The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1900-04-07
ARB/ZRARY STATISTICS

great on statistics. 1t has figure,
out in its time some wonderful re
suits with the nine Arabic digits ane
a zero. One of it's great hits i,
figuring out remarkable statement
was in forecastIng the Jacksoniar
majority IN the last city election
1t presented most elaborate data &c
prove that the mayor on the Jack.
sohian city ticket would be elected
by about 5000 majority. Unfor.
tunately for its arithmetic, which
operated with a back-action move
nent, the majority of 5000 was on
the side of the Regular Democrats,
and the IDS. statistics were out
of line by some 1000 votes.
But the esteemed contemporary
has not by any means exhausted it's
statistical resources. 1t is quite as
capable as ever it was of working
out absurdities and impossibilities
in figures. 1t has just tried it's
hand on the new registration re.
turns, and it seems just as likely to
establish Its incapacity for accuracy
as it has done in the matter of the
Jacksonian majority.
The I'D. assumes that the re-
turns of the registered voters in the
State are incorrect, because they
do not correspond to what the es-
teemed contemporary thinks they
ought to be, and, failing so to cor
they are false, and we're
falsifed in the interest of fraud
Such an assumption is based wholly
On the lack of correspondence of
the registration returns with the
figures of the United Ststes census
Of 1890. Says the I'D:
The census returns of 1890 showed a
native white population of voting age in
of Io6,o7o. This includes con-
'icts, insane and every male over years of |
'ge. The proportion of possible voters to
would give the natives susceptible of regis |
ration at SS,o46, and in New Orleans a.,
~. The registration books, however,
how 5000 native whites registered in this
ity. This is impossible. 1t would indicate
IN increase in the native white population of
IS per cent, taking it for granted that every
White registered, which is inconceivable;
md as we very we'll know, there has been
10 such increase in population. The regis
ration, compared with the males over 81,
5 as follows:
by census. Registered.
Native whites 1910 5000
'oreign whites.--.-.-...-.. --I5,525 5,3oI
valve negroes ----...I5,572 I,4o3
~rotal from which II per cent should be
ubtracted to allow for those incapable of
clustering voting.
These figures are absurd, 1t is not likely
hat the number of foreign votes would be
ut down two-thirds by our suffrage quali6
ations; and it is altogether impossible that
he number of native voters has grown SO
IN the last nine years. The ex-
lanation probably is that many of the for
ign born have classed themselves as natives
, escape the differences which the new
affrage clause draws between the foreign
nd the native born.
Here are the figures Of the census
f 1890 offered to show that the
tate registration of 1900 is false,
nst as if no increase of population
ad taken place, when the fact is,
here is a very considerable in
rease. 1t should be noted that in
500 there were In the State about
5000 white males eleven years
f age, and in ten years they .
ave come to manhood. Not all
f them, perhaps, but at least the
reatest portion, are voters by rea-
IN of being able to read and write. .
lore than this, there has been
cry large white immigration into
lany parts of louisiana, notab bly, in ,
lie lumber region of St. Charles,
t. John, Jefferson and other such
arishes; also along the Illinois
entral Railroad and in Western I
ouisiana. {
The State increases in population t
on 1880 to 1890 was 1o per cent. T
, the decade from 1890 to 1900
lie ratio has been much crater, as
established by the growth of .
WINS and cities in many quarters. :
[any of them have come into .,
sistence through the establishing
lumber industries, rice culture
Id miles, and truck farming on a
rye scale, so that any assumption
the conditions of population to-
ay, based on the census figures of
decade ago, must be extremely