Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/89

Rh cents a name might not induce him to enter all the dens of the slums of a great city for the sake of accuracy. In sparsely settled localities even three cents a name (the per capita rate, it must be borne in mind, covers all the multitude of facts called for on the population schedule) will not enable an enumerator to earn a living for the time employed, and he is often inclined to take the statements of neighbors rather than to travel a mile or two to secure accurate statements relative to half a dozen persons. In enumerating establishments of productive industry, the compensation allowed by law will not enable an enumerator, either honestly or dishonestly inclined, to secure any very valuable results. It is quite impossible to fill out a manufactures schedule completely and with fair accuracy for twenty cents. A man could not earn one dollar a day if he did his duty, and on the enumeration of farms he could not earn seventy-five cents a day. The complete agricultural statistics under the census of Massachusetts in 1885 cost about one dollar per farm, instead of fifteen or twenty cents.

The difficulty which Congress would have to meet in adjusting this matter of compensation is twofold. If a very large body of enumerators, like that employed under the elventhelventh [sic] census, nearly fifty thousand, should be enlisted on a per diem compensation, the fear would be that there would be men enough in that vast army who would delay their work for the purpose of increasing their earnings to swell the cost of enumeration to enormous proportions although reasonable accuracy would thereby be secured in every direction. On the per capita basis the question would be whether accuracy should be sacrificed for the sake of a lower cost. The evils of the present system are so great, however, so far as compensation is concerned, and the results of the census vitiated to so large a degree, that it would seem to be wise to adopt a system of compensation which should secure fair accuracy in the results even at an increase in the expense The country grows so rapidly, and the wealth and business increase so largely, that the total expense of a census should not be considered when the accuracy of the same is at stake.

Another fault of the present system, to my mind, lies in the organization of the field forces. It is perfectly natural that the Census Office, and that Congress, even, should seek a speedy enumeration of the people; but it is submitted that if an instantaneous enumeration can not be had—and it is clearly demonstrable that it can not in this country—then whether it take a week or two weeks, or even three or four, to complete the enumeration becomes a matter of lesser consideration. It might, therefore, be wise to make larger districts and use a less number of enumerators rather than to extend the method by decreasing the size of the