36 GEOGRA PIIIC NOMENCLA TURK 



tion of the census work in which it is not necessary to handle lour or 

 five tons of i)aper, wliile tlie number of clerks and other employes in 

 the office is about 3,000. To organize and govern a force like this, 

 for the most part untrained and collected almost at hazard from the 

 general i)Oi)ulation, requires far more tlian ordinar}^ intellectual and 

 executive ability. Tiie census act directs that this immense under- 

 taking shall be completed in its main outlines by the 1st of July, 1902, 

 or a little more than two years from the taking of the census. It 

 may be doubted whether Congress knew what is implied in this 

 requirement, but the Director and his assistants are determined to 

 comply with it if possible. In order so to do certain conditions are 

 essential, namely, a sufficient number of clerks, competent clerks, a 

 proper bouse in which to carry on the work, and non-interference on 

 the part of Senators and Congressmen with the government and 

 discipline of the office. A building in which each of the above pro- 

 cesses will l)e conducted in a single room on the ground floor, lighted 

 l)y sk3dights in the roof, has been constructed in a convenient location 

 for the especial use of the Census. 



GEOGRAPHIC NOMENCLATURE 



]\Ir R. T. Hill's (liHcussion of" Porto Rico or I'nerto Rico" raises a (juestion 

 wliicli .should 1)6 settled on a rational and permanent basis as qnirkly as possible, 

 before the usage of tourists, newspapers and their re{)orters is more widely 

 claimed as making precedent and constit\iting authority in the spelling and 

 proiumciatiou of the geogra{)liical names of the countries that have lately come 

 under the United States Hug. 



I\Ir Hill, whose excellent volume on the West Indies could scarcely have l)een 

 written without a com])eteiit knowledge of the Spanish language, can hardly 

 he serious iu alleging that " I'uerto " is uuphonetic and unprouounceal>le by 

 Knglish-spcaking lips. Still less seriously can he l)elieve that the rules of the 

 Geographic Board are intended to imply the adoption by all nations, untranslated, 

 of such politically significant and often temporary compound names as "The 

 United States," any more than they would require the German Empire to be 

 called " Das Deutsche Reich" in this country. That the supposed ditficulty is 

 largely imaginary is plainly siiown by the fiict that in California far more 

 troublesome names than " Puerto" are spelled as in Si)anish, and are yet cor- 

 rectly i)ronounced by all Init newcomers to the State. That during the late 

 war the popular pronunciation of Santiago and San Diego was almost identical 

 merely proves the great need of reform in English spelling; it certainly does 

 not argue either that we should adopt the mistake or change the spelling of 

 either name. 



