The eleventh census / by Robert P. Porter.

  • Robert Percival Porter
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The eleventh census / by Robert P. Porter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    AN ADDRESS. Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen. I have been invited by the American Statistical Association to prepare a paper upon the organization, administration, and results of the present Census/' and have been particularly cautioned by your honorable secretary, Mr. Dewey, not to dwell upon the ''census law or past censuses/' but to talk about the present census, and will endeavor to comply with this reasonable request after a few pre- liminary remarks on another theme. The eleventh decennial enumeration of the people and wealth of the United States has been completed, and the nation has started on another decade of progress with the usual complaint that the in- crease should have been greater. The decades ending in 1890 and 1891 have been ominous ones for ofl&cials in charge of census work both at home and abroad : the Canadian Parliament trying to over- throw the government because the increase in population was only 11.66 per cent; Englishmen grumbling because the population fell a million short of anticipations ; Frenchmen alarmed because the numerical strength of the Repiiblic did not meet their expecta- tions ; and your own Superintendent pilloried by patriotic guessers because the actual count fell a couple of millions short of their estimates. Looking back to-night on the past, I see two years of the most stupendous work which taxed every iota of physical and
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