The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-10-23

Superintendent Porter Replies to tn
Criticisms of "The HeraId''

a Tribune correspondent the following |
statement about the cost of the Eleventh
Census, in reply to certain criticisms in
the New York Herald of yesterday:
The Herald of to-day says: at will
take four or five years to complete the
work" l expect to finish it all and have
it ready for the printer by the close of
1892.
The Herald says that l have asked
Congress to appropriate two or three
million dollars more, and with that can
get the work about half done" My last
report to the Secretary of the Interior,
accessible to all newspapers, asks for
81 ,OOO,O 900 to complete all the work, in
GLIDING the inquiry relating to mortgage
indebtedness, which was an extra in
quiry and not included in the original
appropriation for the census. This is
all that will be necessary. The Herald,
says, Che" the Superintendent of Cen
sus, ''has 5000 Of the small printing
! (punching) machines on which he owes
S375, 200, and has not paid n cent"
Instead of $375,OOO these machines
cost S15, 900, and the Census Office does
not owe one cent on them.
The Herald says ''the Superintendent
has 12O of the larger machines, on
which he owes year and half rent,
which at 81 900 year would be $4,000,
making the total Indebtedness of the
! Bureau on these machines $3.50, 900, and
neither contract nor voucher on file i'll
the Treasury Department to show it.
The total Indebtedness of the Census
Office for this purpose, instead of being
$555, 900, as stated by the Herald, is not
one dollar. The vouchers are paid every
month. Such sum is preposterous; if
every machine contracted for was used
for an entire year at full rental the total
cost could only reach $4,000 per year.
When machines are not used we do not
pay for them. These same machines are
being used by the Canadian Government
and the Austrian Government, and they
are paying substantially the same rent
for them as the Census Office pays.
The Herdd says that the census of
1880 cost S4,0OO,000; the appropriations
show that the census of 1880, exclusive
of printing, binding and engraving, cost
s., S53, $50: and the printing, binding and
engraving Sl,O1S,l1O, making total of
S5,S71 AGO as the cost of the census of
1880, including printing, binding and en-
craving The Herald says the census
has already cost one-third more than
the census of 1880" The appropriations
thus far for the census proper, exclusive
of printing, binding and engraving, have
been So, 400, 900; of this amount at least
5000, 900 has been expended for inquiries
required by the present Census act which
were not required by former census, and
about 100000 remains uneXpended. So,
as a matter of fact, the present census,
instead of having already cost, as the
Herald asserts, one third more than the
census of 1880, has cost S5,900,00O, or
about 81 ,OOO, 900 more than the census of
$780, or OBS cents per capita, as against
O.6S in 1880, or a decrease of 0.32 cents
per capita. The population has in
creased about 25 per cent. The cost of
the Eleventh Census, down to this time,
instead of being one third more than the
census of 1880, has been trifie less than
the total cost of the census of 1880 would
have been had the same number of
population been enumerated. a con-
tinuous. progressive enhancement of the
per capita cost of successive censuses is
to be expected, even if the scope of en-
umeration is in no degree widened, by
reason of the continually expanding de-
tail into which the traditional classes of
statistics will invariably be drawn under
the ever growing popular demand for
local and minute information. The in
crease from 1870 to 1880 was nearly one
cent. per cdDita. Allowing a similar in
crease for the last decade, the cost of the
present census, exclusive of printing,
binding and engraving, and of the adj
ditional inquiries required by Congress
and appropriated for separately, should
be about SO, 100 O0O-and l expect to
complete the census and have it ready
for the printer for less than that sum.
ANY statement to the contrary is false
and misleading.
The Herald says: "The census appro-
} priation has all been SPENT" which is
not true. There is to the credit of the
several census funds 1886, 900, and the
accounts of the Office are all paid to date
The only bills due are such as are in
transit or have not been presented.
have sufficient money to continue all the
l necessary work until such time as Con
gress may make additional appropria
tons.
The statement that the charge thai
the Superintendent was interested il
any way, direct or indirect, in the punch
ing machines had never been denied
=, shows the venom of the Herald article
1t has been denied to correspondent O.
that paper, and is now again denied ant
= denounced as a malicious libel anC
= falsehood.
D WHY AM A PROTECTIONIsT.
r By this policy the farm, the shop, the
, ! mine and the factory, each furnish ;