The volunteer service thus far (to November 1, 1881) rendered under the arrangements herein before detailed would, if paid for according to the rates of compensation received prior to June 15, 1881, by the several individuals rendering such service, amount to $243,640 92. This statement includes both the clerical force at Washington and the experts and special agents engaged upon field-work or in the preparation of their reports outside of Washington. I regret to have to add that, beyond the service thus rendered under an express disavowal of any claim being created against the United States thereby, a small body of liabilities has unavoidably been created in bringing the work of the census to a conclusion. As soon as I apprehended the danger of a deficiency I whistled down brakes, and tried to stop the train before it reached the draw; but a service so gigantic, moving so rapidly, has a momentum which it is not always possible to calculate with nice accuracy, and in spite of every effort to escape an actual deficiency (aside from the personal volunteer service heretofore referred to) the office found itself subject to certain calls for which no funds were provided. These were of three classes: First. The rent of the main census building since the 1st of July, 1881, being at the rate of $1,083 33 per month. The lessors have expressed their entire willingness to await the action of Congress. Second. Certain amounts from subsidized railroads for transportation of officers and agents of the census, amounting to $3,642 48. Even had sufficient funds been available for the payment, these accounts for transportation could not, up to this time, have been paid, inasmuch as the railroads concerned are delinquent in respect to the repayment of certain sums extorted as regular fare from the agents of the Census Office traveling under instructions and presenting duly-authenticated orders for transportation at government rates. Third. Certain miscellaneous expenses for traveling, for supplies, and for minor services, in respect to which no arrangement could properly be made for postponing payment. Being unwilling that the persons entitled to these sums, generally in small amounts, should be required to await the action of Congress upon their just and proper claims, I addressed a letter to the honorable the Secretary of the Interior in the following terms, viz: Hon. S. J. KIRKWOOD, Secretary of the Interior. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, CENSUS OFFICE, Washington, D. C., October 3, 1881. SIR: I have the honor to state that upon ascertaining, in May last, that the appropriation of the Tenth Census would necessarily prove inadequate to the needs of the service, I shut down as quickly and peremptorily as possible upon all sources of expense. With a service so vast, however, and so widely spread, with between thirteen and fourteen hundred employés in the Washington office, and with several hundred special agents scattered over the country. all the way from Arizona to Alaska, it was not possible to estimate closely the total of unadjusted accounts, while there were some points at which expenditure could not be abruptly terminated (for instance, as by recalling an agent from a distant field already nearly canvassed) without a great loss to the service, amounting to the practical abandonment of what had been done in that field. I regret to say that, in consequence of the accounts for obligations incurred at the date mentioned proving larger than was anticipated, and of the seemingly imperative necessity of keeping up some small disbursements in several directions for the reason just indicated, there will be required, to carry this office through to the meeting of Congress, several thousands of dollars; it may be three, it may be five thousand. As no appropriation is available for this purpose, and as it would not be creditable to allow these accounts to remain unpaid, I respectfully propose to the department that it give its sanction to my depositing with the disbursing agent of the department a sum of money, out of my own private re sources, sufficient to meet the charges referred to, all accounts to be approved as usual by the Secretary of the Interior, and ordered for payment in the accustomed form. Should Congress consent to make appropriation for the uncompleted work of the census, I can be reimbursed; if not, the loss will be my own--a loss I would rather submit to than have those who have rendered service to the government, or incurred expenditures on its behalf, suffer for my error in calculating the probable needs of the service. Very respectfully, F.A. WALKER, To this letter a reply was received from the department, as follows, viz: General FRANCIS A. WALKER, Superintendent of the Census. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 3d instant, relative to the exhaustion of the appropriation for the expenses of the Tenth Census, and requesting my sanction to your depositing a certain amount of money, from your private means, in the hands of the disbursing clerk of this department to meet certain obligations already incurred, etc. In consideration of the fact that it is difficult to estimate closely for the expenditures under this bead, and that to abruptly terminate all disbursements would necessarily cause great loss to the service, I hereby sanction the proposition you make for meeting these obligations from your own private funds, to be done through the disbursing clerk or in any other way you may desire. In doing this, however, you will understand that I assume no responsibility in the matter, and that such