of which should be determined by the Civil Service Commission and the Director of the Census. Section 9 is so amended as to authorize the head of the Department to act directly with the President with reference to the number and appointment of the supervisors therein provided for. Wherever personal services have been authorized in the act, and the rate of compensation has not been fixed, I deem it advisable that the rate of compensation should be fixed by the Director, with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, and sections 6, 15, 16, and 18 of the act have been amended to accomplish this object. Section 25 is so amended as to permit the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to investigate any complaint that may arise with respect to the accuracy or reliability of the information disclosed by the schedules. Section 27, which empowers the Director to authorize all expenses incurred under the authority conferred by the act, is amended by inserting, in line 22, page 21, after the word "that ", " subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor." This amendment is prompted by reason of the fact that it is not thought desirable that the expenditures in connection with the authority conferred by the act should be expended without at least the supervisory control of the head of the Department. In this connection section 36, which appropriates the sum of $14,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for the purpose of carrying out the objects of the act, is amended by striking out, in lines 8 and 9, the words "under the direction of the Director of the Census.” Section 28 of the act, as introduced, authorizes the Director of the Census to make requisitions upon the Public Printer for such printing as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of the act. This provision, if enacted into a law, would place in the hands of the Director entire control with reference to all matters of printing in connection with the census work. The same section further authorizes the Director to have printed by the Public Printer, in such editions as the Director may deem necessary, preliminary and other census bulletins and final reports of the results of the several investigations authorized by the proposed act, or by the act to establish the permanent Census Office, and to publish and distribute said bulletins and reports without reference to the head of the Department. Such authority with reference to the requisitions upon the Public Printer and the authority to publish and distribute results of investigations authorized by the act places in the hands of the Director of the Census an unlimited power which, in my judgment, should not be given to the chief of any bureau without the exercise of supervisory authority by the head of the Department. It certainly is a grant of power that I strongly oppose being given to any chief of bureau of this Department, and the section has been accordingly amended to meet this objection. Requisitions upon the Public Printer can be, and, in my judgment, should be made by the head of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and the Department is equipped in this respect, as in all other respects in which the act is proposed to be amended, to perform the various duties without delaying or retarding the work of the Census Office. Section 30, which authorizes the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, on the request of the Director of the Census, to call upon any other Department or office of the Government for information pertinent to the work provided for by the act, is amended so as to give the Secretary authority to call upon other Departments or offices of the Government for the information desired on the request of the Director of the Census, or whenever the Secretary of Commerce and Labor may deem it advisable. Section 31 is so amended as to make the certificate therein provided for one from the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to the Secretary of the Treasury, as it is not believed that the chief of a bureau within a Department should make a certificate direct to the head of another Department, and it is further provided that the Director of the Census shall be authorized to tabulate, compile, and publish the results of the State censuses so taken with the approval and under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. Section 33, which authorizes the Director of the Census to expend in the year 1911 a sum not to exceed $50,000 in ascertaining the feasibility of securing through census enumerators or special agents the information required for making comparisons between the number of domestic animals and the acreage of the principal crops on the same farms of the country in succeeding years is so amended as to cause the sum authorized to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. Section 37 of the act is so amended as to leave in force the act establishing the permanent Census Office, approved March 6, 1902, as amended by the act of February 14, 1903, creating the Department of Commerce and Labor, and providing further that nothing contained in the act shall be held in any way to impair or diminish the power, authority, jurisdiction, supervision, or control over the Census Office, its officers, and employees, vested in the Secretary of Commerce and Labor by the act of February 14, 1903, entitled "An act to establish the Department of Commerce and Labor." These amendments, in light of what has already been said, are self-explanatory. The Constitution provides that the President "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." This mandate of the Constitution, in accordance with the plan which has existed almost from the foundation of the Government, and which has repeatedly received the sanction of Congress, is carried out by the President through the heads of the various Executive Departments established at the seat of government, who are direct representatives of the President in the execution of the laws. The setting up, therefore, of a bureau within an Executive Department, which shall be independent of its head, would likewise be independent of the Chief Executive of the nation, and would constitute an administrative anomaly which it is believed it is not the purpose of Congress to create. In conclusion, I may add that the work of taking the Thirteenth Census which involves the expenditure of approximately $14,000,000, should not, in my opinion, be attempted under a law which vests in a bureau chief unlimited powers with reference to practically every feature in connection with the work independently of the head of the Department of which the bureau is a part. The several bureaus of the Department of Commerce and Labor are now fairly well coordinated, and if this bill as introduced becomes a law it will go a long way toward absolutely defeating the good work already done. I therefore earnestly recommend that the bill be changed along the lines of the amendments incorporated in the attached draft. Very respectfully, OSCAR S. STRAUS, Secretary. Hon. EDGAR D. CRUMPACKER, Chairman Committee on the Census, House of Representatives. