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 LIBRARY 
 
 Oh THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS 
 
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 THE NEED OF A CLASSIFIED AND 
 NON-PARTISAN CENSUS 
 BUREAU. 
 
 Second Report of the Special Investigating Committee 
 
 OF THE 
 
 national Civil-Seivice Reform League. 
 
 
 December, 1898. 
 
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THE CENSUS BUREAU. 
 
 To the National Civil Service Reform League : 
 
 Your Special Investigating Committee, which examined, 
 among other things, the question of the desirability of classify¬ 
 ing the Census Bureau, begs leave to report t s follows: 
 
 On March 16th last, Senator Chandler introduced a 
 bill for taking the twelfth and every subsequent census. 
 Section 3 of the bill provided that the employees of the 
 Census Bureau should be appointed according to the provi¬ 
 sions of the Civil Service Act. The bill was referred to the 
 Census Committee, and when it was reported Section 3 was 
 stricken out, and a provision substituted that the employees 
 should be appointed “ according to the discretion of the Di¬ 
 rector of the Census, subject to such examination as said 
 Director may with the approval of the Secretary of the In¬ 
 terior prescribe, and not otherwise.” 
 
 The purpose of the Committee’s substitute is to repeat the 
 unfortunate experience of the last census in making the clerks 
 and the employees of the office subject to political patronage. 
 We desire to call attention to the evils which have resulted 
 from this course, in 
 
 1st: The increased extravagance of the Bureau; 
 
 2d: The demoralization of the force employed; 
 
 3d: The worthlessness of a census so taken. 
 
 4th: The lack of public confidence in its accuracy and im¬ 
 partiality. 
 
 I. 
 
 The last census cost $10,620,000 (Cong. Record, Decem¬ 
 ber 16, 1897, page 214). The amount paid for salaries alone 
 was $5,120,000. Mr. Carroll D. Wright, Chief of the Depart¬ 
 ment of Labor, who had charge of the last Census Bu- 
 
4 
 
 reau for some years after the retirement of Mr. Robert P. 
 Porter, as Superintendent, estimates that two million dollars 
 and more than a year’s time would have been saved if the 
 Census force had been brought into the classified service. 
 (Letter of Carroll D. Wright to Henry Cabot Lodge, Record 
 of December 16, 1897, page 174.) Mr. Wright adds: “I do 
 not hesitate to say that one-third of the amount expended un¬ 
 der my own administration was absolutely wasted, and wasted 
 principally on account of the fact that the office was not un¬ 
 der 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 ap*- 
 pointments were made.” 
 
 That is, new appointments were made to a force where 
 they were not needed, the new men replacing experienced 
 clerks, and, in the words of Senator Lodge, “ filling the office 
 with beginners at the close of the work.” This was mani¬ 
 festly done because these appointments were allowed to be po¬ 
 litical. 
 
 Mr. Porter disputes the estimate of Mr. Wright that the 
 waste was as much as two million dollars from this cause 
 alone. But whatever the precise amount, it was certainly 
 very large; so large that it is the manifest duty of Congress 
 to see that it does not occur again. 
 
 II. 
 
 In respect to the demoralization and inefficiency of a force 
 selected upon the patronage plan, Mr. Porter himself now 
 concedes the necessity of placing the Census Bureau in the 
 classified service. For, in his article in the North American 
 Review of December, 1897, he enumerates among the faults 
 of the present system the following : 
 
5 
 
 “ Placing upon the shoulders of the Superintendent, whose mind 
 should be fully occupied with his experts in planning the work, the re¬ 
 sponsibility of the appointment of an office force of several thousand 
 clerks.” 
 
 Mr. Porter suggests as a remedy: 
 
 “ Making the Census a permanent office of the Government and ap¬ 
 plying to it precisely the same rules and regulations as to the employ¬ 
 ment of clerical help that are in vogue in the other Departments. If 
 this were done,” he says, “special Civil Service examinations might be 
 held for the work prior to the time the clerk would be needed, and the 
 Census Office would then have a sufficiently large eligible list to draw 
 from. In 1890 I accepted Civil Service examinations of the higher 
 grades, but that did not do away with the necessity of examining 2,700 
 clerks in the office, and this with the work of appointment, literally took 
 up all the time of the Superintendent, whose mind should have been 
 free for his purely statistical duties. . . . And then why transform the 
 Census Office at its busiest season into an examination department for 
 clerks, and the Director of a vast scientific investigation into a dispenser 
 of political patronage. It is simply unjust to such an official. Having 
 passed through the ordeal once, I am satisfied that the other way is more 
 practical and in the end will be better for all concerned.” 
 
 This declaration of Mr. Porter’s experience is timely, if it 
 will prevent the repetition of such a calamity. 
 