vouchers as you may pay cannot be considered as constituting any claim against the government, and any risk that may be incurred as to your repayment must be assumed by you, pending the future action of Congress in the matter. Should you do this, it should be officially communicated to Congress at its next session. S. J. KIRKWOOD, Secretary. Under the foregoing arrangement $4,889 97 have been paid out of my own private funds in liquidation of these accounts, which are all adjusted to date. Seven or eight hundred dollars more will probably be required to be paid in the same manner prior to the meeting of Congress, of which a full account will be rendered. Should it please Congress to make an appropriation to cover the amounts so expended, I shall be glad to be reimbursed for expenditures made in good faith and for the public interest. If not, I shall accept the decision of that body, and regard the amount so expended as my personal contribution to the success of a great public work. At the present date the following reports have been prepared, and are all, or nearly all, in the hands of the Public Printer: First. The report on population, by the Superintendent, assisted.by Mr. Henry Gannett, comprising the statistics of population by states, counties, and minor civil divisions, with distinction of white and colored, foreign and native, male and female. This volume will be illustrated by about seventy-five quarto pages of maps and charts, all of which are now in the hands of the engraver. Secoud. From the department of fisheries (Professor G. Brown Goode, chief special agent), reports on the oyster industry, by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll; on the whale-fishery, by Messrs. James Temple Browne and A. Howard Clark; on the river fisheries of the United States, by Mr. C. W. Smiley; on the seal-fisheries of Alaska, by Mr. H. W. Elliott. All the reports in this department, as in that next to be mentioned, will be fully illustrated by maps, charts, and diagrams already in the hands of the engraver. Third. From the department of power and machinery used in manufactures (Professor W. P. Trowbridge, chief special agent), reports on the mannfactures of interchangeable mechanism, by Mr. C. H. Fitch; on the water supply of cities, by the chief special agent and Mr. Walter G. Elliott; on milling and the flouring industry, by Mr. Joseph W. K. Neftel; on the water-power of the Southern Atlantic coast, by Mr. Geo. F. Swain; on the water-power of the Northwest, by Mr. James L. Greenleaf; on the water-power of the Missouri River Basin, by Mr. Dwight Porter; on steam-pumps and pumpingengines, by Mr. F. R. Hutton; on shop-tools, also by Mr. Hutton. Fourth. A report on the production of cereals in the United States, by Professor W. H. Brewer. Fifth. A report on the newspaper press, by Mr. S. N. D. North. Sixth. A report on the manufacture of iron and steel, by Mr. James M. Swank. Seventh. A report on the manufacture of silk goods, by Mr. Wm. C. Wyckoff. Eighth. From the department of wealth, debt, and taxation, a report on the public debts of the United States, comprising the statistics of state, county, city, town, village, and school-district indebtedness, together with a history of the debts of the several states, by the chief special agent, Mr. Robert P. Porter, and a full statistical account of the debt of the United States, by Mr. Rafael A. Bayley. Ninth. From the department of meat production, reports on the cattle and sheep industry of California, Oregon, Texas, Nevada, Washington territory, and Idaho, by Mr. Clarence Gordon, chief special agent. These reports are illustrated with maps showing the range of cattle and sheep occupation. Tenth. From the department dealing with the social statistics of cities, reports on the cities of New Orleans and Austin. Eleventh. A report on the tobacco culture of the United States, by Mr. J. B. Killebrew. Twelfth. A report on the production of the precious metals during the census year 1879-'80, by Hon. Clarence King, chief special agent. The work of the printing office and of the engraver is so far advanced as to justify the anticipation that all, or nearly all, of these reports will be printed and laid-upon the desks of members when Congress shall assemble in December, or within a few days thereafter. In view of the exhaustion of the appropriation for this service, as recited, I respectfully recommend that the further sum of $540,000 be appropriated for the compensation of those who have rendered services as volunteers, as herein before stated, and for the completion of the Tenth Census. Of this sum about $330,000 would be applied to the payment of the volunteer force of the office, down, say, to the 15th of December, and to the liquidation of the three classes of obligations referred to. The balance would be sufficient to complete all the compilations and tabulations remaining to be effected in order to secure the fullest statement and publication of the results of the enumeration. