The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-02-01
NORTH WISHES TO
QUIT UNDER FIRE
Chief of Census Bureau Says He
is Tired Of Receiving COM
plants From South.
ASKS CONGRESS FOR RELIEF
Claims Cotton Men Make Charges
Which They Have Failed to
Establish.
ASKS CONGRESS FOR RELIEF
tRy Associated Press.l

WASfilNliION, ~. C., JHnudTy Oh
Having taken notice of the criticisms
upon his office by President Harvie Jor-
dan, OF the Southern Cotton Growers
Association and others, Director North.
OF the Census Bureau. to-day declared
that he hoped Congress would relieve
him of all further work in connection
with cotton statistics.
1T Is the most disagreeable and an
noying work I have ever known, said
Mr.. North to-day. These reports are
gotten up for tho benefit OF the South
ern people, but they seem to be devot-
Ing all their energies toward discredit-
Ing them"
A telegram from planter In Loulsi-
ana. received to-day. charged Director
North with doing great injustice to
Southern planters by keeping back tho
weight OF bales and enabling certain
cotton speculator and his diabolical
crew to rob the South.
Unable to Find Errors.
In answer to the allegation made by
President Jordan yesterday, Director
North said:
These cotton ginning reports were es-
tablished by law for the benefit of the
cotton growers, and 1 had believed they
were effective to that end, but the repre-
sentatives of the growers, like Mr.. Jor-
dan and j. A. Taylor. president of the
Cotton Ginners' Association, seemed de-
termined to do everything in their power
to discredt the reports and thus de-
stroy their value. and, under these cir
cumstances l. do not believe 1t worth
while for Congress to continue to appr9-
pirate $4,000 year for the collection
of reports in the interest of the cotton
growers when these men are dissatisfied
u.f IN off hou hat
the reports are inaccurate, misleading
or manipulated has been successful. Tho
methods of the officers have been ex-
hibted to representatives of the growers
and It's records scrutinized by them. and
they have not found 1t possible to put
finger upon single error, either in
method or result There has never been
leak from the Census Office since tho
system was established.
"Mr. Jordan now attacks the director
because he refused to devlate from the
regular methods OF promulgating these
statistics at the demand of private par
ties Any such deviation made upon tho
personal responsibility OF the director
would necessarily subject his methods to
suspicion. and would very properly i'm
pair the public confidence in the integrity
of his work. He has. therefore declined
to accede to these requests unless directed
by Congress to do so.
The estimates of cotton remaining to
be ginned. whose publication Mr. Jordan
demands. are obtained by the Census
Office at its mid-January canvass for
the purpose OF enabling 1t to determine
what counties need not be canvassed
when the final canvass takes place In
March. Whenever the estimates show
that there is no more cotton to be ginned
n a 1fSy hot
significant. no final canvass is necessary.
Possession Of this information enables
the Census Office to save from 5000 to
$4,000 In the cost OF the final canvass,
and that is the only purpose for which
these estimates have ever been used
"Tney are only approximate and. there
fore possesses no statistical value For
the director to make them public on
his own volitlon. at the demand of the
cotton growers, would be as improper
at thg time as It would be to make
them IUEiic at the time of the cotton
Spectators II the demand happened to
come from that quarter.
Demand the Impossible.
with regard to the publication OF tho
census bale-weights. to which Mr.. Jordan
also alluded. can only say that actual
weights of more than 100000 bales OF
cotton grown in 1905 have been secured
ry the census Office. and that additional
returns covering 100000 more weights
are daily reaching the office The compu-
tations necessary to secure correct aver
age weights from these returns arc enor-
NOUS In amount and delicate in cllnrac-
ter. With our utmost energy we shall
not be able to complete these computa-
tons before the last of February, ard
yet am daily in receipt of kilograms
from the South. stating that by keeping
hack tho weight OF bales. I am en-
nbling spectators to rob the South
Director North concluded with the re-
mark that "All these circumstances have
caused me to pray that Congress might
relieve me Of this work.