The population of the United States is divided by the census
returns into four classes, the native white of native parents, the
native white of foreign born parents, that is, the children of
immigrants, the immigrant or foreign born white class, and the other
races than the white, sometimes called collectively the colored,
perhaps more accurately described as the “non-Caucasians.” The most
accurate description of them is to enumerate the great races to
which they belong, namely, the negro, Indian and Mongolian. Of this
fourth group, the non-Caucasians, more than nineteen-twentieths
are negroes and therefore when statements are made, as I shall be
compelled sometimes to make them, not for the negroes but for the
non-Caucasians, it will be understood that nineteen-twentieths of
these are negroes and what is true, therefore, of the non-Caucasians
is probably true of the negroes. These four classes correspond
roughly to four grades of economic well-being,--the native white of
native parents at the top, the negroes, Indians, and Mongolians at
the bottom. Now it is a general fact that the lower the scale of
economic well-being the less accurate on the average will be the
answers to questions put them. A measure of this can be derived from
the answers to the age question. It can be easily proved that the
errors in reporting ages among the immigrant white are about twice as
numerous as among the native white and among the non-Caucasians about
twice as numerous as among the immigrant white. Where age is stated
erroneously it is usually stated at a round number as a multiple of
5. The excess in the reported number at these multiples of 5 over
the estimated true number is thus a measure of the accuracy of the
figures. This excess in 1900 among persons between twenty-eight and
sixty-two years of age inclusive for the native whites was 12.4
per cent. of the total estimated number at multiples of 5, for the
foreign born white 29.8, and for the negro 81.2. What is true of the
inaccuracies in the field of age statistics is probably true of other
sorts of inaccuracies. A larger proportion of the negro population
than of the white is homeless and therefore likely to be omitted
by enumerators instructed to visit every home in the country. In
Maryland a careful recount of nearly 63,000 people was had a few
months after the census day in the effort to detect suspected fraud.
The recount showed that in the original count the omissions among
negroes had been 3.7 per cent. and among whites 1.3 per cent. These
omissions were probably greater than in the general population, but
it is not unlikely that the per cent. of omissions among negroes is
twice as great as the per cent. among whites.
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