Carroll Wright and the State Labor Statistics Movement. Paper Presented at the Conference on Historical Labor Statistics, Lawrence, Kansas, June 1991. Susan B. Carter, Roger L. Ransom, Richard Sutch, and Hongcheng Zhao. In 1894, the Bureau published the results of its investigation in its Fifth Biennial Report. Coverage and selection of respondents appear to have been dictated by a desire for a stratified sample.
Interviews appear to have been conducted with great care.
In many factories work was done by the piece, and advantage was taken of a waiting season to talk at some length with operatives. In many kinds of work hands were so skillfull the work was done mechanically while the girl talked as freely as if sitting at leisure. In some places where work was absorbing, and interruptions a source of delay, the noon hour was made the time for visiting, when girls were able and willing to respond fully to inquiries. The care of the surveyors show in the fact that each of the five hundred respondents answered all questions. The only missing values are for typists who apparently were not asked how many minutes they had for lunch.