 Congressmen were advised systematically of the number 
 of positions at their disposal. Mr. Porter, kept regular 
 books of account, charging each of the Congressmen with 
 the number of appointments made at his request. Our 
 Chairman has recently examined two of these books. I11 
 one of them, the appointments are classified according 
 to States, and in another they are charged to the particular 
 Congressman who solicited them. The latter book is a ledger 
 of over four hundred pages. At the head of each page 
 appears the name of the Congressman charged with the 
 appointments. In the left hand column are the numbers of 
 the files containing the recommendations and credentials. 
 Then follow the names of the appointees, and then the grades 
 and salaries. By means of this book the relative rights of 
 members of Congress could be adjusted, and it could be seen 
 at a glance whether any particular member had overdrawn his 
 account. After a Congressman retired, the clerks appointed 
 by him held their places by a precarious tenure, and frequently, 
 perhaps generally, had to make way for persons appointed 
 
6 
 
 and protected by the influence of his successor, or some other 
 Congressman, for in this ledger, following the accounts kept 
 with existing Congressmen (a page to each) is the list of the 
 appointees of ex-Congressmen all thrown together, as though 
 to be the subjects of early decapitation. We are informed 
 that there are other books of the same character as this ledger, 
 in the Census Office, covering other periods of time. 
 
 It would be hard to find a better illustration of the working 
 of the patronage system than is presented by this book, where 
 appointees are classified as in a live-stock register as the pro¬ 
 perty of particular Congressmen, but without reference to 
 their records and individual qualifications. We frankly and 
 gladly recognize the fact that there are members of Congress 
 who did not approve this debasing system, and who will not 
 now. 
 
 Patronage of this kind does not secure the political advantage 
 which is supposed to be its object, for the most severe defeat 
 ever sustained by the party then in power, occurred at the 
 close of the very year that these appointments were parcelled 
 out among the representatives of that party in Congress. 
 
 Mr. Porter testified that the appointees were, as a rule, 
 recommended by Republicans. This rule, however, was not 
 universal. There were Democrats who received a share of 
 the appointments; perhaps where their votes in Congress 
 were serviceable upon appropriation bills or otherwise. With 
 this system of log-rolling in force it is not hard to understand 
 how the enormous appropriations for taking the last census 
 amounting to $10,620,000 were secured. Indeed, Mr. Porter 
 stated some time since to our Chairman that if he had it to do 
 again, he would select his clerks by Civil Service examinations, 
 “ even though the other plan had greatly smoothed the way to 
 the passage of appropriations and other friendly legislation.” 
 
 The plain English in regard to such transactions is that 
 such legislation was bought with offices, and that the salaries 
 of these offices were paid for out of the people’s money. It 
 was the people’s money which paid for the keeping of the very 
 books in which these transactions were recorded. Under such 
 a system extravagance was a necessary result. 
 
 What was the character of the service under this patronage 
 system ? Shortly before Mr. Wright took charge of the Bureau 
 
7 
 
 a large number of discharges of those then holding positions 
 were made, on account of their lack, not only of ability, but of 
 moral character. Doubtless there were many excellent persons 
 who secured employment by patronage methods, but it was in 
 spite of this system of barter and corruption, by which the places 
 in this Bureau were filled. Under the competitive system it is at 
 least impossible that applicants will get their places because of 
 corruption or immorality. When appointed through favoritism 
 this is not seldom the very reason for their appointment. More¬ 
 over, when a clerk or other employee owed his place to the favor 
 of some Congressman, his loyalty was considered to be due, not 
 so much to the Chief of the Bureau and to the public, as to 
 the particular “ influence ” which secured the place. Remov¬ 
 als from the Census Bureau even for just cause became diffi¬ 
 cult, therefore, and often impossible. Persons dismissed for 
 inefficiency or misconduct, were actually reinstated against 
 the will of the Chief of the Bureau himself, at the demand of 
 some political friend, too powerful to be offended. 
 
 If the Census Bureau is not now put under a strict system 
 of competitive examinations, the effect of the elections in 1900 
 must also be considered. Hardly will the Bureau have been 
 put in running order before the campaign will have begun, 
 and if the spoils system prevails the whole force will be affected 
 by the political turmoil, connected first with the nominations 
 for Congressmen and President, and then with the elections. 
 Wherever the “influence” of the employee is defeated the 
 employee himself will be discharged, while if a change of party 
 ensures the whole Bureau will have to be reconstructed with 
 untrained material at the m ost critical period of its work. 
 
 III. 
 
