Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-25

| truth are almost as valuable as the ex-
act truth itself. 1t is the mark of the
competent statistician to be able to de-
| eide approximately what the margin of
error actually Is, and also to what ex-
! tent the error vitiates the results.
! AS you are aware. the statistics of
| lected by a different force from that en-
ployed in gathering the statistics of man
| ufacture The population and agricul-
tural data are secured by enumerators. of
whom there will be about $1,000 at the
present census. they in turn being ap-
pointed by the supervisors. Of whom there
are about 800 The difficulty of securing
competent and faithful enumerators is
very great. The length of service is very
short fifteen days in the cities and thirty
days in the country districts. The period
! is thus too short to justify a man who
| has a good job in quitting it, while on
the other hand 1t is too long in most
cases to enable such men to get leave from
their regular work to take the census.
Moreover. the pay is small averaging
perhaps s. per day in the country dis
tricts and a trife more in the cities,
practically the pay of ordinary mechanics.
| Not only, therefore. are most of those
| who seek to be enumeratOrs men who,
| from financial motive. are able to COM
mand only moderate pay in their Occu-
pations. but many of them are men who
cannot command regular employment,
| and who are looking for odd jobs.
0ctAOuS Ill xSOAOPO SO1A PoASus
consideration has been given by the
! census authorities from time to time to
the plan pursued in Germany and some
other European countries. by which the
census is taken chiefly or wholly by men
serving without pay, who either volun-
teer their services from patriotic motives
| or who are required to act. / very much
doubt whether conditions in this country
are ripe for such a scheme. At any rate,
nothing of this sort can be done at the
| present census. 1t may, however, be
| hoped that to some slight extent and
| possibly to a considerable extent, men
| can be induced to accept the position of
! enumeratOr from interest in the work
| rather than for the compensation in
volved. l hope that considerable num-
| Der of colleges and universities of the
| country may see fit to give leave of alb
| sence to their students for the short time
| required to do this work Of enumeration
| 1t is exceedingly desirable that enumer-
ators should actually live in the districts
where they work, and there are multi
tudes of districts where no college stu
dents reside or where such students are
in institutions hundreds and thousands of
miles from their homes. Another class
who can render good service as enumer-
ators are school teachers, but with the
enumeration taking place in April and
May, instead Of June, as formerly. few
school teachers can be spared from their
THE primary responsibility for securing
efficient enumerators must rest with the
supervisors of the census. 1t has been
suggested from time to time that more
efflc1ent enumerators might be secured by
competitive examination open to every
body. There is no doubt that if the ex-
pense and time required were not pro-
hibitive ii would be advantageous to hold
such an examination, although it would
be necessary, instead of merely selecting
those whose ranking in the examination
was the highest. to refer all candidates
who passed to the supervisor and allow
him to select those whose personal char
acterlStlcs, such as cannot be tested by
any written examination, were most suit
able. The difficulty with such an open
examination is the expense and delay in
volved. 1t is probable that for the
5000 places there would be several hum
dred thousand candidates, and the grad
ing of their papers would require large
force for long time. At some future CEN
sus this plan might be worth trial. but
1t can scarcely be attempted at the pres
emit census within the limits Of time and
appropriations set by law.
Why Politicians Are Eligible.
1T may not be Inappropriate here to ex-
plain the reason why so-called political
recommendations must be sought in the
appointment of supervisors in most of
the districts. The supervisor, in order to
do his work properly, must be q resident
of the district over which he has charge
The position is not one which can be filed
by civil service exapination. A super
visor should be man of executive abil-
1ty, such as no examination can test, and
ne should be a man well known In his
community. Irdeed. men of the type de-
sired would not, in most instances be
willing to submit themselves to civil
service examination. Neither the director
Of the census, his superior officer; the
Secretary of Commerce and Labor nor
the President can possibly have personal
acquaintance throughout the country with
men suitable to fill these positions nor
even with men. outside of political posi-
tons, whose advice they can seek. The
representative of the district in Congress
or the party leaders in the district have
the necessary knowledge Of local condi-
tons and local men, and it is not only
natural. but practically necessary. as
matter of good administration, that they
should be asked to make recommended
tons for positions of this character
I'm the large cities the administration
is evidently less dependent than in the
country districts upon members of Con-
gress and party leaders for information
regarding available material for such po-
sitions as that of supervisor Of the CEN
sus, and the President and the Secretary
of Commerce and Labor have Joined with
the director of the census in establishing
the policy of making selections. wherever
the information on which to act was
available. without depending on the
recommendations of political leaders.
Improper Use Of Statistics.
I'm addition to increasing the frequency
and the emphasis of tho warnings against
improper use of the census statistics, it
will be desirable, in my opinion, to extend
somewhat further than hitherto the anal
ysis and Interpretation Of the statistics. at
least in certain directions. A desirable
feature of this increased analysis will be
the publication Of additional monographs
dealing with particular economic and So
cial problems. Many people have little in
terest In census statistics in general, but
are profoundly interested in the data re-
garding some particular subject, and such
data should be available for their use in
separate form so far as possible. You will
recall, for example, the exceedingly able
monograph prepared by DIR. Wilcox on the
basis OF the census of 1900 and dealing
with the negro. We contemplate another
monograph on this subject at the present
census. and also similar monographs deal
ing with the foreign-born, with the family.
with occupations, and perhaps with other
similar subjects connected with the popu-
lat1on statistics. Monographs dealing with
particular branches of agriculture are
also contemplated. The practice of pre-
senting the statistics of the leading manu-
featuring and mining industries in mono
graphic form has already been pursued
quite generally at previous censuses.