The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-03
Alabama Senator Attacks Present Federal Methods
 or Handling Gin Reports
Hefn Declares That Inaccuracies Are Easy When Sent by Telegraph and Urges Readoption of Mail Serv- ce-Change He Says, Was Made Without
 the Authority of Law

1 from friend saying that l had re- ceived 221 votes in certain county. Knowing the situation in that county as did, did not believe that the tele- gram had conveyed the correct infor- mation as to the number of votes cast eor me in that county. I called my friend over the long distance tele- phone. He said that a mistake had l Teen made in transmitting the figures that it should have been TAI instead of 221. This mistake amounted to 52U votes. Several mistakes of this char acter occurred
 SYSTEM IS WRONG l The census bureau requires the gin reporters, more than 1000 of them, % wire into Washington on the same day 1 from 1000 different points, the figures l giving the amount of cotton ginneG slnce the previous report. My fear is that through this system of obtaining the gin reports, hundreds O: mistakes l have been made in transmitting the figures over the wires.
 1 We all know that mistakes fre- | quently occur in transmitting figures | over telegraph wires from one point to another in the same state, and how much more liable are these mistakes to | be made when large number of tele- | grams carrying figures are sent in to | Washington from ali over the cotton growing states on the same day eelieve that many mistakes have been made in this way
 l When the selective draft law went 1 into effect and the names of our boys l were drawn for service in the army they | were given serial number The war department in the beginning wired these numbers to the boys in various parts ot the United States. Great confusion and misunderstanding arose immediately ill many quarters. In one instance 1 am l told. that one boys serial number was l5036S, and when the telegram reached him carrying the figures it read 563s6S
 sf ERRORS ARE EASY | If these mistakes occur in telegrams giving the figures of votes cast in an election and carrying the serial number of boy who is being called into Service in the army, it is quite reasonable to suppose that mistakes will occur in trans mtting so many figures all on the same day giving the amount of cotton ginned from one time to another. In many in stances these telegrams bringing to 1 Washington the figures giving the amount of cotton ginned are relayed, and this fact alone increases the op- portunity for serious mistakes.
 They are sent from one point to an other on the way to Washington The l agent at a given, point writes down what
 he understands the figures to be and sends them on over the wire to another I.point and so on, This plan of obtaining the gin reports opens the way for count less errors.
 Tt is an easy matter and could be done without any intention of wrong doing on the part of the telegraph agent for a telegram to start from local point in the cotton belt reporting 300 bales ot I cotton and by the time it reached Wash pgton be 5000 bales. Prior to the in- stallation of this telegraphic system of gathering these statistics, the gin report CT was required to write his report, sign, seal and mail to the bureau of the cen sus here in Washington.
 WITHOUT AUTHORITY
 Now. in addition to this plan, the bu- reau of the census. without any specific I authority under the law for doing so. has instituted a teIegraphc system also l It was our purpose to obtain these re- i ports in a manner so as to keep any body and everybody, except the gin re- porter, from knowing what he had mailed