 The lamentable results of the patronage system are shown 
 in the defective enumeration of inhabitants made in the last 
 census. As a rule, the supervisors were chosen for political 
 reasons, and the supervisors selected the enumerators. True, 
 it was provided by law (Section 4, Act of March 6, ’89) that 
 the enumerators should be chosen for fitness and without refer¬ 
 ence to party affiliations, but this became impossible when the 
 
8 
 
 supervisors were chosen for political reasons. The enumer¬ 
 ation was perverted in many places into an information bureau 
 for party candidates. 
 
 The supervisor at Buffalo, New York, addressed the fol¬ 
 lowing circular letter to his enumerators: 
 
 “October 28, 1890. 
 
 “As it is of the utmost importance that a Republican member of 
 Congress be elected in this district, I shall feel personally obliged if on 
 the day of election you will work especially for Benjamin H. Williams, 
 the Republican candidate. 
 
 [Signed] Silas H. Douglas.” 
 
 In Geneva, New York, Congressman Raines secured the 
 appointment of enumerators with the view of enhancing his 
 political fortunes. He addressed to one of them, and probably 
 to many others, the following letter: 
 
 “ My Dear Sir :—As it »s quite likely that you will in a few days 
 be appointed enumerator for your district, I write you this in the strictest 
 confidence. I would like very much that you should take the trouble, 
 before you make your report to the Supervisor of the Census, and after 
 you have taken all the names in your district, to copy in a small book 
 the name and post office address of every voter on the list. After you 
 have done so, I wish you to send the book to me at Canandaigua. I ask 
 you to do this as a personal favor, and to make no mention of the mat¬ 
 ter to anyone. What I want is a full list of all the voters in your 
 enumeration district. Will you please treat this matter as strictly con¬ 
 fidential ? 
 
 “ Very truly yours, 
 
 [Signed] J. Raines.” 
 
 Mr. Raines stated to our Chairman that he had sent this 
 letter in ignorance of the law, which required enumerators to 
 keep secret the results of the enumeration. In many other 
 cases, for instance, at Bloomington, Indiana, enumerators were 
 chosen on the recommendation of the chairman of the Repub¬ 
 lican County Committee, and made poll lists for the Repub¬ 
 lican party. 
 
 The evils of patronage were clearly apparent in New York 
 city. Charles H. Murray was made Supervisor of the Census. 
 He wrote the following circular letter which shows his man¬ 
 ner of selecting enumerators. 
 
9 
 
 “ Dear Sir :—You will please forward to this office a list of the appli¬ 
 cants that the Republican organization of your district desires to have 
 named as Census enumerators. The list must be sent here on or before 
 April ist.” 
 
 General Walker who took the Ninth and Tenth Census 
 says : “ If the selection of the enumerators was made upon 
 
 any such basis as that, the census could not have been other¬ 
 wise than bad.” Many of the men thus appointed were 
 utterly unfit. The Police Inspector named one, a thief, who 
 had been three times an inmate of the State Prison, a man 
 whose name was known to all the city detectives, whose 
 picture was then in the Rogues’ Gallery, and whose dealings 
 with the Census Bureau were under an alias; yet private 
 houses were opened to him under Government endorsement. 
 
 New York was a Democratic city, and there was strong 
 reason for believing that the count had been defective. The 
 Police Department re-counted the city and found the population 
 two hundred thousand greater than that showed by the federal 
 census. The police count was sent to Washington where Mr. 
 Kenney, its custodian, offered it for comparison with the 
 census enumeration and a recount was asked, but refused. 
 Then a copy of the federal census for the Second Ward was 
 procured and compared with the police enumeration. The 
 federal list contained 826 names, and the police enumeration 
 1,340 names,—a difference of 45 per cent. Affidavits were 
 furnished showing the residence of 328 persons not enumer¬ 
 ated in the federal census. Our Chairman inspected the 
 police enumeration, as well as the federal census, and a com¬ 
 parison of the two lists, followed by a personal investigation 
 in the Ward, indicated that great numbers of the residents of 
 this ward were omitted in the census. There can be no doubt 
 but that many thousands of inhabitants of New York were 
 omitted from the census, and the patronage system was 
 directly responsible for these omissions. 
 
 One of those engaged in the taking of this census thus 
 describes some of the facts which came under his personal 
 observation: 
 
 “ In a section consisting at one time of twenty-one people 
 who were engaged in the mailing department of the office, 
 
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 addressing envelopes, mailing bulletins, and other duties inci¬ 
 dent to the mailing department, there were only four people, 
 other than the chief of the section, who were available for 
 any character of work whatsoever. Three clerks were abso¬ 
 lutely demented; they were, by reason of being maimed / 
 wholly unfit to be of any service; two by reason of disease 
 (consumption), were valueless; two, being sons of chiefs of 
 division in the office with a “ pull,” were immune; the other 
 six were wholly worthless by reason of age or disinclination. 
 
