Year: 1872

The following paragraphs are from


Superintendent Walkers census re-


port:


The cordiality with which the
press and the country have recogniz


ed the publication of the prime re-
suits Of the census has afforded am.


pie compensation to the Superinten.


dent for all the effort that has been


required to accomplish the compile.


tion of the work Of compilation


within two years from the conclusion


Of the enumeration. There is nc


reason, however, why, with such


notifications of existing laws as


would insure that the material
should come originally to the Census


Office in the proper shape for tabu.


lation, the entire compilation should


not be concluded within year from


the date of the first receipt. 1t is


possible for any one who has had


such painful occasion as the present


Superintendent to observe the work


ings of the census law of 1850 to


characterize it otherwise than as


clumsy, antiquated, and barbarous.
The machinery it providesis as unfit
for use in the census of the United
States, in this day of advanced stat
istical science, as the smooth bore,
muzzle-loading Queens arm of the
Revolution would be for service
against the repeating rifle of the
present day. 1t ought not to be
possible that another census should
be taken under this law; such a
thing ought not to be seriously pro-
posed. The country has suffered
more than enough already of discred-
it and of loss on account of the
wretched insuficiency and inappro-
priateness Of the provisions of this
i'll constructed and out.grown statute.


l do earnestly recommend that
the attention of Congress be espe-
.cially invited to the propriety and
expediency of an immediate census,
to be taken in 1875, in preparation
for the approaching centennial cele-
bration of the political birth of the
nation. A census of the United
States taken under a system, and
with management which would Sc
cure the publication of the result by
the lst of June, 1876, would be a
noble monument to erect at the end
of century of the nations life. 1t
would mark off the first grand stage
in an industrial and social progress
altogether unprecedented in history,
and serve as the starting point of a
fresh career which we have, under
Providence, reason to believe shall
be greater and hap pier yet


Another consideration which
strongly influences me in this re,
commentator, is the belief that
census in 1875 would, in all proba.
bility, secure the taking of the Fed
eral census thereafter, at intervals Of
five years only. The interval of ten
years fixed by the Constitution has
been found to be far too long for all
the uses to which the statistics of
the census are put, except only for
the redistribution of Congressional
representation.


So rapid are the internal changes
of the country, oftentimes setting
calculations at nought, so fierce aud
vast the growth Of the nation as
whole, that the hiatus in the sta
tistical information at the COM
mand of the Legislator, the
pamphleteer. the journalist, and
the social and political philosopher, |
five or six years after the date of the |
census, becomes positively painful. |
Whoever will call to mind the esti-
mates as to the population and |
wealth Of cities, States, ans sections,
which Immediately before the occur
renee of the last census We're prop
erly put forth, were made the mate
'ial of political and industrial spec
llation, and were even taken as the
oasis of State and national legisla
ion, will hardly be disposed to ques.
ion that the cost of a census once
n five years would be amply repaid
~ the light it would shed upon the
condition of the people and the pro-
,ress of the nation in population
md wealth. Were the country once
o learn by practical experience the
advantages of a quinquennial enum-
,ratiou, it is not likely that a longer
period would ever thereafter be al
owed to intervene between the Fed
raj censuses.