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. S. J. KIRKWOOD, FRANCIS A. WALKER, Secretary of the Interior. [Extract from report of the Secretary of the Interior for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1882.] PROGRESS OF THE CENSUS. The compilation of the returns of the Tenth Census and the preparation of the extended report thereupon rapidly approach completion. The degree of progress attained may be shown by a comparison with the report upon the census of 1870. That report, in three quarto volumes, contained in the aggregate 2,403 pages, text and tabular matter, of which 2,212 pages were solid statistical tables. The subjects which were treated on 2,036 of these pages have been completely covered in the present census by tables which have already been prepared, and are either now in type or are ready for the printer. These tables are in no instance less extended, but, on the contrary, are in most cases more complete and elaborate than were the corresponding tables in the report of 1870, and will occupy 3,000 or more pages, instead of 2,036, as in 1870. The preparation of tables to cover the ground of the remaining 176 pages of the report of 1870 is, to say the least, not less than half completed, and will now be expedited by concentration of the clerical force, which is made possible by the completion of other branches of work. Of the thirty-two chief special agents who have conducted special investigations, sixteen have concluded their work; have either trausmitted their reports to the Census Office or hold them in their own hands, practically complete. Eleven others idly than they can receive the office revision and be carried through the press, while the remaining five have made satisfactory progress, having their material now all in hand and the writing of their reports well advanced. Congress at its last session provided for printing the extended reports, to be comprised in some 15,000 pages, quarto, in volumes of 800 to 1,000 pages each, and also a compendium or abridgment in a single octavo volume. It had originally been proposed by the Census Office to issue a compendium in two volumes, the first volume to issue in June or July last, and the remaining one after the completion of the quarto report. This plan was changed near the close of the session, at the request of the Senate Committee on Printing and the House Committee on Appropriations, and the Census Office undertook to prepare for issue during the current autumn a compendium in one volume which should contain a summary of so much of the statistics of the census as could be got ready in that time. The tables, consequently, for such a volume have been prepared and are being put in type and stereotyped by the Public Printer, the press-work for an edition of 25,000 following as rapidly as the 16-page forms are completed, and it is believed that by the 1st of December the work of binding can be commenced. But for this diversion of effort in the Census Office to the preparation of the Compendium there would be now in the printer's hands copy for six complete volumes, of from 800 to 1,000 pages each, of the quarto report, namely: I. The complete statistics of population. II. A volume comprising the principal statistics of agriculture. III. Manufactures. IV. Wealth, debt, and taxation. V. Statistics of mortality. VI. Professor Hilgard's report upon cotton culture. Already 2,076 pages for these volumes are in type, of which 1,951 are stereotyped, 1,528 pages having had a small circulation in preliminary office editions of parts of these volumes. The remaining copy for them will soon be placed in the printer's hands, and it is believed that by the close of December the whole will have been furnished. The remaining volumes will shortly follow, and the whole will reach the printer during the present fiscal year, with a possible exception of a portion of the volume relating to vital statistics, and a portion of the report upon social statistics of cities, not to exceed 1,000 pages in all. The attention of Congress should be invited to the advisability of further legislation with respect to the inter-decennial state census contemplated by the twentysecond section of the act "to provide for the taking of the Tenth and subsequent erususes," approved March 3, 1879. Several of the states have already indicated their intention to avail themselves of that provision of law, and the blank schedules, the forms of which are fixed by the act in question, should be modified by the experience of the Tenth Census. APPENDIX C. DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE TAKING OF THE CENSUS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 5, 1880. Hon. ALONZO BELL, Acting Secretary of the Interior. SIR: I have the honor to report as follows respecting the enumeration of South Carolina at the Tenth Census: Early in August certain newspaper reports, relating to the population of the several counties of that state, as ascertained in the census, began to attract public attention and excite criticism. The newspaper statements referred to were generally based upon information given by the supervisors of the three supervisors' districts of the state, or by the enumerators of the several enumeration districts thereof. The schedules at this time had not, in the main, been received at this office. The nature of the statements referred to were such as to justify the criticism which they received, the gain of population reported above that shown by the census of 1870 being an impossible one, transcending the known capabilities of human procreation. The newspaper statements in question were, in some degree, exaggerated, as the result of a hasty and imperfect count, or of arithmetical errors in compilation; but the schedules of inhabitants, as they arrived successively at this office from the several enumeration districts, bore out, in their general effect, the unofficial announcements. The following table exhibits the population of each of the counties of the state of South Carolina at the Ninth and at the Tenth Census, respectively. The figures for 1880 are subject to possible slight changes by reason of the discovery of the duplication or omission of individuals or families: |