created by law, placed in charge of
proper officers and conducted to the best of the
latters ability. Most bureaus have grown and
expanded in their scope and usefulness. Many
have been several times reorganized and the
service perfected.
SCIENCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.
In the science Of political economy the SUBJ
ject OF government operations is destined to
occupy an increasingly prominent place. 1t is
safe to say that no chair Of political economy
in any institution of learning has ever taugh.
or attempted to teach the practical workings of
public administration-the way in which the
business of the nation il conducted.
1t is impossible to teach this branch Of politi-
cal economy without the means of a direct ex-
animation Of the different systems Of govern
ment business as they are conducted by their
respective bureaus.
Each great system such as those Of finance,
land, patents, &c., would require a course of
lectures, with repeated visits TO the depart
ments, inspection of records, books, papers.
merchandise, &c. This would require Il legal
right to prosecute the stu iy in this only prac-
ticable way. Nothing short OF a ma
tioual institution. created and author
lied by law, to teach the science and
art Of government could successfully carry out
this scheme of education. As a safeguard to
our institutions, not less than as a means Of ma
tionsl progress aud enlightenment, no other
educational scheme is sequal to it in importance"
THE SOUTHERN ''oLD FIELDS"
In the next paper, ''The Southern old
Fields ,'"W. ]. MCGEE told how, throughout the
coastal plain Of the southern United States,
abandoned fields abound. When these fields
are low or gently undulating they are quickly
clothed with pines or with other vegetation,
chiefly arbOrescent, but when hilly and high,
as is the case commonly in Mississippi and occa-
sionaiiy in other parts Of the region the ravines
or deepened gullies invade the hill slopes and
uplands until in some cases the entire soil is
surface transformed into glaring sand waste.
the most fertile OF cotton fields, are clogged
with the sand swept from the hills until they,
too, are utterly ruined for agriculture.
In many rarts of the coastal plain this
modern surface erosion is limited only but
elsewhere it Is of appalling extent Thus ex-
tensive observations in Mississippi indicate that
the comm on wealth loaes more each wear in the