The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-02-25
LIVE STOCK ON RANGES
Absolutely Confidential Treatment
of the Answers Given to the
Census EnumeratoFs

Census Enumerators
Washington, D. c., February %,
1910-The United States Census
Bureau is making extraordinary pre-
parations to ascertain the approxi-
mately exact number and value of
live stock on the ranges in the United
States on April Is next, the date of
the livestock inventory, as required
the Thirteenth Decennial Census.
Fearful that for one reason or an
other the live stock raisers may be
deferred from freely stating the num-
Der and value of their holdings, the
Census Bureau is exerting unusual
efforts to assure the ranchmen and
farmers, especially of the western
range states that their interests,
whether personal or corporate, can
not possibly be affected in any way
by their frank and full disclosure of
their live stock possessions. The in.
formation gathered by the Census
Office is held strictly confidential not
only in respect to the fact that under
no circumstances is it ever impaired
to any one not connected with the
Census Office, but in respect to it's
ever being given to any other bran h
of the government.
Assurance of Secrecy
I'm behalf of the Census Bureau"
today said Assistant Director William
F. Willoughby, II can give as pc 4
tive assurance of the confidential
treatment of information called for
by the live stock questions in the
general agricultural schedule as
could if confidence were to be i'm
posed upon me personally and priv
ately. The Census Bureau is con-
cerned only in the collection and
publication of statistical facts. The
spirit of every act of Congress pro-
viding for the various decennial CEN
suses has been, and is, that the in
formation as to individuals, firms,
and corporations is to be given in>
violable secrecy. 1t is as much priv
legged information as that impaired
by client to a lawyer, by patient to
physician. by dying man to min
lister. 1t cannot even be impaired to
another branch of the Federal gov
eminent, no matter how much the in
formation may be desired. No court
ever has or ever will ignore this
immunity from personal or business
involvement bestowed in return for
information required by United
States Census inquiries. To do other
wise would impair, if not wholly de-
stroy, the scientific efficiency of the
census work. So far as the live stock |
census is concerned, the bureau, fol-
lowing fair, impartial, and unbiased
methods, quickly separates the per-
son, firm, or corporation from the
facts furnished, and private or cor
porate identity in connection with |
any census data remains forever seal
eo and sacred in the great safes of |
the census Office"
The Directors Report
In his annual report for 1909 to
Secretary Nagel, of the Department |
of Commerce and Labor, Census Di-
rector Durand stated:
THE thirteenth census act is more |
specific than that for the Twelfth |
Census with respect to penalties up
on supervisors, enumerators, or 9TH
er employees who disclose informa-
ton which they secure, or who make
false returns. While there is no evil
dence that employees of the Census
bureau in the past have been guilty
of improper disclosure of informa-
tion-except, possibly, in very few
cases-these more specific provisions
for penalties are highly advantage
Gus. Although the census law re-
quires persons Intercepted to furn-
ish the information called for on the
duly authorized schedules, reliance
for prompt and accurate returns must
rest largely upon the good will of
those making the reurnts. Manu-
facturers, farmers, and others will
not freely disclose the needed infor-
nation unless they feel assured that
it will be treated in strict confidence.
The Census Bureau exists solely for
the collection of general statistics,
and is not, and should not be, an in
strument for disclosing the affairs
of individual persons, firms, or cor
porations.a Returns made by the
Census Bureau are in no case pub
lished in such way as to identify
the business operations of individual
persons or concerns, nor are they dis
closed to any person aside from en-
ployes of the bureau itself-not even
to other departments of the govern
ment or to other bureaus of the De-
partment of Commerce and Labor"