The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1901-06-01
Census Frauds.

Charles H. Guyther, enc of the census
enumerators for St. Mary's county, indicted
in the United States District Court for Mary
land for census frauds, pleaded guilty on last
Saturday.
On Monday the trial of Guyther, Stephen
A. Abel, Daniel J. Bowles and Philip i. |
Graves. all census enumerators in st. Mary |
county, and Joseph Fl. Ching, a lawyer OF st.
Mary's county, indicted for conspiracy to de-
fraud in connection with census returns in |
ST. Mary's county, was begun on Monday.
A demurrer to the Indictment was argued |
and oyerrued, and then Mr.. John c. Rose, |
United States District Attorney, an ardent |
Republican, made the opening statement. In
his statement he came very close to connect
inc Congressman Sydney 4. Mudd with the |
conspiracy. The statement of Mr.. Rose Is
important. and we give it below, as reported |
in the Baltimore Sun:
Mr. Roses statement.
Mr. John c. Rose in his opening statement related
the history of the proceeding, saying that enume-
ators had falsely raised the population OF ST. Mary
county from 16 99s to 1886 in order to secure for
the county an additional member of the House OF
Delegates. He said that Mr.. Ching was the real
mover and brains in the enterprise and that when
he found by getting reports of the returns
which he should not have been allowed tohaye. that
the population was below 1900 he Immediately be-
gan TO try to fix upon some plan which would give
the required figures only in the hope of getting
another delegate to the House for the Republican
party but with the idea that if the Republicans
were defeated in the elections st. Marys county
would still have larger representation in Republic
can councils and conventions in the State.
..Then," said Mr.. Rose, MIR. Ching found on
gresham sydney +. Mudd in Washington ana got
him to go with him to Mr.. William L. ,. ha"li'is'
CENSUS supervisor for the district. who was impor-
timed TO have another count taken MI Rawiihs
was doubtful Of his authority to take that step and
raerred the two 10 Director Of the Census Merriam,
who in tnrn directed them to Chief Hunt. of the
Bnreau of Population Statistics. Mr.. Hunt was in
formed OF the fear that the population of the county
had not been al included. He advised them that
Mr. RawIins not only had the authority, bu' u was
his dutv to order enumerators look over the field
again and see if any mistakes had been made
Specific Instances.
.At this po;nt'' Mr. Rose said, 1.-THE frauds began,
for of the people returned on the second count most
were fictitious, dead or bad moved away. Mr..
Rose grew sarcastic over the ability Of the ennme-
work and said that if the same ratio Of mistakes
snpposed to have been discovered by one enuneia-
tor had been discovered by all, the population of
the limited States is short about % 100000 Mr. Rose
auoted some instances of the way in which, 1t Is
alleged. the list had been padded They caused
much laughter even from the counsel for the lrls-
oners and the court officers had hard time keep
ing order. Following are few of those quoted
Joshua Miles male, black. born 1898 wears old.
mother and father born in Maryland carpenter ny
trade worked all the year, not now employed, can
read, write and speak English
Joseph j. Graves" said Mr. Rose, was returned
all right but he had precocious family For in-
stance;
"Ecceston Graves his son. white, male, born in
Marvlsnd january 1894, years DID, father and
mother born in Maryland, school teacher by PROBES
sion unemployed months in the year, can read,
write aud speak English.
a. rederick c. Graves another son, was born in
August 1895, and is day iaDOrer.
Ferdinand Graves. was born in 1897, Is slngles
day laborer worked months, can read write ana
speak English. ,,u
and is employed all the time"
Another instance cited by Mr.. Rose was that of
Eugene Knight who credited with Is boarders,
of whom eight or ten male negroes and hve
negresses When the department investigated this
il was found that Mr. knight was respected mem
her of the community and operated no such mixed
lodging place.
Mr. Rose referring to Mr. Ching secohu ume
said
ave are going to show that many OF the nclinohs
names ON one schedule are in his handwriting that
he wrote letters to people asking them 10 say lnat
the returns were proper and asked one of the in
spectors from the Census Office to report that there
was nothing the matter"
I'm Anne Arundel.
Two presentments were found by the United
States grand jury as a result OF IT'S lnvesllga-
tan Of the census returns from Anne Arundel
county. Those presented are William Frlsl'y
Anderson aud Ferdinand II. Bornemann,
census enumerators. who are charged with
making fictitious returns.
Mr.. Anderson lives near Chesterfield, Anne
Arundel county He had charge OF the Third
Enumeration district of the county, and il is
alleged that he returned IS fraudulent MINES.
Mr. Bornemann, who was the enumerator IN
the Sixth district, and lives at Asbury. is
charged with returning 45 fraudulent names.
I'm Charles.
B. Henry Mattingley, one Of the United
States census enumerators in Charles county,
was released on s., 900 bail on Wednesday to
answer the charge of padding his returns Mr.
Mattineley. who lives near Allen Fresh, WAS
indicted by the United States grand jury.
The Advocate, the first paper in the State
to expose the inaccnracy of the census re-
turns, particularly mentioned ST MarY's and
Anne Arundel counties, and revelations since
have shown that our analysis of the census
returns from these counties, and conclusions
drawn, were correct.
We also charged inaccuracies in Charles,
Prince Georges and Kent counties, and we
believe there were frauds in all these conntie
as there have been proven to be IN ST. Mary's
and Anne Arundel counties.
The Census Bureau will not make any fur
Their investigations in Maryland, but the State
enumeration viii certainly show that the AD-
yocATE was right last December in charging
inaccuracies in the returns.
After Gov. Smith had decided TO cali an
extra session of the General Assembly, VIM
I. S. Rollins, under whose supervision the
census in the counties of Anne Arundel, Bal |
timore, Carroll, Calvert, Hartford, Howard,
Prince Georges, Charles and st. Mary's was
taken. declared the census in these counties
was correct and be was willing to swear 10 il.
Mudd said the census returns in his Congress
sional district were correct, and Senator Nc
Comas stoutly contended the census returns
for the State were accurate.
Rollins has shown he did not know any
thing about the census returns, although he
was willing to swear to their accuracy.
Mudd and McComas did not know anything |
about the returns. or were endeavoring 10
cover up the frauds. If they did not know
anything about the returns they had no right
to publicly discuss the matter and proclaim
their accuracy.
Every Republican organ, nearly, IN the
State, repudiated the idea of census frauds,
and all such were simply sneezing when Nc !
Comas and Mudd took snuff.