Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1899-03-12
COMPETENCY IS A REQUISITE
ALL APPLICANTS MUST SUBMIT To
EXAMINATION.
M More AppOintments to He Made
Within Thirty Days-AppIicntiOns
From Others Than Repub-
Iicans Will he Duly
Considered.

that will govern the task OF taxing the
cens,r; Of 1860 was outlined in an official
statement made to the Associated Press
to-day by Director Merriam and Assistant
Director Wines. Director Merriam started
for Minnesota this afternoon. leaving AS
sistenc Director Wines In charge. On Gov
ernor Merriam's return. DIR. Wines will go
home to settle his private affairs. Mean
time there will be no consideration OF ap-
pointments and it will be at last thlfty
days yet before another selection OF
staff officer Is made with the probable ex-
ception Of Professor Henry Gannett. OF
this city. as geographer. rms Is III ac-
cordance with a decision OF the director
o-day that. in his absence. there must De
no promises of office nor assurances nor
announcement for any given. Several OF
the officials selected Thursday night have
qualified and the active preliminary work
will begin at once. The statement OF pol
icy follows:
"As to prospective appointments to OF
flee, the services of no more stan oftlcers
can b.. utilized at present ana there WILL
be no others selected within certainly th!r-
ty days. Professor Henry Gannett. the
well known geographer of the geological
survey. who was the political and statisti-
cal gcosra oher of the last census. mas
been asked to take charge OF the same
work for the coming census. ana II the
geological survey is willing to spare him
sufficiently to undertake this work he Will
he intcusted with it and given absolutely
free hand.
Until the schedules come back to the
office from the enumerators in July. 1902.
there will be no clerks wanted. save such
small skeleton force as will benecessary
to take charge of the correspondence and
office work preliminary to the taking OF
the census When tho schedules come
back there will be large force of en-
plOyeS appointed.
IAN applications for Office will receive
consideration and a large number already
have been received and placed on file.
While the impression has gone abroad that
the census is to be Il refuge for incompe-
tency. the truth and the actual facts are
that all applicants will be subjected to
examination before appointment. which
will be as rigid as the examinations be-
fore the civil service commission. No po-
l;tical influence will be sufficient to put
an employe on the census pay rolls OF
| whose competency to do the work to lie
| assigned him the director is not satisfied
in advance. And. furthermore. II any
| cmploye is found TO be incompetent on trial.
such employee will be discharged. regardless
OF his or her political backing. ,, =.
'''tne examination OF employees will be
| directed not SO much for the testing of
their general information and capacity as
| II will be to their fitness for the work TO
| he done. as. for example, no copyist VINO
| cannot write or spell satisfactorily will be
appointed, nor calculatorS who cannot cal
culate. First of all, after the general adj
ministrative officers are selected. there
must lie 800 supervisors appointed, and in
| their selection consultation will be had
with senators and representatives in the
respective states.
lit may be announced also that senators
nd ives whO do lplOnP
| the Republican party will receive the same
| fair treatment and consideration along this
line that is given Republcans. These
| ident and confirmed by the senate. None
| of these. as now contemplated. is to be a
| recess appointment. but the list will be
| Openins, of the next session. The super
| visors. in turn. will appoint 10000 enume.a-
| tors to do the actual work throughout the
| country. but the list of appointments of
enumeIators first must have the approval
| of the director of the census.
| After approval they will be immediate
structions. This will be no small task.
| Assuming the population of the United
| States mt this time to be. in round num-
bers. @6oo.oH people. there must be ioo,et
| sheets issued for the population schedules
| alone. Adding to these the other schedules
| there will have TO be in the aggregate hoI
| less than aJ.Wp such sheets in printed form
| issued. All this mass of paper will have
| TO he manufactured and printed withou,
| delay. In counting the population. every
| individual will be represented by a separ-
ate card. and there will have to be manu-.
| factured and printed not less than TO- 900 81,
| of these cards.
The probability is that system of ma
| chm. calculating which admits of count.
| Ing facts in combination and which workee
SO well n the last census will be adopted
for that of 1850 The office will have tC
select from the various devices the one
! most satisfactory. ana II sufficient number
| 10 90 the work must then be manufactured
| The work win be pushed with all possitl.
effort made to avoid dragging the wori
along unnecessarily.
Taken all in all. the complete number
| OF appointments that will be made in tn,
! course of the census will be over a. 0pC
| These include eighteen or twenty staff Off
| GERS. go SUP ervisors, 4GGJl nU,nerators an,
about 5000 clerks and other employe
| here"