Show I I I CENSUS PADDING IN ill THE WEST WESTI I I Booming and bragging always go together and an d an insane de der desire d e I sire of a n certain class of western cities to appear a lot bigger than thaD k they arc are has met mot its logical finish ilL in revelations of o gross census J a i II I I frauds Seattle and Tacoma Wash Portland Ore Minneapolis Minn Fort Smith Ark and Boise Idaho aro are the principal places pla es I against which charges of fraudulent returns have been made President Taft on learning the conditions wrote to Director I I I Durand of the census bureau urging that the guilty ones be prosecuted I I J ed cd However there has been more or less padding in iii every census 1 and few if any of the have ever been punished In newer Ii I sections like the west a certain amount of exaggeration is expected I II I j it is thought by some authorities that the atmosphere of the west I P makes things t look bigger than they really are and so a certain amount of stretching even een of population figures is officially winked r at just as the tho stories of fishermen are tolerated by all well regulated i i people eoPle P t But when it comes to ng b more than double the number G r i i of actual residents of some districts that is plastering it on a little f t too loo thick file and Uncle Sam will not stand for it iJ I Tacoma turned in a population popl claim of She was tired I i e a 1 of waiting so patiently to pass the mark and wanted to start working for the million mark But Director Durand says there are area area i a lot of population in Tacoma which he cannot count such as dum dummies Ii mies noes in store windows people who have been dead more than ten tenI t I E Et years those that have come to Tacoma Ta oma and then gone to some rival t i town those in the east who have havo merely said they might come to Ta Tn Tacoma coma some day to locate etc We think Director Durand is a mean I man and it may be that he is not doing justice to the Tacoma peo pee people I I t pIe plc when he says he can make only head of them Investigations Investigations I 1 will be made there and elsewhere and revised figures an aan announced anI I trounced j I j i But the trouble is that where here a population is overestimated ed cd at one census the fraud is pretty sure siire to be exposed o at the next nex t i i jl ten teni census sits Hence again honesty is the best policy in the tong long run rite even evenin evenI i I I in census figures t I I li I i Omaha knows this truth to her sorrow Her reported population popl a aI I 1 i I tion Hon of over ove in i 1890 was outrageously padded it is now not 1 known This TIllS came out when the census of 1900 gave her only about abou t Thus she appeared to have lost about people and andI I of course coarse this gave her a terrific black eye and interfered with her hert t legitimate growth f r 1 Again St Joseph Mo claimed to have about in 1900 I but now she se hP can show shout only about She must m fist pay this year for the padded returns of 1900 If any other cities have stretched d f their census figures this time the fact will probably come out in 1920 I f J I The figures for 1920 will vill show shout a smaller growth than will really be bethe bethe the case and then of course co se the tho people leople of those cities will fall back backon backOn bac baci k 1 i on the tho argument that this years figures lied though they will not notown no t i 1 own it now of course |