The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1900-06-23
TAKING THE(ENsUS..
A Much Greater Undertaking
Than Many Suppose.
The DIRECTOR NAKES 4 STATEMENT
Enunierators In Tturaf DRtricts Have
Until July IA Large Amount Of
Labor at Headquarters Before
Results Can BE Announced.

Results Can BE Announced.
WASHINGTON, June 23.-Directo,
Of Census Merriam has given out the fol.
lowing statement for the information Of
the public: 80
''The census Office is now In receipt OF
many letters daily asking for informa'
ton as to the results Of the census in par
ticular localities and especially in the
larger cities. 1t does not appear to Occur
to the writers that the census has not yet
been taken. The law allows until juno
10 in cities of 5000 inhabitants and In
rural districts until the LIST Of July fol-
its completion, and after that the sched'
ules have to be examined by the super
visors of census before they can be for
warded to Washington in order that the
supervisors may determine whether the
work has been satisfactorily done and
may be in position to certify to the cor.
rectness Of the enumerators' accounts fol
service rendered under the law.
"ln order to appease the impotence Of
tbs public the following statement has
been prepared, showing what has to be
done with the census returns when re-
ccived at Washington and why 1t must
be weeks or even months before the fig
ures can be given out in their entirety:
EVERY enumerator is required to fill
d daily report card showing how many
hours and minutes he has been at work
and how many persons he has enumerat-
ed that day. Since there are Including
special enumerators for institutions and
for the military and naval population)
approximately $1,000 enumerators and
30 days are allowed for the completion
Of the census the number Of daily report
cards to be examined in the census office
is somewhere between 100000 and
100000, every one of which has to be
copied by hand upon series of blank
tabular statements, Of which there 10 one
for every enumeration. These are then
recopied upon a summary statement
showing the amount of work In each su-
pervisor's district, and since there Is
space on each blank for recording the
work Of 100 enumerators and only part
of the blanks will be filled, there will be
approximately 1000 of these sheets.
at is difficult for any one not familiar
with census work to form any idea Of the
vast amount of material to be handled
in all the divisions Of the Office. The
number of boxes containing schedules
sent to the enumerators in advance Of
taking the census was $500, and their
total weight was estimated at 300 tons.
All of this material is returned to Wash.
ington, where it has to be sorted out and
arranged in order by states and the sub.
divisions of states upon shelving aggre.
eating several miles in length. There is
an invoice of schedules in every box re.
ceived, which has to be verified, and the
schedules which do not relate to popula-
ton must be counted and delivered to the
chief statisticians for mortality, agri-
culture and manufactures and their re-
ceipts taken for the same. A separate
receipt has to be made out by each Of
them for each of the $1,000 enumerators.
Next in order follows the examination
in detail of the schedules. Every SEIZED.
ule has to be examined in order to see
that the enumeration has not made an
overcharge for his services For this
purpose the schedule has to be compared
with the account rendered by him. Every
possible effort will be made to pay the
enumerators at the earliest practicable
date Every business man knows that
$1,000 bills presented for payment in one
day could not be audited and paid at
sight.
1.-THE schedules then 60 to the clerks
employed in punching cards for the Hol-
lerith electric tabulating machines. When
these cards have been punched they have
to be verified by the use OF a special ma
chine so adjusted as to throw out every
card which does not fulfill certain condi.