Evening star., 1899-03-11
No Census Office Appointments to Be
Made at Present.
NO CLERKS UNTIL JULY NEXT YEAR
Director Merriam Says That Fiji
ness Will Be the Test.
BOUT As, 900 PLACE S

The policy that will govern the task OF
taking the census of 1860 was outlined in an
official statement today by Director Mer-
riam and Assistant Director Wines. Direc-
tor Merriam starts for Minnesota this af-
| ternoon, leaving Assistant Director Wines
in charge. On Gov. Merriam's return Mr..
Wines will go home to settle his private af-
fairs. Meantime there will be no consider
| alton Of appointments, and 1t will be at
| least thirty days yet before another selec-
| ton of staff officer is made, with the
probable exception of Prof Henry Gannett
of this city geographer. This is in ac-
cordance with decision of the director to-
day that in his absence there must be no
promises of office nor assurances nor en-
couragement for any given. Several Of the
oh1c1als selected Thursday night have quail
ihed. and the active preliminary work will
begin at once. The statement of policy fol-
! lows:
LAS to prospective appointments to Of
hce, the services of no more staff officers
can be utilized at present, and there will be
no others selected within certainly thirty
days. Prot Henry Gannett, 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 coming
census, and II the geological survey is will
ing TO spare him sufficiently to undertake
this work he will be intrusted with it and
given an absolutely free hand
No Clerks Wanted Until July. 1900.
Until the schedules come back to the
once from the enumerators in July 1900
there VIII be no clerks wanted save such
small skeleton force as will be needed to
| take care of the correspondence and office
work preliminary to the taking of the CEN
sus Nhen the schedules come back there
VIII be a large force of employees appointed
All applications for office will receive
consideration and large number already
nave been received and placed on file.
While the impression has gone abroad
that the census Is to be a refuge for in
competency, the truth and the actual facts
are that all applicants will be subjected
20 examination before appointment which
VIII De as rigid as the examina tions before
the civil service commission. No political
influence win be sufficient to put an en-
ploye on the census pay rolls of whose COM
potency to DO the work to be assigned him
the director is not satisfied In advance
And furthermore, if any employe is found
to be incompetent on trial such employe
VIII be discharged regardless of his or her
political backing.
The Examination for Fitness.
THE examinations Of employees will be
directed not SO much for the testing of
their general information and capacity as it
will be to their fitness for the work to be
done, as for example. no copyist who can
not write or spell satisfactorily will be ap-
pointed nor calculators who cannot calcu-
late.
First of all, after the general admins
trHtive officers are selected, there must be
800 supervisors appointed, and in their Sc
lection consultation will be had with sena-
tors and representatives in the respective
states. 1t may be announced also that
senators and representatives who do not
belong to the republican party will
ceive the same fair treatment and consid-
Grafton along this line that Is given re-
publicans. These supervisors will be ap-
pointed by the President and confirmed by
the Senate. None of these. as now con-
templated are to be recess appointments
but the list will be ready for submission to
the Senate at the opening of the next ses-
sion. The supervisors, in turn, will appoint
10000 enumerators to do the actual work
throughout the country, but the list of ap-
pointments of enumerators first must have
the approval of the director of the census.
After approval; they will be Immediately
furnished the necessary blanks and instruc-
tiOnS.
"This will be no small task. Assuming the
population of the United States at this time
to be, in round numbers, S0,n0,OOO 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 mil
lion such sheets in printed form issued. All
this mass of paper will have to be manu-
factured and printed without delay.
Counting the Population.
I'm counting the population every indi-
vidual will be represented by a separate
card and there will have to be manufactured
and printed not less than 100, 600, 900 of these
cards. The probability is that a system of
machine calculating which admits of count
ing facts in combination, and which worked
so well in the last census, will be adopted
for that Of 1900. The office will have to
select from the various devices the one
most satisfactory, and a sufficient number
to do the work must then be manufactured.
The work will be pushed with all possible
speed consistent with accuracy, and every
effort made to avoid dragging the work
along unnecessarily.
Taken all in all, the complete number of
appointments that will be made in the
course of the census will be over 1900.
These include eighteen or twenty staff Off