200 



National Resources Committee 



the result vas to produce extravagance and demoraJizatiou. 

 Mr. Robert P. Porter, who took the census of ISOU, states 

 that: 



"The efficiency of the decennial census would be greatly 

 improved and its cost materially lessened if it were provided 

 that the employees should be selected in accordance with the 

 terms of the civil service law." 



Mr. Frederick H. Wines, the Assistant Director of the Census 

 of 1900, states as follows: 



"A mathematical scale was worked out by which the number 

 of "assignments" to each Senator and Representative was 

 determined in advance, so many appointments to a Senator, 

 a smaller number to a Representative, half as many to a 

 Democrat as a Republican, and in Democratic States and 

 congressional districts the assignments were made to the 

 Republican State and district committees. The assignees named 

 in the first instance the persons to be examined. They were 

 afterward furnished each with a list of those named who had 

 "passed" and requested to name those who they desired to 

 have appointed. Vacancies were filled iu the same manner. 

 This system was thoroughly satisfactory to the majority of 

 the politicians interested, though there were a few who refused 

 to have anything to do with it. The effect upon the Bureau 

 was, as may readil.v be imagined, thoroughly demoralizing." 



Mr. Carroll D. Wright, who had charge of the Census Bureau 

 after the census of 1890, estimates that $2,000,000, and more 

 than a year's time, would have been saved if the census force 

 had been brought into the classified service, and adds : 



"I do not hesitate to say one-third of the amount expended 

 under my own administration was absolutely wasted, and 

 wasted principally on account of the fact that the office was 

 not under civil service rules. * * * In October, 1893, when 

 I took charge of the Census Office, there was an office force of 

 1,092. There had been a constant reduction for many months 

 and this was kept up without cessation till the close of the 

 census. There was never a month after October 1893 that the 

 clerical force reached the number then in office ; nevertheless, 

 while these general reductions were being made and in the 

 absence of any necessity for the increase of the force, 389 new 

 appointments were made." 



This of course meant the destruction of economy and effi- 

 ciency for purely political considerations. 



* * * It is of vital consequence that we should not once 

 again permit the usefulness of this great decennial undertak- 

 ing on behalf of the whole people to be marred by permitting 

 it to be turned into an engine to further the self-interest of 

 that small section of the people which make a profession of 

 politics. The evil effects of the spoils system and of the custom 

 of treating appointments to the public service as personal 

 perquisites of professional politicians are peculiarly evident 

 in the case of great public work like the taking of the census, 

 a work which should emphatically be done for the whole 

 people and with an eye single to their interest.* 



The result of Roosevelt's veto message was an 

 amended act requiring the temporary employees of the 

 Bureau in Washington to be taken from civil service 

 register.s, based on competitive examinations. Tlie 

 time-honored methods of selecting field supervisors 



and enumerators were unchanged.* Suggestions for 

 altering the situation were made from time to time, 

 but without effect. Dr. E. Dana Durand, for example, 

 reviewing in 1913 his experience as Director of the 

 Census of 1910, wrote : 



The most important source of inaccuracy in the population 

 statistics • • • is the incompetence and negligence of many 

 of the enumerators. The greatest promise of improvement ap- 

 pears to lie in the employment of mail carriers to collect 

 census statistics." 



Dr. Durand had no official opportunity to promote 

 this proposed reform, since he was automatically 

 forced o\it of office by tlie incoming Wilson administra- 

 tion. 



The Census in Relation to Party Politics 



The foregoing discussion has traced the background 

 of census taking in the United States and has shown 

 how a close relationship between party politics and 

 the census developed. This relationship arose out of 

 the necessity of employing an army of supervisors and 

 enumerators every 10 j-ears, wiihcut, for over a cen- 

 tury, the existence of a permanent central staff. The 

 overloading of the decennial census and the unwilling- 

 ness of Congress to establish a permanent Bureau are 

 shown to have arisen because of doubts about the con- 

 stitutional right of the Federal Government to collect 

 statistics. The traditions of over a century which made 

 each census an occasion for distribution of political 

 patronage could not be expected to die at once with 

 the establishment of a permanent bureau. There has 

 existed in the past the danger that the Bureau of the 

 Census would be "politically minded" first and "scien- 

 tifically minded" second. This need not imply parti- 

 san political bias in the Bureau's publications. Seldom 

 has that charge been made." Rather it has implied 

 in the past a preoccupation with political patronage 

 which might take precedence over the consideration of 

 scientific questions. Thus every change in party in 

 power has automatically forced a change in Director 

 of the Bureau. Sometimes the post has been given to 

 men without respect to professional competence, as a 

 reward for faithful political service. The present Di- 

 rector is an exception. He has had a lifelong career 

 in the Bureau. The remarkable progress which the 

 Bureau has made in rebuilding its organization in re- 



* Theodore Rocsevelt, Presidential Addresses and State Papers anif 

 European Addresses, December 8, 1908. to June 7, 1910 (New York, 

 Review of Reviews Co., 1910), pp. 2112-16. 



"As late as 19.30 the writer personally witnessed the almost complete 

 brealidown in administration of one supervisor's district in Chicago, 

 due to the incompetence and corruption of the political appointees. 



'"E. Dana Durand. "The Census Methods of the Future." PubHcationx 

 of the American Statistical Association, JCIII Xetv Series, .Yo. lOi, 

 December 1913. p. 507. 



" Such a charge was made by members of the Democratic Party wlili 

 respect to the unemployment counts in 1930 and 1931 In the Iloover 

 administration. The writer Is convinced of the honesty of those 

 enumerations even if the accuracy may be questioned. 



