Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/99

 ECCENTRIC OFFICIAL STATISTICS 85

In his contribution to the JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, November 1895, Colonel Wright says:

Like all fruit the fruit of the census tree has been of various grades. The information was not always accurate but it was rarely vicious, and taking the census of 1850 as the first great stage of growth it must be understood as of varied quality. I have said the results were never vicious. This was true because overestimates are rare under census taking. If the returns were in

any sense defective, they were defective as to quantity stated If

more than the full amount was given the result might be damaging, but state- ments of less than the full amount while disappointing have little or no disas- trous effect.

Showing the different methods adopted in preceding censuses from those of the tenth census, which must make comparisons most dangerous unless accompanied by the fullest explanation and warning, Colonel Wright remarks of the tenth census: "Its faults were the faults of any such great undertaking, but they were less than the faults of any previous census."

The viciousness of our census statistics seems to be not in the deficiencies of the earlier enumerations but in the comparisons of incomparable statistics which we find in the later censuses. In the tenth census, instead of a caution as to comparing the valuations of that census with preceding censuses, we find remarks conveying the impression that while the estimate of true value of the census of 1860 was comparable with that of 1880 it was not comparable with the estimates of the preceding census. Judging by its results the fault of the tenth census, which Colonel Wright so highly commends, seems infinitely greater than the fault of any preceding census. By misleading our most eminent statesmen and writers as well as those less experienced, the tenth and eleventh censuses have defeated the purpose for which at great expense they have been compiled. What wonder that with official statistics which seem to indicate a per capita increase of wealth during the decade of war and waste, 1860-1870, three times as great as during the decade of peace and toil which fol- lowed, so many have concluded that the apparently great pros- perity of this period was due to the greenback issues, and that there is virtue in a flood of money ! What wonder either that a