Omaha daily bee., 1909-11-06

had approximately doubled in the twenty
years since the first census, and the cost
OF making the count had ~quadrupled. The
fourth census made a number of inquiries
beyond those preceding, among them be-
ing questions showing the number Of I'M
naturslized foreigners, and the number Of
persons engaged in agriculture, ommerc
and manufactures Later a special act
caused some Investigations to be made with
reference to manufactures.
The fifth census returned largely to in
quires limited to population, and a pro-
vision was made for a revision of all the
previous census reports. This report was
hastily and heedlessly made, and General
Walker, who had charge Of the ninth
and tenth censuses, says It was filled
with errors to such an extent as to be
valueless. He observed that many pages
Of the republication would, by merely not
ing the necessary corrections, be almost
as much %disfigured as the wsrst proof Of
statistical matter ever seen in a printing
house"
The next decennIal census, taken in 1s4o,
is regarded as a lamentable failure. So
glazing were its errors that the American
Statistical association memorialized con-
gress, declaring that such documents ought
not to be sanctioned by congress, and that
II the statistics could not be corrected they
ought to be disowned. The inaccuracy Of
the 1S4O census is attributed to the vast
expansion of the census inquiries without
adequate machinery to support the work.
1t was really the first census at which
the modern scope Of inquiry was adopted.
From 1t dates the larger meaning Of CEN
sus taking. and it's failure is attributed
more to defective machinery than to its
plan and purpose.
The law providing for the taking OF the
seventh census. passed in the early part Of
1850 served for the taking Of three decen-
NAL censuses. The seventh census wit
nesses the first GENERALIZATION Of the census
taking business under one office in Wash
ington and the conditions under which 1t
was taken makes it the first comparable
with the present methods The eighth
census in 1860 was taken under the same
law.
In 1870 is was argued that the law Of 1850
has outlived it's usefulness and that the
census OF that year ought to be taken I'M
der entirely changed conditions. A siren
uous effort was made to secure a new
census law. A bill enbodying the idea of
the advanced statisticians was passed by
the house, but was defeated in the senate.
The result was that the census had to be
taken under a wholly inadequate law, one
that had been completely outgrown. Yet
by reason Of the excellent work OF those
in charge Of the undertaking the results
were such as to compare favorably with
anything that had gone before. 1t was at
this census that the first attempt at me-
chanical tabulation was made. 1t was in
the shape Of a tallying machine, which
was used with good results.
A strong effort to obtain a qulnquen-
nial census was made in 1875. General
Grant lent the prestige Of the presiden-
tial office to the movement by recon-
mending it in two annual messages. 1t
was commended that such a census would
be especially fitting as showing the prog
ress Of the nation in the first hundred
years of independence. But the proposition
fell through and the inquiry was delayed
until the regular ten-year period. James
A. Garfield introduced a bill providing for
the taking of the tenth census, but II
was not able to run the gamut Of the
committees of the senate and house.
The history of the succeeding censuses
and Of the creation of the permanent cen
sus bureau is fresh in the public mind.
One Of the interesting pieces of work per-
formed at the eleventh census was the
enumeration of the names and service Of
the survivors Of the civil war. No provi-
sion was made for the publication OF this
data, which would nave filled eight large
quarto volumes OF 1000 pages each. The
returns were deposited In the pension bu-
reau and never have been printed. The
publication Of the last volume of the elev-
enth census did not take place until 1897.
seven years after the gathering of the
data. However, bulletins were extensively
used and the essential results were all
given to the public by 1895.
A famous French statistlcian, Moreau de
tonnes, declared during his life that the
United States presents a phenomenon
without a parallel in history-"that Of a
people who instituted the statistics Of
their country on the very day they
founded their government, and who regu-
lated by the same instrument the census
of their inhabitants. their civil and po-
litical rights and the destinies OF the ma
ton" From the time that the great king
Of Israel offended his God by taklng a
count Of his people down to the present
day there have been thousands of reck-
onings Of population, but nowhere else in
the world has the art Of census taking
reached the high state Of perfection exist
ing today in the United States.
ny FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN.
Tomorrow-Ths Millinery Business.