The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-11
.THECOMING CENSUS.
rpr PORTER THROWS LIGHT ON
THE JOB IN JUNE.

lining of June 2, at point somewhere In
'-.iobborhood OF Cincinnati, where the
~. liter Of population was located in 1880. to
0'-I ro;o,bt that would enable him, with
-.o,ded vision, to survey this vast domain
II ours, he could watch with interest the
- Of 10000 enumerators, equipped with
:. of schedules. march forth on the
pi,rtant errand to count the population Of
,be United States.
"surely, you have big job" hear my
DIR ramark. says Superintendent of the
f TeDs,,s Porter, in the New York World.
T ~. # is big job to take the census of a
l .S'n+-v with IS, 200, 900 of population, es-
cou uiaI,y If il be taken on the scale required
T ,' .bs congress of the United States. 1t
". ~ s.' lots of organization and a good deal
su,orav 1t must be done rapidly, and
oU--irvthing has to be in readiness so that at
.be tan of the drum on the morning set for
uniting the people every one is ready to
IN his share of tho work.
GROWS WITH THE COUNTRY.
7. should be remembered that the census
$50 is not a permanent bureau of the gov
o-nment but an impromptu branch of the
;rtarior department, organized under the
erection of an officer called the superin-
tsndent of census, for the express purpose
If doing this work. The superintendent Of
tbe eleventh census began his work on the
,aorning of April IL, 1889, having been ap-
rointed by the President of the United
stotes in accordance with the provisions OF
an act of congress, approved March 1, 1889,
for taking the eleventh and subsequent GEN.
snsas On that day the census Office con-
sisted of a superintendent, clerk, one mes
sanger boy. two desks, a ream of white
naner and a box or two of official envelopes,
and sundry other stationery. To-day the
census office employs 800 clerks, 500 special
egents and IT'S supervisors. Next June the
census force will consist of 10000 enumera-
tors. 200 clerks, and probably 1000 special
agents. Then it will gradually decline until
the last report has been printed, when the
superintendent and the small force around
him will fold their tents and silently pass
away and become merely an infinitesimal
part of the great population which they
have enumerated
COUNT CITIES IN FIFTEEN DAYS.
The law requires that the population shall
be all counted in fifteen days in cities and
in thirty days in country districts. Few
who have never been inside of a census
Office have any idea of the labor necessary
even to make rough count, to say nothing
of the classification of the population into
all the different groups required by the CEN
sus law.
The eleventh census will be counted by
the aid of electricity. At first this seems
rather a startling statement, but if any of
nv readers would only come to the census
office and see the electrical counting and
sorting machines now at work on some of
the special data the thing would be made
clear to them at once.
Now you will see that the enumerators
have furnished the census office with quite
a complete description of every person
living in the United States, but these
records are not in a convenient form for
counting or tabulating. We, therefore,
first prepare a card for each person, on
which we record the different facts regard
ing that person with a machine something
like a typewriter, only that instead of
letters or figures these machines
punch round holes. These cards will be
about the size of postal cards, and if
stacked in one pile would make column
over ten miles high, and will weigh fully
$50 tons.
AN INGENIOUS COUNTER.
The census Office will have to know how
many boys there are 10 years old, how
many IL years, how many IL years, and so
on, and the same for the girls. Again, it
nany could write, how many were born in
New York, how many in Pennsylvania,
md many other things. To obtain this
from these punched record
cards we use the electrical tabulating
You see it would be impossible
to make a machine which could read writ
ng or printing, but our little type
writer's punch holes instead, and
such holes can easily be read by a
machine. This is done as follows: The
cards are laid one by one in a machine
like a printing press, only. in
stead of type, little needles or points are
brought against the cards, so that where
here is a hole in the card the little pointer
goes through and touches drop of quick
silver below, which closes an electric cir
,uit, or telegraphs to a little counter or
register. These counters look very much
like clocks, but instead of the works of
clock we have an electromagnetic so arranged
that, when an electric circuit is closed
through it, it moves the hand ahead
one point. AS the cards are rapidly passed
through the machine they first telegraph to
One counter and then another, according,
Tor example, as they represent boys or girls;
some other counters will at the same time
count how many could read ard how many
could not, and SO on; so you will see that
at the same time. When all the cards for
a given district have thus been passed
through the machine the results on the dials
are written down and sent to the printer as
part of the census reports.
In the actual counting and sorting, after
the punching had been done, one of these
electrical machines will count in five hours
as many cards as could be counted by the
old method in fifty-five hours. or equal to
the work of one person for eight days,
seven hours as a days work.
Surely this is a great saving of time and of
expense, while at the same time enabling
the census Office to tabulate many interest
Ing facts which the great cost of tabulating
by hand has prevented heretofore.
ODD FACTS SOUGHT.
The next in importance to the count of
the people come the vital statistics of spec
ial classes, for after we know the number of
our population, its characteristics. distribu-
tlon and parentage, the question of its
health and physical condition naturally
comes up for consideration. All facts re-
latlng to marriages, births and deaths are
obtained by the enumerator by calling
upon something like $4,000 physicians to aid
N the work and by copying the reports of
rlages in states where these facts are gath
cred by local officials.
How many of the readers of the youths
question, if put to them off-hand. "How
many minor civil divisions in the United
States, such as cities, towns, townships,
Counties, school districts, etc., have the
power to raise taxes and incur debtP' Do
not answer all ar onca ga oood MANY