The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-04-26
CENSUS OFFICE ABUSES.
"THE HERALD" THANKED FOR
CALLING ATTENTION TO THEM.
The Constant Goading of Employees Not
Only Impairs Their Health But
Endangers the Accuracy of the
Census.

Editor Sunday Herald:
SIR: Your last Sundays article on the Cen
sus Bureau, though mainly correct, does not
tell the whole story. Nevertheless the ladies
Of that bureau return you thanks for your no
tice of the grievances under which they suffer.
There are two grounds for serious complaint:
First, the goad which is necessarily applied to
induce an extra amount of work--an amount
which is not called for or produced in any other
Government bureau. A notice was posted early
this month that all who did not by the middle
of the month show an average of some five
hundred and fifty cards punched per day would
be rerated-i. c., degraded-to smaller pay.
Then a roll of honor is published and posted
with the names of all who make five hundred
and over, and constant suggestions and hints
are thrown out by the various sub-chiefs that
that the Superintendent requires more work.
The result of these threats and stimulants is
that many of the ladies have broken down,
and others are gradually but certainly impair
ing their health They come to their homes
wan and wearied out, and go to their work in
the morning with faint bodies and anxious
hearts. They work harder than factory girls
in New England mills, and are treated with
less consideration.
Another grievance is the coarse and rude
manners of many yof the young gentlemen-not
all young, either-who are set over them, and
who, because they are required to get a certain
amount of work out of their field hands,
crack the whip over them, forgetting or ignor-
ing or not knowing that they are ladies, many
of them of mature age ladies who grace a
drawing-room, wives and widows of gentle
men, others young and timid girls, and all en-
titled to the consideration and courtesy which
gentlemen always render to ladies.
These are not distorted or prejudiced views,
and they call for serious consideration and for
rebuke. But another point suggests itself.
Some years ago the Pension Office, goaded by
the very natural impatience of delayed appli-
cants rushed thousands of cases through in
such hurry that inaccuracy and injustice was
the natural result, and much work had to be
done over.
am convinced that this will be the result of
the present rush in the Census Bureau. Ac-
curacy above all things, should be the aim
and the motto of the Census Bureau, and
when we consider the muddle of the returns
made by many of the ignorant and illy-paid
enumerators, over which returns the ladies of
the bureau are expected to gallop and study
and decipher as they run, you can readily see
how little faith can be placed in these
lightning calculations. Remarks can be fire.
quently heard from clerks who figure high on
the punching machines, sob l can't stop to
verify" and yet these reports should all be
verified, and the inaccuracies of the original
returns should not be increased by the in
accuracies incident to the system of the
Census Bureau.
| appreciate the value of the statistics now
being collated, if correct, and appreciate the
energy and intelligence with which Mr.. Porter
has has thrown himself into this work.
Neither do believe that he has prostituted it
to partisan purposes, but | think he is making
q serious mistake in this rush and impairng
the very first object of census, to wit, ac-
curacy and the public faith and credit in his
work. JUSTICE.