The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1900-06-29
A LOT OF WORK
Must Yet he Done Before the Census Fig
ures Are Complete.


larger cities," said Governor Merriam,
director Of the census, in statement to
the Washington Star: 1T does not ap-
pear to occur to the writer's that the
census has not yet been taken. The law
allows until June Is in cities of 5000 in
habitants and in rural districts until the
lst OF July for it's completion, and after
that the schedules have to be examined
by the.supervisors of census before they
can be forwarded 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 correctness of the enumerators ac-
counts for service rendered under the
law
"ln order to appease the impatiencc of
the public the following statement has
been prepared, showing what has to be
done with the census returns when re-
ceived at Washington, and why it must
be weeks or even months before the fig
ures can be given out in their entirety:
"Every enumerator is required to fill Il
daily report card showing how many
hours and minutes he has been at work
and how many persons he has enumer-
ated that day Since there are includ-
ing special enumerators for institutions
and for the military and naval popula-
tion) approximately $1,000 enumerators
and 30 are allowed for the completion of
the census, the number of daily report
cards to be examined in the census office
is somewhere between one million and ii
million and half, every one of which
has to be copied by hand upon series
of blank tabular statements, of which
there is one for every enumerator. These
are then recopied upon summary state
ment showing the amount of work in
each supervisors district, and since
there is space on each blank for record
ing the work of 100 enumerators and
only part of the blanks will be filled,
there will be approximately 1900 of these
sheets.
ut is difficult for any one not familiar
with census to form an idea of the vast
amount of material to be handled in all
of the divisions of the office. The num-
Lcr 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.
"Al of this material is returned to
Washington, where it has to be sorted
out and arranged in order by states and
the subdivisions of states upon shelving
aggregating several miles in length.
There is an invoice of schedules in every
box received, which has to be verified,
and the schedules which do not relate to
population must be counted and deliv-
cred to the chief statisticians for mortal
ity, agriculture and manufactures, and
their receipts taken for the same. A
separate receipt has to be made out by
each of them for each of the $4,000
enumerators.
Next in order follows the examin;.
tion in detail of the schedules. Every
schedule has to be examined in order to
see that the enumerator 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 practic
able date. Every business man knows
that $1,000 bills presented for payment
in one day could not be audited and
paid at sight.
"The schedules then go 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 machine, SO adjusted as to throw
out every card which does not fulfill Ger
tain conditions af accuracy in punching.
A count of the population will be made,
during this yerification by color, by sex
and by native or foreign birth, which
will consume possibly five or six months.
Not until this machine count shall
have been made for any particular city,
county or state can the figures be given
out for publication. The cities will nat
urally be taken first, and as fast as the
actual population, as returned by the
posted on bulletin board in the hall
outside the directors room, for the in
formation of the press. Figures not
given out by the census Office will be
understood to be merely guesses, which
may in some cases approximate the
truth, but are unauthorized and untrust-
worthy"
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