The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-08-03
TRAMPS ARE SCARCE.
The Strange Findings of the
Official Statistics.
They Declare Army of the IN
employed is Small.
FIGURES MUST LIE.
There is Obviously Mistake in
the Computations.

were making thousands OF hearts gIad aI1d
several heads dizzy by the rapidlty with
which they passed private and local bills,
many representative men Of the dominant
party were on their way here and the de-
partmcnts were turning out some splen-
did work in the shape Of final reports and
summaries of the condition of the people
The census department especially is put
ting things through very lively, and IN
connection with the labor bureau Hon
Carroll D. Wright, being now practically
the head of both is giving us fresh figures
every day to prove that we are not one
tenth pat as miserable as we thought we
were
Owing to a sort of accident, as is sup
posed, though some members of the house
take another view of it, certain figures
heretofore among the first to come ont
are in this census to be among the very
last. The bulletin which gives the total
number of 1aborers in the United States
and the nurnb ter engaged in each special
occupation is eagerly sought for and is
now being made up The delay, accord
ing to the experts of the census office, is
due to the fact that the department has
done SO much more and collected SO many
more facts than ever before; that every
thing had TO be gone over two or three
times and every doubtful point cleared ND
before final tabulation- The net result Is
that congressional agitators viii not be
able to get figures for use this session and
may not even set them in time to use dur
ing the campaign.
The Unemployed.
Tho facts already tabulated, however,
present very different conclusions from
those given in popular rhetoric Instead
of there being millions Of labOrers with
out employ ment' it appears doubtful if
there are half q lnillion-that is, Of people
who habitually labor in good t1mes-and
instead Of the country being .overrun by
tramps" they are comparatively rare crea-
lures In fact, unless q great many poO-
Mo nra Vi ar 0f
this country in which tramp is n curiosi-
ty, and in thrce-fourths of the south there
arc no idlers except those who never work
anyhow
AS to farm labor, it would be very hard
for man to take the figures now going
through the press, and which ngrcssmen
viii be able to frank to their constituents
before they leave here, and prove that the
country is any less prosperous than it was
in $40 or 1880. The main truth is that
thcre is a great lowering of prices all
around, and that makes the figures smaller
and presumably makes it hard on debtors
The abstrac5 of the census just out is
document congressmen viii study with
some care during vacation, for it is dol
lars to douRhnuts that there viii be the
biggest kind Of a row about this census
next winter. Some of the figures are OBJ
viously wrong and ere admitted to be SO
though the officials here tabulated them
from the local reports, and no one can
tell why the latter fell so far short of the
truth. The points Of manifest error, I'M
less human nature changed very suddenly
about dozen years ago, are in the emu
1neratiOn in New York city and Two or
three southern states, especially in the
cOlored population. Taking it by decades,
the colored people are represented as hav-
ing increased about 21 per cent in 1S5O-6O,
9 per cent in 1S60-7O, over So per cent in
1870 50 and but Is u per cent in 1ssO-9O,
which is self evident nonsense
Ten Thousand More Pensioners.
OF the great mass of bills rushed through
by tho house, and which the senate is now
rushing through almost as rapidly, Ger
tainly not more than / in 20 is of national
interest, but the committees have sum
married. the results with approach Of
accuracy I5 is estimated that all tho
bills libcralizing the pension laws viii
make it posi- Bile to add some 10, 600 pen
sioners to the rolls, but it may exceed
that. The net result of . score or more of
bills and resolutions on the labor question
Is that ono firs5 class commission, with
Commissioners Wright at the head Of it, is
now at work, and few fellows are tax
ing testimony in a feeble way from some
of the standing committees of congress.
The subcommittee of the house commit
tee on immigration has reported strongly
in favor of Mr. LOCKWOOD bill, and as
the full committee viii probably support
i5 it stands a chance at the next session
1T forbids labcrers from Canada and Mex
leo TO cross the line and work tempo
rary contracts, whether for "a day or q year,
and forbids shipowners from employing
them in any capacity whatever 1t also
provides that alien labOrers coming to this
country are to be examined at the port Of
entry and not SLOWED to land unless they
possess SIS each or $50 for minors and
makes stringent rules about immigrant
women. some Of the committee say that
it is too strong a measure for them to in
dorse II the trouble can be got at in any
other way, but admit that the sentiment
IS pretty strong IN is favor and something
must be done
Liberal Public Building Policy.
Another movement for Hberalizing
things in general is the AcKaig bill, which
the committee ON public buildings has APP
proved, and which provides that public
buildings are TO be designed on the basis
of free competition among architects and
built ON more liberal system than here
tofore. All sorts of plans have been sug-
gestcd for making government contracts
IN other lines more democratic Inciden-
tally the very latest report from the bureau
of navigation in the treasury department.
shows that during the last fiscal year there
were built q the United States 53S wood
en- sailing vessels Of 81, TO tons, 3OS wood
en- steam vessels of A, 15S tons, three iron
and steel sailing vessels Of i, $50 tons and
a. iron and steel steam vessels of AZ, 716
tons, an aggregate Of 40, AGO in tonnage of
sailers and 81 934 in tonnage Of steamers
Other reports Just issued show in a gen
eral way considerable decrease in the pro-
duction Of metals and a great decrease in
the consumption of many kinds Of manu-
kactured goods
No Exoiteunsnt over the Asiatic War.