The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-03-12
INDIANS AND The CENSUS.
DIFFICULT LEGAL QUESTIONS
ARISE.
How the Census Bureau Solves VeXed
Questions of Law, Sociology, Econo-
mics and Mechanical Appliances.

Census taking is not the political pic
mic that many people imagine, says the
Washington Star. Few appreciate the
magnitude of the work; the eleventh
census cost more than $11,00O,000, and in
the twelfth census an office force of
more than 1000 for about two years
and a field force of over so 1000 for from
two weeks to a month will be employ
ed. Then, too, the Hollerith tabulatng
machines, by which the population is
counted and the returns tabulated,
make census taking a huge industrial
process The census office becomes
factory; the director of the census a
captain of industry who, if he is to be
successful, must possess all the directive
energy and genius for organization
which characterize our most successful
manufacturers and railroad presidents.
Among the troublesome problems
which have to be solved by the census
office are the legal questions which con-
tinually arise. The Indian census, for
instance, fairly bristles with legal diff
ficulties. In 1890 the census law pro-
vided that a special report upon the
Indians should be made. A volume OF
ZOO odd pages was published, profusely
illustrated and touching every point of
the Indian problem For once in his
tory Poor Lo' was accorded justice.
The volume was so pretty that the edi-
ton was soon exhausted and now the
Department of the Interior has not
even a copy for the census office itself.
But the law providing for the twelfth
census makes no special provision for
an Indian census, nor does 1t authorize
such special report as was made ten
years ago. 1t is at this point that the
real difficulties of the census office re-
garding the Indians begin.
The Indian population, then, cannot
be treated by itself and described in
separate report. 1t also seems Illogical
to class the Indians among the ordinary
population of the United States. The
Indian tribe is in many respects a dis
tinct nationality although since 1871
Congress has been doing it's best to
destroy all traces of tribal independence
or self government. Moreover, the tri-
bal Indians are not citizens of the Uni
ted States. The reservations upon
which they live are not legally parts of
the state or territory which surrounds
them, and state and territorial laws do
not apply to the reservation or to the
Indians upon it. Acts of Congress do
not apply to reservation Indians. unless
such application is explicitly authori-
zed in the act
Under such conditions it seems inn
possible for the census office to class
Indians as a part of the ordinary inha-
bitants of the states and territories. On
the OIneT manu- IL Is equally lIpOSSlDlG
to ignore them and omit them entirely.
For the Constitution of the United Sta
ties says that: Representatives shall
be approportioned among the several
states according to their respective
numbers, counting the whole number
of persons in each state, excluding In
dams not taxed"
Whether Indians not taxed" means
Indians not directly taxed, or whether
|
are questions that must be decided by
| the census office before it can form Its
| plan for the Indian enumeration
The last question has been a subject
OF debate ever since Indian censuses
| have been taken In 1890 there were
about $4,000 civilized Indians living
among the general population of the
United States. Such Indians are citi-
zens of the United States, but many of
them are too poor to pay taxes. Are
they to be excluded from the population
according to which representation in
Congress is apportioned?
All these points are subjected to the
most careful examination in the census
| office, and when a decision as to the le-
| gal obligation of the office has been
reached, the statisticians turn their at
| tention to the economic and social as
poets of the question in hand. Experts
are consulted; the important lines of
! investigation are mapped out, and in
quiries are so framed as to bring out
the desired information in a form in
which it can be handled with the Hol-
lerith machines. At the same time,
| these questions must be put in such a
way that they will neither be misun-
derstood, nor likely to evoke antago-
nism or false replies. No pains are
! spared to interest the public in the work
and to secure general and hearty CO.
operation. without that the most care
| full work at Washington or by the emu
merators must prove fruitless.