New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-05-13
CENSUS RECORDS GUARDED.
not OPEN TO INSPECTION BY CITIZENS.
RrcE,s DEPUTY REFUSES TO PRODUCE LITTER
BOOK WHICH, HE SAYS SHOWS THE
REASON FOR EVERY ALTERATION.
PROM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF TnE TRlBuy


lrRoM STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE TalBuyHl
Albany, May l2.-Laot Sunday, the day follow
ing the publication in The Tribune of the charge,
among others, that the officials in control Of the
Enumeration Bureau had caused the original rolls
or returns Of the State enumerators to be fraudu-
ienty altered to make it appear that enor-
nous masses Of persons. probably as many as
100000, were returned by the enumerators as cii-
yens whereas, in fact they were returned as
aliens, there was printed in The New-fork
Herald" the report of an interview with Thomas
T. benedict the Deputy Secretary of State. In
this interview Mr. Benedict quoted as say
ING: 80 il is alleged that changed the figures
OF the original returns when found the alien
list footing up too fast? Well. have letter
hook here which will show the reason for every
change made in the returns. There were num-
ber of changes made nece -sary to correct errors
of enumerators, but there is no secret about H.
We wee very careful TO make every ennmerator
comply with the law, and 70 do that necessltated
a great amount of letter-writng. Our letter-book,
containing all the correspondence with the enumer-
ators is we'll bound and can be seen at any time
This was an exceedingly foolish statement on
Mr. Benedct's part. 1t is one he cannot possibly
,nhstantiate Undoubtedly there was much cor
respondence between the Bureau officials and the
Iocol enumerators. especially with those cnumer-
ators who reported the inmate population OF thc
various penal and charitable institutions. But
there were thousands upon thousands of altera-
tions made as 20 which the enumerators were not
consulted at all. In some cases, where the original
return had been scratched and scrawed over so
that every page was separate tale OF wholesale
f,aud il was recopied in it's entirety, the altera
tions being incorporated in the copy, and the
cnumerators affidavit, which had been attached
lptachpd e.
tnrn and fastened upon the copy, that he was
made 10 swear 70 the contents Of paper he had |
rever seen or heard Of When Mr. Benedict said
be had a letter-book which would show the rea-
son for every change made in the returns he
we'll 10 nut il gently, he erred and the error was
not less an error of Judgment than OF fact.
Still. that's what he said, according TO n cor
respondent who is recognized as one OF the most
careful and conscientious in the Albany corps ana
he also said that the lctter-book was well oound'
md could be seen at any time. So / called on
Mr. Benedict to-day for the purpose of seeing IT,
| gave him my name, said that I represented |
The Tribune. reminded him of what The Herald
hod ouoted him as saying about the letter-book, |
and then said that had per Onally examined the |
duplicate returns of the Ist and Id Assembly |
Districts of the city of New-lork. FLED there III |
the County Clerks office, and had made an actuai
count Of all the alien inhabitants OF every eec- |
tion district in those two Assembly dlstrlcts, as
shown in the duplicate returns; that IN almost
every election district l had counted many more |
aliens than were returned in the secretary oi
States report to the Legislature; that IN the Isl
Assembly District Mr. Rice had reported 1898 |
aliens, while the duplicate lists showed 1884 that
in the lid Assembly District Mr.. Rice had
reported l5,02I, while the duplicate lists snowe"
IL 531-a total difference, in the TWO dls~icts. VI
as11: that if Mr.. Benedict had In his posses
sion well-bound lettcr-book which wouId snow
the reason of all these changes, and If 1T could
be seen at any time, i should greatly Ike 10
see il now and that, with his KIND permis
sion, and in order to direct our examination Vi
the letter book intelligently, would call his at
tention 70 the Twentieth Election District OF
the Id Assembly District, where he had found only
900 aliens and had counted 1856.
Mr. Benedict listened TO this statement VIII!
the utmost attention and, when it was done MS |
face assumed expression OF Diana ana eeh'c
serenity such as would have made An SINS ever
lasting fortune lie stroked his mustachc re-
fiectively. took off his eyeglasses rubbed MS
nose and then replied in substantially these
words: Il am very glad to see you, Sir Oh
any other representative OF The lrihuhe' al any |
lime The Tribune is an excellent and most insruc-
tive newspaper, and l read it almost every day. |
have read the articles it has recently printed
great variety of useful information. | also read
the interview in The Herald. to which you have
alluded: but shall neither deny nor affirm that
my remarks were correctly reported. am not re-
sponsble however. for what the newspapers mahc
mc saw | often have great difficulty IN fccoS-
nizinr statements attributed TO me n the news
papers You are here. ! take it, TO obtain some
thing for me which you can use ahrcitIy.
| interrupted at this point to say that uiu
not Just like the word "adrotly, ana that
sboud report his language with liberal precision.
IL don't doubt that" he said but you VIII
put your own construction on il. do not ihtehd
at this time 20 facilitate your Investigations
do not in the least blame YOU for making them
That is vour business Wien this department ms
anything TO say in explanation or defence Vi i'
methods it will speak in us own ""s
and at its own time just at P'e''"
the census records of the department are not
available for public inspection | under tahd th'o
they will be bound and placed on lie Al '''
State Library, and then you can see them' W"e"
that will he / don't know Judge hice VIII w
eide. They are quite sale where they a'e "U"
They won't oct lost or hurt. / observed Inc
Inbune's suggestion about the POSSIBILITY VI
fire in the room downstairs, and have taken extra
precautions IN prevent that or any other misbap'
Is this your reply to my request to inspect
the well-bound lcttcr-book which can DE see"
az any time and which will show the reason Vi
every change that was made in the enumera'0fs
rolls, and therefore, the reason of the 40 changes
that were made in the roll Of tile twentieth E"'~
ton District of the lid Assembly DISTRICT oi New
York City,
Yes that il my reply "a,
"Thcn you won't let me see the ie''er' oooN
mo, | won't No; if you want TO see 'he
roIs Won "a, readily do so in the various county
clerks Offices. where duplicates were He'd nhe