Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-02-07
SO Say Officials Interested In
Taking of County and
City Census
EXPLAIN RETURNED CARDS
Clerks in Secretary Davidson's Office
Are Not Familiar With Executive
Councils MISREPRESENTATION Nc
Leland Writes to Secretary, Com
planning of Interview.

county AuullOT w. H. IISl.'lstii'i ''''N
City Assessor w. B. Elliott are very
much offended at the article publisher
on the Iowa pages of the Times-Re
publican last Saturday, in which Sec
rotary Davidson, of the executive conn-
ell, criticiseS the manner In which lhe
state census is being taken in this clty.
Secretary Davidson was authority Tor
the statement that MarshalltoWn,
| Cherokee and Abba are the worst CIT
| les in the state, SO far as the quality
of the work being done by the enu'n-
orators Is concerned, and states tina,
many cards have had to be sent back
| to the assessors.
The secretary complains more par
| ticularly OF the failure of the asses
sors to answer the questions prop
ery, leaving blanks where answers to
! questions should be made. The secre-
| tary also states that where the county
auditors have taken an interest in the
matters of taking the census, much
better work is being done.
Auditor McLeland objects to being
placed in the class of auditors who are
not taking an interest in the work. He
assessors, before the work was begun
and talked the census over thoroughly.
explaining everything in order that the
work in this county should be as thor
ough as possible, and that each asses
Sor might act in strict accordance with
the Instructions. He has paid but lit
tie attention to the work in the city.
because City Assessor Elliott under
stands the work, and has two depu-
ties to assist him. Mr,-lcLeland took
OCCASION as soon as<1le saw the arti-
Gle as published in the T.-R., to write
Secretary Davidson n letter telling him
what he thought of such an interview.
Mr.. McLeland says that some of the
cards that have been returned are rid
Jealous, in that the questions oppo-
site the blank places, returned to be
filled out, are sufficiently answered in
other facts, making apparent, on the
face of the cards, the information for
which the cards are returned For
instance, card has been returned in
the case of a school teacher. The
question remaining unanswered was
whether or not she could read or write.
The answer was obvious, for in Mar
shall county. at least. it is not the
habit of the county superintendent to
employ oil teachers who do not UNI
derstand Ut least the rudimentary prin
ciples of reading and writing. At any
rate, they are able to write their own
names, and read out of primer. An
other instance is cited in the case of
MARY Jones, wife of John Jones'" The
card is returned because the answer
to the question, Married or single?' is
not given.
Elliott Makes Statement.
In a communication to the T.-R.,
City Assessor w. b. Elliott cites some
of the instances in which cards were
returned. He says:
Editors Times Republican: After
the article published in the Times Re
publican of Saturday, under a Des
Moines date, l feel, in justice to my
self and my deputy assessors, to state
a few facts regarding the present state
census that we are taking.
I'm the first place the statements in
the article are greatly exaggerated. We
have already sent in 1888 cards, and
$50 were returned for correction. We
made some mistakes, but the greatest
one was in sending in so many cards
DClOIC luSy lOuIll Jul stl lSl
what they wanted, as later instruc-
lions conflict with former ones. For
instance we We're instructed to report
ownership of homes under head of the
family, regardless of actual ownership,
and that only questions pertaining to
the individual in question We're to be
marked or answered After we had
sent in several hundred cards we got
Instructions to report the home in the
name of the actual owner, SO you can
readily see the result. We sent in
homes In husbands names. and cards
Of wives. and sons over 81 years Of
age, We're returned asking, DO you own
your farm or home? Later we sent
in cards where the wife owns the
home, and cards Of husband came back
asking, do you own your home?'
"Our cards have been sent in in
family groups, giving same street and
number. For example, family of four
resides at 1905 West State street.
The owner of the house was sent in in
the fathers name. The sons card
came back, wanting to know, do you
own your home"
instructions say girls living at
home, who assist in house work are not
to be reported as having an occupation,
yet number of cards were returned,
asking 'occupation?'
lone card Of child, years of age,
(the age limit is years. asking can
you read or write?' was returned.
Another of an old man of 20, who has
no occupation, was returned for 'occu-
patton We did not think such ques-
tons as these pertained, to such indi-
viduals.
But worst of all, in the number Of
cards. that have been returned to US,
are those referring to females, wanting
to know if they were naturalized. We
have not marked the 'naturalized
question I'M cases of women, for we
presumed that it would be understood
in the headquarters office, that women
did not need to take out naturaliza-
ton papers. We have made a num-
Der of mistakes, but no such blunders
as these very mistakes or oversights
that come back to us from the execu-
tive council itself.
I'VE are sending in another thousand
per last instructions received, and if
they are found to be correct, or nearly
so, I hope your CORES pondent, who
occupied so much space in telling of
our mistakes, will be as ready to re-
port the good work being done, and
give only facts.
"W. b ELLIOTT,
Acc