 It is but fair to say that this condition did not last throughout 
 the period of the taking of the census. The larger number of 
 these people, however, served more than two years, and several 
 of them for a much longer period. It would seem that this 
 particular section was the Botany Bay of the Eleventh Census, 
 but the same state of affairs existed in a lesser degree through¬ 
 out the office. It needs no argument to convince one that 
 this state of affairs could not exist under the ‘ merit ’ system 
 estabtished under the civil service act and rules. Being ap¬ 
 pointed as skilled laborers, these people were not required to 
 take an examination, although doing clerical work. 
 
 Another feature of the work of the Eleventh Census 
 which makes clear to my mind that the next force should be 
 selected from those who pass a competitive civil service ex¬ 
 amination was the exceedingly large percentage of errors 
 made, particularly in the punching of cards. All of the data 
 relating to the census were transferred from the original sched¬ 
 ules to cards, each hole punched in a card representing some 
 material fact, such as 4 native born,’ 4 foreign parents,’ 
 
 4 white or colored,’ etc., etc., in some cases as many as thirty 
 or forty facts being indicated by punches on a single card. 
 
 The symbol representing each condition or fact must be car¬ 
 ried in mind, or else the progress of punching the cards would 
 be so retarded as to make the electrical punching machines 
 of little value. I think it will be readily conceded that a 
 clerk doing this character of work should be a person of good ' 
 
 mind as well as a skilled clerk. 
 
 There was at all times a 4 Division of Revision and Re¬ 
 sults ’ in the office, consisting of a chief and from thirty to 
 seventy of the best clerks obtainable. Notwithstanding this v 
 
 check upon error, it was found necessary to establish a section 
 
of about seventy people to look after the errors of punching 
 cards alone. Here we find as many as one hundred and forty 
 people whose time was wholly devoted to correcting faulty 
 work. Errors, of course, would unavoidably creep into a 
 work of the magnitude of the Eleventh Census, but I believe 
 that a careful selection of the clerks under the rules of the 
 Civil Service Commission would have tended to minimize 
 their number. Notwithstanding the ‘ Revision’ division and 
 the ‘ h)rror ’ section before spokenof, it was found at the very 
 last moment before the publication of the final results that the 
 work was so inaccurate that the portion of it relating to occu¬ 
 pations (see report of Commissioner of Labor, in charge of 
 Eleventh Census, June 30, 1895, pp. 4, 5) had to be subjected 
 to still another revision, which delayed its publication for 
 more than a year. The expense incident to this was great, 
 owing to the fact that all other census work had been com¬ 
 pleted, and the office remained open only to complete that 
 section of the report on ‘ Population, and Vital Statistics Re¬ 
 lating to Occupation/ 
 
 Considerable stress is laid upon the fact that examinations 
 were held in the office to test the fitness of clerks before they 
 were employed. I beg to suggest that the highest number 
 of clerks employed at any time numbered about 3,200. Of 
 these, only about 1,700 were examined. The larger part of 
 the working force of the office was, in point of fact, never 
 subjected to an entrance examination. Only the high-grade 
 clerks, namely, those from $900 per annum up, were required 
 to pass the entrance examination. It can be readily shown, 
 as I suggested above, that the greater part of the clerical 
 work was performed by what were termed ‘ skilled laborers/ 
 who received $600 per annum only, and were exempt from 
 examination.” 
 
 IV. 
 
 The census ought to be as free from partisan color as the 
 Judiciary. Otherwise, no one can rely upon the accuracy of 
 its conclusions. To gain the confidence of the people, it ought 
 to be not merely fair and just, but free from even the appear¬ 
 ance of corrupt or partisan influence. 
 
12 
 
 If the government has a free choice between a non-po¬ 
 litical and a political agency for taking this enumeration, 
 and chooses the latter, composed of officials of its own politi¬ 
 cal faith, the presumption is against the fairness of a census 
 so taken. And even if it were fair, many would not believe 
 it to be fair. Suspicion is cast on such a census in advance 
 of enumeration; and if, at the close of the work, inaccuracies 
 are shown, resulting in some cases in advantage to the party 
 by which it is taken, the work is sure to be discredited. 
 
 All of which is respectfully submitted with the recommen¬ 
 dation that the efforts of the League be directed immediately 
 toward gaining the support of the country and of Congress 
 for the classification of the Census Bureau under the civil 
 service rules. 
 
 (Signed) Wm. Dudley Foulke, 
 
 Chairman. 
 
 Charles J. Bonaparte. 
 
 Richard H. Dana. 
 
 Herbert Welsh. 
 
 George McAneny. 
 
 Baltimore, December 15, 1898. 
 
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