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Show 'OGDEN AND TOECENSUS RECOUNT Vnshington, Fob 28. A considerable consider-able part of the annual report for 1W0D-1O which Census Director Dur-and Dur-and has transmitted to Secretary Nagel of tho department of commerce com-merce and labor Is dovoted to the subjects sub-jects of overcounting, or "padding", and undercouutlng tho populnMon; of sovornl deliberate consplrlcles bo-' tween pilvato Individuals and local special agents and enumerators to Inflate In-flate census returns; of tho desirnbll Ily of a federal law prohibiting the unofficial circulation of printed slips containing census questions; and of the extent of tho margin of error iu the Thlrteeuth census count. Aftor careful Investigation of tho returns nud schedules by expert clerks in the bureau, it was found necessary neces-sary to correct the population figures forsomo 23 cities of the United States whose census returns had been inaccurately inac-curately made, or "padded," either Intentionally In-tentionally or through carelessness or error. In no case, however, was any correction In the population figures madp without flrbt conducting a careful care-ful investigation in the city Itself. Evidences of Dellbernto Conspiracy. Thy director states that In several cities there seems to havo been .i deliberate de-liberate conspiracy between prlvato individuals and some of the special agents or enumerators, or both. u In-Jlate. In-Jlate. fraudulently, the census roturns. It would bo Inadvisable Jto present the evidence of such conspiracies in any Individual case at the present time, as only after investigation by the department of Justice and the possible pos-sible ensuing prosecutions will the ft.cts be fully known. By direction of tho president, tho census bureau hns already laid the facts 'thus far ascertained with regard re-gard to several cases of "padding" before the department oP Justice, and other cases will shortly be brought to its attention. Up to tho present time indictments have been brought and convictions secured se-cured In the caso of three enumerators enumer-ators In Great Falls, .Mont and Indictments In-dictments havo been secured, which are now ponding trial, in tho case of one enumerator in Seattle, Wash., and of three enumerators and one special agent In Fort Smith, Ark. It Is not believed that tho errors and fraud In tho present census in any way exceeded those , In previous censuses; cen-suses; on the contrary, it is very llkoly that they were less extensive. Greater effort, however, was given Jt the present census than at any preceding to tho Investigation of the correctness of tho roturns, and consequently con-sequently errors and frauds were discovered dis-covered in a larger number of cases than at any preceding census. In describing tho general character and method of overcounting or "pan-ding" "pan-ding" tho census roturns in large cities, cit-ies, Director Durand says In his report re-port that It was Impossible In many cases to distinguish clearly between deliberate fraud and misjudgment. It is undoubtedly very difficult in many individual Instances for an enumerator enumer-ator to decide whether a given person is or is not entitled to enumeration In his district. Tho difficulty arises chiefly in connection with the floating float-ing population. Sources of Overcounting. The names improperly enumerated In the various cities and districts concerned may be roughly grouped under the following classes: Purely fictitious names, probably comparatively few. Persons who were residents of the city, but who did not reside in the enumeration district in which fictitiously ficti-tiously reported and who wore already al-ready enumerated at their true residence. resi-dence. - Persons formerly residents of the city, butt who had permanently left it, oi who, In some cases, had died; names iu such cases having been at times taken from old directories or from p.iy mils of employers.! Persons who had never had a permanent per-manent residence In the city and were not there at tho time "of the enumeration, but who previously, at one time of auother had been temporarily tempor-arily present In tho city. , Persons temporarily in tho city on the census day (April IB), but whoac iibual place of abodo was elsewhere. else-where. Persons perhaps having no usual place of abode and who were not present