CONGRESS. (THE CENSUS BUHEAU.) 



195 



the time indicated; also a reduction of about 

 $114,000 per year in the executive force and a 

 corresponding reduction in general expenses, 

 rental, etc., so that in effect the actual expendi- 

 tures of the Government would be practically the 

 same. It is the belief of your committee that 

 when all phases of the question are taken into 

 consideration there will be in the end an actual 

 saving of money to the Government as a result 

 of establishing a permanent Census Office at this 

 time, to say nothing of the enormous gain from 

 a scientific point of view, and increase in the 

 value and accuracy of future censuses which 

 would result from this legislation. 



" There will also be a very handsome saving in 

 the amount required to prepare for the ordinary 

 decennial census. The appropriation for prelim- 

 inary work at the last two decades has been 

 $1,000,000 each. In view of the fact that there 

 would be a trained force in the Census Office and 

 ample time, at least one-half of this sum could be 

 saved in the w r ork of preparation for the next 

 census, and a further sum of $100,000 saved in 

 the way of furniture and fixtures. 



" The question has been raised how the cler- 

 ical force of a permanent Census Office can be 

 kept profitably engaged during the interval that- 

 must elapse between the completion of the work 

 on the special reports and the commencement of 

 preparation for the thirteenth census. 



" There is work enough provided for in section 

 8 of the existing law to keep a force of skilled 

 clerks busy for the entire interval from July 1, 

 1902, to, say, October, 1908, when the preparation 

 for the thirteenth census should be well under 

 way. The special inquiries required by section 

 8 can be distributed over the whole period; and 

 this distribution would undoubtedly result ad- 

 vantageously in the quality of the work done. 

 For instance, in addition to the annual report 

 upon births and deaths in registration areas, pro- 

 vided for in the new section of tl^ prese.nt bill, 

 the division of vital statistics would be employed 

 upon a special report upon the deaf and dumb, a 

 special report upon the blind, a special report 

 upon the insane and feeble-minded, a special re- 

 port upon criminals and juvenile delinquents, and 

 a special report upon pauperism and benevolence; 

 and these special reports would be made, one in 

 each year, until completed. 



" In the same \vay the report on public indebt- 

 edness, valuation, taxation, and expenditures, 

 provided for in section 8, would divide itself into 

 special reports upon public indebtedness, upon 

 public receipts and expenditures, upon assess- 

 ments and taxation, and upon true valuation of 

 real and personal property. These separate re- 

 ports, it is estimated, would occupy one division 

 of the permanent Census Office until the spring of 

 1907, the publication of the results of the several 

 parts of the investigation to take place from 

 time to time as the same are completed. 



" In another division the inquiries as to street- 

 railways, telegraph and telephone, and electric 

 light and power would be taken up and brought 

 to completion, or substantially so, before the in- 

 vestigation of mines and mining is entered upon. 

 Upon the completion of this latter report, the 

 investigation of transportation by water, a diffi- 

 ult and important field of inquiry, would follow 

 in due order. Thus the Census Office would be 

 continuously preparing and publishing a series 

 of valuable reports upon topics which Congress 

 has already determined that it shall investigate. 

 II would be entirely feasible, with a permanent 

 ''ensus Office, to arrange for the future publica- 

 tion of corresponding reports for the next census 



in such a way that the report on each topic 

 would be ten years distant from the last. This 

 whole class of reports could thus be disassociated 

 from the census year, with all its pressure, with- 

 out destroying their comparability in point of 

 time. 



" Another clause of section 8 provides for a 

 series of special reports on the social statistics 

 of cities, and it will readily be seen that the work 

 of making these reports, which will possess great 

 value and interest, can be distributed to the best 

 advantage over the entire period that will elapse 

 before the next census. This course would in- 

 volve the taking of the social statistics of the 

 cities of certain sections of the country in one 

 year and of other sections in another year, ac- 

 cording as the facilities and opportunities of the 

 permanent Census Office permit. 



" Provision should be made also, in the event 

 of a permanent census organization, for a care- 

 ful review of the conditions governing the taking 

 of the present census, in order that the plan of 

 enumeration may be so perfected as to secure a 

 very much closer supervision of the work of the 

 census enumerators. Considerable progress has 

 been made in this direction in the work of the 

 twelfth census, but it is apparent from recent 

 experience that very much more time must be 

 given to the initiation of the preparatory work 

 and steps taken at a comparatively early date 

 to develop a better and more complete system, in- 

 volving the possible separation of the enumera- 

 tion of the population in cities from that in the 

 rural sections of the country, and, in the latter 

 case, making the country the unit for census 

 supervision." 



Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois, said, in presenting the 

 measure : 



" Mr. Chairman, if I can have the attention of 

 the committee, I will take a few minutes briefly 

 to explain the bill. I will say, however, that the 

 report that was published in the Record this 

 morning fully explains the character of the bill 

 proposed here, the various provisions, and the 

 expenditure necessarily incurred by the establish- 

 ment of the bureau. 



" I shall not take very much of the time of the 

 committee to speak of the importance or the 

 necessity of establishing a permanent Census 

 Office. 



" This is a question which has been before the 

 people of this country for more than thirty years, 

 and it is a question that has been favored by 

 every statistician and every scientist in this 

 country during that period. Every superintend- 

 ent of the census since the taking of the ninth 

 census has recommended the establishment of a 

 permanent bureau. 



" These men who have been charged with the 

 duty of taking the census under the Constitution 

 of the United States have seen and appreciated 

 the wasteful expenditure of money under these 

 temporary bureaus, and they have seen that by 

 the establishment of a permanent bureau there 

 can be an actual saving to the Government, in 

 addition ^o the fact that the materials that are 

 obtained under the operations of the bureau will 

 be vastly more important by reason of their 

 greater accuracy and the scientific manner in 

 which they are presented to the general public. 



" I take it that every member of the House 

 who has given any thought to the subject what- 

 ever is in full accord with the vie\ys of the pres- 

 ent director of the censiis in the idea that now 

 is the opportune time to establish a permanent 

 bureau. I take it that every gentleman who has 

 investigated the subject at" all will agree with 



