Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1910-09-29
Census Bureau VIII In
veStigate.

/.
Just because they have grown SO fast
and are so proud of it. a number O.
; cities on the Pacific Coast have in
Cured a natural suspicion in the Cen
sus Bureau that they have made
unusual and perhaps improper efforts
to increase their ratings for popula-
tion. These cities include Seattle,
Tacoma. Spokane. Portland. Oakland
Berkeley. Los Angeles and some that
are smaller. but no less ambitious
than the ones named.
Census Director Durand has ordered
the report for all the Pacific Coast.
excepting San Francisco, withheld
from the public for two or three
weeks in order that experts sent from
Washington may conduct investiga-
tions of the enumeration.
Vague suggestions as to suspicious
of padding are given out, but no
definite charges are made. and it
would appear that the eagle-eve
bureau men may have simply BECOME
cautious because of the astonishing
showing that the Coast makes legiti-
mately.
Mr.. Durand admitted tonight that
some suspicious of fraud were enter
tained. He explained that he had
issued blanket order covering the
entire Coast in order that neither the
communities involved nor the public
should know positively where the
bureaus investigations were directed.
That the director did not believe
there would be any serious revelations
was indicated by his statement that
there was to be no scandal as result
of his order and no prosecutions.
San Francisco, in any event. is
absolved. Mr.. Durand said that he
would soon be ready to announce the
figures for that city and would do go
before the two or three weeks elapsed,
under the order applying to the re-
mainder of the Coast. Even if fraud
should be detected, the public would
never learn anything about it.
Mr.. Durand said that he has been
and is making Investigations in all
parts of the country. checking over
returns to assure their correctness. If
he does find that the eHumerators
have been over-zealous. he deems it
best merely to correct the figures and
let it go at that. Prosecutions in
such cases are futile. juries almost
invariably refusing to convict the
offender.
All Summer long reports from
on the Pacific Coast. and
in other sections of the country as
we'll, have been sent back for revision
and for better evidence of correctness
than had been submitted. The viRilant
young men at the bureau here have
been doing yoeman service in helping I
Mr.. Durand make good in the way Of
the most correct census the
country has ever known.
One important city in the East I
will show q decided slump this time,
whereas in fact its growth has been
yery creditable. The difficulty lies
n the circumstance that the 1900 count
vas stuffed on an extensive scale. '
dr. Durand's men are therefore on {
the watch for padding, not only in &
he present census, but in that taken /
o years ago as we'll. d
The Pacific Coast may regard itself a
Is under suspicion in a mild way, I
mt even If the count has in some :
been padded. nobody is ever
Ioing to find out about it, for the c
Iirector says there shall be no scandal. f
1t may be put down as fact that n
III cities which are ambitious to stand
ligh in the population column will b
ave their returns inspected most t
loosely by the officials in the Census d
Bureau. Sometimes it will be found
hat there have been errors and some
lines it may be that enumerators have
ried to do their work without too :
nuch arduous toll. 8
OF course the investigations are