The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-28
PERMANENT CENSUS BUREAU.
A New Department. of the Govern
nscnt Advocated,

nscnt Advocated.
| NEW YORK, June 27.-Prof. Walter F.
Wilcox, Chief of the Division of Methods
and Results in the Census Office, spoke
before the Association for the Advance
ment of Science today on "a Difficulty
| With American Census Taking" He said:
MY thesis is that statistical statements
OF absolute amount or Of rate based upon
records not made until the end of the
period to which the statement applies are
! likely to be only minimum limit of the
| truth, and to depart from the truth by a
variable and usually an indetermnate
amount Governmental work in statistics
is not unlike the keeping of accounts by
private firm or corporation.
Such keeping Of accounts falls into two
main branches-frst. the regular book
keeping and. secondly. the periodic taking
OF stock. Both sources OF Information
must be employed, each being q supple
neht to the other. So highly Organized
government maintains registration reports
which record the current OF people. pro
ducts, or acts deemed worthy OF entry
and census reports. which aim to pho
tosraph the condition Of people for an
instant and then let them alone again
till the next sitting is ordered
Prof Wilcox then showed the difficulty
Of getting accurate statistics at any one
time. of the number OF births, marriages.
and deaths In the given year, Of matters
entailing social disapprovA, such as di-
vorce and crime; and said that deductions
from these records were almost worth
less. Continuing, he said:
The leading experts today admit the
impossibility Of determining from census
figures even the most vital question in this
field, Is crime in the United States increas-
ing or decreasing? How, then. may the
present census conditions be improved?
A suggestion made for turning the GEN.
sus officials in selected localities into regis
tration officials whose duty it should be to
record all deaths in their districts for the
census year. seems to me open to such
grave constitutional and administrative
objections as to be inadmissible. A census
office under our federal system cannot be
made into a registration office without do
ing violence to our system of government
or being so powerless as to accomplish lit
tie or nothing The only alternative is for
the United States Government to build UP
a system OF voluntary and continuous CO.
operation between the local registration |
officials and itself"
Concluding the speaker held that the |
Census Office should be made permanent |
In order to determine questions such as:
The heaithfulnesS of the country at diff !
ferent times or in different parts or the |
heafhfulness Of different occupations; the |
rate of natural increase by excess CT births |
In any locality or in any class like tie
foreign-borr, negro, or urban population:
the relation of the country as Il whole or
most of its parts. or any Of its social classes
TO the institution of marriage. the age at
which it occurs, the proportion CT tne sew
eral classes marrying. the duration of he
union, etc; whether crime in the United
States. or any specific kind of crime, like |
drunkenness, forgery, or rape. is in1rS as
ing or decreasing.