The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-06

work. But it is of high consequence to the country that the statistical work of the census shall be conducted with entire accuracy. This is as important from the standpoint of business and industry as from the scientific stand point. It is therefore, in my judg ment, essential that the result should not be open to the suspicion of bias on political and personal grounds, that it should not be open to the reasonable
 suspicion of being a waste of the peo. ple's money and fraud.
 Section of the act provides in effect that appointments to the census shall be under the spoils system, for this is the real meaning of the provision that they shall be subject only to noncom- petitive examination. The proviso is
 added that they shall be selected with
 out regard to political party affiliations. But there is only one way to guaran- tee that they shall be selected without
 regard to politics and on merit, and
 that is by choosing them after compet-
 itive examination from the lists of eli gibles provided by the civil servsce
 commission.
 Objects to Spells Idea.
 To provide that the clerks and other employees shall be appointed after ncn- competitive examination and yet to provide that they shall be selected without regard to political party afsl- iations means merely that the appoint- ments shall be treated as the perqui- sites of the politicians of both parties instead of as the perquisites of the pol ftfcians of one party. I do not believe in the doctrine that to the victor be- long the spells, but think even less of the doctrine that the spells shall be divided without fight by the profess sional politicians on both sides, and this would be the result of permitting the bill in it's present shape to become law. Both of the last censuses, the eleventh and the twelfth, were taken under provision of law excluding competition-that is, necessitating the appointments being made under the spells system. Every man competent to speak with authority because of his knowledge of and familiarity with the work of those censuses has stated that the result was to produce extravaganza. and demoralization.
 lThe president here quotes in support of his contentious Robert P. Porter. who took the census of 1890; Fred erick H. Wines, the assistant director of the census of 1900, and Carroll D. Wright, director of the census bureau after the census of 1890. The last named says that $2OOO, GOO and more than years time would have been saved if the census force had been brought into the classified service.1
 Fraud Upon the Public"
 The noncompetitive examination in 2 case like this is not only vicious, but Is in effect a fraud upon the public. No essential change is effected by pro- viding that 1t be conducted by the civil service commission, and to pro- vide that the employees shall be se- iected without regard to political party affiliations is empty and misleading unless at the same time it is made effective ins the only way in which it Is possible to make it effective-that is, by providing that the examination shall be made competitive.
 also recommend that if provision Is made thai the census printing work may be done outside the government printing office it shall be explicitly provided that the government authori- ties shall see that the eight hour law IS applied in effective fashion to these outside offices.
 Outside of these matters I believe | that the billis on the whole, satisfac- 1 tory and rdpresents an improvement 1 1pon previous legislation on the sub 1 |ect But it is of vital consequence 1 hat we should not once again permit | he usefulness of this great decennial l undertaking on behalf of the whole l people to be marred by permitting it 10 be turned into an engine to further he self interest of that small section 1 ,f the people which makes profession If politics
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
 The White House Feb 10OQ