Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1909 — RESOLUTION FOR CENSUS VETOED [ARTICLE]

RESOLUTION FOR CENSUS VETOED

President Forwards Special Message to House. r - - CALLS iT ‘SPOILS SYSTEM’ Says Both the Eleventh and Twelfth Were Taken Under a Provision of Law Excluding Competition and That Every Man Who Speaks With Authority Has Stated That the Result Was to Produce Extravagance and Demoralization. Washington, Feb. 5. —In vetoing the house resolution providing for the taking of the thirteenth census, President Roosevelt sent the following special message to the house: “I return without approval the resolution entitled, An Act to Provide for the Thirteenth and Subsequent Decennial Censuses.’ I do this with extreme reluctance, because I fully realize tire importance of supplying the director of the census, at as early a date as possible, with the force necessary to the carrying on of his work. But it ia of high consequence that the statistical work of the census shall be conducted with entire accuracy. This is as important from the standpoint of business and industry as from the scientific standpoint. Calls It a “Spoilt System." "It is, therefore, In my judgment, essential that the result should not be open to the suspicion of bias on political and personal grounds; that it should not be open to the reasonable suspicion of being a waste of the people’s money and a fraud. “Section 7 of the act provides In effect that appointments to the census shall be under the spoils system, for this is the real meaning of the provision that they shall be subject only to non-competitive examination. The proviso is added that they shall be selected without regard to political party affiliations. But there Is only one way to guarantee that they ahall be selected without regard to politics and on merit, and that is by choosing them after competitive examination from the lists of eliglblea provided by the civil service 'commission. "To provide that the clerks and other employee shall be appointed after non-competlHre examination, and yet to provide that they shall be selected. without regard to political party at-

filiations, means merely that the appointments shall be treated as the perquisites of the politicians of both parties, instead of as the perquisites of j the politicians of one party. Refers to Last Censuses. “I do not believe lh the doctrine that to the victor belongs the spoils; but I think even less of the doctrine that the spoils shall be divided without a fight by the professional politicians on both sides; and this would be the result of permitting the bill In its present shape to become a law. Both of the last censuses, the eleventh and the twelfth, were taken under a provision of law excluding competition; that Is, necessitating the appointments being made under the spoils system. Every man competent to speak with authority because of his knowledge of and familiarity with the work of those censuses has stated that the result was to produce extravagance and demoralization. “Mr. Carroll D. Wright, who had charge of the census bureau, after the census of 1890, estimates that $2,000,000, and more than a year’s time, would have been saved If the census force had been brought Into the classified service, and adds: Wright Admits Waste. a" ‘I do not hesitate to say one-third ot the amount expended under my own administration was absolutely wasted, and wasted principally on account of the fact that the office was not under civil service rules. " ‘ln October, 1893, when I took fharge of the census office, there was an office force of 1,092. There had been a constant reduction for many months and this was kept up without cessation till the close of the census. While these general reductions.,were being made, and in the absence of any necessity for the Increase of the force. 389 new appointments were made.’ "This, of course, meant the destruction of economy and efficiency for purely political considerations. "Fraud Upon the Public." "The non competitive examination in • case like this is not only vicious, but is In effect a fraud upon the publiq No essential change is effected by providing that it be conducted by the civil service commission; and to provide that the employees shall be selected without regard to political party affiliations is empty and misleading, unless, at the same time, it Is made effective in the only way in which It is possible to make it effective, that is by providing that the examination shall be Hade competitive. “I also recommend that if provision is made that the census printing work would be done outside the government printing office, It shall be explicitly provided that the government authorities shall see that the eight-hour law Is applied in effective fashion. "Outside ot these matters, I believe that the bflT is. on the whole, satisfactory and represents an Improvement upon previous legislation on the subject."