OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF STATISTICS, No 9 South Fifth street, To the Speaker of the House of Representatives: SIR-In obedience to the requirements of section 2 of "An act in relation to Statistics,” approved March 20th, 1866, I herewith submit to the House of Representatives, through you, a report of the result of my labors. Very respectfully, L. D. MORSE, Commissioner of Statistics. PREFACE. In conformity with the Act, approved March 20, 1866, appointing a Commissioner of Statistics, I herewith present my first Annual Report. In making up this report, I have met with the usual difficulties incident to a new enterprise. In obtaining information from the different counties, it was difficult to decide how many and what items to ask for, because if I asked for too much I got nothing. Since nobody was paid, the duty was shirked from one to another and ended by not being performed at all. I am free to confess that the result shows that I made this mistake. I prepared large blanks, embracing every item of Agricultural, Manufacturing, and Social Statistics, and if these had been properly filled out and returned to this office I could have made a more complete report than has ever been published in this country. But this task involved so much labor that only a few assessors have complied with my request or the law. Another difficulty in rendering these returns available is, that the assessors have until the first of January to complete their books, and then very little time is left to make the proper abstracts before my report is required to be presented to the Legislature. It would be well to devise some means of obviating this difficulty. As the case stands at present, I shall be obliged to embrace fewer items in my report, making it less complete and satisfactory, or some remuneration must be made to the assessors for their extra labor. The assessors of Cooper and Platte counties deserve especial commendation for their very complete reports, and any one at all acquainted with such matters will see that it is asking too much to require them to do this gratuitously. If this system of minute and complete reports could be carried out, it would give a better idea of Missouri and its resources than any essay upon the subject could possibly do. I would therefore recommend that the Legislature provide some means by which those officers who make reports as required by law and the Commissioner of Statistics shall receive some pay for their work. The Statistical Report made in the Assessor's office of St. Louis is especially valuable. Very few, if any, statistical reports in the Union can compare with it in extent, minuteness, or accuracy. It required the constant labor of one clerk for many weeks, and it certainly deserves to be paid for. Many of our records are very defective and inaccurate. Something should be done to render them more complete and correct. On comparing the records of marriages in the Recorder's office with the returns to the Assessor of St. Louis county, there is found a difference of 1,200. Of the births, not more than one-half are recorded, and in some counties scarcely at all. The records of naturalization are scattered through the different courts, and it is almost impossible to get them returned to this office. The records of mortality are exceedingly imperfect. In the city of St. Louis the records of the Board of Health and those of the cemeteries do not agree. Concerning Manufactures, it is also very difficult to obtain information. When possible, I have made use of the returns of the Collector of Internal Revenue. But sometimes the tax is levied ad valorem, and then the quantities cannot be calculated from this source, because the price is not given. To obtain true values, it is necessary to add about one-third to the assessed value, because it is well known that the real value of an article is seldom returned when a tax is to be levied upon it. The experience gained in making up this first report will enable all parties concerned to improve in succeeding ones. Senator C. H Howland, the author of the Act in relation to Statistics, is entitled to credit for inaugurating this important movement. When the defects of the law are remedied, as they should be, by the Legislature, it cannot but prove, in time, of the utmost importance to the State. For much of the information contained, and the work of arranging and condensing the matter of this report, I am indebted to the labor and skill of Prof. Spencer Smith. L. D. MORSE, Commissioner of Statistics. INTRODUCTORY. IMPORTANCE OF STATISTICS. The Science of Statistics is of comparatively modern origin. Archenball, in Prussia, was the first who gave the name and scientific form to this branch of knowledge. His compend was originally published in 1749, and went through seven editions. His most distinguished pupil, Schlossa, carried out his views still further in his "Theory of Statistics," printed at Gottingen in 1804. Sweden was the first European government that paid any attention to the collection of Statistics in a systematic manner. The attention of other governments was soon attracted by the important results, and many of them soon entered into a similar arrangement. There is now a Statistical Department, or what is termed a "Bureau," in connection with the governments of Prussia. Austria, Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Naples, Sardinia, and many other European countries. The French Society of Universal Statistics was founded in 1829, under the protection of the King. The subjects about which the Society is employed are arranged in three classes: First-PHYSICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS. embracing Topography, Hydrography, Meteorology, Geology, Mineralogy, Population, Man considered Physically, Hygiene, and the Sanitary State. Second-POSITIVE AND APPLIED STATISTICS, embracing Vegetable and Animal Productions, Agriculture, Industry, Commerce, Navigation, State of the