Show lAKING THE cENSUSI t I WiU Require the Labor of 45000 I People I POLICY OF THE BUREAU I 4 FITNESS ALONE WILL GOVERN THE APPOINTATBNTS Denial of the Charge That the Bureau Will De n Political Composed Com-posed of Incompetent Favorites Three Hundred Superlsors and 40000 Enumerators Needed + Washington March llThe policy that will govern the task of taking the census of 1900 was outlined In an official offi-cial statement muds to the Associated Pmera today by Director Merriam and Assistant Director Vines Director Merriam starts for Minnesota this afternoon af-ternoon leaving Assistant Director Wintry In charge On Governor 11e1 riams return Mi Wines will go home to sCottie his private affairs Meantime there will be 110 consideration of appointments ap-pointments It wlll be at least thirty days yet before a selection of a staff officer is made with the exception of Professor Henry Gannett of thIs city as geographer This Is in accordance with a decision of the director today that In his absence there must be > no promises of office nor assurances or encouragement for any given Several of the otllclals selected Thursday nIght h1o qulillfied and thc active preliminary prelimin-ary ork will begin at once The statement state-ment of policy Is as follows As to prospective appointments to office the services of no more staff officers offi-cers can be utilized at present and there will be np others selected within certainly thirty dayS Professor Harry Gannett the well known geographer of the geological survey who was the political po-litical and statistical geographer of the last census has been asked to tale charge of the same work far the comIng com-Ing census and If the geological survey Is willing to spare him sufficiently to undertake this work he will be entrusted entrust-ed with It and given absolutely freehand free-hand Until time schedules come to the office of the enumerators In July 1900 theme will be no clerks wanted save I such a small skeleton force as will be I necessary to take rare of the corre I spondcnce and office work preliminary I to the taking of the census When the EcheG1les come back there will be a large force of employees appointed All I applications for office will receIve consideration con-sideration and a large number already have been received and placed on file I MEN mST BE COMPETENT I While the Impression has gone I abroad that the census is to be a refuge for Incompetency the truth and We actual facts are that all applicants ts1ll I be subjected to examination before appointment ap-pointment which will be as rigid as the mminationSi before the civil service I commission No political Influence will bE wtl1c1ent to put an employee on the census payrolls of whose competency tq do the work to assigned him the director is not satisfied in adance And furthermore If any employee Is found to be incompeten on trial such employee wlll be discharged regardless of his or her political backing The examinations ex-aminations of employees wtil be directed direct-ed not so much for the testing of their general Information and capacity as It would be to their fitness for the work to I be done as for example no copyist who cannot write grspell satisfactorily will be appointed nor calcuators v ho cannot calculate f First of all after the general administrative admin-istratIve officers are selected thte must be 300 supervIsors appointed and In their selection consultation will be had with senators and representatives In the respective states It may be announced an-nounced arso that senators and representatives repre-sentatives who do not belong to the Republican party will receive the same fair treatment and consideration along this line that Is given Republicans These supervisors will be appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate None of these as now contemplated con-templated arc t6 be reeess appointments appoint-ments but the list will be ready for submission to the senate at the opening ing ofn nest session The supervisors I supervi-sors In turn will appoint 40000 enumerators enu-merators to do the actual work throughout the country but the list of appointments of enumerators first must have the approval of the director of the census After approval they will be Immediately furnIshed the necessary blanks and instructions MANY BLANKS NEEDED This will be no small task Assuming the population of the United States at this time to be In round numbers 90 I OWOOO people there Must be 400000 sheets issued for the population schedules i sched-ules alone Adding to these the other schedules there wlll have to be In the aggregate not less than a hal milUon such sheets In prInted form Issued All this mass of paper will have to be manufactured and printed without delay de-lay In counting the population every individual will be represented by a separate sep-arate card and there will have to be manufactured and prInted not less than 100000000 of these cards The probability proba-bility Is that a system of machine calculating cal-culating which admits of counting figures fig-ures in combination and which worked so well In the last census will be adopted for that or 1900 The office will have to select from the various devices the one most satisfactory and a sufficient number to do the work must then be manufactured The work wlll be pushed with all possible speed consistent with accuracy and every effort ef-fort made to avoid dragging the work along unneeessarily Taken all in all the complete number num-ber of appointments that wlll be made In the course of the census will be over 45000 These Include eighteen or twenty twen-ty staff officers 300 supervisors 40000 enumerators and about 3j0 clerics and other employees here |