The Delta independent., 1889-09-17

3(pkk of ! tenth d ts'
been undertaken With 20!
liction ia discretionary power
devolving upon the superinten-
of the census. He is absolutely
tee In the selection of bis assistants.
Whom he chooses with respect to their
qualifications for the duties they are
to perform. and his great work ends
only when he shall say it is complete,
and will involve an expenditure OF not
more than sc, 400, 900, exclusive Of the
cost of printing, engraving, and bind
ing, whereas the cost OF the tenth CEN
sus was restricted to s3, 000,0O The
army of 10000 employees will be in the
field in June. 1890, severy member do
ing exactly the samewors at the same
time, the active labor of enumeration
being embraced within q few weeks.
There is no other country that has
ever undertaken so massive census
work, and the United States may easi-
ly be placed at the head of the nations
of tho world in the perfectness OF its
elaboration OF this important function
of the government. 1t is no exaggera-
tion to state that the schedules of in
quiries of any one of the fifty subjects
OF investigation embrace number of
inquiries of the schedules OF most
other countries, and especially does
this comparison hold, in the case of
Great Britain.
The fact that the census OF England
subject OF newspaper comment in this
country, but when the character of this
work is known it will be seen that there
is nothing remarkable in the feat and
that the results are in keeping with tho
time employed. The census of England
involves merely II household schedule
that can be answered in an evening by
the head of a family and is left at the
places of residence by police officers,
who are employed to do this work by
the British government, and who call
for the lists the following morning. In
this manner the census is, technically
speaking. taken in Il night. 1t would
be folly to leave the schedule contain
ing all the items of information re-
quired by the United States at the
homes of the people to be answered, as
in hardly one case in ten would even an
attempt be made to answer it. Then
the police forces of this country could
not be called upon for this work, as
their maintenance is here borne by the
various cities, villages. and counties,
whereas in England the. general gov
ernment pays half the expenses OF all
the police forces and controls them COM
pletely.
The house-to-house count OF the in
habitants which will be pursued by the
40, 900 enumerators on the first Monday
of next June will be attended by an in
quiry of the age, sex, nativity, race,
physical condition, and all the facts re-
lating to the people. For this purpose
the country has been distributed into
IT'S census districts, for each of which
there will be appointed a supervisor by
the president next spring. whose duty
it will be to subdivide his districts into
what are called enumerators' districts.
The salary paid the supervisors will be
1925 per month and in addition thereto
81 for every LOCO of the population Of
thickly settled districts and $1.40 for
sparsely settled districts.
These supervisors cannot be paid
less than $500, their average earnings
probably amounting TO about $3.50,
which includes an allowance for cleric
al services. The enumerators will be
paid 2 cents for every inhabitant, tho
same for each birth and death report
ed, 20 cents for each farm, and 80 cents
for est Establishments of productive indus
try recorded by them, to which is added
3 cents for every veteran OF tho late
war whose name goes on their lists.
The law permits the superintendent,
with the approval OF the secretary OF
the interior, to withdraw certain sched-
ules relating to special matters from
the enumerators and commit the same
to the charge OF special agents employ
ed by the superintendent for this pur-
pose. These special agents are paid
per diem and will be employed in 1890
as in 1880 collecting statistics of man
ufactures in all cities with population
exceeding 5000 inhabitants throughout
the country. In this manner the emu
merators are relieved OF some OF the
more important schedules Of the lists
and the vital work OF the census facili-
tated.
Having subdivided his district the
supervisors duty is to nominate suita-
BILE persons for cnumerators, whose ap-
pointment is made by the suporintend-
ent. These enumerators arc allowed
fifteen days in which to complete their
work, when it is confined to cities and
towns, and thirty days when it extends
into rural districts. The schedules,
when they are answered, are returned
to the supervisor, VINO examines them
and makes up the count in his district,
then forwarding the same to Washing