Year: 1872

The following paragraphs are from


Superintendent Walkers census re-


port:


The eordiality with which the press


and the country have recognized the


early publication of the prime results
Of the census, has afforded ample


compensation TO the Superintendent


for all the effort that has been re-
/ quired to accomplish the completion


of the work of compilation within


two years from the conclusion of


enumeration. There is no reason,
| however, why, with such modifica-
ton of existing laws as would insuIe
that the materials should come orig
inally to the Census Office in the for


mer shape for tabulation, the entire


compilation should not be concluded
within a year from the date of the
hrst receipt of returns. 1t it not pos |


sible for any one who has had such /


painful occasion as the present Super !


inteDdent to observe the working of I


the census law of 1850 to characterize I


it otherwise than as clumsy, anti


quated and barbarous. The maehin-


cry it provides Is as unfit for use in


the census of the United States, in


this day of advanced statistical sci


ence, as the smooth bore, muzzIe


"Queen's arm" of the Revolution


would be for service against the re-


peatihg rife of the present time. II


ought not to be possible that another


census should be taken under this


law; such a thing ought not to be


seriously proposed. The country has


suffered more than enough already of


discredit and of loss on account of


the wretehed insufficiency and inap-


prOpriateness of the provisions ofthis
ill constructed and outgroWn statute.


l do earnestly recommend that the {
attention of Congress be especially
invited to the prOpriety and expedi-
ency OF an intermediate census to be
taken in 1879, in preparation for the
approaching centennial celebration of I
the political birth of the nation. A
census Of the United States taken 1
under system, and with a manage ]
ment which would secure the publf- {
cation of the results by the 1st of {
June, 1876, would be a noble monu-
ment to erect at the end of a century
OF the nations life. 1t would mark {
of the first grand stage in an indus
trial and social progress altogether
unprecedented in history, and serve
as the starting point of fresh career
which we have, under Providence,
to believe shall be greater and 8
happier yet. 6


Another consideration, which '
influences me in this recon-
is the belief that a CEN
sus in 1875 would, in all probability,
secure the taking of the Federal CEN 8
sus thereafter at intervals of five
years only. The interval often years ]
fixed by the Constitution has been
found to be far too long for all the e
uses to which the statistics of the b
census are put, except only for the e
Of Congressional rep Q
+


So rapid are the internal changes of Z
the country, oftentimes setting cal II
culstions at naught, so fierce and vast e
the growth of the nation as a whole, l
that the hiatus of statistical iufOrma- I
tion at the command of the legislator, i
the pamphleter, the journalist, and e
the social and political philosopher. 4
live or six years after the date of the G
census, becomes positively painful. ]
Whoever will call to mind the esti- T
Inmates as to the population and a
wealth Of cities, states and sections,
which Immediately before the occur
renee OF the last census were properly c
put forth, were made the material of I
political and industrial speculation, a
and were even taken as the basis of 9
State and national legislation, will h
hardly be disposed to question that
The cost of a census once in five years l
would be amply repaid by the light Il
t would shed upon the condition of t
he people and the progress of the d
nation in population and wealth. 1
We're the country once to learn by
PRACTICAL experience the advantages Of a
quinquennial enumeration, 1t Is not n
likely that longer period would ever n
le allowed to intervene between the o
federal censuses. y