Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-07-27

| umeS OF thousand pages each, but ii
really represents but minor portion
of the work, for the investigation by
the special agents is considered as I'M
portant and involves much more labor.
In outlining the operations of the
special agents the Government is of
the opinion that information of the
principal industries is of general pub
lie interest as we'll data of new and
peculiar branches of manufacturing
mining and the like. In the reports
on agriculture it also gives special at
tention to the cultivation of staple
crops, growing of fruits and the rails
ing of certain vegetables. The fishing
business, which was considerably ne
elected in the last census, will be ex-
haustively investigated, especially as
to methods and production.
The various special agents, of whom
probably $500 will be employed at
different times, are supposed to havea
technical knowledge of the work to
which they are assigned. For instance,
bank clerk or bookkeeper will not
be sent to obtain statistics of steel
manufacturing, nor will man familiar
with the manufacture of nails be COM
missioned to obtain facts regarding
the textile industry. or the growing of
tobacco. A report on cotton manufac-
turing in certain districts means not
only the number of mills, the capital
invested and the amount of equipment,
but the number, character and age of
employees, the quality and quantity of
goods manufactured, the average mar
ket price, the power utilized, the cost
of the fuel, If any, the age of the mills
and the material of which they are
built, the possibilities for enlarge
ment and the general prospects. To
do work of this kind requires man
who has an idea of the industry; other
wise bad mistakes will greatly affect
the character of the report. Some of
the special agents may be in the SER
vice only few days, while others viii
be hard at work possibly for two
years. One may have his field of labor
in district few miles square, while
another may travel thousand miles
in order to gain what he desires, for
much of his information must be OBJ
tanned personally.
FIVE SECTIONS OF BUREAU.
Enumerators and special agents
comprise the field force. Supervisors,
however, have nothing to do with the
special agents, who receive all their
instructions from Washington direct.
To handle the thousands of pieces of
literature which begin coming in q
few days after the enumerators start
out and which continues for two or
three years, requires a large Off ce
force. The present bureau will be di-
vided into five sections, each in charge
of bureau chief, who, in turn, is I'M
der chief statistician, of whom five
are appointed. These are the executive
heads of the bureau and are under the
general supervision of the director and
his assistant. Attached to the di-
rector's Office is geographer and the
necessary force for attending to
the correspondence and reports,s
which must be handled in the direc-
tors office proper. The great bulk of
the work, however, comes through the
five divisions. In general, it may be-
considered that they digest and
separate the information. Every
schedule from the enumerators and
every report from the agents passes
through SO many hands and is ex-
amined SO many times. AS it goes
from department to department each
department extracts whatever in
formation it desires for tabulation.
The reports of the special agents are
very closely scrutinized by employees,
who are appointed especially for the
purpose of detecting errors. When
any are found the report either is sent
back to the agent for correction, or
efforts are made to obtain the accurate
data from the sources of the informa-
ton.
ARMY OF BUREAU employees.
To handle the necessary corre-
spondence relating to these matters,
to correspond with the various super
visors and to attend to other mail
matter will require more than 100
photographers and correspondence
clerks, in addition to expert book
keepers, copyists, ordinary Clerks
watchmen, janitors and messengers.
The mail matter will be enough to
run q good-size postoffice and branch
of the city postoffice service probably
will be established in the bureau, in
order to save time. Salaries will
range all the way from $4,000 year,
paid to the chief statisticians, to $240,
paid the Office cleaners. The special
agents will average from So to SO a
day for ectual work, in addition to
what is necessary for travelling ex-
penses.
ssAt the end OF the last census some
interesting conclusions were made as
to the quantity of the matter handled
by the census bureau. Its weight
was estimated at 305 tons and the
space it occupied in the storage rooms
was 30, 900 cubic feet. AS there will
be large increase in the number of
reports on the present work these
figures will give an idea of what it
10 ta1