Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/256

244 by the founders of our own government that it is only through rigid, impartial, and fearless investigation that any community can know itself in the many directions in which knowledge is to be obtained.

It is true that it was not contemplated that the Federal census should take the range which in later years has been given it, for the only references in the constitution to a census are those which provide for an actual enumeration of the people for the purpose of apportioning representatives and direct taxes, and that no capitation or other direct tax shall be laid unless in proportion to the census or enumeration that was provided for in a previous section. It is also true that the incorporation of the organic provision for a periodical census was the result of a good deal of discussion by the framers of the constitution, the discussion growing out of the difficulties which were experienced in apportioning representatives and taxation, and there were wide differences of opinion in the convention, but after due deliberation the majority settled upon the provisions contained in the constitution and they became a part of the organic law of the land.

There had been, prior to the adoption of the constitution in 1789, various colonial and local censuses, and foreign countries had made enumerations at irregular intervals. It must be concluded, therefore, that the members of the constitutional convention were not entirely unfamiliar with the benefits of census-taking. Notwithstanding desultory enumerations and the unsystematic collection of information by foreign countries and by the home government through our colonial period, the credit of the first regularly organized periodical census is due to the United States, and our government has, commencing with 1790, made regular enumerations of the population, and, beginning with the year 1850, has conducted what may be properly called a national census, comprehending many features beyond the mere enumeration of the inhabitants.

This example set by our Federal constitution has been followed by the leading countries of the world, nearly all of which