Sciences, General Instruction, Literature, Languages, and the Fine Arts. Third-MORAL AND PHYSICAL STATISTICS, including the Forms of Religious Worship, Legislative and Judicial Power, Public Administration, Finance, the Military, Marine, and Diplomacy. "The Science of Statistics," says De Bow, in 1853, "may be considered as almost new in our country; it has, nevertheless, of late excited much attention, and we see from the reports of Congress and of State, down to the newspaper press, the strongest evidence of its favor and progress. Such a science is worthy of all attention, and deserves to be introduced into our schools and colleges, as it is into the merchant's counting-house and the Legislative halls, as an independent and most important branch of sound, practical education.'' In the Patent Office Reports on Agriculture, as early as the years 1848 and 1849, the importance of organizing Bureaus of Statistics, or of adopting some efficient means for the collection of complete statistics of the industrial resources of the country, was ably urged. In the volume for 1849 the Commissioner says: "In the pursuit of its Statistical investigations, this office has keenly felt the want of means for obtaining accurate and reliable information concerning the great industrial interests of the country. No provision has been made by the General Government for obtaining such information, except in relation to our foreign commerce, and but very few of the States have adopted measures for obtaining authentic information in relation to these industrial interests. Massachusetts and Louisiana are in advance of most other States in their legislation upon these subjects. In the former State very full returns are obtained in short periods of a few years, if not annually, of her industry and resources; and in the latter a Bureau of Statistics has been established. The encouragement of collectors of Statistics is one of the avowed means by which the Smithsonian Institute proposes to diffuse knowledge among men. A most interesting view of the vast resources of this great republic would be annually exhibited if all the States would follow the example of Louisiana and Massachusetts. The statesman and legislator, to whom the people commit the destinies of their common country, would then have at their hands ample material to aid them in the intelligent discharge of their momentous and responsible duties, without which they are like blind men, feeling their way in the dark." Tables of statistics are to the State what his account-books are to the merchant. What should we think of the prudence of that man who should continue to do business year after year without keeping any record of his affairs? How else can he tell what branch of his trade is most successful, or what prices he paid for various articles at different times, and a thousand other things which a good business man keeps properly arranged in his counting-room, where he can refer to them at any time? And should the affairs of the State be conducted more loosely than those of an individual? An individual may remember some of his transactions; any defect in his books may frequently be remedied by calling upon his recollection. Not so with State affairs: here is a large number of men assembled to transact business of which they can know nothing except what is contained in the records; and how can a legislator enter upon his duties without the documents before him? How frequently are committees at fault for want of the proper information which a compendium of statistics would furnish. As a consequence more time is wasted in discussing "'opinions'' (which are not seldom the offspring of the author's imagination) than would pay for certain and thorough knowledge. A collection of facts would be found a sure test of the correctness and practicability of various theories of political science, especially those in relation to the production of wealth and its distribution among certain classes, the benefits arising from laws regulating commerce, the results of granting subsidies, giving protection to certain manufactures, etc. At present the statistics on these and kindred subjects are the veriest webs of entertaining romance. A complete statistical report on an extensive scale enables the legislator to work understandingly. If he wants to know the relative value of agricultural products, and the enhanced value by manufacturing, or the comparative results of commercial enterprises, a series of Statistical tables, well collated and arranged, will give him the information at a glance. Tables of statistics are too often regarded as labyrinths of figures, not intended for every-day use, and only valuable to some curiosity hunter or musty antiquarian. But this is a mistake; they give their information clearly and sharply, undisguised by words. It is true that columns of figures are not as attractive to the young as French novels; but, to the searcher after truth, they are quite as interesting. Statistics, like everything else worth knowing, are better appreciated the more we study them. They are comparatively a novelty among our people; and to most persons the Census is a work of wonder, and always supposed to be limited to the mere enumeration of inhabitants. Now, when a man who labors under this mistake has a book presented to him from Government, which tells him all about the relative importance of every branch of agriculture, the value of the different departments of commercial enterprise, and the results of the various manufacturing schemes, he begins to think, to inquire; and, as fact after fact is brought to his view, his mind is awakened, and the long columns of figures acquire new attractions, and the more they are studied the more interesting they become. Individuals engaged in extensive enterprises may derive invaluable aid from collections of statistics. The data thus obtained are essential to the employment of capital and industry. To illustrate by example: Suppose one of our large grain |