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, Washington, February 12, 1908. SIR: At the request of the Director of the Census, I beg to submit herewith for the information of your committee a copy of a report, made by an advisory committee appointed by my predecessor to consult and confer with the Director of the Census in reference to plans for the Thirteenth Decennial Census, recommending certain changes in H. R. 7597, now pending before your committee. In so far as the views and recommendations of the advisory committee are in conflict with the views expressed in my letter to you of February 7, 1908, they are disapproved of. Very respectfully, Hon. EDGAR D. CRUMPACKER, OSCAR S. STRAUS, Secretary. Chairman, Committee on the Census, House of Representatives. Hon. S. N. D. NORTH, ITHACA, N. Y., February 4, 1908. Director of the Census, Washington, D. C. SIR: The advisory committee appointed by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, May 19, 1904, by a circular letter, the essential part of which is as follows: Upon the recommendation of the Director of the Census, I have the honor to designate you a member of an advisory committee to consult and confer with him in reference to the plans for the Thirteenth Decennial Census of the United States, with a view to eliminating the defects of previous censuses, determining its proper scope, and perfecting its methods," held a meeting in Washington, January 12, 1908, for the consideration of H. R. 7597—“ a bill to provide for the Thirteenth and subsequent decennial censuses "--and has the honor to submit the following suggestions. The advisory committee recommended certain changes in the law, the nature of which is best indicated by the accompanying copy whereupon the changes which they favor have been indicated. I will mention them in order, with brief explanations. Page 1, line 9, and page 7, line 13, the committee recommended that after "Porto Rico" the words and Guam, Samoa, and other minor dependencies" should be inserted in order to make the census of 1910 cover all territory under the United States flag except the Philippine Islands. Page 4, line 14, the tommittee was unanimously in favor of changing the word "noncompetitive" to "competitive," on the ground that a competitive examination would probably secure clerks of a higher grade of efficiency to perform the office of the Thirteenth Census. Page 6, line 25, the committee favored changing the words "and mechanical" to "or household," in order to avoid the ambiguity of the word “mechanical” and to make more clear exactly what forms of industry are to be excluded. Page 8, line 3, the committee favored adding after "district" the following provision: "And provided further, That any supervisor abandoning, neglecting, or improperly performing the duties required of him by this act may be removed by the Director of the Census, and any vacancy thus caused or otherwise occurring during the progress of the enumeration may be filled by the Director of the Census." This provision the committee believed to be important, as enabling the Director to carry through the emergency work of the census with a minimum of delay and as concentrating in his hands the power of initiative and the responsibility needed for work of such a character. Page 25, lines 1-11, after some conference with the representative of the Department of Agriculture on the committee, the committee voted unanimously to recommend that section 33 be omitted, on the ground that it is not germane to the main purpose of the bill and that there are no peremptory reasons for securing legislation on this subject at the earliest possible moment. Page 25, line 12, the committee favored omitting the words "and once every ten years thereafter," on the ground that they believe it will be desirable at future censuses to enumerate the population of the Philippine Islands at the same time with the rest of the population under the United States flag. They were, however, of the opinion that there is no pressing necessity for taking another census of the Philippine Islands at a date only seven years after the excellent census of 1903, and that to do so might endanger or impair the work of the census in the United States itself. After suggesting these modifications the committee unanimously favored the bill with all its other details. It voted specifically its indorsement of certain provisions, namely: 1. The inclusion of a census of mines and quarries (p. 1, line 4) with that of population, agriculture, and manufactures, on the ground that the line between manufacturing on the one hand and mining and quarrying on the other is a line almost impossible for the Census Office to draw or to follow, and that the difficulties of doing so are steadily increasing. 2. The provisions in section 6 (p. 4, lines 9-12) and in section 18 (p. 16, lines 7-9) extending the field within which the Director is given discretion to pay special agents or other employees on a piece-price basis, on the ground that such form of payment is likely to prove in many such cases both more equitable and more economical. 3. The increase in the maximum number of supervisors from 300, in 1900, to 330, in 1910 (p. 7, lines 17-18), on the ground that this would secure a more effective supervising of the field work and would conform to the desire of Congress that the number of supervisors should stand in a close relation to the total number of Members in the House of Representatives. 4. The change in the date when the Thirteenth Census shall be taken and for which most of its figures shall speak, from June 1, 1910, to April 15, 1910 (p. 11, line 5, and p. 17, line 8), on the ground that the difficulties of securing an accurate census of the resident population, especially in the cities, during the month of June, are steadily increasing, and that there is a clear and a growing balance of advantage in favor of April 15 over June 1, or any other alternative date for future censuses. 5. The change in the population of the average enumeration district from 4,000 to 2,000 (p. 12, line 13), on the ground that this is simply a recognition in the law of what the practice of the Office has found to be expedient and almost necessary. 6. The last paragraph of section 23 (p. 19, line 17, to p. 20, line 10), as furnishing a legal ground for the claim of the representatives of the Census Office to obtain the information needed for the census, and to that end to have free access to hotels, apartment houses, etc. 7. The provisions of section 24 (pp. 20 and 21), stating more clearly than has been done in similar laws the legal duty of officers of establishments engaged in productive industry to answer the questions of the census schedule relating thereto. 8. The provisions of section 25 (p. 21), furnishing a more effective guaranty than heretofore of the confidential character of the returns as needed in many cases and desirable in all to enlist that public confidence without which census inquiries must fail. 9. The provisions of secton 31 (pp. 23 and 24), regarding the schedules of State censuses taken in 1915, and each tenth year thereafter, on the ground that the original schedules, or complete copies of the same, would have a greater statistical value to the Federal Government than two-fifths of their cost of production and that such a provision may tend to increase the number of such State censuses or make their scope and contents more harmonious with the Federal decennial census. All of which is respectfully submitted. CARROLL D. WRIGHT, Chairman; Committee. |