Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1909-05-03
WASHINGTONLET1ER
CENSUS DIRECTOR NORTH May
have TO Walk THE PLANK.
Friction Between the Director and
Secretary NageI Has Become Det-
rimenfa1 to the Service. Census
Bureau Bears an UnSavory Reputa-
fiOn at the National Capital.

WASHINGTON, d. c., April 30.-
There are more ways than one of
skinning cat, and the Taft admin
istration seems disposed to try all of
them.
1t practically has been determined
to let out S. N. D. North as director
OF the census because he has been too
obliging and accommodating to Sena-
tors and members of the House, and
to let out Herbert Putnam as H.
brarian of Cogrness because he hasn't t
been sufficiently obliging and accom-
modating to them.
Which means that the important
and responsible positions held by
North and Putnam are wanted for
other men and one excuse is as
good as another under such circum-
stances.
1t is said that President Taft al
ready has told Director North that he
must make up his mind to work un-
der the direction of Secretary Nagel
or resign Monday.
North IS charged with persist at
and fragrant disregard of the wishes
and directions of his superior officer,
the Secretary of Commerce and La
bOr, in matters that are not specifical-
ly mentioned, but are understood to
be almost exclusively questions affect
ing the selection of the personnel
of his bureau. He has stood on his
rights as laid down in the laws of
Congress providing for the taking of
the twelfth census, which law is re-
embodied in the bill now pending
providing for the taking of the thir-
teenth census. The provisions of
the law give the Director of the
Census practically absolute control Of
the personnel and operations of his
bureau, without much regard to the
fact that the law creating the De-
partment of Commerce and Labor
places the Census Bureau under that
department.
There are some very nasty hints,
even that he has not been at all dis
eliminating in looking into the char
acters of some of the persons-not Of
the male sex-for whom he has pro-
nj in hn
at the request of senators and men,
bers. But these hints are necessari-
ly very guarded, although they are of
a piece with others that have gone
the rounds of Washingt' almost
since there was such an institution
as the Census Office. In the wicked
past no doubt, there may have been
a basis for them. But no one now-
adays cares to dignity them with
serious consideration. Yet they per-
sit and are being banded about as
part of the allegations on which Di-
rector North is likely to lose his Of
fetal head.
The conditions in the bureau dis
creetly hinted at, involve exclusively
women employees, and are declared to
have brought about a situation
which has led more than one woman
to refuse employment in the bureau.
Because of the delicate nature of
these charges and the danger of re-
flecting on the character of employees
who are in no way cu!pable, it is i'm
possible to discuss this phase of the
charges with freedom, but it may be
said that the President was greatly
shocked to learn that such conditions
existed in any bureau of the govern
ment. and emphatically condemned
those responsible for them.
While neither Secretary Nagel nor
any one else will discuss the immor-
ality charges for publication, Secre-
tary Nagel being a determined and
Western man, unfa-
miliar with the Aldrich-Lodge ira
dition, seems bent on asserting his
full authority over the Census Bu-
reau, as we'll as the other bureaus
which the organic law creating his
places under that depart
ment. He has taken the matter OF
Director North's alleged insubordin-
alton to the President, and has made
it clear that either North shall sub
nit to his directions, or he or North
shall quit.
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