658 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (THE TWELFTH CENSUS.) 



of silver certificates in circulation of about $27,- 

 000,000. This latter increase was mainly due to 

 the issue of certificates for the silver dollars 

 coined as required by law from the bullion pur- 

 chased under the act of 1890, for which the 

 Treasury notes were issued in payment. Under the 

 law, this coinage must go on until the bullion thus 

 purchased has all been coined and the Treasury 

 notes have been withdrawn from circulation and 

 canceled silver certificates have taken their place. 

 Of the coinage at the several mints, there was 

 a decrease in the value of the gold coins and an 

 increase in that of the silver. There were coined 

 during the year more than 24,000,000 silver dol- 

 lars, an increase of about 6,000,000 over the 

 amount for the previous year. The following 

 table shows the value of the coinage in detail: 



The Twelfth Census. No census of the 

 United States was ever planned so far in ad- 

 vance as was the twelfth. While the high scien- 

 tific value of the tenth and eleventh censuses is 

 beyond question, the practical utility of their re- 

 sults was seriously impaired by the delay un- 

 avoidable under the law attending their publica- 

 tion. This difficulty was felt by students of the 

 social and economic problems, data for which 

 were collected in those censuses, and especially by 

 politicians and those who use statistics for more 

 popular purposes and are in consequence prone to 

 exaggerate the loss and inconvenience growing 

 out of belated publication. This difficulty, and 

 others less apparent, led to concerted efforts to 

 secure a permanent census bureau, and when 

 these proved unsuccessful, to extra legal efforts to 

 improve the situation. Committees of the Ameri- 

 can Statistical Association and the American 

 Economic Association led in these efforts, and by 

 joint action formulated a plan for the twelfth 

 census which had a material influence in deter- 

 mining its final scope. A bill embodying much of 

 this plan was prepared by the Commissioner of 

 Labor, and with modifications was finally adopt- 

 ed. This result was not secured, however, until 

 after delays in Congress that were exceedingly 

 disappointing to those most intelligently anxious 

 to secure a satisfactory census, and the bill did 

 not become a law until the closing day of the 

 congressional session of 1899. The head of the 

 new office was appointed on March 4, 1899, which 

 was relatively about one month earlier than his 

 predecessor of the eleventh census. Whatever was 

 gained in the degree of preparation for the twelfth 

 over the preceding census is attributable to the 

 efforts of patriotic citizens not in public employ- 

 ment and to the diligence of the officers of the 

 later census after their appointment. 



The act providing for the twelfth census differs 

 in notable particulars from legislation providing 

 for earlier censuses. No census office has been 

 an independent bureau, but each has been con- 

 nected with some previously existing executive 

 department and under the supervision of a Cabi- 

 net officer. The present law makes the Census 

 Office a bureau of the Interior Department, but 

 the relation is nominal; the director possesses 

 plenary power of appointment and removal, he 

 has full control over the schedules, and his deci- 

 sions in regard to scientific or administrative 

 questions are not subject to review by any officer 

 of Government. The present Census Office is the 

 first American bureau of the kind to enjoy prac- 

 tical and substantial independence. 



The enormous range of inquiries undertaken in 

 previous censuses is generally believed to have 

 constituted a hindrance to the prompt and satis- 

 factory completion of the investigations univer- 

 sally regarded as most important. This evil was 

 remedied, in the law providing for the twelfth 

 census, by the omission of certain inquiries and 

 the postponement of others until after the com- 

 pletion of those regarded as most urgent. In ac- 

 cordance with the law, therefore, the work of the 

 twelfth census up to the present time has been 

 confined, with the exception of a few inquiries 

 concerning the deaf, dumb, and blind, authorized 

 by an amendment to the original act of Con- 

 gress, to the four great investigations relating 

 respectively to population, agriculture, manufac- 

 tures, and vital statistics. The statute provides, 

 further, that the statistics relating to these sub- 

 jects collected in the census shall be examined, 

 tabulated, arranged, analyzed, and the final re- 

 ports " published not later than the first day of 

 July, 1902." The postponed inquiries, not to be 

 taken up until " after the completion and return 

 of the enumeration and of the work until the 

 schedules relating to the products of agriculture 

 and. to manufacturing and mechanical establish- 

 ments " will relate to the insane; feeble-minded; 

 deaf, dumb, and blind; crime, pauperism, and 

 benevolence; deaths and births in registration 

 areas; social statistics of cities; public indebted- 

 ness, valuation, taxation, and expenditures; reli- 

 gious bodies; electric light and power; telephone 

 and telegraph business ; transportation by water ; 

 express business; street-railways; and mines, 

 mining, and minerals. The principal subjects in- 

 cluded in the eleventh census that are omitted 

 from the twelfth are railway transportation, in- 

 surance, fish and fisheries, and mortgage indebted- 

 ness. 



The area covered by the twelfth census is 

 greater than that covered by any of its predeces- 

 sors, as it includes all regions under the civil 

 government of the United States, and thus ex- 

 tends to the Hawaiian Islands. It also includes 

 the first attempt to treat Indian Territory similar- 

 ly to other portions of the United States. Cen- 

 suses of Porto Rico and Cuba were taken at sub- 

 stantially the same time as the Federal census, 

 but those islands were under the military govern- 

 ment of the United States, and the enumerations 

 were under the direction of the War Department, 

 and not in any way within the control of the 

 Census Office. 



The Hon. William R. Merriam, formerly Gov- 

 ernor of Minnesota, a business man of extensive ex- 

 perience, was made director of the census and has 

 had as his scientific staff Dr. Frederick H. Wines, 

 assistant director; William C. Hunt, Dr. Le 

 Grand Powers, S. N. D. North, William A. King, 

 and Dr. Walter F. Willcox, chief statisticians; 

 and Col. J. S. Lord, Harry T. Newcomb, William- 



