222 



CONGRESS. (APPORTIONMENT OP REPRESENTATIVES.) 



present to this House some reasons why that 

 number should be increased upon the basis of 

 173,902. 



" The Federal census showed a population in 

 the city of New York of 1,513,000, and the sub- 

 sequent police census showed a population of 

 1,710,715, a difference of nearly 200,000. 



" Section 9 of the census act is as follows : 



It shall be the duty of each enumerator, after being 

 qualified in the manner aforesaid, to visit personally 

 each dwelling house in his subdivision, and each 

 family therein, and each individual living out of a 

 family in any place of abode, and by inquiry made of 

 the head of such family, or of the member thereof 

 deemed most credible and worthy of trust, or of such 

 individual living out of a family, to obtain each and 

 every item of information and all the particulars re- 

 quired by this act, as of date June 1, 1890. And in 

 case no person shall be found at the usual place of 

 abode ot such family or individual living out of a 

 family competent to answer the inquiries made in 

 compliance with the requirements of this act, then it 

 shall be lawful for the enumerator to obtain the re- 

 quired information as nearly as may be practicable 

 from the family or families, or person or persons, liv- 

 ing nearest to such place of abode. 



" This section of the law clearly and specifi- 

 cally sets out the duty of the enumerators and 

 leaves no reasonable excuse, under' ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, for a failure to make a substantially 

 correct enumeration. If the occupants of the 

 house are not at home and can not be reached 

 for the purpose of personal inquiry of them, it is 

 the plain duty of the officers to resort to the next 

 sources of information concerning those persons. 

 The mere fact so frequently found set out in the 

 returns of the enumerators, that certain houses 

 were closed, is no justification for their failure 

 to ascertain the number of persons occupying 

 those houses. 



" Inquiry of those residing or doing business 

 in the neighborhood would in nearly all cases 

 provide them with information which, if not 

 sufficiently accurate to enable them to make 

 proper returns, would at least afford grounds for 

 more particular inquiry at those places from 

 which the usual inhabitants were then absent, 

 and the local authorities, when it was made their 

 duty to ascertain the number of persons within 

 the territory to which they were assigned to 

 make an enumeration, resorted to these sources 

 of information with perfectly satisfactory re- 

 sults. The Federal enumerators had their sched- 

 ules so loaded down with impertinent questions 

 concerning the mental, physical,, and moral con- 

 ditions of the people that they did not seem to 

 think it worth while to be especially particular 

 in acquiring information as to the" exact num- 

 bers that were within their particular bailiwicks. 



" If the Federal enumerators had properly per- 

 formed their duties, the subsequent enumeration 

 made by the police officers of New York city 

 would have presented to the country a most re- 

 markable spectacle of the inaccuracy of those 

 most familiar with the people and the localities 

 of their own city. This variance of numbers is 

 within itself, in the absence of any well-grounde'd 

 charge of fraud or purposed false enumeration 

 by the local authorities, a sufficient reason to 

 arouse a proper suspicion that the Federal enu- 

 merators, selected not because of their special 

 fitness for the positions they were to fill and the 



duties they were to perform, but mainly upon the 

 recommendation of local Republican political 

 organizations, were, to say the least, incompe- 

 tent. 



" There is not the slightest reason in the world 

 for believing that the police officers of New York 

 city were either incompetent or intentionally in- 

 accurate, and in this state of the case the very 

 least that might be reasonably expected of those 

 upon whom devolves the duty of ascertaining the 

 whole number of inhabitants of a State is that 

 they would take the necessary steps to verify 

 their own enumeration, especially when the law 

 clearly provides, as does the act of March 1, 

 1889, for the verification of returns. 



"These local authorities, after making their 

 enumeration, selected one political division of 

 the State the Second Ward for the purpose of 

 comparison with the Federal enumeration. The 

 Federal enumeration had shown in that ward a 

 population of 927. The police enumeration 

 showed a population of 1,340, a difference of 413. 

 It was found upon comparison that the Federal 

 enumerators had included some that were not 

 included in the local enumeration. This show- 

 ing was made the main basis of the application 

 to the Federal authorities for the retaking of 

 the census for that city. 



" The selection of the Second Ward was made 

 because of the small territory covered by it and 

 the comparatively small population. It was a 

 ward the population of which is composed 

 largely of persons residing in business houses, 

 and while it is not pretended that the discrep- 

 ancy throughout the whole city is proportion- 

 ately as great as here, the selection was not 

 made because of the larger proportion of the dis- 

 crepancy in this ward, but wholly for the reason 

 that I have stated. 



" Affidavits of several hundred of the inhab- 

 itants of the ward were taken by the local au- 

 thorities, all showing that these persons were 

 residing at the same places when the local au- 

 thorities enumerated them at which they resided 

 on the first day of June, and throughout the 

 continuance of the Federal enumeration, and 

 that they had been omitted by the Federal 

 enumerators. Some attempt was made by the 

 Superintendent of the Census to discredit some 

 of these affidavits in the hearing before the 

 Census Committee ; but of all the hundreds of 

 affidavits there presented there was nothing ap- 

 proaching successful contradiction in more than 

 two or three cases. And to that hearing, which 

 is soon to be printed, I invite the attention of 

 this House. There is set forth clearly the 

 grounds upon which the city of New York 

 claims that she is entitled to a re-enumeration, 

 and the evidence of the inaccuracy of the work 

 of the Federal enumerators. The argument and 

 the evidence together are somewhat voluminous, 

 and I shall not occupy the attention of the 

 House in going thoroughly into the matter. 



" About the only pretense set up as an excuse 

 for refusing a re-enumeration that is at all 

 worthy of attention is that an enumeration made 

 now would show a very different number of in- 

 habitants from that shown by an enumeration 

 taken June 1. I say worthy of attention ; but I 

 think that very slight attention will satisfy any- 

 body that this is a mere pretense. 