pres-ent in the city on the census day, i but only at some subsequent time In some cases several weeks after the I census day. Unauthorized Assistance of Enumerators; Enumer-ators; In a considerable proportion of cities cit-ies In which overcounting took place, It wns due largely to the unauthorized activity of private Individuals in collecting col-lecting names and turning them ovor to the enumerators. In other word', many enumerators permitted Information Informa-tion obtained by private Individuals and judgment exorcised by prlvato Individuals as to tho claim of persons per-sons to enumeration to be sibmlt-ted sibmlt-ted for Information sacured and Judgment Judg-ment exercised by themselves. These private Individuals, subject to no responsibility, re-sponsibility, usually entirely Ignorant of the census rules ifs to persons entitled en-titled to enumeration, and often uc-tuatcd uc-tuatcd by the Illegitimate desiro to pad the returns, could not, of course, properly do the work of enumeration In n number of cities committees were constituted by boards of trade o- other commercial organizations, or were otherwise formed, to assist in tho census. The nominal purpose in all cases whb meroly to make sure that the enumeration wns complete, and In some instances the nctivltlog of these committees woro actually helpful to the census. In some Instances, how-over, how-over, even where tho purpose and the methods of thcSo confmittccs wore legitimate, tho result was an overcount over-count of tho population, and In other cases tho purpose and methods of at least individual members of committees commit-tees nnd those employed by- them were conspicuously Illegitimate" and fraudulent. fraud-ulent. It was a Btrong temptation to an enumerator to add such names to his schedules, both for financial reasons and In ordor io make the population of Uls city appear at largo as possible. B entering a name without lnvos-ticatlon, lnvos-ticatlon, ho could finish tho work In a single minute, secure the compensation compensa-tion provided, usually 2 1-2 or 3 cents per name, while It might require many j minutes or even an hour or more to Investigate the claim of a person to enumeration, with the posslbln r- rsult of finding that he could not be' counted. Iu a few cases special agenu connived with enumerators In fraud, or oven Instructed them to commit IL It appoars, tho Director concludes, clenrly deslrablo at the next census that the law should explicitly prohibit the pruning and circulation by private pri-vate persons of slfp3 containing tho census quest io'ns. List of Overcount Cities. A list of the several cities In which, as a result of recnumerntlon or rechocking, the population, as finally final-ly determined by tho Census BUroau, was less than originally returned by the enumerators is Inserted. Tho Director snys it is Impossible to assert as-sert as to every one of theso cities whether the excess In the original enumeration was due to deliberate fraud on the part or the enumerators or others, or to misjudgment only. It ' may be stated, however, that there Is less evidence of conscious fraud In i the case of the districts In San Francisco, Fran-cisco, Duluth, Minnesota, Bolsu, Rawlins, Raw-lins, Laramie, Havre. Ogden and Eveiett thnn in Qjc case of most of the other cities. In some of the cit-ie.M cit-ie.M in which some of tho enumerators enumerat-ors were undoubtedly guilty of fraud, others who overcounted the population popula-tion apparently did so wl'hout fraudulent fraud-ulent IntonL Tho list follows: a w w - sa S Guy. p. j ; . i Arkansas: j Fort Smith ..I U0.430 23,975 6,-155 California ' . San FranciscoM20,234-UG,0l2 3,322 Idaho: Boise 10,7S2 17,35$ 2,121 Minnosota: j Duluth j S2,022 7S,4G0 3.55G Minneapolis .!30G.07G(301.10S I.GGS Moutaua: j Billings 12.-12SI 10,031 2,397 Great Falls .. 22,324 13,918 S.37G Missoula ..... ll.GSSJ 12.SG9 1,819 Havre 5,0-M 3,62-1 1,120 Oregon: j Portland '222,9591207,211 15.715 Utah: Ogden 26.1451 25,580 5G5 Washington: I j Aberdeen 15.59SJ 13.GG0 1.93S Belllngham .. 27,194 24,298 2.S9G Centralla 8,0G5 7,311 754 Evorett 25,7G2 21.S11 9 IS Hoaqulam ...j 9.154J S171 9S3 Montesano ... 2,98 1 1 2.488 49G Seattle 248,3S2J237.19i 11.1SS Spokane I109.G95I101.4021 5,293 Tacoma 11G.270 S3.743 32.527 Walla Walla.. I 20,273) 19.3G4 909 Wisconsin: j Superior ol,395 40.3S4 11,011 Wyoming: ' Rawlins 4,4611 4.25G1 205 |
