Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/71

 Rh of family schedules sufficient to last him for the day, packs in his 11 by 15 portfolio a number of special and supplementary schedules, which he is to use when occasion demands. To begin with the latter. When question 2 of the population schedule is answered in the affirmative for Union soldiers or sailors, the enumerator turns to a supplementary schedule for 'Survivors of the War,' where he enters the particulars in regard to the soldier or sailor, his rank, company, regiment, date of enlistment, length of service, etc. This inquiry was forced on the census by Congress under the impression that it would serve as a basis for pension legislation. But it is evident that all these returns will have to be compared with the army records and verified before they can be used, and the whole thing seems a waste of money and a useless hardening of the census. When any one of questions 22, 23, or 24 is answered in the affirmative the enumerator turns to one of eight supplementary schedules headed Statistics of Insanity, Statistics of Feeblemindedness and Idiocy, Statistics of the Deaf, Statistics of the Blind, Statistics of Persons Diseased or Physically Defective, Statistics of Benevolence, Statistics of Crime, and Statistics of Pauperism, and demands a variety of information as to the cause of the affliction, how long afflicted, etc. The outcry raised in the newspapers in regard to answering these questions was purely factitious, and rested on the à priori ground that for the federal government to demand answers to such questions was unconstitutional, and an invasion of the liberty of the individual. It was said that it compelled men and women to reveal weaknesses or even shameful diseases which had been a secret between them and their physician, and to expose themselves to the pity or contempt of the entire community. This is absurd, for if the defect is such as can be concealed, there is nothing to prevent the individual answering 'No' to the question, and the legal power of the federal government is not so inquisitorial that it would be likely to follow the offender; while if the defect is notorious (like the presence of an idiot child in a family), no harm will be done by entering it on a census schedule. The questions will not be truthfully answered in thousands of cases, but the chief application of the law will be in the case of officers of charitable institutions who refuse to take the trouble to make a proper return. That such information is very desirable seems to me unquestionable.

Besides the supplemental schedules, the enumerator in rural districts carries with him three special schedules. The most important of these is the Farm schedule, containing a great variety of questions in regard to land and crops. The second is the