Evening star., 1902-04-12
OLD CENSUS REPORTS
-
Destruction Opposed by In
terror Department.
RECORDS INVALUABLE
PROVISION PASSED HOUSE WITH
OUT DISCUSSION.
Important That They Be Preserved, as
Their Loss Would Be
Disaster.

A particular provision of the sundry civil
appropriation act, which recently passed
the House of Representatives without ex-
citing even ripple of discussion, has
aroused the officials of the Interior Depart
ment to a degree of the most pronounced
apprehension. Secretary Hitchcock has al
ready expressed himself in terms OF '.un-
qualified disapproval' to members of the
Senate in the hope that this particular sec
tion of the act may be stricken from the
bill in conference. Meanwhile the custo-
dians of the quaint old volumes of popula-
tion statistics some of them reaching back
to the year $780, await the action of Con-
gress with marked trepidation. The section
of the sundry civil bill to which this OBJ
lection is made follows:
1.-The Secretary of the Interior is hereby
directed to cause to be sold as waste paper
or to destroy all population schedules of
the eleventh and prior censuses of the
United States. The population schedules
OF the twelfth and all subsequent censuses
of he United States shall likewise be sold
or destroyed soon as the results therein
contained shall have been tabulated and
published. All expenses arising and requi-
site hereunder shall be paid from the appro-
priations for contingent expenses of the
Department of the Interior
" nat the SOl1SCC1Ou COuId1uS.
A collection of 4,Gi6 volumes is COM
pretended in that phrase 'ail population
schedules of the eleventh and prior CEN
suses of the United States" These are
now on file in the Interior Department and
are proving of the greatest possible value
for many uses. Many of the older books
the schedules date back to the year of the
first census. 1I96-are typical volumes of
the early period of the United States.
The paper is heavy and good. The text
is written in a fine, angular. almost femi-
nine handwriting, evidently with quill
pen, and the figures are tabulated accord
Ing to the fancy of the enumerator. Now
and then, particularly where the statistics
refer to the higher social classes of the
cities. the enumerators had printed at their
own expense rather crude blank forms
along the lines of the modern census EMU
merator's blank.
These volumes are the only accurate and
complete statistics to the residents of
the United States during those early years
OF the nations history. They prove their
own value every day, aiding in the adjust
ment of property disputes. in the establish
ment of titles. in the administration of
wills. in completing chains of senealogy and
in establishing the citizenship of persons of
foreign parents.
In the course of the past two years the
applications for information contained in
these books received from such sources as
members of Congress, governors of states
foreign governments and judges of various
courts numbered Do. This is, of course, q
selected list. The whole number of written
applications for information would be much
greater, while the entire number of In
quirieS made would be still larger because
OF the numerous searches made in person
a the department. ...-.-
Whoever bound together the schedules of
the earlier censuSeS did so with free hand.
Several of the single volumes contain par
tiaI returns from several states, partial re-
turns from several counties and incomplete
schedules of particular committees An in
deX and cross-reference. was therefore pre-
requisite TO any practical use of the sched-
ules. The department is now engaged in in
deXing the schedules covering the year CEN
suses from 1870 10 1920. and has about com
pleted the task