NEW YORK: Big Gamble, Net Loss

New York’s solid, plodding Mayor Robert Wagner is no man to gamble, but last spring he thought he saw a sure thing. For a mere $1,500,000 fee, he could get the Federal Census Bureau to count the city’s population; certainly with growth everywhere New York was bound to show an increase—and each new nose would entitle the city to an additional $6.75 in state aid in the interval before the regular 1960 census count. The contracts were signed, the counters went to work, and Wagner saw to it that the census takers even counted in the crew of an aircraft carrier and the cast of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus.

Last week the Census Bureau handed in its final report, and the sure thing gurgled down the drain. New York’s population is now 7,795,471, down 96,486 in seven years. Mayor Wagner refused to accept the figures. Then the state attorney general eased the pain by ruling that state aid would not be reduced unless the next regular count confirmed the decline. Net result of the gamble: a $1,500,000 loss to the municipal pocketbook and a stiff blow to municipal pride.