On The Right III.

Snoopchief 2000?

NEW YORK, MARCH 31

IT'S Census time, and the complaints are coming in. They tend to focus on invasion of privacy, and suspicion. There is a suspicion out there that the data being collected will somehow coalesce in unfriendly shapes and forms. A larger, more ominous internal-security agent perhaps. Maybe a hydroelectric dam astride what used to be your little dreamhouse. Maybe a new law that you can't eat clams off the beach. And so on.

The late William F. Rickenbacker, a former colleague and a bird of paradise, has a footnote in the history of anti-bureaucratic exertions for refusing in 1960 to complete the so-called blue form. It was sent to every fourth American (the ratio is now one in six), asking many more questions than those specifically authorized or even adumbrated in the Constitution. Article I, Section 2 requires every ten years an enumeration of the population for the purpose of fixing proportional representation.

The letter received by Mr. Rickenbacker, which serves as a prototype, read, "Household Questionnaire for the 1960 Census of Population and Housing." A box at the bottom of the page told him that "the Census is required by the United States Constitution and further authorized by 13 U.S.C. 5, 9, 141, 221-4." That is a truckful of authority, one has the impression, and indeed, we are told that "the law requires that the inquiries be answered completely and accurately, and guarantees that the information furnished will be accorded confidential treatment. The Census report cannot be used for purposes of taxation, investigation, or regulation."

The historic Rickenbacker case was triggered by an article he published in NATIONAL REVIEW. In it he declared war against "Snoopdom." What business was it of the government of the United States to gather together more information than needed simply to answer the basic question: How many United States representatives are to be allocated to this part of the United States compared with that part? "The Census Bureau," he wrote, "is authorized to enumerate, not evaluate the population. Perhaps ten years from now, in the next Census, the Bureau will desire to tabulate other aspects of the citizenry. Perhaps by then we shall not consider it improper to be asked how much cash we have on hand and in checking accounts; where we do our banking; who our attorney is; what our church is; how we voted in the last election; and perhaps a hundred questions on sexual activity. Perhaps the Bureau will require one household out of four to be psychoanalyzed."

Bill Rickenbacker got wonderfully carried away. He cited the Fourth Amendment affirming "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures," and closed by addressing the head of the Bureau of Census: "Snooper Chief, I plead the Fourth! You're so interested in my sewage, you'll be happy to know that I have sent you a sample under separate cover."

What happened was a federal trial in which Rickenbacker was given a 60- day suspended sentence and fined $100. He appealed and lost, and the Supreme Court declined to intervene.

But a point had been made, and successive census inquiries have been more latitudinarian. You can decline to complete one of those 53-question forms by simply buying out of the exercise for a $100 fine. This is not a subversive way of looking at it because the density of the statistical sampling is very much higher than needed. If one-half of the forms sent out were ignored, the findings would almost certainly not be less then reliably accurate.

Opposition to the collection of data when this is done without malice aforethought seems to this dissenter a barren form of protest. We all have Social Security numbers and passports. Should we care if the government also knows how many toilets we have, and whether we use gas or oil? Pace the holy memory of anti-Snoopchief hero Bill Rick enbacker-I say, give them the stuff. You don't need to feel you are complicit in a federal scam.

-UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE