The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-11-25


This is in substance, the law of the
state governing the production and dis
tribution of statistics. Part of the work
has been assumed by the state labor
commissioner and another portion by the
dairy commissioner, but the work of those
officials does not relieve the commission
er of statistics of the duty Of producing
an intelligent, condensed yet compre-
hensive. collection of data relating to the
agricultural and commercial industries of
the state as contemplated by the law.
But it is a regrettable fact that statis-
tics especially agricultural statistics, so
important to an agricultural state like
ADMINISTRATIVE not been printed and cir
culated for three years past. The last
publication of the commissioner Of sta
tistics was an abbreviated report for the
years 1895 and 1896, and that was not
printed and available for circulation until
this year, 1899. No report was published
for 1897 and 1898, lowing to lack of funds"
1T is stated. The last comprehensive re-
port published was that for 1894, five
years ago, and the intending settler the
immigrant and the investor seeking for
information as to the resources and de-
velopment of Minnesota must be con-
tent with statements of conditions three
or more years old. They may regard in
formation showing acreage under crop
and the kinds Of crops, the yield, acre
a Of aoY.i01
tent of dairying, location of creameries
| and similar information as vitality affect
ing their decision to settle or invest in
Minnesota. but the facts and figures are
not available. Information on such sub
| jects, furnished by railroe- companies, is
| obtainable to a certain extent, but with
many persons does not have the weight
which an authorized official report by
state official would have
Such state of affairs is as serious as
it is regrettable, and blame for such a
state of anairs must lie somewhere The
present commissioner of statistics cannot
I however, be blamed, for the reason that
he has each year compiled the statistics
as provided by law, as far as possible, in
| the face of great difficulty and discour-
| agement. He has also SHOWN by his 1894
report that he is capable of performing
the work satisfactorily, though some ex-
! tensions and notifications might be sug-
! gested.
The blame for the non-appearance Of
! these valuable statistics, so useful to a
! farming community, lies primarily with
the legislature, which, by the stupid blum
| der of some legislative clerk offers as
compensation to the township assessors
| the munifcent sum of 10 cents per "form"
for the statements to be furnished, instead
| of 10 cents per farm as originally in
tended by the author Of the bill when it
passed the legislature; and again, the
Legislature, by failing to provide suff1-
| cient money to the state printing com
mission to enable them to pay for the
printing of this and other reports, pre-
vented It's publication.
Attempts have been made to compel the
town assessors to furnish the returns for
the meager compensation provided by the
law, but without success, for these forms
and may contain large number of farms.
| The forms are in three sections, two of
which are filled by the assessor and the
third by the farmer, entailing a large
| amount of work, which they decline to
| perform for the sum of 10 cents, and If
the penalty for their failure or refusal
were enforced it would be impossible to
secure men to act as township assessors.
1t has therefore been the practice to
| obtain estimates from county auditors,
and the results are therefore vaIueless be-
cause ineXact. Attempts to amend the
law have been made from time to time,
| but the legislature has been obdurate.
| On the occasion of the last attempt the
amendatory bill was defeated because 1t
contained clause providing for a state
| ment Of the acreage of the land to be
placed under crop for the ensuing year,
and it was alleged that this would fur
| nish a basis for gambling in grain. This
exceedingly gauzy objection had suff1-
Client weight with the legislature to de-
feat the bill. The simple elimination Of
the supposedly Objectionable clause would
not have affected the usefulness of the
act, but such an act of wisdom was not
within the compass of the lawmakers
minds.
This question of agricultural statistics
is subject we'll worthy of the consid-
GRAFTON Of every farmer and business man
| of the state, and the next legislature
should be called upon to remedy the seri-
Gus omissions of the past
| A witness in Missouri laughed in court
and was sentenced to ten days on bread
and water. The laugh and grow fat''
adage will not always work