The Saint Paul globe., 1899-03-12
AN ARMY OF WORKERS
GOV. MERRIAM MAKES PUBLIC
PLANS FOR TAKING TEzE
CENSUS OF 1900
SELECTION OF A FORCE

1t VIII BE Based Upon Merit and Not
Political Infuence-Hoyv the su-
pervisOrs VIII Be Appointed
Incompetence to- Be Weeded Out
Should They Manage to Green In
Mr.. Merriam Starts for Home.
WASHINGTON. March 1.-THE pol
Icy that will govern the task of TAX
Ing the census of 1900 was outline d in
an official statement made to the AS
sociated Press today by Director Mer-
rlam and Assistant Director Wines.
Director Merriam starts for Minnesota.
this afternoon, leaving Assistant Di-
rector Wines in charge. On Gov. Mer-
RAMS return DR.. Wines will go home
to settle his private affairs Meantime
there will be no consideration Of an
polntments, and it will be at least ttIr-
ty days before another selection o} q
stall o1ncer is made, with the probable
exception Of Prof. Henry Gannett. of
this city. as geOgrapher. This is in
connection with the decision of the di-
rector today that in his absence there
must be no promises. nor assurances.
nor announcement for any given Sew
eral of the officials selected Thursday
night have qualified and the active
preliminary work will begin at once
The statement Of policy follows:
AS to prospective appointments to
ONCE, the services of no more staff CT
ncers can be utilized at present. and
there will be no others selected within
certainly thirty days. Prof Henry
Cannon. the well known geographer
OF the geological survey. who was the
political and statistical geographer of
the last census. has been asked to take
charge OF the same work for the COM
Ing census. and if the geological sur
Vey is willing to spare him sufficiently
to undertake this work he will be en-
trusted with it and given an absolute
ly free hand. Until the schedules come
back to the office from the enumera-
tors, In July, 1900, there will be no
clerks wanted save such as small a
skeleton force as will be necessary to
take care Of the correspondence and
office work preliminary to the taking of
the census. When the schedules come
back there will be large force of en-
ployes appointed.
FAIR TREATMENT ASSURED.
'AH applications for office will re-
ceive consideration and a large num-
Der already have been received and
PASsNSo Oii AiiC. w iIllS Lie impression
has gone abroad that the census is to
be refuge for incompetency the truth
and actual facts are that all applicants
Will be subjected to examination be-
fore appointment, which will be as rig
id as the examinations before the civil
service commission. No political in
fluence will be sufficient to put an en-
ploye on the census pay rolls of whose
competency to do the work to be as
signed the director Is not satisfied In
such advance. And, Furthermore, if
any employe is found to be incompe-
tant. such employe will be discharged
regardless Of his or her political back
ing.
"The examination of employees will
be directed, not so much for the test
ing of their general information and
capacity, as it will be to their fitness
for the work to be done, as, for ex-
ample, no copyist who cannot write or
spell satisfactorily, will be appointed,
nor calculators who cannot calculate,
First of all, after the general admins
tration officers are selected, there must
be 800 supervisors appointed, and in
their selection consultation will be had
with senators and representatives in
the respective states. 1t may be an
nounced also that senators and repre-
sentatives who Go not belong to the
Republican party will receive the same
fair treatment and consideration as is
given Republicans Supervisors will
be appointed by the president, and
confirmed by the senate None of
these as now contemplated are to be
recess appointments, but the list will
be ready for submission to the senate
at the opening Of the next session.
SUPERVISORS ARMY.
"The supervisors, in turn, will ap-
An
ual work throughout the country, but
the list of appointments of enumera-
tors first must have the approval of
the director of the census. After ap-
proval they will be Immediately fur
nished the necessary blanks and in
structions. This will be no small task
Assuming the population of the United
States at this time to be in round num-
bers 80,000000 people, there must be
100000 sheets issued for the popula-
ton schedules alone. Adding to these
the other schedules, there will have to
be in the aggregate not less than half
million such sheets in printed form
issued. All this mass of paper will
have to be manufactured and printed
without delay.
In counting the population every in
dividual will be represented by a sepa-
rate card and there will have to be
manufactured and printed not less
than 100 0C00, 900 of these cards The
probability that a system of machine
calculating. which admits of counting
in combination and which worked so
well in the last census. will be adopt
ed for that of 1900. The Office will have
to select from the various deyices the
one most satisfactory and a sufficient
number to do the work must then be
manufactured.
The work viii be pushed with all pos
sible speed consistent with accuracy.
and every effort made to avoid drag
ging the work along unnecessarily.
Taken all in all, the number of ap-
pointments that will be made in the
course of the census will be over 49,
900. These include eighteen or twenty
staff officers, 300 supervisors, 10000
enumerators, and about 5000 clerks
and other employees here.
MANILA PRIZE JONEy