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Show A .1 I'M P OX roilTKR'S CENSUS Th. ('mil l.r.la. Itfonn l..--af In bunion at luil.al ., N. V. Buffalo, Se(.t. 20. The National Civil Service Kuform leaguo began its annual meeting here yesterday. Iu tbe evening George William Curtis delivered deliv-ered the annual address, which was applacded; notably his commendation of Secretary Tracy' courageous ro forms at the navy yards. The report of the special committee, - appointed to iuquire into the condition of the civil service, which wa read today, is a very extensive one, and deals wholly with the last census. It quotes the civil servico reform plank of the last republican platform, and declares de-clares that if an branch of the service Vioild Cava been kept free from party controversy, it was tbe ceuir.s bureau. If an administration has the free choice of a nou political and a political agency for taking the enumeration and chooses the latter, composed of official of it ow n political faith, the presumption is against the fairness of the census sij taken. The defective results in the census of ls;o were directly traceable to the patronage pat-ronage system. The improvement pro. duced by the elimination of partistn-shipfiom partistn-shipfiom the census is shown in the) comparatively satisfactory results and general confidence in the census of Ixsi). This was before the civil service law, but an essential element of political polit-ical consideration m the uppoit tmont was largely observed. Coming down to the present census, the report says that is the promise of the republican platform had any significance signifi-cance at all, it meant that tho president; would extend tlie competitive system tu the clerks of the census bureau, when the bureau should be established. Mr. Harrison, in concurring Wiih theadop-ti theadop-ti on of the plailoim, distinctly madj this promise his own. The well known opinions of Mr. Porter, Por-ter, who was selected by the president , as superintendent of the census, iiiadtt ii certain that appointments would become be-come in a great measure tnatterR of political po-litical patronage. Porter's opposition to the civil service reform method clearly appears in his testin ony before) the house committee. Sepiember i'th, Is. ), when he said that civil st rvicn method were creating a system of "barbarism." Tb e act of March 1st. Inrtl. direct that each supei visor shail designate to the superintendent "a suitaiie person," aud, with b,s consent, employ such per- t sons as enumerators, who snail bo 8e let-led solely with reference to litness, and without refcieuce to political party affiliations. If tins provision had boen. fully enforced, tho complaints of tho partisan character of the census could not justly be made, but unfortunately the supervisors were themselves largely appointed upo i political considerations, considera-tions, and thu rc-mit was that the appointments ap-pointments of the enumerators were in many localities those of political patronage. pat-ronage. Cai ef ul itive stigat on by your com. mi fee shows that, while iu some places political considerations had no weight, yet the supervisor were iulluenced in many other es's by pa.-tisan consider- J aliou. Men wef! often chosen witnout referenc'i to their ii'.ucss, on account j of t heir political services, and ia such, 1 cases the work was ouon badly done, iu many instance- ihutottghly discredited. discred-ited. 'J he comnuttee goes ou to give at great length reports from tho civil service ser-vice associations in different sections of the country. T he general tenor of the report is that tho work of men said, to have been appointed as a rew ard for political purposes, was untrustworthy. untrust-worthy. Much space is devoted to New York, w here, says the couiinittse, the worst effects of the putrouage system are apparent. ap-parent. C. II. Murray, a republican, politician, was made supervisor of New York City, aud a circular letter frora bin is quoted as showing the manner iu which thu enumerator wero selected, se-lected, This letter says, "Vott will please forward to this office of-fice a list of the applicants that the republican re-publican organisation of your district desires to have named as census enumerators." enu-merators." The men named in these lists were subsequently appointed, and, says the committee, it is evident nsjgh that among thera there must have Keen a considerable number ut- terly unfit for the work, and it is not surprising that among them 1'olice Inspector In-spector liyrnes should recognize woll-knowu woll-knowu criminals. Tho committee goes over the dispute between New YoikCity and the Fed-, Fed-, eral authorities on the census, quotes many inaccuracies alleged to have been fouud in tho government reports, instances in-stances incompetent work of the entim-. entim-. orators, etc. In conclusion tho commit- tee considers that tho following prnpo-( prnpo-( eitions have been established as the result re-sult of their iihpiii'ii s: That the refusal to apply the civil ervice reform of open, uon partinan com petitivo examinations to appoint-I appoint-I merits to tho census bureau was a violation viola-tion by the president of the promise luiitaincd in the republican platform of and endorsed in his letter of an-1 eptance; that by the appointment of tnuiueraturs on political grounds, iu iipuu violation ol section live of the census act. great numbers of incompetent incompe-tent men have Ueeu engaged in taking the census, and in many pla ea attempts have been made to use the rdlicial positions for the beuelit of the party in power, that, while in some p'aecs the results of the work appear ap-pear free from a partisan color, and to be aeoiirriely ami well done, yet iu many places the work bus been carelessly care-lessly and badly done, and is open t.) the suspicion that partisan considerations considera-tions have uot been absent; and that, finally, there is a widespread distrust of the accuracy of I he census which greatly impairs its value to the country, and which is caused in gmt measure by the fact that I'm census bureau lias been conducted on the spoils system. |